Wow, such a good question. First things first, specific to design, almost no one cares about your degree in design. Almost everyone cares about your portfolio.

Wow, such a good question. First things first, specific to design, almost no one cares about your degree in design. Almost everyone cares about your portfolio. Very, very few clients that I've done design work for even asked for a resume. Almost all ask for a portfolio right after the "hello". I think if you do a real study of the best designers, you'll find that very few have a degree that has "web design" in it. A lot of the designers I know from school had a journalism/ad degree with a media concentration. About pay - your average web designer does not make much. I do a lot of contract work for design and programming and when I quote the same rate for design as programming, clients balk at it. One prospective client said how he is paying about 20/hr to a local designer. I simply cannot compete with that and probably wasn't a best fit for his project. Now, what do I mean? I think the designers who do pull dough transition into UX/product. Now you are no longer being hired to convert psds into html but figure out what you can do to the design to increase conversion or engagement etc. Some may argue that doing that job is no longer design. May be or may be not...it's mostly semantics. So if you are into design, also play with the idea of learning programming(jquery?) and marketing(seth godin, ab testing etc.). The two complement design very well and make you stand out from the run of the mill designers. Also, a warning about simply picking a program based on your hobby. My hobby was programming all through high school but I hated comp sci-related stuff in college. That says more about me - I enjoyed the freedom that came from self-learning programming on projects I enjoyed. I did not enjoy programming in a specific textbook order full of theory. Note, I do believe if you do want to pursue a serious programming career, a degree in comp sci can help you more than hurt you. But just know what you are signing up for by reading through the curriculum and talking to alums! Similarly, most design programs would want you to develop drawing and other artistic skills that may have little to do with your interest in design. Be sure you can slog through it and not let that make you hate design(the worst case scenario).