I was in a strikingly similar position as you at the beginning of this year. In December 2015, I setup a plan to quit my job and take some time to self-learn Artificial Intelligence, when I was accepted into a master's program in Barcelona (UPC's* - assuming it's the same as the one you're considering).<p>This blogpost outlines what my plan and concerns were about the self-taught route:<p><a href="http://cole-maclean.github.io/blog/Self%20Taught%20AI/" rel="nofollow">http://cole-maclean.github.io/blog/Self%20Taught%20AI/</a><p>Since then, I've been asked why I ultimately pursued the formal degree route, and this was my response:<p>"Without a formal CS background, I was pretty skeptical about my chances of getting accepted, but I applied anyways. I was so skeptical, that I convinced myself it wouldn't happen and set off to teach myself. But I ended up getting accepted into a Masters program in Barcelona, and I couldn't turn down the opportunity. I love Barcelona as a city, the tuition is reasonable and the program was inline with what I was looking for - a larger focus on application with foundation in theory as opposed to full on theoretical research.<p>I chose to do the conventional degree because of the above, plus the allure of receiving a piece of paper that people respect. Regardless of my thoughts on the real value of conventional degrees, it's hard to argue against their societal credit.<p>I'm new to this industry and pretty young, so take everything I say with salt, but my main advice would be to just build cool stuff. Whether you do it at a university or through autodidactism (learned that one from the HN thread), just work on cool projects. My naive hope is that people will care more about stuff you can actually build over a piece of paper with your name on it - but it doesn't hurt to have both."<p>That was in response to a thread about this guys blog, which gives some further perspective on the self-learning route:<p><a href="http://karlrosaen.com/learning-sabbatical/" rel="nofollow">http://karlrosaen.com/learning-sabbatical/</a><p>I'd like to add, that I've since decided to do both. I'm using the curriculum I developed for myself with online courses to compliment my formal education from the master's program, which has been working well so far.<p>ps. If UPC is the program you're looking into, it can be completed in 1.5 years (3 semesters) instead of the full 2. The last semester is dependent on how long it takes to finalize your thesis. Also, if you have questions about the program (again, assuming it's UPC's), my email is available from the site in the first link.<p>*<a href="http://masters.fib.upc.edu/masters/master-artificial-intelligence" rel="nofollow">http://masters.fib.upc.edu/masters/master-artificial-intelli...</a>