What's in a Software Dev degree anyway?

• What should I learn first?
• What should I learn next?
• Okay, I know some stuff, what now?
• Are you self taught?
• Ever wonder what everyone was learning in school?

Did you answer “yes” to any, most, or all of these? Yep, me too. I started learning to code 2ish years ago. For over a year, I’ve been teaching code stuffs to kids and rewriting curriculum. This still hasn’t seemed to be enough to catch the eye of many interviewers.

I started thinking about going back to school. I was pretty interested in going to one school but they never responded to some questions I had. After a few more months of looking, I found the right fit, applied, and got accepted. Though I am choosing to go back to school, I wish it were more obvious what to learn and in what order.

I have seen a few places try to do this. The developer roadmap has done an awesome job laying out a learning path.

With as helpful as those charts are, it might still be helpful to see what a degree program includes. Expect another post for each class with a list of things learned and resources.

Degree Program

This degree is an MS in Software Development and a certificate in Software Engineering. Here are the classes in the curriculum.

Software Development major

1. Information Structures with Python
2. Data Structures and Algorithms
3. Advanced Programming Techniques
4. Software Designs and Patterns (also part of certificate)
5. Software Engineering (also part of certificate)

Software Engineering certificate

1. Information Technology Project Management
2. Software Quality, Testing, and Security Management

single elective

1. TBD, there are options.