My local educational institution promotes a whole continuum of different educational "tracks" that are related to computers.

	* InformationScience, which studies databases, SQL, web servers, and how to use them. Also, configuration and installation of popular products such as Windows and Oracle.  ''Merely studying databases, SQL, web servers, and how to use them is, at best, an employment-oriented "Information Technology Lite" course, which does a great disservice to the academic subject of InformationScience, a subject far broader than a handful of current computing products and technologies.''
	* ComputerScience, which studies data structures, algorithms, computer languages, multiprocessing and multithreading, low-level networking such as TCP/IP, and stuff like that.
	* ComputerDesign, which is considered a branch of ElectricalEngineering and deals with how to design computer hardware and interface it with other computer hardware. ("Computer" should be taken here in the broadest sense, to include DSPs and microcontrollers and all the products that use them.)

''Given the above descriptions, it seems likely that the aforementioned educational institution is a community college, job training firm or equivalent, rather than a university.  This should '''not''' be taken as a disparaging comment about community colleges (or universities), instead it is simply to indicate that the above is a career and employment driven view of computing and information subjects, rather than a theoretical and/or academic view.''

These are very different things, but I run into people all the time who think that everything that has to do with computers is InformationScience. That might be where most of the money is. It's very difficult to find a job where the work is more related to ComputerScience, and as to ComputerDesign, Intel and its competitors seemingly won't let you design chips for them unless you have a higher degree.

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Yes, but there are smaller companies that need chip and circuit design done for them. And this seems to be a more important field than ever due to the volume of new products coming out that feature powerful custom computers at their hearts.

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See also: OufshaHome, ExtremeMeme