Do you mean the E3 visa? As for me, I started building websites in year 11 for friends/family - I was self-taught HTML, CSS and Wordpress. I had no "real" prog

Do you mean the E3 visa? As for me, I started building websites in year 11 for friends/family - I was self-taught HTML, CSS and Wordpress. I had no "real" programming experience, which is where we might differ from each other. I did an accelerated diploma in Design and then went back and did my bachelors in Comp Sci at USyd. The programming components were definitely new to me (Java, C etc), but you may have experience with them already. I think it's safe to assume that CS is really not about teaching you how to program - many people graduate and do not know how to code. What you do gain is a deep theoretical knowledge that is really important and useful (algorithms, data structures etc). There are many threads on HN where the differences between self-taught & CS students are compared, you should definitely check them out. Ultimately, I think it really depends on what you want to be developing. If you want to work at FB/Apple/Google/MS or anywhere outside of Australia, get the degree. If you want to found your own startup, I could see an argument of why the degree might be less useful. That said, I think very few people would regret studying CS or software engineering, it's always going to pay off.