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[sigfarter]

The reason most people go to college/university is because it will make their parents proud or they feel like they are expected to.

[Fallsburg]

@sigvatr/phubans
That's true.  Except, the sad fact is that outside of a few isolated industries, the name of your school and what degree you get are by far the most important aspects (assuming you get decent grades as I mentioned before) for most employers.  Now, as I said earlier, good references/publications/portfolio can make up for a lot (or all), but those take a lot more work, so if you are willing to trade money for time, it can be worth it.

[iffi]

Well, college also takes time, so it's debatable whether you're really making a tradeoff between money and time.

[cynicalsandel]

Choosing not to go to college involves constantly being asked "why?" by people who are brainwashed into thinking college is the only path to success.

[Muz]

On grades, well, a "distinction" (75%) is about as rare as an A in America, with very few reaching a "high distinction" (85%). Where I graduated, you'd be considered doing well just to get 70+, and 75% average is first class.

Game company: Tell me why we should I hire you.
You: Well, I made a game.
Game company: You're hired.

OR

Game company: Tell me why we should I hire you.
You: Here's my expensive degree.
Game company: K, I'll put it in the pile.

Lol, my experience with getting a job. Had a very good degree too, top 3 within the region. But in electrical engineering, with lots of programming electives.


Though the good degrees actually help a lot, go for the kind where you're forced to program virtual memory for an O/S within 2 weeks, parallel to 3 other similar assignments

And the big benefit with degrees is that they teach you to program properly. Self-taught, you can do things, but you don't have any metric to compare yourself against other programmers. You won't know if you've been doing things wrong. I did C programming for 4 years without knowing about memory management, and C++ programming without knowing anything about how OOP works (aside from classes). Took a proper education to actually know what I was doing wrong.

Choosing not to go to college involves constantly being asked "why?" by people who are brainwashed into thinking college is the only path to success.

One generation ago, the only way to really learn something was through college. No internet resources. University gave you lectures, not teaching you things. The lecturer was similar to a youtube video, no real student-lecturer communication. Things have really changed in 20 years; these days you can learn a hell lot just by idly reading Stack Overflow or Wikipedia (or TV Tropes if you're into the creative arts).

Plus the true purpose of a degree is to 'certify' that you've got basic knowledge in the field.

[sigfarter]

Not going to college is unamerican.

[crowe]

If you want to teach or do something like that, a degree is essential because employers have decided that a degree is essential, even though idiots shirk their way through college all the time without learning jack-shit to the point that a degree is more or less just a mark of having been able to go to college rather than anything else. It's a tool of privilege, allowing the upper and middle class to easily separate themselves from the lower class without having to feel bad about themselves. This is good, because class divisions are an American tradition, and thinking otherwise is class warfare which must be shunned at all times.

[Blademasterbobo]

you linked a political cartoon, your points are invalid

[Fallsburg]

He linked a political cartoon from the Onion.  Point still stands.

[Nix]

I only drink coffee from independently owned coffee shops.

[Cyman]

I would recommend taking a year break before going to college to teach yourself how to program and think about what you really want to accomplish in college. Stanford has programming courses and lecture videos you can download for free, and you don't have to be a student of theirs.

[Nix]

Pretty much every university (in the US at least) will let you change majors. Many don't even require you to choose a major until a few years in. So if you want to take a year off to soul-search, fine, but there's no real reason to take a year off to decide what you're interested in because you can do that while in school with a few more resources available (like professors) to help you decide.

[EBrown]

As far as Private Colleges go, I took the ACT earlier this year, and the result pretty much set me up with a very good scholarship, as well as some other special funding, and then the FASFA did me some more good. Grades can definitely help you get some aid, and often they can help you get in, but they can't do it alone. It takes some other things to go along with it.

Nix is probably right about Majors. I know I can change mine any point during my Freshman, Sophomore or Junior years. I think a lot of colleges here follow the same idea.

As far as what Cyman said, it's difficult to take a year break after high school, and then try to go to college. A lot of people don't make it back into the mode of going to college. Many of them get a job, not necessarily a good one, but a job none-the-less, and just don't make it to college. Also, you lose a lot of what you learned in High School, and then when you have to take your general education classes, it causes you to fall behind.

I don't quite know about getting a job in the Game Development Industry though, as I have never really gotten one, but I am sure that having a Portfolio, and Mixing College Experience, will do you quite well.

Thanks,
EBrown

[Cyman]

I can understand falling out of school-mode, but it may be good for some people:

http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/the-college-solution/2010/07/20/8-things-to-know-about-a-gap-year

"Occasionally students are admitted to Harvard or other colleges in part because they accomplished something unusual during a year off. While no one should take a year off simply to gain admission to a particular college, time away almost never makes one a less desirable candidate or less well prepared for college."

4. Plenty of schools would love you to experience a gap year. Harvard is so high on the benefits of a gap year that it's been proposing this opportunity in the acceptance letters for decades. Princeton University launched a bridge-year program in 2009 that allows some admitted students to participate in nine months of university-sponsored service work at one of four international locations.

5. A gap year won't jeopardize college plans. Experiencing a gap year can be a blast. Who wouldn't want to monitor eagles in Swaziland or perform Shakespeare plays in England for a few months? Will students, who get these fantastic opportunities, ever want to buckle down and study again? While research is scant, anecdotal evidence suggests that students return to school more focused and mature and ready to start their college career.

[Fallsburg]

I changed majors 4 times throughout college, and graduated on time with a double major.  That's not to say that it didn't result in taking more classes, but shit that's what you're there for. 
Actually, that goes back to my earlier point, if you go to college, take advantage of it.  The people that go and take 12 course hours a semester (4 classes) are inherently getting less out of college than the people who take more classes.  I wouldn't recommend doing more than 7, and 7 can be extremely shitty depending on the work load of those classes.