What am I learning in college that is actually relevant to becoming a software engineer?

Your classes will give you a toolbox. The thing that they don't teach is how to jump into an existing project, probably with some really old and barely readable legacy code with little to no documentation, figure out what the code does, what it SHOULD do, what you want to add or change, and how to do that in such a way that it's better when you are done than when you started. The classic problem is that college classes teach "lessons", not production coding. You get a lesson on memory management, a lesson on loops, a lesson on branches or case statements, etc, but all the fancy code tricks you learn from there are mostly useless when you get to a real coding environment. But they're available tools when you need them, and they teach you how things generally work so that you can recognize and/or diagnose code.

To be fair, that's the case for most subjects. I've done software and hardware, science and engineering, and it's the same story in all cases. The tools are the important thing to learn, and if you can get some internships or summer jobs that'll help with putting it all together in a more realistic context. Each job will have a learning curve where you figure out what tools and environments are used and how stuff fits together, and the better you've mastered your toolbox the better off you'll be.

Hi Anina!
College teach you a lot, logic, data structures, how to handle files, how to program web applications, common algorithms, amont a lot other things that gives you all you need to know to be a programmer, normally you will learn in college various different programming languages, and then is a matter to have a book or guide about a particular language to be able to program anything you want or need, it is a good job and profitable due to high demand and low offer of programmers in all markets. So don't think about it too much, if you like technology you will love this kind of job.
Hope this helps you!
Felipe

Hi Anina!

It really depends on which college and what degree you choose. Most colleges teach several languages and offer multiple programming classes. However there are some colleges that are more focused on theory. If they offer Ph.D. degrees in CS they will probably be more theory based.

Look at the degree programs and read the course descriptions as well as the program overview. Pay attention to the list of required classes. Also, if you have questions about a specific program, call the department and ask to speak to the undergraduate advisor. They can guide you based on your preferences. Ask them how many actual programming classes they require and offer. How often are those courses offered? Small colleges tend to have classes in their course descriptions that they never offer. Ask to talk to current students in the program. It's really all about researching your options.

Best of luck!