[griffindy]

I agree with the ability to learn part, but do you need the basics for what's required for a CS degree? I say this as someone who does not have a CS degree, but I also don't know that many places working directly with binary trees and linked lists, though I'll admit I may not have found them.

[bmj]

I've been doing software development for over ten years without a CS degree. Yeah, I've never had a problem that linked list solved, but I suspect having a CS degree might have better prepared me to solve certain classes of problems. After 10 years, I have a deep tool chest of patterns (and anti-patterns), but early in the game, having a better algorithmic eye would have certainly been beneficial.