[buro9]

I have an MSc in Computer Science but lack a BSc or A-levels.

I was homeless and sleeping rough when my peers were in secondary education, I was living in squats and hitch-hiking around the UK when they were in university.

Being self-taught, I applied for the MSc after 15 years experience as it was a source of personal anxiety for me to lead large technical projects in which almost every other person was highly educated (MSc or PhD) and those that were not had a BSc. I felt a constant career vertigo in my position, due to not feeling sure in my abilities.

During the MSc I struggled with revision technique and exam skills, having never sat any before. But where I was weak at exams I frequently scored above 95% for coursework, research projects and coding tests.

Mostly I felt that the MSc taught me the language with which to communicate and argue the things I already knew.

When I completed the MSc I reflected that I would've been more competent at a PhD than the MSc. But I didn't know in advance how I would fare at the MSc and that a PhD might interest me. Mostly I was just 'checking boxes' to improve confidence in my existing work, but I found myself very seriously debating whether I wanted to pursue a PhD when I got to the end of the MSc. I really enjoyed the research work in the MSc.

[bane]

Mostly I felt that the MSc taught me the language with which to communicate and argue the things I already knew.

That's a fascinating story and a great perspective. One thing that's hard to communicate with those who've decided to pass up on higher education is how many different (and different kinds) of tools it gives you in your field.

It's not just the theoretical bits, or the formalism, but also the language of the field...something which has a surprising number of uses beyond just talking to a peer. A decade after my undergrad, I'll be working on a problem and remember a handful of possible algorithms from my undergrad days that might apply to it, but have no clue about the particulars (they may have not even been covered). But because I learned the language of the subject, I can usually drive into google for an hour or so and quickly triage the algorithms to find the one I want to relearn. It's easy to look things up when you know what they are called -- and more importantly can understand the instructions!

I have a number of friends who decided to focus purely on their development skills and skip school, and they've definitely expressed frustration at finding and understanding the literature, or have spent many hours reinventing the wheel because they didn't realize it had already been built!

[scott_s]

This is commonly characterized as "knowing what you don't know." You know what's out there, even if you don't know it, but the power is that when you need to, you can learn it.

Contrast this with not knowing what you don't know. You can't learn it, because you don't even know it exists. I think this is a major benefit of an undergraduate education. You get a broad enough exposure to a field that you know what's out there, so you know what's possible.

[SeanDav]

Interesting. What reputable universities waive the MSc's pre-requisites based on life experience? Any in the UK?

I think this is a great idea as I find myself in the same boat. Very experienced and can do the job but no paper to impress people with.

[buro9]

Apparently most do.

There is no standard application process when you have little or no education. You have to get in touch with the admissions department and state that you have the experience and from there each university has a different process.

I went for Birkbeck, University of London ( http://www.dcs.bbk.ac.uk/courses/ ). They specialise in degrees in the evening, aimed at Londoners who are in work and yet want to pursue a degree without sacrificing their employment.

The entry test was trivial (not much beyond basic pointer work and FizzBuzz in C++), and the expectation during the course was that you find 24 hours per week for study time (comprised of 2 or 3 evenings per week of 3 hour lectures, and the rest of the time was research, assignments and reading). If you have ample experience you won't find the work outside of the evening lectures too taxing.