You have a point there, especially when you name the economic situation, which arguably changes behaviour patterns. To expand a bit more on my previous "anecdo

You have a point there, especially when you name the economic situation, which arguably changes behaviour patterns. To expand a bit more on my previous "anecdotal in nature" point though, I think that the articles we see here are not just anecdotal, they are also overgeneralising. I reckon CS is one of the few areas that lends itself most to showing qualification in a way other than presenting a degree. Normally, the degree signifies the consensus that you have done a certain amount of work and passed a certain set of requirements. In CS (amongst some other things), this can also be shown to a potential employer by showing them your actual coding work, prototypes, programs, scripts, websites etc. Here then, the degree becomes less of an issue because you can show proficiency in a different way. This however does only work in a limited area of expertise, such as design, art, programming, journalism (to a degree) etc. For most other purposes, a degree is still a certificate of (baseline) proficiency, so saying "college becomes irrelevant" (not that you did) is overly broad and only partially true under certain circumstances. Now I know HN is mostly programmers, CS students, maths students, some designers etc., as can be seen by the outright hostile attitude towards the humanities displayed by some of the other comments to this submission (especially further up), but it still peeves me to see people inductively draw conclusions from their own experience, ultimately concluding "how things are", thereby implying "for everyone". [edit] spelling [/edit]