MIT 6.172: Performance Engineering of Software Systems

Computer science/software development is relatively open to people without degrees, especially if they have a public presence. And, as you say, for software in particular, there isn't much special equipment required (EE can get harder).

The thing with disciplines like math and physics is that even if you master a BS curriculum in a few years, what now? It's probably hard enough to get a directly-related job with just a top-notch undergrad degree. And as you suggest, self-studying law might get you a job as a paralegal.

IIRC, there was a study done in the last 10 years or so that found that there was a relationship between the type of degree, and how important the social or “prestige” component needed to be successful in a given field.

The rough trend was that success with STEM degrees was less reliant on the prestige of the institution where it was acquired, whereas arts/humanities degrees required prestigious institutions (and the connections that they afforded) in order to attain prominent positions in some time period after graduating.

It depends on your personality. I went to MIT, and found interactions with other students much more useful than the coursework itself. If you've spent 18 years with tons of people telling you that you're the smartest person they've met, it's really good to meet (1) a few people who put you in your place and (2) lots of people who are genuine peers and push you and encourage you for the first time in your life, instead of just telling you that you're smart (or giving you a hard time for being smart).

My freshman year at MIT, I roomed with a guy who was a highly ranked chess player, and one of the smartest people I've met. However, 18 years of having the rules never really apply to him and never being forced to actually focus really hurt his work ethic. He was plenty smart enough to graduate from MIT, but failed out due to a lack of focus.

There were about 1,000 people per grade in my high school, and people occasionally asked me if I was as smart as the girl a year ahead of me who went to Harvard. There was really no question that by most measures of intelligence, I was the smartest person in my grade. I was getting strait As in honors-level math classes at the state university while in high school. I got 800 in both the SAT I Math and SAT II Math sections, and 790 in the Chemistry SAT II. My chemistry teacher just started marking my scantron sheet as the answer key, and the day after every exam, the whole class would go over my exam answers on the board to see if I had made any mistakes. I ended the year with 9 points above 100% in Chemistry because on the first exam, the second highest score in the class was 90/100, so the teacher just added 10 points to everyone's scores. I made one mistake (at least mistakes that got caught) later in the year in chemistry. In my university honors-level math classes, I would bring a newspaper and read, until one day where the TA asked a question that nobody else in the class could answer, so I folded up my newspaper, figured out what was going on and answered the question. The professor (standing off to the side) got red in the face and pulled me out into the hallway and said "I don't care who you are. I don't care what kind of grades you're getting. If you bring a newspaper to class one more time, I'll get you thrown out of the honors program." It was good for me to interact with others with similar experiences growing up and get a drop or two of humility.

Your mileage may vary.

For me, the value in attending a "top" university is much more about the networking and "name recognition" on resumes, and the enormous boost that those factors offer you over the course of one's career, than it is about the actual coursework. Unfortunately (imo) if a recruiter is given two identical resumes but ones says MIT and one says State School, the MIT resume will almost always get preference for interviews, salary negotion, etc.

I went into massive debt attending CMU, when I could have probably gone to a perfectly good university for free, but I've seen first hand (and been told by recruiters) how much just having THAT university on my resume has affected my prospects, and so I still think it was worth it. That's not to mention the other experiences afforded by attending a world class university like research opportunities, internships, etc. which all sort of serve as a positive feedback loop for improving the prestige of the university and it's alumni.

Don't have data, but just imagine that you are a recruiter looking at two resumes, one from MIT/CMU/etc. and the other from lesser-tier universities, which one would you give a chance of interview to? Now imagine you have 2,000 resumes.

Or, imagine how many premium SV start-ups have those MIT/CMU/etc. guys and what advantage you can leverage if you come out fresh from the same university. Maybe you are even taught by the same prof :D

> a solved problem ... for probably decades

centuries, actually: you can get all of this from reading the textbook.