If you're a coder (CS major), do not go to college just to earn more money. You need to have better reasons than that. Why? There is no doubt in my mind that i

If you're a coder (CS major), do not go to college just to earn more money. You need to have better reasons than that. Why? There is no doubt in my mind that if you're the type of student who can get into MIT/Stanford/CMU/Berkeley/etc (at least Berkeley Engineering), you will earn more by not going to college (at least in tech hubs like SV and NY). Assuming you have a marketable skill (iPhone, Android, front-end, Django, Rails, etc), entry level (including internships) starts at $80k. If you don't have such a skill, you can teach yourself over a summer. In four years, you could be making $110k+ (very conservative). A CS grad straight out of a top college will probably make $93k (EDIT: revised to $95k, which is average for a Stanford/CMU/Cal CS grad) [1], depending on the market climate. You factor in the anywhere between $0-250k tuition you're spending on college (financial aid depending), and the ~$380k you'd earn in 4 years, and, at least on the financial side, you come out way ahead if you don't go to college, anywhere between $380k to $630k ahead, just from those 4 years alone†. In fact, this probably applies to most colleges, not just top-tier ones, but in which case the salary numbers are more variable. You also won't be behind in terms of knowledge as long as you're proactive - the resources for self-teaching theoretical CS have never been more numerous than they are today. Now, that being said, the reasons I'm attending college instead of dropping out (I did take a year off to work at a YC startup): I value the unique social experience of college, my parents are paying for everything (huge mitigating factor - if I had to pay for everything I would not be going), and I see the value in pushing myself out of my social, academic, and extracurricular comfort zones - hanging out with business students, doing debate, taking classes in literature, etc. [1] https://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/cdc/jobs/salary-grads https://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/cdc/jobs/salary-grads, http://www.cmu.edu/career/salaries-and-destinations/2012-survey/pdfs-one-pagers/2012_SCS.pdf http://www.cmu.edu/career/salaries-and-destinations/2012-sur..., https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/CompSci.stm https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/CompSci.stm †Tax not included (subtract ~22%). The effect of having a higher salary due to work experience not included. Number varies depending on your housing costs. Number varies depending on student loan interest. Number varies depending on yearly tuition increases. The $250k figure for college tuition usually includes housing, your employment take-home money will depend on where you want to live in Silicon Valley (SF = big hit; East Bay = fairly affordable).