People get such different experiences at institutions of higher learning. I completed my BA at a small, teaching-focused college, and don't regret a minute of

People get such different experiences at institutions of higher learning. I completed my BA at a small, teaching-focused college, and don't regret a minute of it. I felt like it was an excellent preparation for my subsequent career, even though I was in a completely different field than I majored in. I had passionate professors with high standards, who continually challenged me to up the ante. I came into college thinking I was pretty smart, and, like intellectual boot camp, they stripped away those egotistical veneers of self-congratulatory-smartdom and made me realize how impossibly huge the world is, and how many perspectives there can be, and how I exist in the world not as a calcified foundation of knowledge and opinions, but as an agent who navigates the world by learning, listening, and observing. One moment that stands out is when I turned in what I felt was a nicely articulate paper, one that would have been an easy A, and it came back with a D and a "see me in my office." The professor dressed me down and had me write it again. Why? Because I was critiquing the subject material rather than respecting it. I plunged right into start-up world after graduating, and it felt very familiar, in the sense that in a startup you're constantly confronting uncertainty and unknowing to the point where you have to become comfortable with those feelings. Once again, you become an agent of learning rather than an agent of knowing. I hear about people from larger schools complaining about huge classes taught by processors with no interest in teaching, where they have no conversation happening, and no direct feedback--and I think I would be sufficiently frustrated in such a situation that I would have been more inclined to drop out if the opportunity were there. I even hear from people who went to my school who hated every minute of it--you just can't tell. I also don't think college is a foundational requirement for success--I know plenty of people in the tech world who didn't complete their BA and who are doing just fine--I honestly can say it doesn't have much bearing to see someone's educational credentials on a resume unless I also can see their body of work. It all comes down to what your own experience is. Which is why I'm throwing in my two-cents...I'd hate for someone who IS having a good experience think that they need to drop out because Steve Jobs did.