If you are are as skilled as you seem to be, why is the CS department rejecting you?
All the benefits of going to university only come into play if you actually leverage your experience (i.e. go to class, work with professors, network with profs and classmates, get decent grades & follow the structural rules necessary to get the right degrees, etc.). Getting into the right departments (and meeting their standards) is a key ingredient of this (sure, their rules might be quirky but they are the established social benchmark right now).
If you don't want to leverage your experience then you are in the wrong place. Though keep in mind that the inability to leverage a opportunity-filled environment like university is also a big warning sign for your future entrepreneurial career.
The CS department rejected someone with a 3.7 GPA. I have a 3.4 GPA and scored so high on the AP exam I was exempted from both introductory courses. Their "standards" are exactly the problem here - I'm learning a lot from all of my classes simply by reading a textbook I can check out from the library, and I've taught myself everything I know about programming. Why should I subject myself to unreasonable standards for no benefit? Leveraging a situation only benefits you if it doesn't waste your time.
A high GPA bar like this has its benefits: Climb over it and you will share access to higher quality resources (fellow students, profs, likely also higher quality teaching facilities, labs, etc.).
I am not an advocate of achieving high GPAs for its own sake, but there is a huge dividing line between somebody in a high quality CS department and somebody who isn't. Trust me, you will learn more from good teachers than you will ever learn alone (libraby books or not).
All the benefits of going to university only come into play if you actually leverage your experience (i.e. go to class, work with professors, network with profs and classmates, get decent grades & follow the structural rules necessary to get the right degrees, etc.). Getting into the right departments (and meeting their standards) is a key ingredient of this (sure, their rules might be quirky but they are the established social benchmark right now).
If you don't want to leverage your experience then you are in the wrong place. Though keep in mind that the inability to leverage a opportunity-filled environment like university is also a big warning sign for your future entrepreneurial career.