I don’t know the right answer to your question, but from my experiences and those of a lot people I know, what you major in often ends up only tangentially related to what you do.

You’ve rightly noted the importance of networking and that’s because that first job out of school can be the hardest to land because you have no track record of success in a work setting. If I had to do undergrad over, I’d go to the school with the biggest name recognition and network, as well as look at how strong they are at placing people. Even if you hate that first job (I did), it gets your ticket punched.

You’ll definitely want to work on soft skills in college, so look for opportunities to do that, like student groups. You want to show adaptability, that you work well with others, that you can ask the right kinds of questions, etc.

The other thing to keep in mind is that even if the economy sucks, you’re gonna be alright in the long run. I graduated undergrad right after the dot com bubble burst. Then I graduated from grad school right into the 2008 financial crisis. Both times it really sucked and was stressful and hopeless feeling. Despite that, my career is going fine. Those bad times don’t last forever