Humf. I took many semesters of welding and it taught me a great deal about how the human world is bodged together at the very lowest levels. Welding as a major is as hard a science as Mechanical or Electrical engineering. Its two parts mechanical engineering, one part chemistry and one part electrical engineering. Lives almost always depend on your work, there's rigorous certifications and civil engineers treat you with almost religious respect.
I'm really liking this thread. Everytime someone tries to dismiss a major or course as being somehow inferior, another person chimes in with a view point that blows said dismissal out of the water.
I'm sure there are CS majors now in the workforce that just crank out their requisite number of lines each day, the work that many like to deify as an analytical blend of art and science becoming a routine drag.
And there are welders who take pride in their work and are treated with religious respect by civil engineers.
CMU is big into big robots (as opposed to e.g. MIT's Randy Brooks' little robots), and in one book or article on their program one of their CS undergraduates who was "perfect" at welding stainless steel was mentioned. "I don't think we're going to let him graduate", one of his professors said in jest.
I'm not knocking welders, but if you want to go to school and come out with a specific job, you go to a school that turns you into a specialist, in this case a welder!
I worked on a farm in high school, mostly throwing hay, feeding animals and doing various odd jobs. That experience taught me alot, and left a much stronger mark on me than my CS education.
I'm just sayin'.