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Comment by ethanbond | Hacker News Reader

Using your analogy, probably because there aren’t many well established civil engineering degree programs.

I don’t know what “practitioner program” could get you close to a guaranteed spot at a top software firm. I’ve been out of school for a few years and figure this stuff has been changing fast though, so that perception may be out of date.

Never even heard of a software engineering degree. Only computer engineering or computer science, either of which may include some software engineering courses.

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This might be due to different naming conventions in different countries. Software engineering is a common degree in Australia. Example: https://study.unimelb.edu.au/find/courses/graduate/master-of...

Though I doubt the content is that different to courses in other countries

I did a BSc(Comp Sci) in Australia (USyd) starting in 2010. A lot of my friends were doing the Software Engineering degree. We did the same courses and went to the same lectures, the only real differences were a) what faculty we were officially part of, and b) the words on the piece of paper we got at the end.

(I'm stretching the truth a little here because I also did a Maths major in addition to Comp Sci, but that was not part of my Comp Sci requirements so I think it's still valid to the point I'm trying to make, that the two degrees are functionally identical with different names)

There are certainly various more nuts-and-bolts certification programs out there, but if you want to do software stuff and you're going to an "elite" school you'll tend to major in some variant of CS--whether it's located in the math/sciences or the engineering school.

They do exist. Even Oxford has an MSc in SoftEng.

Doesn't Oxford just automatically boost all bachelors to masters a year after graduating though?

Yes, you’re awarded an MA (Oxon) after a few years of graduating, but this is a ‘proper’ Masters course

The fourth year of an undergrad also gives an “undergraduate master’s”.

Yeah, this too. What I mean is that the MSc in SoftEng is a "normal" Masters program. Oxford has too many weird caveats to cover :D

That's just Master of Arts (MA). MSc, MEng, MLitt, etc., are not automatic.

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