If I ever meet a person with DeVry / ITT / etc. "credentials" who has done any of the following:
(a) designed fully decentralized, distributed, scalable, robust, real-time systems and successfully implemented and deployed said systems in the real world
(b) built a compiler from the tokenizer up and understands every step of how code gets turned into bits and how those bits get executed on modern hardware
(c) had an opportunity to use Tarjan's disjoint union / find algorithms and can explain where those data structures / algorithms are appropriate
I'd be interested in hiring him/her. The problem is that I have yet to meet such a person, because DeVry / ITT / etc. are degree mills whose sole purpose is to get as many people to cross the lowest possible bar that could pass accreditation -- i.e. turn a profit. As a consequence, the DeVry / ITT / etc. grads that I've had the "pleasure" of working with all have very narrow and shallow areas of competency and essentially zero ability to work outside those areas. The benefit of a four year degree is that in spite of all the fluff:
(a) you have a far better opportunity to actually cover the full breadth of theory
(b) there is enough time to mature enough intellectually to start to grok the zen nature of the theory
(c) you can't really choose between theory and practice; you have to demonstrate a degree of proficiency in both