> Just take a look at today's "Who is hiring?" and you'll notice very few list degree requirements. Most are looking for a combination of experience and knowled

> Just take a look at today's "Who is hiring?" and you'll notice very few list degree requirements. Most are looking for a combination of experience and knowledge. Key word is today. Yes, today, with the DJUSSV up 150% over the past five years, and billions being shelled out for Oculus and Whatsapp and so forth, no degree is needed for many jobs. What happens when the economy takes a dive like in 2008/2009, or 2000/2001? You get laid off from your company and then send your resume in to open job slots on Craigslist. Except they are getting dozens, maybe hundreds of resumes. Even after culling for relevant experience, companies might have dozens of good looking resumes to choose from. The next obvious way to cull resumes is get rid of the pile with no degrees. In bad times, CL job ads dry up, especially those not requiring a degree. Even if it doesn't state it explicitly, HR will probably grill you on your education background and plans. As far as an expensive degree, people can go to a good state school and get Pell grants and the like. As far as people teaching themselves, most good programmers are always teaching themselves. They need a basis to work off of though and a BSCS is that basis. If you're going to spend four years studying the basics you need to know, why not borrow/spend the $50k to go to a very good school like Berkeley or UIUC, down to the $25k for state schools with decent CS programs?