[pnathan]

Baloney.

Stuff worth knowing in academia takes dedicated effort and access to deep resources that are unavailable on the internet.

Even knowing what book to read can be a significant challenge.

Just cause you can read some tutorials, watch a MIT lecture, and write PHP/jQuery does not a computer scientist or a mathematician make.

[lukejduncan]

Taking a class and getting a piece of paper also does not a computer scientist make.

[pnathan]

maroons happen everywhere.

But I guarantee you only the most amazing and celebrated of individuals have self-taught themselves advanced mathematics and performed at the highest level of the art. The only one I can think of the modern era is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan, who is essentially legendary for what he did.

The core issue is climbing the tower of knowledge of what has gone before requires deep investment and usually a guide until you attain a deep and broad knowledge. There is so much knowledge, we must leech off of the knowledge of those who have also done the studying and have more experience. It's a pain.

[firefoxman1]

You are right about the more advanced subjects. I guess, speaking from a college freshman's point of view, I disagree with friends taking courses on subjects that can be easily learned from a book or tutorial. I think it's important to take classes in subjects that can't be easily learned through self-teaching.

PHP or jQuery can be easily learned from books and tutorials, while being a great programmer takes much more practice and knowledge of algorithms, data structures, and probably a classic computer science background. So majoring in computer science would be a wise choice, while a jQuery class is unnecessary unless it's required for the major.