<p>hi, i'm a rising senior trying to decide on a major, i think i want to be a software engineer, but i'm not sure whether i should major in computer science or software engineering. which do employers like more, and which will help me get a job? thanks</p>
<p>What school(s) are you looking at?</p>
<p>Software engineering as a major appears to be much less common than computer science. For example, out of 32 California public universities, the majority offer degree programs in computer science. But only two of them offer degree programs in software engineering; in both cases, there is considerable overlap in the required and optional courses with the computer science degree programs at those schools. However, at at least one of those schools, the software engineering major is significantly easier to get admitted to ( [SJSU</a> Admission](<a href=“http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/admission/rec-1199.html]SJSU”>http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/admission/rec-1199.html) , [SJSU</a> Admission](<a href=“http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/admission/rec-1200.html]SJSU”>http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/admission/rec-1200.html) ).</p>
<p>In any case, you’ll want to include courses in operating systems, networks, algorithms, software engineering, databases, and security in order to cover the concepts most commonly seen in industry software jobs.</p>
<p>Here is how one school defines its computer science and software engineering (and computer engineering, which is more hardware oriented) majors:</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.csc.calpoly.edu/prospective/program-differences/[/url]”>https://www.csc.calpoly.edu/prospective/program-differences/</a></p>
<p>thanks, i’m looking at either ut dallas or university of houston. utd has cs and se, while uh has cs, and cs with a software design option. will majoring in software engineering over cs give me an edge when applying for jobs, or it doesn’t matter?</p>
<p>Software engineering is merely a systematic approach to developing software. A software engineering curriculum is basically a CS curriculum which replaces possibly the digital design/architecture courses (if the school’s CS program require it) with courses that relate to the phases of software engineering: Software Requirements, Software Design, Software Development, Software Testing/Validation.</p>
<p>Personally (and I have been a software engineer for 20+ years), I find that taking a software engineering major especially at the undergraduate level is a waste. You really ONLY need the ONE all-encompassing software engineering 3-credit course (within your CS, CompE or Math program) and you are OK, since many employers have their own taliored “flavor” of software engineering.</p>
<p>It would be better to get a more traditional CS degree (or applied math) with the courses that UCBAlumnus mentioned as you would qualify for the same jobs. A SoftE degree WILL NOT GIVE AN EDGE.</p>
<p>An employer rather you know operating systems, databases and security while TEACHING you software engineering than you knowing software engineering and not sharp with operating systems, databases and security, etc.</p>
<p>UTD’s CS and SE majors are shown here:</p>
<p>[Computer</a> Science - Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science - Undergraduate Programs - 2010 Undergraduate Catalog - The University of Texas at Dallas](<a href=“UT Dallas Course Catalogs - UT Dallas University Catalogs - The University of Texas at Dallas”>UT Dallas Course Catalogs - UT Dallas University Catalogs - The University of Texas at Dallas)
[Software</a> Engineering - Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science - Undergraduate Programs - 2010 Undergraduate Catalog - The University of Texas at Dallas](<a href=“UT Dallas Course Catalogs - UT Dallas University Catalogs - The University of Texas at Dallas”>UT Dallas Course Catalogs - UT Dallas University Catalogs - The University of Texas at Dallas)</p>
<p>The SE major requires four more advanced software engineering courses beyond the introductory one that both majors require. The CS major has these as optional within-major courses. The SE major has many of the CS major required courses as optional within-major courses.</p>
<p>The CS major may be preferable if you are a student who wants to get broad coverage of various topics in CS, rather than deciding on a concentration in software engineering now. In addition, beyond the introductory software engineering course, many in software development and QA in industry learn much of the software engineering stuff on the job anyway, so the value of the additional software engineering courses in school may be less than that of additional CS courses in various topics.</p>
<p>However, if there is an admissions-major-arbitrage situation like at SJSU, and your stats are below the CS major threshold but above the SE major threshold, applying to the SE major may be a “back door” way into a major that is pretty close to a CS major (if you choose the right major electives).</p>
<p>At schools I’ve seen, the SwE major requires fewer of the mathematical/theoretical/interdisciplinary courses required of CS majors, and typically several courses in the methods and/or practice of professional software development.</p>
<p>Just look at the differences in the required courses, read up on them, and decide which you are more interested in. As a math guy, I’d recommend sticking with CS, just because college is the only place you’re going to be able to explore academic/intellectual (mathematical/theoretical) interests… leave job- and industry-training for, well, when you get a job.</p>