Four years ago, I fell in love with the idea of not needing to go to college. It's a meritocracy, they said. If I work hard, spend time learning on my own time and get experience then a degree won't matter at all. It's just a piece of paper, after all. And so I didn't accept the place I had at a decent (UK) university.

Four years later, I'm doing ok. I recently left my job to start a startup. And I was right, I didn't need to go. But honestly, I really wish I had. I'd like to move to the US to work, but without a degree that's very hard. There are a number of jobs I'm interested in that haven't "caught up with the times" and still require a degree. Maybe they'll change with time, but maybe not.

I was in Silicon Valley a year or so ago and was invited to a dinner at YC, with other attendees of Startup School. The second question almost everyone asked me, after "what are you working on?", was "which school did you go to?". And that was at YC. College isn't obsolete, no matter how much we wish it was. Not even close.