Something I’ve defended in conversation for some time has been my choice to quit college before even attaining AS Level qualifications. I maintain still that it has been worthwhile doing this and building my career in development by hard graft. And it has been hard for me, but I’m so happy with the results I’m getting.
Lets take a look for a moment at what would’ve happened if I’d have followed the standard route of A-Levels, following that onto Uni. I would’ve done finished my Media Studies, Mathematics, Computing and Physics A-Levels. Congratulations, 2 years in college, only marginally increased prospects of a job. I would’ve then gone to Uni, most likely a Computer science or IT-related degree. Three or four years later, I’ve got a degree. And a whopping big debt. And most likely, no job. I’d find a job to tide me over, something I’m not interested in doing (like 1st-line tech support for example), and tried to find a better job. I’d still have a big debt. By luck one day, I land a junior developer job for a company. I’d get paid in the region of 16-20k salary I expect. Not bad for a 21/22 year old. I’d still have a massive amount of debt though. Plus because I’d be earning over the student loan repayment threshold, I’d have to start paying it off. So that would start coming out my pay packet. In this situation, I imagine looking into the future and seeing myself earning 30k+, slowly paying off my debts accrued from student life. Not bad.
Now look at what I’ve actually done. I quit college 4/5 months into the first year. I got a crappy job at Burger King. I moved out on my own at 17, started working at Marks & Spencers for a month or two. I found a Junior test job at a software developer firm in Chichester, getting paid a pitiful £9,600 / year salary. Within a couple of months, I’d proven to them that I could code, and I was quickly promoted to a software developer. I went on to gain 4 years of professional experience in PHP, Javascript, Linux, and loads of other bits. Armed with this experience, I went off to find a new job. I dabbled in .NET for a couple of months, and didn’t like that. So I got my job here, and I won’t say how much I earn as people who I work with read this 
Nevertheless, I’m 21/22 now, and earning more than I would’ve done had I gone to Uni at this stage in my life. I worked really hard to get here, but I think it was worth it. My future now, is the same as above, minus the huge debt acquired from student life.
I do have debts, but thats because I was rubbish with money. But that’s a different story.
I read a very good article on degrees and the value of them on MSN news, so have a read of it yourself and draw your own conclusions.
