Bill Gates, Founder and Chairman, Microsoft
Paul Allen, Founder and Chairman, Vulcan Group
Truly awful examples. First, if these two are examples then the title should not be "College optional" it should be "Degree optional." Gates and Allen both dropped out of Harvard without degrees, but that doesn't mean that they didn't gain the benefit of Harvard while they were there. Gates, for one, published a paper[1].
Regardless, you have to look at both options, because they both have their positives. It really depends on the person no matter what. One could be college educated and know the books, and have no business savvy, and have no experience or knowledge of developing a startup. And at the same time, someone could be a experienced hacker, and web programmer but not educated at all, and have not business savvy, and have no idea of how to take their talent to the next level with their own startup. Personally, your best bet is to hire or invest in the person that has both. Not only is educated, but has great business savvy, and experience in building a web startup. Neither a college education, nor experience can stand alone and be as potent as if they are to work together. Clearly it has been proven that you do not need a degree, such as the success of Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg, and that you dont need to be a hacker, or have great experience or business savvy, such as George W. Bush. But why not have both in someone like Donald Trump? College or no college. Both sides hold significant value. It just depends on the candidate your reviewing, and what they bring to the table.
Supposing you want to hire someone to work for your start-up, would you completely disregard an applicant's presence or absence of a college degree? What would be your hiring screen? (Does that vary depending on what kind of job you are hiring for?)
The things taught in colleges as a part of course are mostly bullshit. If you want to judge a person potential as a coder you should rather ignore his CGP (Cumulative Grade Point) and look for the projects he had done. If he had done some Open-source project, you can always look his code and can judge him. If he's into topcoder ( www.topcoder.com/tc ), then too you can look his code submitted during programming contests and can judge his coding style. What matters is you want a developer and not a crammer .. right ? Don't judge coders on the basis of their performance in class or college degree because most of the good ones don't have time to sleep in the class, they would rather prefer working in lab.
a) a degree from a top-tier college is a slight plus, because at least someone has screened you before
b) a degree from the flag ship state school is neutral, because it doesn't really say anything about you
b) a degree from a lower tier private college is a slight minus, because it indicates you might not have been smart enough to get into a better college. Of course there could have been other factors, such as location, scholarships, etc. that explain the choice. So I try not to let it bias me.
c) no degree is a slight plus, because it means you learned all your skills through self-motivation
That said, I try not to pay much attention to degree. I kind of wish people didn't list it at all. The worst interview I've done in the last year was an MIT computer science student. Some of our best developers have been from second or third tier schools.
A portfolio or a list of stuff you have actually built is by far the best thing to have on your resume.
At the end of the day, I’m not sure that the traditional college educational process of reading a textbook, listening to a lecture, and then taking a test is a process that is often replicated in the real world of business.
Now there's what I consider a shocking understatement.
I, however, am quite sure that this traditional process is not often replicated in any real world, including business.
Truly awful examples. First, if these two are examples then the title should not be "College optional" it should be "Degree optional." Gates and Allen both dropped out of Harvard without degrees, but that doesn't mean that they didn't gain the benefit of Harvard while they were there. Gates, for one, published a paper[1].
[1] http://66.102.1.104/scholar?q=cache:YiLhtZUyuZ4J:scholar.goo...