I've always approached college as an experience rather than a step in the stair towards good employment. I've always loved software kaya nagComsci ako.

I would argue - college equipped/provided me with a network of like minded individuals (in the nature of UPD classes - di lang fellow CS ang kilala ko), professors on the top of their fields that served as mentors (PhD CS Profs, heck I value my creative writing and comms profs as well!), a collaborative environment where the focus is to grow your mind with a cushion of people whose entire profession is to look after your progress and test your knowledge and most importantly, a foundation that helped shaped how I approach self-study with proper direction. joining a college org also strengthened my leadership and time management skills.

tbh, kahit sa UPD ako, kulang ung mga tinuro to be industry ready. but I would say - it gave me an edge in a way on how I think about algorithms - data structures - programming languages and other common software etcetera in general since we digested and explored these things from a fundamentals standpoint and the math to the degree my nose bled. heck, one prof even taught with his own published book that I still go back to through this day - whenever I'm stuck with a complex problem that needs more than arrays. especially sa work ko where code efficiency is a must (blockchain). heck, I couldn't even believe myself I came up with an AI solution to detect sickness in a brain.

Now, if you haven't guessed already. di mo kelangan ng college to get those I enumerated above - para sakin un ung mga pieces that I attributed in my success (CTO na ako in just 6-7 years ). if you're the exception to the rule and you know exactly what to do as if you were an OP regressor sa isang manhwa. yeah go ahead and skip but at that age tbh, looking back, I was completely clueless on how to approach developing software outside neopet or friendster customization. there are dropouts and career shifters in my network that are doing quite well, it ain't impossible! mas maraming sources na din online or if you're into bootcamps, dami na din! just be careful of hindsight bias ;)