As someone who dropped out of school in 8th grade, got a GED at age 20, and started a career in IT at 28, I have to say that I still wish I would've stayed in school and had gone to college.<p>Getting in to the IT field without a degree was a struggle for me. I ended up wasting 8 years of my life working for Wal-Mart for $10 an hour because I couldn't break in to the IT industry no matter what certifications I was able to achieve. It took a lucky break being hired at a small startup IT company to get my foot in the door. I wasn't even hired for my IT skills, rather my ability to learn PHP quickly to become a freelance developer when I had finally had enough and quit my job at Wal-Mart.<p>I'm 3 years in to my IT career and have been successful enough to be earning close to $100k per-year. I can't help but think what sort of salary I'd be making right now if I had spent 4 years going to school and this was my 7th or 8th year of my IT career. Information Technology is my passion and I love every day of my job. I think that passion made me too arrogant to think that school was necessary and I ended up wasting 8 years hating my job & my life because of it.