Best Bachelor’s in Software Engineering Programs for 2027

The last year of this degree is a two-course capstone: Software Engineering Capstone I, then Senior Project, Software Engineering Capstone II, where you work in a team to build a large software system. Teamwork runs through the earlier classes too, which stress the team approach to building software and give every student a leadership opportunity. Required major courses include Software Engineering, Introduction to Computer Security, Programming Languages and Algorithms and Complexity, and the electives include Software Evaluation, Human-Computer Interaction and Software Security.

Compared with the computer science degree, you get more mathematics and engineering methods in software design, plus quality assurance, testing, metrics, maintenance and configuration management. The degree is 120 units. Graduation also requires 40 units of upper-division courses and a 2.0 GPA, and no more than 12 units of cooperative or internship courses count toward it. It is taught on the San Luis Obispo campus and accredited by ABET's Engineering Accreditation Commission.

Software engineering is one of four computing-related engineering majors at Iowa State University, alongside computer, cyber security and electrical, and the page calls it the largest computing major on campus. The degree is one of the earliest developed programs in the country. Every engineering major starts with a basic program of courses common to all engineering curricula, and students normally take most of them in the first year. For 2025-26, software engineering students preferred minors in cyber security, data science and applied artificial intelligence.

Co-ops and internships are not required by the college, but they are highly encouraged, they must be paid, and they must involve the practice of engineering. The college reports that 75% of its engineering students graduate with engineering work experience and that 1,400 employers recruit engineering students each year, and it offers one-on-one career advising. You must own or obtain a laptop appropriate to your program, and you can work alongside professors on undergraduate research. A four-year course plan is posted. ABET accredits the major through its Engineering Accreditation Commission.

Computer System Design Project I and II, CSE 4316 and CSE 4317, close out this UT Arlington degree, and required courses in software testing and maintenance, software project management and software design patterns come with them. Design experiences run through the first three years and culminate in a major team-oriented project in the senior year that approximates an industrial work experience. The degree totals 124 hours, though the total depends on prior preparation, and you choose three technical electives.

Cooperative education programs are one of the ways students connect with the profession. To enter the professional program you need a 2.5 grade point average in three categories: overall, required science, mathematics and engineering courses, and required CSE courses. Entering students are expected to know mathematics through precalculus, high school chemistry and a high-level programming language such as C, C++, Java or Python. ABET's Engineering Accreditation Commission has accredited the program since 2002.

Platteville's software engineering degree draws on four fields: software engineering, computer science, math, and electrical and computer engineering. The focus is real-time embedded software, the code inside appliances, security systems, automobiles, aircraft and Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled devices. You take it on campus through the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering, with internship opportunities and team projects alongside industry partners.

A Cybersecurity Lab lets students practice defending against cyber-attacks and ethical hacking, and the Game Development Club covers creating a modern video game from start to finish. The department posts its courses, student outcomes, program objectives and a four-year plan, and the catalog holds the degree details. Listed career roles include software architect, software tester, game developer and machine learning engineer. Platteville holds ABET accreditation for the program through the Engineering Accreditation Commission.

Auburn lays out its 122-hour software engineering degree semester by semester in the university bulletin. The first year pairs Calculus I and II with Fundamentals of Computing I and II. Sophomores take Software Construction and a one-credit Professional Development course in the fall and Introduction to Algorithms in the spring. Junior year covers principles of programming languages and computer organization and assembly language in the fall, then Software Modeling and Design and computer networks in the spring.

Seniors take Computer Architecture, Database Systems I and Secure Software Process in the fall, then a Senior Design Project, Software Quality Assurance and Computer Ethics in the spring. Technical electives take six hours of the senior fall and three of the spring. Math electives, technical electives and the core science sequence are chosen from department-approved lists, and students must consult with an academic advisor in the computer science and software engineering department when selecting them. The program is accredited by ABET’s Engineering Accreditation Commission.

Matriculation into Utah Valley University's software engineering major requires CS 1400, CS 1410, CS 2300, CS 2420 and CS 2450 with a grade of C+ or better, and an overall GPA of 2.5 or higher. The degree then takes 120 credits, at least 40 of them upper-division and at least 30 earned through attendance at UVU. Required courses include Software Engineering II (CS 4400), Software Testing and Quality Engineering (CS 4230), Principles and Patterns of Software Design (CS 3450), Human Factors in Software Development (CS 3410), Database Theory (CS 3520) and Data Privacy and Security (CS 2900).

