Software Engineering
What About Software Engineering?
After considering software engineering as the career path of desire, you should take a look at the curriculum required by a number of colleges on your list. Software engineering can be a highly rewarding career, but it also requires insight and motivation to make it to the top of a salary scale. The one good thing about software engineering is that workers in the field do not always hold college degrees.
Software engineers design computer programs, maintain networks, and fix problems when required. For many, a strong interest in computers is all that is needed. Skills used in software engineering can be learned in a high school vocational program. Keeping this in mind, software engineers who hold a degree in computer engineering will receive far higher salaries than those without a college degree.
Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences is the first college to offer degrees in software engineering and even then, the degree has only been around for eleven years. In fact, the software engineering program only became an accredited college course four years ago.
A bachelor's degree in software engineering requires students to complete 57 hours of software engineering courses, 40 hours of science and math, 36 hours of liberal arts, 16 hours of computer science, 16 hours of engineering electives, 12 hours of specific program specialties (gaming software, business software, security software, etc.), 12 elective hours, 4 writing credits, and at least 2 physical education credits.
In the four years of this software engineering program, students take a variety of courses. The first year requires three computer science courses, calculus, writing, discrete math, liberal arts credits, and engineering statistics. In the second year, students will take software engineering, software subsystems, fundamentals of computers, computer science theory, physics, two elective science courses, communications, and two more art credits.
In the third year, students take SW systems, formal software methods, software usability, applicable software specialty (for example, gaming software), another arts course, and then other electives. The fourth year ends with courses in the student’s elected software specialty, a final art credit, software specifications, software creation, and any remaining electives.
