I am inspired to respond to your question for several reasons. First of all, if you are a quick learner you will probably love going to school. I went to DeVry in Pomona, California and got hired to work for Hewlett Packard right out of school. HP moved me to Seattle and I loved working there.

My degree is in CIS but as it turned out I did not feel I learned enough about programming to be a programmer. I excelled more in database design and applications. I have an art background and love working with designing business processes. I went on to excel in business management. DeVry is great for giving you an overall business education.

Those students that were good learners took what we studied and beyond and became great programmers. I had a very in depth discussion about it one day with one of my professors and friend of mine who was top of our class seemly without effort. Our professor said “DeVry will teach you enough to make you dangerous, but the real education is what you take home with you to continue your studies in the areas that interest you.�

My friend and I both graduated with honors, his much higher then mine because he is bloody brilliant. He went out to work as a programmer for a good company, and I went on to work as a CE for HP in Enterprise support services. He and I did our senior projects together and even though I moved off to Seattle we kept in contact through networking.

Any way, three years later due to office politics he got fired. Working for a company now, I am sure you are aware of how uncomfortable office politics can be. Working at HP, I have seen stuff that makes no sense at all. My point here is beware, no matter how brilliant you are, with a degree or not, when working for a big company, you will be subject to company politics that are stupefying.

I agree with i686, you may regret in the future not having the degree. I was 30 when I went back to school. I went back mostly because I was tired of working for individuals whom I could do their job better, but they had the degree and I didn’t. It was hard work getting the degree completed, as well as it putting me in debt, but I enjoy learning, and the education never stops.

Arizona is right experience is key. With the skills I have, and my degree, I am confident I can get work anytime, anywhere. Going on to complete your degree combined with your experience will be very empowering.