Well, let's see, what are you interested in going into?
You can go to a creative type of school and get a degree in design (this is the most flimsy of the degrees, since designers often work their way up, having to prove most of all their skill while in the industry, not while trying to enter it), this would be a good education if you are much more into the structure, base and flow of a game, and if you are really creative, but as I said above, it's something that you will probably have to start at a rather low level regardless of your education.
If you like art, then concept artist or animator would be a good choice, here you'll find the easiest route to finding a college, as art colleges aren't difficult to find. This is more stable than a simple design degree, and relies on your portfolio and to an extent your education, but you'd still be landing some sort of often lower-tier position (though you'd probably have more of a chance to start a bit higher and move up faster if your work is good).
From a journalism standpoint, you'll have the benefit of being able to go to really any journalism school (instead of the other positions on these list which you'd be much better off in a program specifically game-related), although I'm not really all too knowledgeable about actually moving up in the industry, but know that game journalism, especially from a low level, will probably not be a very fun experience. You'd most likely be covering smaller stories and reviewing lesser known/lower quality games.
Programming/Software Engineering is where you can enter the industry from a much more qualified position as compared to the other jobs. This would be where education will most likely have the largest impact on where you land in the industry. This also has been shown to have the highest mean salary for people just entering the industry. So long as you pick a great school and are good and passionate about programming ( I know many people aren't , don't force yourself) than you can do very well in this field.
Education:A design school such as SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) will be optimal if you want to take a career in game design. SCAD specifically will also work rather well if you are looking a degree in art. Other than SCAD, you'll have to research other schools as I never really looked much into design/art schools.
If you are looking for a degree in journalism, you'll of course have a lot of choices, but my top recommendation would be Emerson College in Boston. This school focuses on careers such as journalism, performing arts, and entertainment media production. This is (from what I've heard, I haven't done extensive research into journalism schools) one of the top colleges to go to for a degree in something such a journalism.
When it comes to programming (and related fields) I've done quite a bit of research, and here's a few; RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) is an overall good technical school in the fields of computer science, and has a rather competent degree program for game design and development, not to mention extensive degree programs relating to computer science and engineering, which can be easily translated to game development. Drexel has a good looking program in Information science and technology as well.
However in all my research there is one school that I've continually seen been pointed to for very well rounded education for entering game development. The DigiPen Institute of Technology has one of (if not THE) best program for software engineering and production specifically geared toward working in the game industry (but also is so competent of a program that it's churned out people who've gone to Lockheed Martin). This program, called Real Time Interactive Simulation, comes in the form of a Bachelor of Science, and has churned out people such as those who created a concept that Valve later were so impressed by that they hired the group right out of school to make a game that came to be known as Portal.
And before I move on I want to tell you about a school you may have seen or will see, but that you should not go to. That school is Full Sail University, it loves to flaunt it's game programs, but from everything I've heard, they are expensive and not very good at all.
These schools are all around, I know; but if you want to be ready for the industry, you should be prepared to move out of your own area for education, game education is still comparatively small, so the best schools aren't going to be in your area most likely.
Location:Many developers and game news site headquarters are based on the west coast. Game developers, while being spread out almost every, you can find in the largest concentration in Washington state. Although, as I've said, you can find devs all around, but the US west coast is where you'll find the highest concentration.
Salary:These are charts taken from a 2007 survey ( a bit old I know, but I'm not able to do any extensive research for it right now), they cover the programming, art, and design:
Also, there is the option of being a tester. Being a tester is way many currently game designer "broke in" to the industry,but it doesn't pay well, and relatively few testers actually go on to be designers, even though many designers were once testers. Here's the game tester salary chart:
Hopefully that gave you something to work with, feel free to ask me any question. I'm definitley not an expert but, I've done quite a bit of research on the subject. If you want more insight into the industry, I'd recommend you try Gamasutra (more or less the ultimate website for those in or wanting to be in the industry) :
www.gamasutra.com/ . If you want quick information about education, you should visit GameCareerGuide :
gamecareerguide.com/ . And one of the things that really helped me put the industry into perspective was a gigantic guide by Tom Sloper, an industry veteran, it has a lot of great infor about the industry, and if you want to be a game designer, is a great guide for how to go about it.
www.sloperama.com/advice.html .
Like I said, if you have any other questions, just ask and I'll see if I can give you an answer.
Shit, well can you guys help me find some gaming jobs, from Programming and Web Design, and even Journalism.
