I'll second the recommendation of working on open source projects - with many hiring managers, the only way they're not going to care about a degree is you have commercial quality code out there that they can see.

The other thing I would suggest is to do some research on companies and target a few likely ones - watch their jobs pages over time to see how they hire - then look for projects that would be appealing to them. Individuals have to do marketing just like companies.

I know a previous employer of mine recently hired a web designer right out of high school based on the strength of his portfolio.