
Is not going to college for a developer viable in the current year? - termer
I&#x27;m getting near college age, and I&#x27;m faced with a common question: &quot;Should I go to college?&quot; With my grades, I could get some good (possibly free ride) scholarships for decent technical colleges, but I don&#x27;t feel that they&#x27;d be worthwhile, considering all my current programming knowledge has been obtained via the internet at zero cost and without structured classes. A four-year college would mean four years of my life where I could be learning in the real world, for much, much less, and without all the overhead of other, irrelevant classes. And this doesn&#x27;t even factor in the financial aspect, which doesn&#x27;t seems very good, given the mounting costs of universities in the US.<p>What do you think, and what was your experience with college or the lack thereof?
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Eridrus
Some not necessarily cohesive thoughts from my experience, 8 years after
graduating:

College is probably more useful for tackling topics that you find more
challenging - personally I am trying to brush up on my Math after taking an
interest in Machine Learning and it's definitely a bit of a slog going through
textbooks by myself.

If you can get accepted to a top college you will find it more challenging and
rewarding than an average school. They will also usually have needs-based
financial aid. No one I know who went to MIT regrets it. These degrees open
doors in a way that they probably shouldn't. I really would say that if you
can get accepted to a top program, you should take it.

I am currently not using much of my degree since I was very interested in
Systems work while I was doing my degree and have gotten less interested in it
over time, but I do not regret learning the things I did, they were useful at
the start of my career.

A big part of the cost of college in the US is actually just living expenses
for 4 years - If you can live at home or find a part time job as a developer,
you can significantly defray the costs.

You will probably get paid less without a degree than with a degree, making
the benefit of working straight away smaller.

A college degree is basically necessary is you want to work overseas.

You will make more friends at college than at work.

The world expects people to go to college, even if it isn't strictly
necessary, and as more people graduate with CS degrees (enrollments are way up
since I graduated), it will be a reason to reject you out of hand.

I personally rail against the stupidity of funneling everyone through college,
but I don't think you are making it easy on yourself by skipping one.

