Which degree equips students better for the market: an MS software engineering vs an MS in computer science?

For the market? Software Engineering. It'll give you practical and specific technical skills that employers will be happy to use. But for the future, both yours and the world's ... Computer Science. 10, 20 and even 30 years from now, you will be using your CS knowledge, because it will educate you on deep concepts. Today, you can pick up most SE knowledge and techniques on the web using JIT learning techniques. Agile/Scrum, MVP, TDD, MDA, OO,  microservices, composition over inheritance - easy to learn, just hard to do well. Practice will teach you. But if you don't study CS now, you never will, and you'll never know what you missed. A course on writing a requirements specifications? Good grief. If you can write an essay, and break a problem down, you have the essential skills. After that, it's just about precision, and even more importantly, stating a requirement from the perspective of your customer and the person who will test to make sure it's ready for use. Disclaimer: I did CS, and I appreciate that decision more with every passing year.

A2A First you need to be specific about which master's degree programs you are comparing since organizationally Software Engineering (SE) is usually in the same college or department where Computer Science (CS) is taught. Without specific programs, you are asking for a comparison in a vacuum.Historically Software Engineer is a job title that replaced the job title Programmer. It is a person who is required to do programming on a development platform using some methodology. For example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development.Software Engineering is taught in Introductory CS courses where you learn programming. It is a skill that is needed by every CS major. At Stanford, it is thought in CS 106A and B, see https://backdoorgraduteschooladmissions.quora.com/Self-study-for-Stanfords-MSCS-Foundation-courses.  Stanford has a number of specialization where you learn SE, see http://cs.stanford.edu/degrees/mscs/specializations/.Both CS and SE prepares you for a job that requires programming. To say which one is better for future employment depends on the skills need for future job opportunities. Since more college students are majoring in Computer Science, the supply of programmers may exceed the demand in a future volatile job market. Because you are talking about a future that may not happen - the may not be any job opportunities when you finish - choosing an master's degree program should be made in what area of interest you wish to pursue which depends on what research is being done Bottom line: SE is a specialization of CS which may be a separate college, a separate department, or within the CS department. To say which program is better requires comparing the universities' research groups not just degree programs. What distinguishes universities is the faculty, the students, and the alumni. Access to all three is what you are really paying for. When you are talking about graduate schools that are all about research, you are taking professors not just courses.

EDIT: A great video about differentiation between Software Engineering vs Computer ScienceORIGINAL ANSWER:It could also depend on your motivations and interests.Do you want to do web development going out of college? Work on distributed system? AI and machine learning research? Learn decent enough skills to get a stable job?For my college, computer science (CS) is more engrained in math and gives you more time to pursue outside interests. It also allows you to freely choose your course material based on your interests.Software engineering (SE) was more rigorous and time constrained. It taught us how to be analytical, with a lot of mandatory course work on engineering analysis. (Sounds boring but since it became a habit, I've used it plenty to convince my work to pursue a certain option)The last tidbit I would add is that not all SE and CS curriculum are the same. The metrics you want to decide on are: WorkLoad Curriculum Structure Commercial Relevancy Academia Preparation Internships Workload matters due to how fast technology trends change, you may want time on side projects to learn technology and to pursue internships. - All the algorithm knowledge in the world doesn't teach you how to make a functional website, if you want to learn web development; just go and do it.The Curriculum structure is a decision factor because everyone is strong and weak in different areas. Either the existing set of courses has a proven foundation for those who need the learning structure; or it is a highly flexible curriculum for those who know exactly what they need to learn.Commercial relevancy is also of important especially if the workload is high. Having no time to learn commercial languages and processes hinders your chances of getting internships, which cuts a critical component of the learning feedback loop.(more in internship section)Next, you want to consider the chance that you might want to venture into academia. If the courseware focuses on practical knowledge only, then it might not be worthwhile; Especially since side projects and internships can teach you the same practical skillset.Finally, for all componenets I think a real world experience will be quickest way to see what you need from your education. Try interviewing at various companies, if you don't get an offer, ask for feedback. This creates data points on your progress and allows you to course correct quickly.In conclusion, I think it doesn't matter if the program is SE or CS. So long as it can gurantee you a first job or a path into academia. The only thing that matters is activily making sure your time in the program is actively making progress in the right direction.

As far my experience being working in IT major, I do not see much of a difference from which specialization you come from in terms of doing the job. You will learn different things at the job, trust me. Reading and getting your hands dirty are two separate things. Very few are able to actually find their space in job where they can apply what they have learned in college. Hard truth:If you are thinking that being completed masters you would be doing something different than a person who has done bachelors:You are wrong.

Software engineering is more of coding and practical, thus more beneficial in Tech Industry. If your main aim is to get a job, you should have good coding skills and that will be in Computer Engineering. Computer Science is more of a research and thesis subject. If you want to do a research or do a phd then you should take this subject. With respect to industry, since it gives you more of therotical knowledge than practical, i don't think it is useful. But if you are going to attend a grad school it doesn't matter much. Only the core courses are different for both the branch. Rest of the subjects you can choose irrespective of the branch.

It depends on your career goal(s). Both prepare you for the market, just slightly different markets. I think what you are asking about is the general perception from the education worldview that CompSci is the best route to becoming any kind of professional coder. From the business worldview, CompSci education is a good route to becoming a professional coder, but perhaps not the best one for every type of coder. It very much depends on the details, but in general, a science degree prepares you for a career in theory and research while an engineering degree prepares you to design and build things. If you are interested in a job as a machine learning engineer, then it would seem studying machine learning engineering would be a good choice. If you are interested in a job as a machine learning researcher, then it would seem that studying machine learning science would be a good choice.