maladroit4u

On Skipping College

2013-10-14

We're constantly hearing how the Bachelor's degree is the new high school diploma. The writers that be have decided that you can't possibly start a career without having a degree applicable to your field and that the loan debt will crush you. And it does seem this way, at face value. In my field, software and web development, a large majority of open job listings request that you have a degree in Computer Science or similar college major. I have a B.S. in Computer Science, but I want my four years back.

The problem with the line of thought that a Bachelor's is analogous to a high school diploma is just that: everyone is equating a piece of paper with another piece of paper. They've all forgotten what a college degree is supposed to mean. The message of a Bachelor's degree should be that you applied yourself to rigorous educational methods that gave you all the state-of-the-art skills needed to contribute to a successful business. Instead, we're essentially saying that "everyone has a degree now, so you need one, too". That's a big write off for something that you invest four years and thousands of dollars to complete.

I've never been one to follow the crowd, jump off the cliffs with everyone else because "everyone is doing it". Deciding to go to college sort of slipped under my usual "is this really necessary?" radar. Looking back, the only useful things I learned at my university were how to use a for loop and how to determine the scope of a variable. If you're not into programming, those are very simple building blocks to software development. That knowledge is in no way impressive and I could have learned it just as thoroughly by reading various sites on the internet and experimenting.

I acquired 95% of my programming skills by building Android applications outside of class. And if I had no college classes using up my desire to code, I probably would have written four times that amount of code at home. So I would have much more experience (and more real-world experience, at that) if I would've just stayed home and kept my money.

I know you're thinking "Well, good luck convincing an employer you don't need a degree". My employer didn't ask about my classes or my degree. He asked about the Android apps that I developed and put on my resume. He asked about the web service I built with my friend. Employers, at least in the software and web dev world, are vastly more impressed by things you build rather than "I learned how to write a SELECT statement in Intro to Databases". It might be slightly more difficult to get that interview, but definitely doable. The friend I mentioned never finished his degree and has already had two jobs that paid just as much as mine does. And one of them required a degree, according to the listing.

If I could go back, I would skip college. Maybe you should, too.