It varies by college but what you've described is basically how it works in the U.S. Take my alma mater for example: http://rose-hulman.edu/academics/academic

It varies by college but what you've described is basically how it works in the U.S. Take my alma mater for example: http://rose-hulman.edu/academics/academic-departments/computer-science-software-engineering/majors-and-minors.html#CS http://rose-hulman.edu/academics/academic-departments/comput... A while ago they split the CS degree program into three tracks---computer science skews towards research topics, software engineering is more process oriented, and international computer science combines the two with study abroad---but the three programs overlap so much that you could have a CS graduate go into industry with zero problems, and you could have an SE graduate go into academia just as easily.