CE is most versatile. You can do programming, IT, engineering, design, management and many other things with this one. But it also takes longest and typically is very difficult. You want to be sure your smart with complex mathematics and have a logical mind. You need to be the kind of person who reads the manual ...
CS degree is great if you know you want to do programming or work in IT since they tend to be shorter and have much less engineering focus.
IT certifications and courses are OK however they don't compare to a CS or CE degree and in a competitive environment you may find that you can't get programming jobs with that. You will almost for sure not get engineering jobs.
I would not recommend 4 years of an engineering degree unless you are fairly certain that is what you want.
I have seen several paths for people in high tech. Some may have a business degree or liberal arts degree, be in their later 20s or 30s, but want to break into the field so they get a Microsoft certification (MCP+i or MCSE) within one year and hit the ground running at the lower salary levels. If they prove themselves, they move into mid and higher salary levels in time.
Other younger kids just out of high school know they are not in a hurry and can invest in a full four years, full time, for the computer science, computer engineering, or EE/EL degree.
The easier 4 year degrees, like IT Management, will possibly yield a mid-level starting salary, where the hardest degrees like EE or EL will give the graduate the highest starting salaries.
But in a highly competitive IT market like San Jose, any of those people with a bachelor's degree, with or without additional certifications, often may be asked to move into management. At that point, the most common path is the MBA in IS or IT. There are many people without a master's in business who can tackle project management on large levels, but unless you are a genius that is high profile, employers would like to see that MBA in addition to a high tech degree. Certifications add to the credibility, and experience is absolutely necessary. Nothing beats having it all plus a highly regarded MBA, which where I live is Stanford or Cal.
I have met people who didn't do college, but were highly gifted in software or hardware (and are later day Wozniaks) who have climbed the ladder to the top or even started their own lucrative companies. But most of us are not that geeky, so a diet of degrees, certifications, and eventually graduate school is a safe and well trodden path. You won't get rich but you will have financial independence and stability.
But if you are an emerging young Woz, Steve Jobs, Shawn Fanning, or a Michael Dell making computers from your dorm room and becoming rich at a very early age while parents think you are doing homework, don't listen to this thread.
As a rule of thumb when I was a tech, a certified only employee starts at double minimum wage, an BS/IT person just slightly more, CEs three times minimum wage, and EEs and ELs slightly more than that. An unknown MBA with background makes half again as much as the EE/ELs and the highly regarded MBAs with a decade of hard core high tech experience make what we joke as "baseball" money, but really salaries in the Henry (high earning not rich yet) category of over $100K to $250K.
