> I don’t have much interest in completing my gen-Ed’s, but I genuinely would like to learn more theoretical math/compsci, and I can only get so far buying used

> I don’t have much interest in completing my gen-Ed’s, but I genuinely would like to learn more theoretical math/compsci, and I can only get so far buying used textbooks on eBay. Most people in academia are pretty big on publishing so it's not terribly hard to find out what everybody is working on. The notion that doing a PhD program will get you access to a lot of otherwise unavailable knowledge is for the most part false. You may just get it a little earlier for your area of specialization. You can publish and collaborate with others without a PhD or institutional backing too.