You choose one software development course in Java, C++, C#, Python or JavaScript, among others, and fill 15 credits with computer science electives numbered 3000 or higher. The program frames software engineers as people who work with users and customers to understand their needs, and it emphasizes modern development methodologies, including Agile. Accreditation comes from the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET.

Senior Design at Nebraska is a full academic year of team work on a real-world project for an industry or faculty sponsor. The degree takes 123 credit hours, and you study in a small cohort. Design, architecture, development, analysis, testing, maintenance and documentation start in your first year, and the curriculum is hands-on and emulates real industry work. Notable courses include Software Engineering I and II (SOFT 160 and SOFT 161), Software Engineering Mentoring and Leadership (SOFT 360), Software Design and Architecture (SOFT 466), Testing, Verification and Analysis (SOFT 467) and Requirements Elicitation, Modeling and Analysis (SOFT 468).

Areas of focus include artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data science and informatics, networking, user-centered computing, and IoT, robotics and embedded systems. You can earn course credit for an approved internship and join faculty-supervised research supported by the UCARE program, including a software engineering research lab that welcomes undergraduates. First-year computing majors can use the Learning Assistant Program, which pairs them with upper-level students. An accelerated five-year master's degree is available. The degree carries ABET accreditation through the Engineering Accreditation Commission.

The first two years at Michigan Tech build a computer science foundation, with Programming I and II, Data Structures, Discrete Structures and Databases among the courses. The last two focus on software engineering: Team Software Project, Software Architecture, Software Quality Assurance, Front End Dev & Accessibility and Ethics in Computing, plus software engineering electives. For senior year you choose Senior Design or a run of Enterprise project courses ending in a capstone.

Enterprise teams are student-run business teams under a faculty advisor, and the software-related ones include Husky Game Development, which designs and develops games; Humane Interface Design Enterprise, which designs, develops and evaluates human-centered computer interfaces; and IT Oxygen, which gives IT help to student organizations and businesses. Co-ops and internships are part of the hands-on side. The school's four-year outline totals 120 credits, and the BS is accredited by ABET's Engineering Accreditation Commission.

Getting into WSU does not get you into the major: you apply to software engineering after admission and have to meet the catalog criteria. Once you are in, advanced courses cover software development, testing and validation, maintenance, security, and management and integration. The fundamentals are requirements analysis, design, testing and maintenance, alongside programming (data structures, programming languages, object-oriented programming) and computer science concepts such as algorithms, databases, networks and security.

You build a variety of software systems in different programming languages and get a technical background in math, science and engineering. The engineering school's industrial advisory board and its internship and career contacts help with career goals. Graduates can pursue roles as software developer, software engineer, requirements engineer, quality assurance engineer or project manager. You can take the degree at Pullman or at WSU Everett, and Pullman has a residence hall for math, science and engineering students. A minor in software engineering is also offered. ABET's Engineering Accreditation Commission accredits the program.

Systems that meet specified requirements, reach mission-critical quality levels and stay within cost and schedule requirements: that is what the software engineering bachelor's at Kennesaw State University trains you to build. It is 120 credit hours over a four-year program, taken face-to-face, online or hybrid, with day and after-hour classes. The primary campus is Marietta, and entry terms are fall, spring and summer. Labs and classroom work give hands-on training, you can work in teams and on group projects, and the school keeps class sizes small.

A degree pathway maps out your courses by semester and by year. The Department of Software Engineering and Game Design and Development runs the degree. Double Owl Pathways lets undergraduates pursue a graduate degree, including the Software Engineering MS, in less time and at lower cost than earning each separately. Careers the page lists include software engineer, embedded systems developer, computer systems analyst and technical project manager. The degree is accredited by ABET's Engineering Accreditation Commission.

Snow College admits you to the software engineering program in two steps. Any admitted student starts as pre-major, completes CS 1410 with its lab, CS 2420, CS 2700, CS 2860 and MATH 1210, and then applies for full-major status, which you need before taking upper-division software engineering courses. The degree totals 120 hours, including 83 credits of required courses such as Secure Coding Practices, Cloud Application Development, Mobile Application Development and Distributed Application Development.

