Is a degree necessary? Debate on that here.

[At-Least-It's-An-Evo]

Personally, I say a degree is necessary in some situations and not needed in others. It all comes down to the individual. Personally, I could've done very well in college and gotten my degree... in whatever that would've been, but I realized, it's not what I want. That peice of paper is not worth my going to a building to educate myself in things I am not interested in. I guess I'm the opposite of Rockford/Mark. In high school, I did very well. I graduated with a 4.33 GPA and was in the top 10 out of my class (for the first three years til I lost motivation and graduated #13- I went from #3 to #7, to #10, to #13). In college, I had a rough start as I went to UMD which wasn't really where I wanted to go. It was a last minute decision being I had some benefits of going up there. After changing majors 3 times, I realized, there's nothing that'd make me happy or make this whole "schooling" worth it. In my case, there's not really a degree that'd satisfy myself therefore, it's not necessary because the way I see it, why bother if you're not going to be happy with what you do? Do what you want while you can or you'll regret it later on in life. If there's a degree you want to persue, go for it, if not, go with what you know best and stick with it. Just my .02

[Goat Blower]

I've always debated this with my college-educated buddies. Most of them confuse intelligence with knowledge, but the two are not directly correlated. Yes, intelligence makes getting knowledge easier, but my experience has been that you don't have to be smart at all to finish college, just good at applying yourself over a 4-5 year period. What I've seen overall is a person who is driven will make WAY more money that someone that just gets a degree to get a good job. And hard work goes along way in the corporate world as well. This obviously applies to general application jobs, not specific training jobs like an attorney, doctor or upper level engineer.

Taking a cross-section of my friends who are all about 35 years old, I have three friends making over $250K/yr, all have four year degrees, and nothing more but incredible knowledge of investing and an entrepeneurial spirit. I have a few friends with four year degrees making less than $40K/yr. I also have 3-4 friends making very good incomes without a degree, but not as good as the top three. And my wife manages $12 million in annual business in her stores and manages 80+ people, no degree whatsoever.

I don't have a degree either, but I'm in the car biz, so I don't make shit. :D Although my business has doubled each year over the last two years and is already tracking to repeat that again this year. And then there's my other two businesses. ;)

[2003eclipse]

Well if the feild requires a degree well you should have one.
All the teaching in the world wont do jack if you dont start with a natural talent.

Anyone ever seen Eric do wire? No high school degree and he has Mensa Capabilities.
Watching Mike in general doing the things he does that few could have taught him and he has picked up on his own trial and error. Like Mikes computer hacking skillz and his nunchuck skillz. But god knows the man cant play poker.

Finding a natural talent and running with it is key, if you need help on perfecting what you want to do go to school.