I did web design (but no application development) all though high school and college, part time, at from $7 to $15/hr. I got a CS degree, did freelance PHP web

I did web design (but no application development) all though high school and college, part time, at from $7 to $15/hr. I got a CS degree, did freelance PHP web development for one client for a year, lived with my parents (don't remember my rate... probably something depressing like $25/hr). Then I went to grad school, got a masters and a couple years of Ph.D. Then I dropped out and screwed around and bootstrapped a startup (great portfolio piece) for two years. All the while I've been eating up as much web development knowledge as possible, and hacking on silly side projects. A month ago I put myself on the market as a Rails developer and within a few days landed a $75/hr 20hr/wk job. No one I quoted that rate to blinked an eye. The folks I'm working for are very happy with my work. Just one data point.