>> We don't even know if "don't go to college" is good advice for the long term (15+ years) in software engineering > Unless maybe you are going to a top 1% CS

>> We don't even know if "don't go to college" is good advice for the long term (15+ years) in software engineering > Unless maybe you are going to a top 1% CS program, there is little need for a degree in software engineering. I think you missed what I just said. You say there "is" little need. But I'm not looking at the present. We still don't know if we do for the long-term. (Well, lots of people think they do, but they're only guessing, not going on evidence obviously.) Note that it's simply not true that people would learn the same material independently that they would learn in a classroom. Yes, it is theoretically possible, and some people can pull it off, but it's not at all universal or even common. A lot of people need the environment to learn better. Online lectures just don't cut it for everyone. So yes, "you need to go to college" can be true regardless of how good online lectures are, and we still don't know if what people get out of a CS degree will on average give them an advantage compared to those who don't get one in the longer term (though I don't really have statistics for the shorter term either).