Disclaimer: If you don't want to read my background skip to third paragraph.

Hello this is the first post I've ever made, but I've been lurking for a while and this subreddit helped me believe in myself many times when I doubted everything and go after my goals of becoming a software Engineer.

So basically my situation is, I was attending a relatively unheard of State School (Austin Peay) in Tennessee going for a CS degree with a concentration in software engineering, but moved about a year ago to Albany, Oregon with my Fiance. I was young and not motivated for school, so I completely fucked up my GPA and only got half the credits I should have earned (Got an F in all my C courses, Statistics, Calculus). I really began to doubt everything I thought I knew about my intelligence and unenrolled and joined the blue-collar workforce. It really changed when I realized how hard it is to pay all your bills and eat on 15$ an hour. I re-enrolled to Austin Peay because thankfully, my parents didn't want to give up on me. And now I am getting A's in every single one of my classes. Not only can I understand programming now and have a familiarity with writing it, I love doing it and it has never seemed like a chore or boring to me. This is to just basically inspire people like me, because I am the last person who thought they could do so well in school. Motivation and Hardwork got me from having a 1.5 cumulative GPA to making the dean's list this semester.

My question is this, how important is whatever focus/concentration you pick in your CS/CIS degree in getting software engineer jobs/internships. I am trying to transfer to Oregon State (which is closest to me) so that I can take in-class courses because the school I am currently enrolled in online requires in-person courses that I cannot take because I am out of state. OSU offers the following concentrations.

• Cybersecurity
• Data Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Robot Intelligence
• Bioinformatics
• Business and Entrepreneurship
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Simulation and Game Programming
• Web and Mobile Application Development
• Build Your Own

None of these are Software Engineering, the closest being HCI or web and mobile app development, but I don't want degree that will restrict my opportunities. The University of Oregon offers a focus in software engineering, but at a cost of a 30 minute longer commute for me.

Q: Could I still get a good amount of programming knowledge and secure a software engineering job with one of these concentrations or a general degree? Or would it be worth the extra 30 minute drive to go to a school that has a specific focus in software engineering?

Also if you guys could tell me your story of becoming a software engineer and what kind of degree and concentrations you guys got it could help me make my decision and give me more motivation. Thank you