[arghnoname]

When I first started (without my degree) I was making $40k. At six months I was making $50k. A year after that I was making $80k. At that point I felt like I had basically plateaued without the degree. You certainly don't need one to do well in this field though.

As I mentioned in my other post, you'll get more value out of a degree if you study something else _in addition to_ computer science. If you're in CS courses and you feel like it's easy (The more introductory courses will be very easy; you may be able to test out) it'll feel like a waste of time. It is up to you what kind of value you want to get out of it.

[shanelja]

In terms of value, I intend to improve my knowledge across every area of my degree units an order of magnitude and also to broaden my horizons, I would love to learn more about the hardware side too, being an all software person, it can sometimes be quite a mystical subject.

I agree about not needing the degree to do well, I would however propose that from stories I have heard so far it does seem to reduce the difficulty.