软件工程（Software Engineering）按照所处领域不同可以分为系统分析员、软件设计师、系统架构师、程序员、测试员等，但一般都统称程序员。
软件工程所涉及的领域不仅仅只包括程序设计，同时也侧重其作为一项工程的系统意义。准确的说来是：研究和应用如何以系统性的、规范化的、可定量的过程化方法去开发和维护软件，以及如何把经过时间考验而证明正确的管理技术和当前能够得到的最好的技术方法结合起来开发软件的学科。涉及程序设计语言、数据库、软件开发工具、系统平台、标准、设计模式等方面。日常常用的软件如电子邮件、嵌入式系统、人机界面、办公软件、操作系统、编译器、数据库、游戏等等，无一例外都是软件工程师的产品。
2015USNews美国大学研究生计算机科学专业排名
软件工程所涉及的领域不仅仅只包括程序设计，同时也侧重其作为一项工程的系统意义。准确的说来是：研究和应用如何以系统性的、规范化的、可定量的过程化方法去开发和维护软件，以及如何把经过时间考验而证明正确的管理技术和当前能够得到的最好的技术方法结合起来开发软件的学科。涉及程序设计语言、数据库、软件开发工具、系统平台、标准、设计模式等方面。日常常用的软件如电子邮件、嵌入式系统、人机界面、办公软件、操作系统、编译器、数据库、游戏等等，无一例外都是软件工程师的产品。
| 常见学位 | BS、MS、M.Eng |
| 典型职业与薪水 | 程序员：$78,260 |
| 签证敏感度 | 无 |
| 高中课程准备 | 理科 |
| 所属专业领域 | 工科 |
| 相关排名 |
|
就业状况
软件工程是计算机领域最好就业的专业之一，在互联网高速发展的今天，软件工程的从业范围非常广——从广告编辑、政府机关、电商物流、在线教育、视频音像再到传统的互联网公司、软件制造公司，无一不是软件工程专业毕业生的从业范围。
以美国为例，软件工程典型的从业职业及其薪水如下：
- 程序员（Computer Programmers）：$78,260
- 程序开发师（Software Developers, Applications）：$93,280
- 系统开发师（Software Developers, Systems Software）： $102,550
- 网络开发师（Web Developers）：$66,100
- 数据库管理员（Database Administrators）：$79,120
- 网络及计算机系统管理员（Network and Computer Systems Administrators）：$76,320
- 网络架构师（Computer Network Architects）：$94,000
- 系统分析员（Computer Systems Analysts）：$83,800
- 信息安全分析员（Information Security Analysts）：$89,290
2015USNews美国大学研究生计算机科学专业排名
| 排名 | 院校 | 分数 |
| #1 | Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA |
5.0 |
| #1 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA |
5.0 |
| #1 | Stanford University Stanford, CA |
5.0 |
| #1 | University of California-Berkeley Berkeley, CA |
5.0 |
| #5 | University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign Urbana, IL |
4.6 |
| #6 | Cornell University Ithaca, NY |
4.5 |
| #6 | University of Washington Seattle, WA |
4.5 |
| #8 | Princeton University Princeton, NJ |
4.4 |
| #9 | Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA |
4.3 |
| #9 | University of Texas-Austin Austin, TX |
4.3 |
| #11 | California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA |
4.2 |
| #11 | University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI |
4.2 |
| #13 | University of California-Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA |
4.1 |
| #13 | University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI |
4.1 |
| #15 | Columbia University New York, NY |
4.0 |
| #15 | University of California-San Diego La Jolla, CA |
4.0 |
| #15 | University of Maryland-College Park College Park, MD |
4.0 |
| #18 | Harvard University Cambridge, MA |
3.9 |
| #19 | University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA |
3.8 |
| #20 | Brown University Providence, RI |
3.7 |
| #20 | Purdue University-West Lafayette West Lafayette, IN |
3.7 |
| #20 | Rice University Houston, TX |
3.7 |
| #20 | University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA |
3.7 |
| #20 | Yale University New Haven, CT |
3.7 |
| #25 | Duke University Durham, NC |
3.6 |
| #25 | University of Massachusetts-Amherst Amherst, MA |
3.6 |
| #25 | University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC |
3.6 |
| #28 | Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD |
3.5 |
| #29 | New York University New York, NY |
3.4 |
| #29 | Pennsylvania State University-University Park University Park, PA |
3.4 |
| #29 | University of California-Irvine Irvine, CA |
3.4 |
| #29 | University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN |
3.4 |
| #29 | University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA |
3.4 |
| #34 | Northwestern University Evanston, IL |
3.3 |
| #34 | Ohio State University Columbus, OH |
3.3 |
| #34 | Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey-New Brunswick Piscataway, NJ |
3.3 |
| #34 | University of California-Davis Davis, CA |
3.3 |
| #34 | University of California-Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA |
3.3 |
| #34 | University of Chicago Chicago, IL |
3.3 |
| #40 | Dartmouth College Hanover, NH |
3.1 |
| #40 | Stony Brook University-SUNY Stony Brook, NY |
3.1 |
| #40 | Texas A&M University-College Station College Station, TX |
3.1 |
| #40 | University of Arizona Tucson, AZ |
3.1 |
| #40 | University of Colorado-Boulder Boulder, CO |
3.1 |
| #40 | University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT |
3.1 |
| #40 | Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA |
3.1 |
| #40 | Washington University in St. Louis St. Louis, MO |
