This is my first post on these forums, the reason I joined is to hopefully get a better idea of what the different areas of game developement are like so I can choose a career path that I will find enjoyable.

First of all I'm interested in finding out your opinions about some of the better schools. The degrees I have been looking at are game programming, game design, and game development. I have been looking at Fullsail, UAT, and Westwood mainly. I am curious to hear what others think of these schools, or if you have suggestions for other schools. I am in the military and have access to Tuition Assisstance and the GI Bill so the price of tuition shouldn't be a problem.

I am also interested to hear how others got started and what else I could do in the mean time (i.e. tutorials, developer/programmer websites, fundamentals I should familiarize myself with, pc programs that will help me learn, etc.)

Finally, I would like to hear some of the places you guys work, what your job title is and what a typical day is like. I would also like to know the differences between programming, development, and design as far as what a typical day is like, what are some of the required skills, etc.

I really appreciate anyone who posts or messages me to help me out, I have always loved games and I know I want to help make them, but id really like to get some insiders' opinions.

First things first, there's a Breaking into the Industry section, which has many discussions like this, as well as a comprehensive FAQ.

First of all I'm interested in finding out your opinions about some of the better schools. The degrees I have been looking at are game programming, game design, and game development. I have been looking at Fullsail, UAT, and Westwood mainly. I am curious to hear what others think of these schools, or if you have suggestions for other schools.

The other major one is Digipen. Digipen is generally regarded as the best, followed by UAT then fullsail (based on my perceptions). In general though, a game specific degree is not entirely recommended even if your goal is working in the industry. Traditional computer science or art programs tend to be better established and provide a better foundation (in general) to their students; especially since it's very rare for someone to work in the industry for their entire career.

Finally, I would like to hear some of the places you guys work, what your job title is and what a typical day is like. I would also like to know the differences between programming, development, and design as far as what a typical day is like, what are some of the required skills, etc.
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I work as a software engineer at a place that does digital advertisements, as well as some statistics associated with them. In practical terms, programming and development are interchangable terms. There's a lot of programming, program design, requirements gathering, documentation, testing, communication involved. Design in gamedev involves creating the rules of the game (and often lots more). Making sure (mathematically) that certain parts of the game aren't too overpowered, creating rules to achieve business goals, etc.

This particular position is fairly programming heavy compared to some I've been at. A typical day, I spend about 30 minutes writing code, 90 minutes writing unit tests, 15 minutes reporting what I'm doing, 45 minutes pushing other people into doing what they're supposed to be doing, 2-3 hours debugging things or helping QA reproduce stuff, 30 minutes figuring out what the hell people want me to build, and a bunch of random other bits or variance.

This is a Breaking In post. Moving to Breaking In (that's the main reason I frequent the For Beginners forum). BC, you're not a "beginner," you're a "wannabe" (someone who wants to be in the game industry -- aka "aspirant" but I think "wannabe" is better). You MUST read the Breaking In Forum FAQs (link is above). You're asking Frequently Asked Questions, and 99% of the time you'll find your answers in the FAQs.