College is also not just about the paper, but the connections. I worked closely with a nationally renown robotistist and she gave me a recommendation for grad school if I wanted it (I did not. So burnt out by the time I got here). Does any self-taught person get to really do work with actual robotics stuff?
I was exposed to so many more disciplines and ideas to get a sense of what I wanted to do along with make connections that help me in my career to this day over a decade later.
I've had recruiters and interviewers tell me straight out that I got first pass because of the college I walked out of. This still happens after a decade. People say it's a hard market to get a job right now? I haven't noticed. Me and all my college friends snagged a new job in a month. I've never had a hard time getting a job. Ever. That's the power of a degree. It gets you pass HR filters and when there's a tie, people pick you first to try and that's powerful and compounds as time goes on.
Being self taught is great when times are good, but it's very hard to get that next job when times are bad. I'd never recommend a 16 year old skip college. A piece of paper from a ho-hum state university still allows you into the stack of places with stupid degree filters.