As a student of the Software Engineering department, and knowing quite a bit of the CSE curriculum, I chose SWE over CSE during my counselling, for a few reasons:
- I was strong in code before I joined college, I wanted to learn how to develop it perfectly by all the design and architecture standards, SWE curriculum is perfect for that.
- A ‘small’ vs ‘big’ department does make a difference, as small, as per number of students studying is something which I prefer because the student-teacher ratio is balanced, you know the department, you know of all the activities happening and can come show interest and join in anytime you want. You can approach all the teachers, cause they are in a limited number and are specialized, SWE teachers are REALLY impressive, they might have not done but they have experience and a lot of interest, obviously exceptions exist every where and here too, but they all don’t mind going an extra step to help you out if you’ve shown commitment to the subject/department.
Knowing your batchmates is an important thing in college, I regret not socializing as much during the 3 years I have been here, and in the upcoming 4th year I want to make as many branch-friends as possible. - If you are joining in the new batch, then you are really lucky, you would have the credit system which would let you choose from a set of really interesting electives and you can head in to a direction you prefer, and if you are confused about what to opt for then you can always take the generic courses and take up the specialized electives next year.
- SWE HoD is a dynamic personality as stated by another comment in this thread too, she helps out and has ambitious plans for the Association of Software Engineers. The CSE department does have MORE events, but chances of you getting involved without going through a bit of politics and usual yada yada is there, which in SWE you wouldn’t have.
- The crowd at SWE sometimes is of people who wanted CSE but end up getting SWE, atleast in my batch, which is frustrating to me who did the other way round, CSE leaves you with no specialization as such, yes, in the end it doesn’t matter if you are looking at placements seriously, but from higher studies point of view it does matter if you plan to focus on SWE.
- Teachers create opportunities for projects to be submitted and whole lot more, during the course you might feel that they are a pain to complete, but these small projects will take you a long, long way if done passionately. They add to your profile quite a bit, when compared to others.
- If you do enough projects and work/intern during your college, and make sure it’s worth it, and keep your teachers informed, they’ll definitely help you out a lot more than you can imagine, SWE. In CSE, because there are so many students~classes~faculty, it’ll really be difficult to get a faculty to back you up if you ever need any help.
- From educational history/technical point of view, there isn’t much engineering in Computer ‘Science’ , it’s science and internationally it’s awarded a Bachelors in Science degree, Software Engineering on the other is more engineering inclined, with various levels, etc coming in.
- Software Engineering also opens up a new job role – Software Tester
- SWE has subjects like Software Metrics, Testing, and the redundant (for SWE) but existing Theory of Compilers/Principles of Compiler Design(These are pure CS subjects) but that are required in the Indian tech eco system.
Having said all this, I should tell you it really doesn’t matter, you will have to learn on your when the night before the exams starts. SWE is a fun branch, but if you take a step forward and involve yourself it really supports you, but then again if you do that in any other branch you would too.