That sucks that people treated you like that, and I'm sorry you had to deal with that.

At my last employer, which was my first time as a manager, I helped to get HR to remove the requirement to have a degree from all job applications, as it was a major barrier to entry and preventing a lot of great candidates from applying. At my current job, I also don't care if you attended college, and removed it from requirements for my team.

I just care if you can do the job and you're not a jerk about it. I know many other folks in hiring positions who feel the same way, and some large companies are starting to rethink their degree requirements. Hopefully it becomes more widespread so folks don't have to experience what you have.