A lot of software engineering students have a U-shaped set of computer skills where they know how to open a web browser, and C++ data structures & algorithms, but very little in between.

Some of this is particular to CS. Class sizes got way bigger this century, it became kind of a default major, instead of business someone might get CS. Whereas early 00s it was more nerdy, I've heard CS profs discuss this. Overall it's a very good, but those kids need to install Gentoo IMO