Great discussion so I figured I'd add my two cents:
A few points . . .
1) I took part in a discussion of SE vs. CE-Structural that occurred a few years ago at the ASCE National Convention in Washington, D.C. that stemmed from a presentation on requiring structural engineering testing and certification on a national level, like the FE and PE. The board members were reps from the certification boards from CA and ILL. The question I had, and that wasn't really answered, was whether I was wasting my time getting a BA CE degree if when I graduated I was already behind the eight-ball with knowledge necessary to become a SE. Should I have gone to a university that offered a structural engineering degree instead? They felt that the internship period was where all the "real learning" occurred, and I agree to a point. The question of specializing the degrees toward structural engineering runs the risk of pigeon-holing universities (and their graduates) who do/don't have the separate degree, but who may be entirely equal in knowledge in skill, both before and after the internship period.
2) I was a student at the time and had heard on several occasions that the students coming out of the universities "don't know anything" and aren't taking enough classes for what they were going to be doing in their career. I didn't agree with a lot of those people, but they were on the outside, I wasn't. Industry is requiring more and more skills for a recent graduate. While I was in school they added technical writing and similar courses at the request of the industry leaders in the state. That's three-to-six more hours of courses over your college career. Where are those hours going to come from? They were required, so something had to go. It’s never an English course, its something in the major (I still don’t understand why I couldn’t drop Physics III – prisms and circuits??) I agree with the above, colleges can’t remain competitive while adding courses that the industry deems necessary, unless it’s across the board.
3) My program was already a "four-year program that takes five." In my case, anyone trying to get a specialization in structures didn't have the time to take anything but steel and concrete design. No wood, masonry, or precast/prestressed design. That's why there is a movement in ASCE to require a Masters (or equivalent experience) to be considered a "professional." Consequently, that's why I got my Masters. I got to take timber design, advanced foundations, matrix methods of analysis, structural reliability, structural dynamics, etc. at the Master's level. I would NEVER have gotten that knowledge or even the opportunity for that knowledge, in a bachelor’s program. I don’t know if this is the case throughout the country, but I don’t know a lot of CE’s who got timber and masonry design in school.
4) The firm I work for is mostly Architectural Engineers. They are very knowledgeable about the design of buildings and have had the masonry and timber classes at a bachelor’s level. They can’t design retaining walls, but otherwise same amount of knowledge as me. WITH THE EXCEPTION OF BUILDING CODES!! I didn’t have the knowledge of how to obtain loading and enforce code requirements that they did fresh out of school. To me, that is the only difference between Arch E’s and CE/SE from an education standpoint.
Sorry so long . . .