Courses use student teams and active learning, and every student gets leadership opportunities such as software development team lead roles. The curriculum ends in a year-long capstone sequence where teams build a software system reflective of current industry practice, and students are encouraged to complete internships before and during it. The review committee weighs your ability to complete the program, your potential as a software engineer, your goals, and your ability to work in teams. You need a C- or higher in every core and elective course. ABET's Engineering Accreditation Commission accredits the BSSE.

You learn the whole software development cycle in Warrensburg, through a curriculum that covers both computer science and engineering topics: specifying, building, analyzing, testing and maintaining complex software systems. Popular courses include Software Design and Architecture, Software Testing and Quality Assurance, and Secure Software Engineering. The School of Computer Science and Mathematics has nearly 200 computers across six classrooms and one open computer lab, and you learn both Windows and Linux. Two common study lounges sit close to faculty offices, and nearly all full-time faculty hold PhDs.

For money, there are scholarships aimed at software engineering majors, such as the Software Engineering Achievement Award and the ACM Scholarship, and undergraduates can earn tuition money working as a tutor or teaching assistant. After the bachelor's, the University of Central Missouri offers master's degrees in computer science, cybersecurity and information assurance, and data science and artificial intelligence. The degree's ABET accreditation comes from the Engineering Accreditation Commission, under its program criteria for software engineering.

Software architecture, requirements and testing each get a named course in Miami's major. You take Software Requirements (CSE 202), Software Architecture and Design (CSE 301), Software Construction (CSE 302) and Software Quality Assurance and Testing (CSE 401), plus Software Engineering for User Interface and User Experience Design (CSE 212). Algorithms I and Web Application Programming are required too. The program says its topics go beyond traditional computer science into software design, software maintenance and formal methods for software development.

Students are expected to learn in a team environment, and the major finishes with a two-course senior design project, CSE 448 and CSE 449. The program requirements run 92 semester hours. They include Calculus I, discrete mathematics or proof, statistics, two natural science options and 6 to 12 hours of software engineering electives. A department honors program in computer science and software engineering puts seniors on faculty research projects. The Oxford degree is ABET-accredited through the Engineering Accreditation Commission.

Montana Tech's software engineering degree in Butte is on ABET's accredited list under the Engineering Accreditation Commission. First-year students take a freshman seminar that introduces software engineering and computer science.

Later courses cover requirements and specifications, verification and validation, user interface design and software architecture, and the final year centers on a year-long capstone, the Senior Design Project. Members of the ACM student chapter travel over spring break to Seattle and San Francisco to tour companies that hire software engineering majors, and students can earn pay by tutoring in the Museum Computer Lab.

Sample courses at BGSU include Software Security, Web Application Development, Mobile Application Development, Software Architecture and Design, Software Testing and Quality Assurance, and Database Management Systems. You learn to design, develop, test and manage software applications in computer, mobile and embedded systems. The curriculum ends in a software engineering team project, also called a capstone project, and students find internships or co-ops through the department's cooperative education program. To declare the major you need an SAT math score of 550 or higher or an ACT math score of 22 or higher.

Otherwise you complete the appropriate math course or earn the appropriate math placement score at BGSU first. Incoming students aren't expected to have programming or computer science experience. The degree also sets up a transition into BGSU's Master of Science in Computer Science with a specialization in software engineering. The Computer Science Department supports student chapters of the Association for Computing Machinery and its Council on Women in Computing. ABET's Engineering Accreditation Commission accredits the degree. Across the whole university, 64% of students finish within six years.

Every software engineering student sits department comprehensive examinations on the computer science core and the software engineering core, and the catalog says the curriculum builds on the standard published by the Association for Computing Machinery and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. The software engineering core covers Engineering Leadership, Software Requirements and Design and Software Testing, plus two upper-level courses chosen from Software Quality and Configuration Management, Software Maintenance and Software Project Management.

The capstone is two one-credit courses, Capstone Project and Capstone Project II. The computer science side includes Python, C++, Data Structures, Introduction to Algorithms, Human Computer Interaction and Database Design. You also take Calculus I and II, Discrete Structures, linear algebra and at least two natural science courses with labs. UVA Wise says the major leans on paid internships, and you can add a cybersecurity concentration. The program holds ABET accreditation from the Engineering Accreditation Commission.

