I agree here. I see someone who learns on their own a hard worker. It means that they are driven to learn. And besides, the trend these days is a person trying so hard to succeed, they resort to cheating. And I have, on more than one occasion, met people who should be teaching at MIT, but can't afford to go to a community college. As for the original poster, I would suggest going and getting the specific certifications for the levels of tech they know. Or start your own contract programming firm with some friends.

Didn't the guy who setup PayPal say the same basic thing about colleges and universities? “If Harvard were really the best education, if it makes that much of a difference, why not franchise it so more people can attend? Why not create 100 Harvard affiliates?” Peter Thiel - http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/10/peter-thiel-were-in-a-bubble-and-its-not-the-internet-its-higher-education/ I agree with many that GenEd classes are not necessary. I went to a small college almost ten years ago for web design, which was pretty useless at that time. I was told that I wouldn't have to take and GenEd classes. I ended up dropping out of that school when I lost my grant after failing a couple of GenEd classes.