People will probably hire you without a degree. But, you'll be looking for jobs that want you for the skill set you currently (iPhone / Ruby) have rather than f

People will probably hire you without a degree. But, you'll be looking for jobs that want you for the skill set you currently (iPhone / Ruby) have rather than for your future potential. At the end of your CS education, there are a lot of jobs open to the "new college graduate" that will likely never be open to you again. It's the one time that you can be missing both the necessary skill and field experience and still get hired. Examples: finance, game development, "big 3" MSFT/Google/Facebook, etc. If you want to work in any selective places later, you will have a hard time getting past the first level of "experienced industry candidate recruiting" without your college degree, much less get your resume into the hands of a hiring manager. You will perpetually be a slave to only getting interviews at jobs where you have performed very similar work in the past. Of course, if you have some amazing idea, want to start a company, and feel it's time-sensitive, go for it. Depending on the university, you can return after 5 or so years without your credits expiring, whether the company turns out well and you cash out or it crashes and burns.