Requirements, design, construction, testing, maintenance, configuration management, engineering management, engineering process, tools and quality assurance: that list is the systems-oriented curriculum of the software engineering BS at the State University of New York at Oswego, which the page calls the first of SUNY. The curriculum is project-based, and the yearlong capstone has students develop software for real clients. You can also pursue an internship or co-op in finance, defense, manufacturing, government or other fields, and the university lists a full-time, paid co-op as an integrated learning experience.

The Shineman Center for Science, Engineering and Innovation, a $118 million, 230,000 square-foot building, is home to the computing and engineering programs, with workspaces configured for class-based, small-group and individual activities. The Computer Science Association sponsors guest speakers and programming contests, arranges company tours and has advanced students tutor first-year students. Career areas listed are app development, quality assurance, software development and web and mobile technologies. ABET's Engineering Accreditation Commission accredits the BS.

Every semester of the Stevens software engineering degree includes a hands-on course, a sequence the school calls the Design Spine. It ends in Senior Design, a team capstone project building prototypes for real business problems, and students show those prototypes at the Innovation Expo, a design and entrepreneurship competition where they also pitch business ideas. The Bachelor of Engineering sits in the Systems Engineering department of the Schaefer School of Engineering and Science and is taught on campus in Hoboken.

Its mission pairs a strong engineering core with systems thinking and critical thinking. Nearly 30 percent of all engineering students take part in the Cooperative Education Program, working for real companies. You can build and test designs in the MakerCenter and the Prototype and Object Fabrication Lab, join undergraduate research, add flexible minors or double majors, or double count courses toward a master's in five years through the Accelerated Master's Program. ABET's Engineering Accreditation Commission accredits the program, and 87 percent of the university's students finish within six years.

Seven SWEN courses make up the core of this degree at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania: Intro to Software Engineering, Design Patterns, Crafting Quality Code, Functional Data Structures, Large Scale Architectures, Interdisciplinary Development and Extreme Programming. The page sets the degree apart from traditional computer science by its focus on systematic processes such as designing, testing and maintaining scalable software. Alongside the SWEN sequence you take Managing Development Processes, Design and Analysis of Algorithms and Database Management Systems, plus Computer Organization and Operating Systems from computer engineering.

Probability and Statistics for Engineers is required, and so are four elective credits from computer engineering, computer science or software engineering courses. Training covers version control, risk assessment and modular design, and you learn to track project milestones and deliver functioning software. The major also requires ten credits of additional math and science beyond the general education requirements. A 4+1 route leads to a Master of Science in Organizational Development and Leadership with one additional year of study. The program holds Engineering Accreditation Commission accreditation from ABET.

The University of Indianapolis software engineering degree carries accreditation from ABET's Engineering Accreditation Commission and sits in the R.B. Annis School of Engineering.

The program sets three goals for graduates within a few years of finishing: to be active contributors in the workforce, to keep up continual professional development and to demonstrate leadership in their profession or communities.

Three blocks of paid, full-time cooperative education, 40 weeks in all, are required in the software engineering BS at Rochester Institute of Technology, so you finish with close to a year of work experience. Teamwork also carries real weight in the grade: by the time you start your senior project, you will have worked with 20 to 25 different student teams, and you prepare requirements documents, design documents, project plans, burndown charts and software test plans along the way. The senior project is a two-course sequence on a team of four or five students, with requirements and architectural design in the first course and development and deployment in the second, for an industry-sponsored problem.

Electives include Software Modeling, Software Architecture and Mathematical Models of Software, and you also take two engineering electives plus a three-course sequence in an application domain. First-year applicants need four years of mathematics through pre-calculus and two to three years of science that includes chemistry or physics. An accelerated route earns a bachelor's and a master's in software engineering, computer science or cybersecurity in as little as five years. The BS is ABET accredited through the Engineering Accreditation Commission.

You study the whole development life cycle here: requirements elicitation and analysis, software architecture, design, construction and verification, with a base in discrete mathematics, data structures, algorithms, computer organization and operating systems.

The school says you learn to work within a defined software development process and continuously improve it, aiming for high-quality software produced predictably and efficiently. Milwaukee School of Engineering holds ABET accreditation for the program through the Engineering Accreditation Commission. The school reports that 100% of its 2024-25 software engineering graduates were employed, enrolled in graduate school or enlisted.