To those adults who have/have not earned a college degree...

[mirgro]

As for the discussion going on.

Today no one goes to college to use the actual knowledge that is taught in classes. You can get all that information out of a book or out of google. There are a few reasons to go to college however:

1) In the US it's the only social place that is not asocial, outside of very few cities, and where you meet tons of people, drink, whatever.
2) It's about how you use your brain. I will never in my life use complex analysis 2. I mean, there is absolutely no way I will ever use such a thing in anything I will ever do. It is absolutely useless knowledge and I have already forgotten everything that I learned in that class. However, the way I have been taught to think from those classes is the true benefit from college. I can guarantee you that if you presented a problem to someone who has not taken advanced math and me, I will probably find a much more efficient solution than the one who hasn't, even if they do have a lot of experience. Assuming that the problem has multiple algorithms that can solve it.

Also, experience does not make up for college education. Experience gains you more knowledge, but said knowledge is as useless as the knowledge you gained in college. If I was faced with someone who had been a programmer for 15 years but did not have a college degree, and a college graduate with a degree, an advanced degree, I would always choose the college graduate. Yes, the graduate doesn't know as much as the experienced worker, but he has shown he can learn very fast, because earning a masters is a hard thing to do believe it or not, and he will also fare much better at a task he has never seen than the person with experience.