I believe neither Steve Jobs nor Bill Gates received a 4-year college degree. They had some college (Gates had 2 or 3 years at Harvard(?)), but no degree. There

I believe neither Steve Jobs nor Bill Gates received a 4-year college degree. They had some college (Gates had 2 or 3 years at Harvard(?)), but no degree. There is a difference between a trade school, a school that teaches you one specific trade (maybe how to be an electrician (I was), or, in this case programming), and a 4-year college degree. The college degree "broadens" you, not as in fat, but as in understanding and appreciating things outside your specific areas of interest. While many of the non-software courses may seem a waste of time, your knowledge does become wider and you may at some future time find that one of those out-of-major courses actually has some utility and may, help you. I have spent a large portion of my life (in time, effort and money) becoming educated. I have degrees in engineering, biology, and medicine, and I do not regret having any of these degrees. They are all useful and I may actually have too many, but I have been curious all my life and like to learn. Now that I am retired, and after 25 years out of software (mostly on military projects), I have taken up the task of studying, learning, and mastering C++. During this past year I have read Bjarne Stroustrup's "Programming Principles and Practices using C++" (2009), Lippman's "C++ Primer", 5th edition (2013), and Stroustrup's "The C++ Language", 4th edition (2013). That's about 3,000 pages. At this stage, I have achieved the software skills rank of "GrassHopper". Software, as used in the fields of computer science and computer engineering, has progressed over the years. First there was coding, then programming, then computer science, then software engineering. The rate of change is increasing. You are a young person. Your resume' and you reputation are everything and so far you are doing well. You are getting work. But, at some point there will be a job, an opportunity, that will present itself and the applicant MUST have a 4-year college degree. Period! If you do not take the time, while you are young, to get your degree, you will never have a degree. You will miss some opportunity. Every person that you know who has a college degree took the time, expended the effort and money, to "earn" a college degree. You have to make the sacrifice to be able to earn your degree. You are not given a degree. You earn it. As some anecdotal evidence of that, let me describe an event. Everyone knows and respects the Nobel prize winning physicist, the German-born Jew, Albert Einstein. Me, too. But my personal hero is the American-born Jewish mathematician and physicist, Richard P. Feynman. You can learn about Feynman in his biography, "Genius". He was a mathematical genius and a physics genius. He invented the "Feynman diagram". At one point, when he was working on his PhD, one of Feynman's advisers suggested to Hans Bethe, the senior adviser, that they go ahead and award Feynman his PhD. Bethe responded, "Yes, yes, yes! We all know Feynman is a genius. But, ... has he done the work (for his PhD)? So, ... my young, successful, full-stack software engineer, that is the story. The decision is up to you. I recommend the earning the degree, just like everyone else has.