I am a Software Dev girl who loves Uncle Bob, is drawn to the human side of software development and clean coded applications, and enjoys acting as a liaison between the business and tech.
I know in Canada being an Engineer has special rules and requires a license granted by professional engineering associations but I feel like software development is an engineering job. I've studied electronics engineering and moved to software development and work as a software engineer, so I was partially thought like CS Studnet at the University, partially by myself and partially by training in the company so I believe I can compare those ;)
I think professional work will teach you the most out of the three (practice makes perfect), not only on software/web development itself but mostly about applying the solutions to real-world problems.
I think you can learn the principles by yourself, you can learn languages, clean code, design patterns, anything you need/want. I believe if you want to, you can actually learn more at home/by yourself than at the university sometimes (much depends on your University teachers and your attitude, really).
But the first clash with a real app is always challenging and applying your knowledge to the real system - that's the most valuable thing and that what the engineering is about (the application of mathematics and scientific, economic, social, and practical knowledge in order to invent, innovate, design, build, maintain, research, and improve structures, machines, tools, systems, components, materials, processes, solutions, and organizations - per Wikipedia)
I know in Canada being an Engineer has special rules and requires a license granted by professional engineering associations but I feel like software development is an engineering job. I've studied electronics engineering and moved to software development and work as a software engineer, so I was partially thought like CS Studnet at the University, partially by myself and partially by training in the company so I believe I can compare those ;)
I think professional work will teach you the most out of the three (practice makes perfect), not only on software/web development itself but mostly about applying the solutions to real-world problems.
I think you can learn the principles by yourself, you can learn languages, clean code, design patterns, anything you need/want. I believe if you want to, you can actually learn more at home/by yourself than at the university sometimes (much depends on your University teachers and your attitude, really).
But the first clash with a real app is always challenging and applying your knowledge to the real system - that's the most valuable thing and that what the engineering is about (the application of mathematics and scientific, economic, social, and practical knowledge in order to invent, innovate, design, build, maintain, research, and improve structures, machines, tools, systems, components, materials, processes, solutions, and organizations - per Wikipedia)
Ps.: I recently wrote my view on 'software engineer' and the definition on my blog jumpstart.blog/2017/05/22/id-rathe... if you're interested ;)