During that time, I've quadrupled sales in my ISV and have made a full-time living of it, and I now have no debt and decent savings. I'm no Mark Zuckerburg, but it's not a bad start.
But I still kinda feel like a loser without a degree, even if I don't think I'll need it. Especially since I paid so much for the first couple years. I applied to another school (public this time) to transfer, just in case I come to my senses.
I think there's credit bubble in education just like the one in housing. Lots of easily available, subsidized money for student loans, even if the rates aren't great. Plus it's a platitude that there's no sacrifice too big you (or your family) can make to get a college education. So even reasonable, well-meaning institutions have totally wacky prices, just as a reaction to market forces and a desire to stay "competitive" building fancy new stuff.
This sounds really crazy and tin-foil-hat-ish, but sometimes I think that there's kind of a "educational industrial complex" if you will that's benefiting from this weird (hopefully temporary) situation, and I feel icky supporting it just because I'm afraid someone will judge me wrong without the piece of paper some day. One of the reasons I quit my job after I quit school was because I hate that feeling of knowing you're being fucked over a little bit each day because you don't have the balls or resources to do anything about it. I feel like school is that kinda situation now, and it shouldn't be, because there's a ton of good things about college and I want to finish.