Original comment by natural219:

Dear people who think you should just "shut up and go to college":
You are wrong.
We respect you, and we're not denying your experience, and you can be right about nearly everything else. On this subject, you are wrong, and please, for the love of God, please stop talking about this issue when you have no skin in the game and you don't know what the modern education system is like. It's been decades since you've been in school -- you have no idea what goes on in a modern classroom. Please quit commenting on it.
One of the reasons older people get more respect is because they have more experience. They've been around the block. They know the score. But I'm sorry -- if you're more than 10 years out of college (or ~5 years for a CS degree), your experience with the system is so far removed from what it is like today that your experience is worthless. You literally know less about this subject than a college freshmen.
I'm more than a little pissed about this. >90% of writers I read about education are already through the system. Their pain is in the past. Furthermore, I doubt that any education writer was receiving multiple 6-figure offers halfway through their schooling. They haven't had to make the decision to consciously throw away tens of thousands of dollars and multiple years of their lives simply because society is slow to change, and people are too lazy to think about it -- "shut up and go to college" is certainly much less cognitive work for a parent hoping to guide their children to a better future.
I'm sick of it. This isn't a game, this isn't a fun political issue, this is a generation's goddamn lives and hopes and dreams we are talking about. Every day I waste in class could be a day I spend learning a new programming language, building my software business, or doing one of any millions of activities which would better myself and make me a more well-rounded, competent employee.

Reply:

I graduated college < 1 year ago, and I definitely say it's worth it. You ever think there is more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good at coding? I got a CS degree from a well-repudiated state school, and maybe half of what you learn is programming.

You learn things such as writing, a foreign language, social skills, how to argue and to be more than just a hacker who knows 10 programming language, but can't explain his thoughts. Yea, maybe you are great and have the 'next big idea', but sorry, chances are you are not. Most startups fail, it is a fact - deal with it.

Some classes may be a waste, but if a significant portion are, you are at a bad school. Plus those days 'you waste in class' are actually helping to 'make you a more well-rounded, competent employee'.

You are more than a little pissed about this? You don't seem to have finished school - so you are arguing about something you don't know. Most people are getting 6-figure offers for dropping out of school, they are the exception - not the rule. And if you want to go on and be more than just a 'hacker' and do some serious research and expand the field rather than exploit it, you'll probably have to finish your degree and then get another one. You think taking critical writing sucks when you haven't done it in 3 years, try taking it after 13 years - it'll be worse.

No one is saying this is a game. Yes, college is very helpful. No, you don't have to go to MIT or Harvard (neither of which is that great for real-world CS, search WSJ recruiter rankings). Those schools are known for research and business. Go to a cheap local school for a few years and transfer in to a big name school if that's what you want; when you graduate, your piece of paper looks the same. But in the end, go to a school, meet people, learn new things, travel abroad and do the things that are not what you are studying, because those things you can't read about in a book or some blog.