<p>Hello CC, is any there anyone else here that was admitted as a software engineer? I have a couple questions about the program.</p>
<p>=O</p>
<p>I am in fact a current Drexel software engineering freshman.
What questions do you have? =D Ask me anything!</p>
<p>How do you like the program so far? Do you know what languages you will be using/learning? Also, what’s life like on campus (the people, the dorms, activities)? I have narrowed it down to Drexel and Cal Poly and I am trying to make my decision.</p>
<p>Also, I was admitted for software engineer, but do you think they would let me switch to Comp Sci? Would that affect any of my scholarships or grants?</p>
<p>I’m enjoying it very well actually-- I’m not sure if I anticipated enjoying it this well. xD From what I’ve heard, they’ve reworked the SE program recently, making it… more different than CS, but I can’t tell you more than that. I can tell you that being an SE major is awesome, you seem to get the best of both worlds from the College of Engineering/CS-ness with more Business and idk, software development communication thinking skills ness. We like to refer to ourselves as “fake” engineers, because all other engineers need to take the generally the same classes freshman year, regardless if you’re Biomed or Chemical or Computer Science. But SE requirements are different and so we have a lot more freedom and er… don’t have to deal so much with cattle lecture bs and etc. </p>
<p>Here, have a super awesome degree requirements webpage:
[Degree</a> Requirements: Software Engineering](<a href=“http://www.drexel.edu/catalog/degree/software.htm]Degree”>http://www.drexel.edu/catalog/degree/software.htm)</p>
<p>And hey, why not, here’s another few webpages, syllabuses of SE 101, 2, and 3 - the SE freshman course sequence. Spiros won’t mind, I’m sure.
<a href=“https://www.cs.drexel.edu/~spiros/teaching/[/url]”>https://www.cs.drexel.edu/~spiros/teaching/</a></p>
<p>The freshman year SE101, 102, 103 are all Java. I can tell you that we started with 30+ kids in SE101, then dropped have of them as the course went pretty quickly, basically covering most of AP CS in 10 weeks. So if you took AP CS or know programming already you should be good, but I do know of others who had no programming experience whatsoever and were just willing to work hard and study, and did fine. After this year we move on to C++ eventually, then idk what else. The courses themselves are concept-heavy, with a bunch of languages thrown in along the way. Which is how any CS curriculum should be of course.</p>
<p>It’s rather similar to CS, as in both majors take a lot of the same classes. But, eh.</p>
<p>What’s life like on campus… hmm… xD Well depends on the crowds you hang out with, the kind of person you are, etc. There’s lots of people that party. All. Of. The. Time. But there’s lots and lots of people that study. All of the time. So, I don’t know, you can mostly find what you’re looking for. People are… I don’t know, rather active, self-dependent? It partially has to do with the co-op program, as at any given time, like 1/3 of the undergrads are out working, on co-op. So they’ve all pretty much got their head on straight, looking into careers and things. I don’t know what you do at other colleges, but her at Drexel, much of the focus is developing yourself to have a successful career in the workforce. So that er, active-ness reflects a lot on the students, I guess?</p>
<p>Haha, I don’t know. The dorms are all about the same, small and overpriced, with dorm-life being kind of crazy, same at any other college. There’s a bazillion and one activities, from what I remember… every variety of Greek life, cultural clubs, career-focused societies, community-interest groups (like Habitat for Humanity, stuff like that)… then there’s random stuff like that one club trying to mix majors together to design a theme park, or that idk Concrete Canoe thing. xD Idk. I feel like me categorizing them is a bad thing, because there really is a serious amount of random Drexel clubs out there. Then there’s sports of course. The big thing is to go and scream your head off at the basketball games. We have no football team. Did I mention our mascot is a dragon? Fyeah. =P But otherwise there’s always something going free on on campus: speakers, indie film screenings, actual movie screenings (recent but not too recent movies), discussion panel/conferences… idk. </p>
<p>Here, have an events calendar:
[Events</a> Calendar](<a href=“http://drexel.edu/events/]Events”>Events)
And this cute little blog Drexel keeps up to highlight its awesomeness and keep its investors:
[Home</a> | Now | Drexel University](<a href=“http://www.drexel.edu/now/]Home”>News)</p>
<p>And if you’re still bored, just go out around Philly and find something to do. There’s a subway station right on campus that will take you anywhere you’d want to go, or if you don’t mind walking a bit, a free Drexel shuttle cycles from the main campus to the center city campus. It’s not too uncommon for people to just randomly go to Chinatown for dinner. Seriously. xD</p>
<p>Of course they’ll let you switch to CS, and no it shouldn’t affect your scholarships/grants at all. If you fumble around that SE major requirements website, you can take a look at the CS requirements too, if you’d like to compare them. It’s not too different, all in all.</p>
<p>If you have any other questions let me know. Specific questions, too. Those are the best kind of questions. =D</p>
<p>Hi Ollie,</p>
<p>Your opinion is greatly appreciated. It seems there is much overlap…so what is the difference?</p>
<p>The difference between the iSchool and the College of Engineering?</p>
<p>Forgive me on this, for I believe the SE program has gone through changes recently (like, within the last year), so you may hear different things from different people. As far as I know, the only difference between the two is for registration and advising purposes. </p>
<p>First, my major code is BSSE-IST instead of BSSE-COE (I’m guessing). That’s Bachelor of Science in Software Engineering - iSchool of Technology or - College of Engineering. That’s just registration, whatever appears on my transcript. </p>
<p>Second, my academic and co-op advisers are from the iSchool. From what I’ve experienced, my advisers have been amazing, super helpful and super responsive. The iSchool is small, made up of 3 majors (IS, IT, and sharing SE) and like a few hundred students whereas the CoE is I think the largest college at Drexel, with many majors and easily a few thousand students. So you may not get that individualized attention. </p>
<p>Third, UNIV 101 and COOP 101 are done with other iSchool students. iSchool UNIV 101 classes have pizza. Every class. No other college does this as far as I know. Additionally, we all got free iSchool logo bookbags at the beginning of the year. They just like to give us free stuff. Because the iSchool is so small and because they can. xD</p>
<p>Oh, and Fourth, you get access to the iCommons, which has nice computers and free printing, and is generally a much better study environment than the library, which is almost always full of people.</p>
<p>Otherwise, the SE programs from both colleges are exactly the same. I’m pretty sure. Because I believe this is where they changed it-- that SE-IST majors in the past did more information-based stuff while SE-COE in the past did more engineering-design stuff, maybe? But now, because I have not been told differently, and because the Course Catalog says so, academically, there is no difference between SE majors from the iSchool and the College of Engineering. We’re taking the same classes, have the same requirements, all have access to the CS computer lab, etc. The program makes no distinction between students of the two colleges, except for purposes of registration and advising.</p>
<p>I wish someone had told me that one year ago because believe me, I was scouring the internet for hours for the answer. SE is the only major at Drexel that does this, you know? It’s so strange. So strange…
=P</p>
<p>thanks sooo much…your insight is very helpful…much appreciated.</p>