Exactly. Get the degree and work on your own projects. This is how I described my experience recruiting at a college job fair: "One student showed me her resum

Exactly. Get the degree and work on your own projects. This is how I described my experience recruiting at a college job fair: "One student showed me her resume: it showed perfect GPA, lots of classes with impressive-sounding titles. But no summer job, no internship, no side project. Another student showed me a less than perfect resume, but it had all kinds of extra-curricular projects and activities, showing exposure to technologies, people and business challenges." (from http://blog.fairsoftware.net/2009/05/13/being-a-new-cs-grad-in-this-economy-sucks/ http://blog.fairsoftware.net/2009/05/13/being-a-new-cs-grad-...)