> I've come to believe that many degrees are overrated, including my own CS degree. I could have learned what I did in a much shorter time. I think I have some

> I've come to believe that many degrees are overrated, including my own CS degree. I could have learned what I did in a much shorter time. I think I have something to add to this. During the course of completing a Ph.D. in computer science I discovered that I actually have a huge passion for behavioral ecology. For the first years of my Ph.D. I just treated it like a side hobby and tried to learn as much about it on my own. Halfway though the Ph.D. I decided I might as well take some intro bio courses and as many ecology/evolution courses as possible since my tuition was being paid for anyways. The amount that the coursework improved my learning rate was incredible even though I was spending approximately the same amount of time as before. As to why I think it is a combination of many factors. One of the main ones being held accountable to truly mastering the material (tests, projects, homeworks etc...). This is just a sample of 1, but from my experience the classroom experience was a huge net benefit to learning about a subject I really cared about.