This meditation is less of an opinion or even a question then a survey. It's a very simple survey but I anticipate some interesting results.

The question is two part. The first part is: How much did you actually gain from attending a college computer science course and obtaining a degree? Specifically in the context of a job-type environment. Did you find your knowledge of programming in general and specific to be vastly improved? Was it all theory and little practicality? The reverse? Was the knowledge you gained crucial to completing a job?

The second question is how much has having a college degree, preferably in compsci, but I'm also interested in general, helped you in obtaining jobs? Were you given more preference because you had a degree? Because you didn't?

Update:
Heres another twist: what about working as a programmer with a non compsci degree? Obviously you would lack the benefits of the compsci education (well, theoertically) but would the sheer fact that you have the degree get you past those HR people who just look at certs and so forth on yer diploma?

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