So far, I've seen most of the good points I had to bring up already presented here, though I haven't read every single post. However, something that I haven't noticed is mention of the difference right now in the job market available to CE grads vs. CS grads.
The market for IT jobs when you have one of the three degrees I've seen mentioned here (CS/CE/EE) is very fluid as to what you want to do. And, however many years from now you graduate, the market will have totally changed from the way it is now. The way it is now (in general and IMO) is that CE jobs are a bit more stable (as they're a bit more hardware oriented) than CS degrees; and, having a degree is very important as jobs you can get with no degree aren't very stable at all.
I recently graduated with a CE degree, and had over a year's experience in ASIC design/verification. This is the "digital logic" type of stuff that many other people have mentioned here. I had companies eating out of my hand the way Java people did when it was all the craze. The thing is, though, ASIC people are mainly employed by companies who create large-scale servers and processors (Intel, Compaq, IBM). These companies "in general" (big grain of salt here) do not lay off people in the groups that create these custom and semi-custom chips since these form the core of many large computer company's product line. There are also small companies that do this work (if you prefer the small company model), but mainly they're startups trying to get bought out by a larger company from what I've seen.
The whole point here is that you get more freedom and have the possibility of finding more job security from what I've seen in an area such as the one I've found. But, it's a relatively small niche when you look at the amount of IT work in general that there is to do. To take this point to a more general level, I will close by saying the following:
Doing what you want to do in life is the most important thing (even if a person wouldn't believe me, that is why I chose this job). If this falls into the IT world for you, my recommendation is to choose something that challenges the crap out of you, and takes you a bit to learn to like, as it will likely be more important to a company and more secure in the long run. Watch the market as much as you can while in college, and realize where what you like doing fits best into that. Everyone wants to program games, even the business majors. Look for goals that take things a step further, like "I want to design graphics cards."
IMHO, the point in career is the same with all things IT. Be one step ahead of the other guy, as he's trying to be one step ahead of you. Learn to predict the future, figure out where the person you want to be fits into that, and tailor your choices towards that world, rather than the one around you.
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The market for IT jobs when you have one of the three degrees I've seen mentioned here (CS/CE/EE) is very fluid as to what you want to do. And, however many years from now you graduate, the market will have totally changed from the way it is now. The way it is now (in general and IMO) is that CE jobs are a bit more stable (as they're a bit more hardware oriented) than CS degrees; and, having a degree is very important as jobs you can get with no degree aren't very stable at all.
I recently graduated with a CE degree, and had over a year's experience in ASIC design/verification. This is the "digital logic" type of stuff that many other people have mentioned here. I had companies eating out of my hand the way Java people did when it was all the craze. The thing is, though, ASIC people are mainly employed by companies who create large-scale servers and processors (Intel, Compaq, IBM). These companies "in general" (big grain of salt here) do not lay off people in the groups that create these custom and semi-custom chips since these form the core of many large computer company's product line. There are also small companies that do this work (if you prefer the small company model), but mainly they're startups trying to get bought out by a larger company from what I've seen.
The whole point here is that you get more freedom and have the possibility of finding more job security from what I've seen in an area such as the one I've found. But, it's a relatively small niche when you look at the amount of IT work in general that there is to do. To take this point to a more general level, I will close by saying the following:
Doing what you want to do in life is the most important thing (even if a person wouldn't believe me, that is why I chose this job). If this falls into the IT world for you, my recommendation is to choose something that challenges the crap out of you, and takes you a bit to learn to like, as it will likely be more important to a company and more secure in the long run. Watch the market as much as you can while in college, and realize where what you like doing fits best into that. Everyone wants to program games, even the business majors. Look for goals that take things a step further, like "I want to design graphics cards."
IMHO, the point in career is the same with all things IT. Be one step ahead of the other guy, as he's trying to be one step ahead of you. Learn to predict the future, figure out where the person you want to be fits into that, and tailor your choices towards that world, rather than the one around you.