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Comment by alexsb92 | Hacker News Reader

At the university that i attend (University of Waterloo, Canada), we actually do have a Software Engineering program which is part of the Engineering department, and a Computer Science curriculum which is part of the Mathematics department. The SoftEng degree owners can even qualify to become professional engineers.

I'm also 99% sure that the two degrees are also common at quite a number, if not the majority of big technical universities in Canada.

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The same here in Argentina. You have may have a Computer Science which belongs to the "Exact Science" department (along with Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Geology, etc...) and then, you have a Software Engineering curriculum in the Eng department, (along with Electrical, Mechanical, Nautical, etc)...

Back in the day I choose Software Engineering because the other (CS) seemed extremely theoretical to me. But I think that having that "blur line" of yours (ref to SoftwareMaven), let's you mix both worlds a little more, so I would prefer that. But maybe it's just because we always want what we don't have ;)

Yeah, in terms of curriculum differences, CS is definitely a lot more theoretical, with heavier math and pure CS courses, while SE has project management components, more programming, some computer science, some Computer Engineering courses and even some Electrical Courses.

In Waterloo's case, the whole "knowing CS, but not how to program" falls flat, since we have an amazing co-op program where you can easily 2 year-ish of experience at different companies by the time you graduate, so most CS students that come out, do come out of the CS with Co-op, and as a result are great programmers.

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