Programming School Major?

I suggest you consider BIS (Business Information Systems), CIS (Computer Information Systems), Technical Management, as well as CS (computer science) degrees.

If you don't have any undergraduate work, consider getting the general education (english, history, etc.) requirements out of the way at a State Community College. You should be able to get the Freshman and Sophomore years out of the way, for about $20/unit (cheap!). Also remember to check with your employer about tuition assistance. A bonus is that by doing the Community College work, you may be able to earn an Associate's Degree along the way (nice to have nearer-term goals), and your state's Community College system probably has articulation agreements that -- providing you stick to pre-approved classes -- tranfer directly into a State 4-year college -- and they may have similar agreements with private universities as well.

If you need a "faster track", and especially if your employer helps with tuition, one of the regionally accredited (MAKE SURE THEY ARE REGIONALLY ACCREDITED!) for-profit universities might offer more convenient locations, evening schedules, and accellerated programs. Univeristy of Phoenix is good for what I call "degree validation" -- if you already know your stuff, pay the money, cruise through the accellerated classes, and pick up your diploma. I also have to put a plug in for De Vry (disclaimer -- I teach for them part time) -- they have some very good and practical degree programs in network & telecomm, electronics, computer science, game-simulation-programming (cool!), technical management, and business information systems.

I started years ago as a electronics student at ITT Tech, got a job with an employer that paid 80% of my tuition at a Cal State, got another job later with an employer that paid 100% of my graduate degree (again at a Cal State), and now I both teach part-time and have a well-paying senior position in IT.

Do go back to school; take your time, and make it fun! You're going to get older anyway; why not get older and have a degree!

Good luck to you!

If you want to be in the computer industry doing programming (software) do Computer Science. If you want to create hardware I would do ECE (Electrical and Computer Engineering). They go over a lot of the same stuff (ECE goes over circuits, more hardware based).