June 20, 2003
A: FROM MENTOR CHRISTINE KUTA IN MA
Video game technology is actually pretty broad so there are a few things you could study in preparation for a career in video games. You could study either electrical engineering or computer programming (or both) because video game company often develop their own specialty electronics for the games and all the games need programming. There are some colleges that offer degrees in video game design including DigiPen Institute of Technology in the state of Washington, Vancouver Institute for Media Arts in Canada, Rhode Island School of Design, and the University of Massachusetts. I have read a lot of good things about DigiPen and the Vancouver Institute. DigiPen, in particular, includes a lot of technical courses in its degree program. Since you are a resident of California, you should also check out the University of California at the various locations to see if you can design your own degree combining electrical engineering, programming and media arts.
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A: FROM MENTOR ESHE PICKETT IN IL
Although I do not have a specific answer for your question what I can tell you is that the one graphics course I took in my Computer Science curriculum was very math intensive. It involved a lot of matrix and vector manipulation (linear algebra, calculus). As far as I know, different aspects of gaming development require different types of skills. If you are working on gaming logic, you will have to take several Artificial Intelligence classes. Most Universities offer the math courses you will need, but if you are looking to specifically do some design intensive coursework, then here are some schools that are more along those lines:

COMPUTER GRAPHICS (Technical Direction)
Art Institute of Chicago
Brown University
California Institute of Technology
California State University, Irvine
Carnegie-Mellon University
Cornell University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
New York Institute of Technology
Princeton University
Stanford University
Texas A&M
University of California at Berkeley
University of California at Davis
University of North Carolina
University of Pennsylvania
University of Southern California
University of Utah
University of Washington

ANIMATION
Academy of Art College
Art Center College of Design
Art Institute of Chicago
California Institute of the Arts (CalArts)
New York University
Parsons School of Design
Pratt Institute
Ringling School of Art and Design
Rhode Island School of Design
Rochester Institute of Technology
San Francisco State University
Savannah College of Art and Design
School of Communication Arts
School of Visual Arts
Sheridan College
UCLA
University of Southern California
Vancouver Film School
Vancouver Institute of Media Arts

This is a pretty good article from USA today on the top schools to go to for Game Design:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2002-12-03-video_x.htm

As far as the visual end I can't speak too much on that, but you might want to check out the following websites, they've got some good info:

http://www.gamasutra.com/
http://www.gdse.com/servlet/gdse.main

Happy hunting.