3.1 |
| #48 | Arizona State University Tempe, AZ |
3.0 |
| #48 | Boston University Boston, MA |
3.0 |
| #48 | North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC |
3.0 |
| #48 | University of Florida Gainesville, FL |
3.0 |
| #52 | Indiana University-Bloomington Bloomington, IN |
2.9 |
| #52 | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, NY |
2.9 |
| #52 | University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA |
2.9 |
| #52 | University of Rochester Rochester, NY |
2.9 |
| #56 | Michigan State University East Lansing, MI |
2.8 |
| #56 | University of California-Riverside Riverside, CA |
2.8 |
| #56 | University of California-Santa Cruz Santa Cruz, CA |
2.8 |
| #56 | Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN |
2.8 |
| #60 | Northeastern University Boston, MA |
2.7 |
| #60 | University of Illinois-Chicago Chicago, IL |
2.7 |
| #60 | University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, IN |
2.7 |
| #63 | Iowa State University Ames, IA |
2.6 |
| #63 | University at Buffalo-SUNY Buffalo, NY |
2.6 |
| #63 | University of Iowa Iowa City, IA |
2.6 |
| #63 | University of Oregon Eugene, OR |
2.6 |
| #67 | George Mason University Fairfax, VA |
2.5 |
| #67 | Oregon State University Corvallis, OR |
2.5 |
| #67 | Syracuse University Syracuse, NY |
2.5 |
| #70 | Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, OH |
2.4 |
| #70 | College of William and Mary Williamsburg, VA |
2.4 |
| #70 | Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO |
2.4 |
| #70 | Naval Postgraduate School Monterey, CA |
2.4 |
| #70 | New York University Brooklyn, NY |
2.4 |
| #70 | Tufts University Medford, MA |
2.4 |
| #70 | University of Delaware Newark, DE |
2.4 |
| #70 | University of Maryland-Baltimore County Baltimore, MD |
2.4 |
| #70 | University of Nebraska-Lincoln Lincoln, NE |
2.4 |
| #70 | University of Tennessee-Knoxville Knoxville, TN |
2.4 |
| #70 | University of Texas-Dallas Richardson, TX |
2.4 |
| #70 | Washington State University Pullman, WA |
2.4 |
| #82 | Brandeis University Waltham, MA |
2.3 |
| #82 | Clemson University Clemson, SC |
2.3 |
| #82 | CUNY Graduate School and University Center New York, NY |
2.3 |
| #82 | Florida State University Tallahassee, FL |
2.3 |
| #82 | George Washington University Washington, DC |
2.3 |
| #82 | University of Connecticut Storrs, CT |
2.3 |
| #82 | University of Kansas Lawrence, KS |
2.3 |
| #82 | University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM |
2.3 |
| #90 | Auburn University Auburn, AL |
2.2 |
| #90 | Brigham Young University Provo, UT |
2.2 |
| #90 | Drexel University Philadelphia, PA |
2.2 |
| #90 | Kansas State University Manhattan, KS |
2.2 |
| #90 | New Jersey Institute of Technology Newark, NJ |
2.2 |
| #90 | Oregon Health and Science University Beaverton, OR |
2.2 |
| #90 | University of Central Florida Orlando, FL |
2.2 |
| #90 | University of Georgia Athens, GA |
2.2 |
| #90 | University of Kentucky Lexington, KY |
2.2 |
| #90 | University of Texas-Arlington Arlington, TX |
2.2 |
| #90 | Worcester Polytechnic Institute Worcester, MA |
2.2 |
| #101 | Colorado School of Mines Golden, CO |
2.1 |
| #101 | Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago, IL |
2.1 |
| #101 | Lehigh University Bethlehem, PA |
2.1 |
| #101 | Louisiana State University-Baton Rouge Baton Rouge, LA |
2.1 |
| #101 | Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken, NJ |
2.1 |
| #101 | University at Albany-SUNY Albany, NY |
2.1 |
| #101 | University of Houston Houston, TX |
2.1 |
| #101 | University of Missouri Columbia, MO |
2.1 |
| #101 | University of North Carolina-Charlotte Charlotte, NC |
2.1 |
| #101 | University of South Carolina Columbia, SC |
2.1 |
| #101 | University of South Florida Tampa, FL |
2.1 |
| #112 | Binghamton University-SUNY Binghamton, NY |
2.0 |
| #112 | Georgia State University Atlanta, GA |
2.0 |
| #112 | Missouri University of Science & Technology Rolla, MO |
2.0 |
| #112 | Southern Methodist University Dallas, TX |
2.0 |
| #112 | Temple University Philadelphia, PA |
2.0 |
| #112 | University of Cincinnati Cincinnati, OH |
2.0 |
| #112 | University of Oklahoma Norman, OK |
2.0 |
| #112 | Wayne State University Detroit, MI |
2.0 |
| #112 | West Virginia University Morgantown, WV |
2.0 |