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Comment by zxcdw | Hacker News Reader

I think there's a distinction to be made between Computer Science and Software Engineering as separate disciplines.

Agreed. And therefore, shouldn't the vast majority of people studying Computer Science really change to Software Engineering? If someone wants to work in industry building products that will largely use the infrastructure and architecture built by others (coding in .Net, building web or native apps, etc.), isn't that an engineering problem to solve, rather than a CS / academic problem?

Computer Science seems it should be what "pre-med" is for someone on the way to becoming a medical doctor.

I think a BS in CS plus an MS in SE would be a good path, but then you're telling people that they need six years of school instead of four before they can cash in.

Computer Science trains students in thought processes. Since quite a few companies use a limited number of tools and frameworks, most CS graduates can jump in and be productive pretty quickly, given the proper on-site training. Problems arise when employers expect graduates to be immediately productive working with unfamiliar tools in an unfamiliar environment.

Several undergraduate programs offer engineering practicum programs in which students are paired with organizations to work on open source software. These opportunities can help to familiarize students with some of the engineering practices in the industry. Every company is a bit different and development practices change often.

It depends very much on the country.

In Portugal universities call Software Engineering to Computer Science degrees.

15 - 20 years ago when I studied (in the UK), most places had a "Computer Science" course to cover everything. I see it has gradually separated into separate disciplines over time.

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