I had been programming for years before I got to college. I'm "self-taught", but until I got to college, I hadn't learned any of the academic aspects of program

I had been programming for years before I got to college. I'm "self-taught", but until I got to college, I hadn't learned any of the academic aspects of programming. Learning how to analyze code, in addition to how to write it, was one way in which formal education really helped. Read about complexity analysis, for example.