Software Engineering Degree Requirements for 2027: Courses, Math and Credits

What does a software engineering degree require? Usually a bachelor’s of about 120 credits, which is four years at a full-time pace. Expect a math sequence, a core of programming and computer science, a set of software engineering courses on design, testing and requirements, and a final project where you build real software with a team.

The details come from three places: the accreditor sets minimums, a national guideline describes what the degree should cover, and each school adds its own rules for admission and graduation. This guide walks through all three.

What do software engineering majors actually study? Two layers. First the foundations every computing degree shares: programming, data structures, algorithms and the math behind them. Then the software engineering courses that set the major apart.

For an accredited program, the software program criteria require the curriculum to include computing fundamentals, software design and construction, requirements analysis, security, verification and validation and software engineering processes and tools appropriate for the development of complex software systems. The SE2014 curriculum guideline gives each of those areas minimum hours; the largest are:

1. Software design48 hours
2. Software verification and validation37 hours
3. Software process33 hours
4. Requirements analysis and specification30 hours
5. Professional practice29 hours
6. Software modeling and analysis28 hours

Minimum hours by knowledge area, SE2014 (ACM and IEEE Computer Society). The full table, with the shared foundations, is in software engineering vs computer science.

Course titles vary by school, so look for these areas in a program’s course list rather than exact names: a course on software requirements, one on design or architecture, one on testing or quality, and a team project or process course.

Is there a lot of math? Yes. An ABET-accredited program must include at least 30 semester credits of college-level math and basic sciences, and the software criteria name discrete mathematics, probability and statistics specifically.

Discrete math covers logic, sets, proofs and counting, the math of how programs and data are structured. Probability and statistics are used in testing, performance analysis and work with data. The SE2014 guideline sets 80 minimum hours for mathematical and engineering fundamentals, second only to computing essentials.

How long is a software engineering degree? Most bachelor’s programs ask for 120 to 133 credits. 13 of the 25 programs that publish a total sit at exactly 120, the usual four-year load at 15 credits a semester; the rest add a few courses on top.

Credit totals as stated on each program’s own page, in semester credits.

A master’s is shorter: the 22 master’s programs that publish a total ask for 30 to 36 credits, and 16 of them ask for exactly 30.

Will you have to build a real project before you graduate? In an accredited program, yes. ABET requires “a culminating major engineering design experience” that draws on earlier course work. Of the 64 bachelor’s program pages we saved, 24 describe a capstone or senior project by name. Some run it across a full year:

• Cal Poly: year-long capstone
• ASU Online: two-semester capstone
• Montana Technological University: year-long senior design capstone
• State University of New York at Oswego: year-long capstone

Internships are different: the accreditor doesn’t require one, but some programs do. Programs whose pages list one as required include:

• RIT: 40 weeks of required co-op
• Baldwin Wallace University: required internship
• Lipscomb: mandatory internship

What do you need to get in? It depends on the school, and often there are two gates: one to the university and a second to the software engineering major. These are examples quoted from program pages, not a national standard.

For a bachelor’s

• Bowling Green State: SAT math 550 or ACT math 22 to enter the major
• UT Arlington: Professional program requires a 2.5 GPA in each of three categories
• Penn State World Campus: Direct transfer into the major requires a 2.7 GPA
• Cal State San Marcos: Admission requires prerequisite courses and 60 transferable units

For a master’s

• Villanova: Applicants need a bachelor's degree with at least a 3.0 GPA
• UT Arlington: Admission looks at a 3.2 GPA over the last two years of undergraduate work
• Scranton: Applicants need object-oriented programming, operating systems, discrete math and data structures
• SMU: Admission needs a bachelor's in a quantitative science, math, computer science or engineering

The GRE is not a universal requirement either: UH-Clear Lake, West Virginia and RIT are among the programs whose pages say it isn’t required or is optional. Confirm every rule on the program’s own page before you apply, since policies change from year to year.

Does accreditation change what you study? It sets the floor. An ABET-accredited software engineering degree has to meet the math and science minimum, at least 45 credits of engineering topics, the software topics above and a culminating design project. A program without ABET accreditation may cover the same ground, but no outside reviewer checks its software engineering curriculum against these criteria.

There are 39 ABET-accredited software engineering programs in our data. If you might want an engineering license or certification later, accreditation is worth checking first.

• You’re in high school. Take as much math as your school offers, and any programming course. Then compare programs in the bachelor’s rankings, then narrow to your state.
• You’re transferring from community college. Check whether the major has its own GPA or prerequisite rule, and which math and programming courses transfer. Some programs, like the examples above, ask for a set of prerequisite courses before you join the major.
• You already have a bachelor’s in another field. A master’s of about 30 credits is the shorter route. Check the prerequisite courses each program expects, and compare options in the master’s rankings.
• You need to keep working. Look at online software engineering degrees; the credit and capstone requirements are the same as on campus. The career guide shows where the degree leads.

• Best Bachelor’s in Software Engineering› Every bachelor’s titled software engineering, scored on completion, net price, ABET status and size.
• Software Engineering Master’s Programs› Master’s programs compared on cost, format and size.
• Software Engineer vs. Software Developer› What the two titles mean, and how the degree differs from computer science.
• ABET-Accredited Software Engineering Programs› The programs on ABET’s list.