For those in the know what is your opinion?
Well written article. I don’t have much confidence in my opinion (due to only being exposed to one and minimal practical experience), but I believe that a CS background is more important as SE is often learned on the job and with experience informally, while doing the reverse would be much harder. Basically, if you learn the theory, you have more power and ability to learn the application of it than if you learn the application and later try to decipher the theory from it.
That said, if you handed anyone knowledgeable in programming a room of programmers to observe working on a task, it wouldn’t be easy to pick out who is CS and who is SE. I think that says a good deal.
CS and SE majors are often very similar at schools that have both. SE may have a few more software engineering methods courses, while CS may have more room for additional CS topics courses. CS majors do often take a software engineering or project course, while SE majors do take some CS topics courses. A major in CS with a software engineering or project course and additional CS topics courses is slightly preferable to a major in SE.