The original comment sounded like general advice not specific to data science. I was thinking about it in the context of general CS/programming. But even in data science specifically, in my experience the focus in hiring is towards actual skills and less towards credentials/qualifications. I recently (few weeks ago) interviewed with a data science company for a data science role as someone with a software engineering background. It was a challenging interview but the subject of my degree never even came up and I got the job.