What college degree should i get?

What should I get a degree in in college for programming?

• When I am out of college I would like to be a programmer at software and game development companies such as Valve, Bethesda, and Microsoft. I'm only in 8th grade, and I have taken 2 high school classes, which are Algebra, and Biology. And once in high school I plan to take courses in Comp. Science, Comp. Tech., and Comp. Networking, to get a diverse feel of all the different areas of studies in computers. Also, I am currently learning Python in my free time and I plan to learn C# then Java then C++ before college. I already know that for programmers that college is not necessarily needed, but in my family, it is. So I was wondering, what courses should I take in college that would help me further develop my skills in programming, and what degree should I get that would look good when applying to software and game development companies? I have heard courses and a degree in computer science is good, but I do not know why, so if you please explain why the courses and degree would be good for my desired skill set in programming, that would be very helpful. Thank you!

• Answer:

  Computer Science is the obvious choice here! I'm in my second semester of computer science in college and I've decided I don't like it but it sounds perfect for you! We've been programming with Java in Eclipse but I know some of the higher level classes use C# and C++ and such. My advice is to take as many programming/computer classes as you can in high school. I knew nothing coming in to the program and I fell behind really fast. Good luck!