<p>In researching colleges, I've noticed that even though the Bachelor's, or even Master's, is offered through the college of engineering of the school, the degree conferred is a bachelor of science, where some confer a bachelor of science in engineering.</p>
<p>As I want to get "my money's worth", I am concerned that one degree will command a lesser salary than the other. Again, talking just bachelor's here.</p>
<p>As an example, my husband graduated from Tulane with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering with a Major in Computer Science, under the College of Engineering.</p>
<p>Others had "merely" a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science under the College of Arts and Science.</p>
<p>His BSE Comp Sci landed him a job working with engineers in an oil field service company. Although he did not get the salary of the engineers, he feels he would not have gotten the job had he not had the engineering background.</p>
<p>As my son looks toward majoring in Biomedical Engineering, I'm looking out for ABET accredited programs, but I just happened to some schools offer the major under their college of engineering, but the degree confered is a BS, not a BSE.</p>
<p>Can anyone out there enlighten me on the difference?</p>
<p>In some engineering fields, ABET accreditation can be significant. However, ABET accreditation is often perceived as optional in biomedical engineering, because there is currently no state licensure or regulation of biomedical engineers. Many well-known engineering schools have never pursued ABET accreditation for their BME programs.</p>
<p>For a non-engineering field, such as computer science, a degree in engineering is significantly different than a BS. In an engineering field such as Mechanical Engineering, it usually doesn’t matter. </p>
<p>The exception (not usually found at the bachelor’s level) is if the school offers two different degrees with different requirements. For example, at some schools, a M.Eng is non-thesis and an MS in engineering is thesis-based (or vice versa, depending on the school).</p>
<p>There is a difference between a BS and a BA in engineering, however.</p>
<p>The only real difference is in the wording. An undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering, for instance, is the same thing regarless if you call it a BS, BEng or something else.</p>
<p>The two things that will affect his employment prospects are ABET accreditation (if applicable to his filed) and the schools reputation.</p>
<p>In your husbands case, I’m thinking he lucked out with dumb employers. If there’s no difference - and most big companies will know if there is - they will offer you the same salary for your position regardless of how your particular school calls their degrees.</p>
<p>Since computer science is not engineering, a degree in Computer Science and Engineering is fundamentally different than a degree in Computer Science. For example, UCI offers two degrees: BS in Computer Science and BS in Computer Science and Engineering. The difference is that the engineering degree includes aspects of computer engineering. </p>
<p>“Computer Science” is offered through the School of Computer Science, and focuses on software
“Computer Engineering” is offered through the School of Engineering, and focuses on hardware
“Computer Science & Engineering” is a joint program offered through both Schools, and addresses both hardware and software</p>
<p>This actually makes some sense, but the organization and terminology of “computer-related” degrees could be completely different at other universities</p>
<p>Some “Computer Engineering” programs (including UCI’s) are ABET-accredited as engineering programs (not as computer science programs, which is a different form of ABET accreditation). For practical purposes, it probably doesn’t matter what form of ABET accreditation the “computer” program has, or even if it has ABET accreditation at all, since computer scientists and computer engineers are essentially unregulated under state licensing laws.</p>
<p>there’s no difference between a BS and BSE degree</p>
<p>the BSE degree is just a name some schools decide to give their engineering degrees in such as Stevens Tech but in fact it’s the same as a BS. Just one of those instances where they change the name to make something sound better than it actually is.</p>
<p>As for my husband’s computer science degree, from the school of engineering, at Tulane, way back in 1980, there was no such specialization in hardware and such as today’s computer engineering degrees are. He had to take the same courses as the engineering majors, like thermodynamics, heat transfer, and other such fun things. He started out as an electrical engineering major, didn’t like it, so switched to computer science, while remaining in the engineering school, not moving over to the college of arts and sciences. Don’t know if comp sci was offered in that school or not, as it is in some schools today.</p>
<p>As for his “dumb” employers, he was classified as a programmer/analyst, not an engineer, and did not command the engineer’s salary. He was able to work on projects with engineers very well, though, because he had an engineering background. Just made him more marketable, I would suppose.</p>
<p>When his company moved most of the people to Houston, he was able to find employment locally because he knew some of the old computer languages, thanks to
Y2K.</p>
<p>My school offered a Bachelor’s of Science in Engineering as well as a Bachelor’s of Engineering. The former had fewer course requirements than the latter.</p>