[jheriko]

... because you will learn more by working in the wild, including why many real-world engineers have a vague disdain of academia - especially in the genuinely difficult fields.

Maybe it differs away from software engineering - but my experience of grads, even Oxbridge PhDs is that I will code circles around them with what I learned off my own back in my spare time... and mainly because I learned it off my own back - or in many cases reinvented solutions without any hints or assistance.

Sorry. I'd like courses to produce valuable, employable engineers - my experience is that they do not.

[rmk2]

... because you will learn more by working in the wild, including why many real-world builders have a vague disdain of academia - especially in the genuinely difficult fields.

Maybe it differs away from architecture - but my experience of grads, even Oxbridge PhDs is that I will build circles around them with what I learned off my own back in my spare time... and mainly because I learned it off my own back - or in many cases reinvented solutions without any hints or assistance.

Sorry. I'd like courses to produce valuable, employable builders - my experience is that they do not.

[sc0rb]

Some of the best software engineers I've ever worked with have PhD's (selection bias).

Just like mine, your experience is not necessarily indicative of the world at large. There's a reason google love hiring PhD's, there's a reason why a well known startup in London (dealing with high performance java tooling) prefer PhD candidate, there's a reason Jane Street is full of PhD's and there's a reason why half the hedge funds in London are full of math and comp sci PhD's

Take your Node and RoR skills home kid.