thats dumb
i agree with that


going to school to be a game designer seems like the worst idea ever, i cant really see a market for it! Like i suppose it's the same things as writers for a sketch comedy show or whatever but companies going out and seeking guys who only have the skill GAME DESIGN seems  to me
maybe its cause im a programmer and i do all the "real work" of game stuff whatever

No, they seriously do that. I know, I've interacted with dozens of people in the industry. They go out and hire plenty of people who have literally no programming skill to work with Unreal Editor (or Hammer Editor, or whatever generic editor they're working with because very few companies make their own engines any more) and make maps and do Kismet scripting (if you're in Unreal Editor, obviously).  The teams that design the levels are pretty separate from the teams that program up the mechanics, and that's how a majority of the industry works these days.

Now, if you're going into developing your own studio or working at a small indie (or satellite) studio, yeah, you're probably going to need to have more programming experience. But it's not like going for a major in Game Design doesn't give you ANY EXPERIENCE WHATSOEVER in programming or animation or whatever, it just doesn't give you enough for those things to be considered your major.

EDIT:

Here's the Grim Fandango Design doc if anyone wants to save the trouble from searching google:
http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/resources/2008/GrimPuzzleDoc_small.pdf.zip

Just kind of skimmed through it and actualy enjoyed bits of it. It's not very formal, but it's clean and well organized, obviously refined so the process of redesigning it is not shown. Some bit f art and dialogue to describe the flow of the game. Charcters, maps, etc..
Personally, I think the document is meant to be inspirational.

There's also the pitch for Planescape Torment, which is pretty wonderful to read as well (it's basically a casual distillation of the design document), which you can find here:
http://www.rpgwatch.com/files/Files/00-0208/Torment_Vision_Statement_1997.pdf