> programming is increasingly a trade, and can definitely be self taught better than any college will teach it. The "self-taught vs. university taught" distinc

> programming is increasingly a trade, and can definitely be self taught better than any college will teach it. The "self-taught vs. university taught" distinction is disingenuous. Until we learn to program human brains, everyone is self-taught. Good instruction and a high-quality peer group definitely increases the rate and quality of learning. Some jobs are accessible to some people with a bit of self-guided learning (been there done that). But that's not a good model for everyone. And more importantly, not all programming jobs are accessible via this route. Lots of people can teach themselves web programming. Considerably fewer people can learn to build a safe self-driving car or sophisticated numerical analysis software. So here's my assertion: if you can learn to become a web developer without the help of a college education, then you can learn to build much cooler stuff with the help of a college education. Whether that matters to you, both in terms of fulfillment and in terms of (possibly low) salary differential, is entirely up to yo.