Should I spend my summer full-time at a $10 an hour call center or programming on my own between freshman and sophomore year?

I would skip the call center job. It will not bring useful experience. The programming would be better in long term.

I know most of us can not concentrate on studies while working, so I would say try to devote some time on learning programming. Since you are going to be a sophomore, you still have 2-3 year in school to learn programming languages and skills. And the money you'll be earning may help you pay for your school too. Along with that you'll have a good corporate experience and learn how to work in a structured organization. So I would say first you try to do both and then decide if money is really important for you for a short term or programming skills for a very long term. Good luck!

if you do not need the money, I also suggest you take advantage of the time you have and get better at programming. Altho the money is tempting, especially as a college student, it will not help you obtain an engineering internship.

Think its quite clear. How do you feel when you write a program in front of the computer? How do you tackle different assignments in school that has to do with programming? If you feel its difficult and takes a lot of time, then you should  be constantly working on your programming skills. If algorithms come natural to you, and its just a question of figuring them out, then you should work extra gaining life experience at a call center. The reason for this is simply that programming tasks between freshman and sophomore year are pretty basic. Either you get it or you don't. Its first when you take more advanced classes when teachers try to throw in curve balls, and social life experience understanding (human / computer) interaction is just as important for internships.

Definitely spend as much time as you can studying programming on your own, a job at a $10 per hour call center isn't something you're gonna want to put on your resume anyways, there were plenty of shit jobs I had when I was younger that never saw the light of day on my resume, plus, if programming is your eventual career goal, start coding as soon as possible and code as much as you can!

If you want to learn iPhone development then, if you have a job, start building your own app and get a job somewhere doing apps (even working for free). You can build an app for a NPO, for the store close to you, etc. If you don't need the money, don't waste your time with useless jobs.

I disagree that the job experience will not be worthwhile. Life is not all about making it to the top of your field you must also consider the life skills. Getting a job early will help you immensely there. You can start learning how to budget, tax implications, domain knowledge in a new industry, and start building connections. As a serial entrepreneur, I say, take the job, those skills will translate into higher level executive skills in the future (risk management, team building, business processes) but this doesn't stop you from starting a project to build your skills or perhaps even grow into something larger. I've built a couple successful (and many unsuccessful) tech startups now as the lead engineer and none of my first jobs had anything to do with programming directly but gave me experiences which have been very applicable throughout my career.

Fortunately there are 24 hours in a day, not 8. You still have plenty of time after a full time job. I am working as a software developer, doing exams in the university and going to gym at daily basis at the same time.  I think time and energy management skills are far more valuable that both money and experience in software development. For instance I do know, that I am pretty much unable to write decent code before 4PM, with peak productivity of around 6PM, so I don't even start programming before that hour. Obviously, this patterns differs from person to person and you should discover yours. Also, why don't make money, while programming? Take a free lance job. Plenty is available.