hah. I'd give the same advice, but for the opposite reason. You can learn with or without school. However, if you don't go to school (I didn't) you will alw

hah. I'd give the same advice, but for the opposite reason. You can learn with or without school. However, if you don't go to school (I didn't) you will always be /different/ from your peers. I obviously don't understand what actually happens in school, as I didn't go, but I can tell you that it does change you socially. I am very different from my peers who do the same job for the same money I do. In many ways, I'm more different than the foreigners who were educated here. Also, if you are counting on the paper to be worth something, you need the paper to come from a university with a reputation. None of the online degrees get any respect. Sure, if you actually know your shit, you are fine either way. There's always work for people who know what they are doing. But if you know what you are doing, having an online degree on top of that gives you almost no advantage over just knowing what you are doing. So yeah, uh, my advice would be either to just buy the textbooks and teach yourself the relevant bits, ignoring the degree, or go all the way; go to a 4 year college that has a good reputation, live on or as close as possible to campus, and have the 'college experience'