[anigbrowl]

I'm smart and dropped out, but regretted it later on both pragmatic and personal bases. Is there a possibility to switch schools, or live off-campus and avoid some of the social stuff? Also, consider taking some of your savings and chatting to a psychologist psychiatrist, one that relates to you as an adult individual instead of a student.

If you do drop out your parents will get over it, eventually, but being tagged as a failure is unpleasant in the short term and burdensome in the long term. At least come up with a plan B (for yourself, not for them) to finish your education on your own terms at your own pace. Also, have you considered the possibility that your vocation doesn't necessarily have to line up with your education? If you're doing well as a self-taught programmer and so forth, perhaps you'd be happier studying something quite different from whatever you started with - medieval history or astrobiology or philosophy, say.

[bookreader]

Can you be more specific about why you've regretted dropping out? If you're a programmer, how much has it hurt your career? I unfortunately don't think switching schools is an option for me.

[spoiler]

A lot (most) of job positions in CS/IT/programming fields require you to have a degree. At least that's how it works in Europe. I think the US is a bit more lenient about it, though.

[anigbrowl]

Three reasons.

One, practical: I'm European, and found that my options for living in other countries were narrowed by not having a degree. I would probably have moved to Japan for several years if I had had one, since it's a prerequisite for getting a work visa in that country and (obviously) being a westerner in that country causes you to stick out like a sore thumb and they're super-bureaucratic about this. I'm just personally interested in Japan and Japanese culture, so I regret foreclosing that option for myself.

Two, socioeconomic: although a bit of an introvert, I think there's enormous value to the personal networks you can build up in college, in terms of meeting potential mentors, colleagues and so forth. Now, I think there's (pan-)social downsides to that system, and somewhat disapprove of the whole 'Greek system.' But overall I think college provides access to considerable social capital, whose utility may not be apparent in the short term but which makes a huge difference for most people over the longer term. Most of us are not Bill Gates, and the fact is that Gates inherited a lot of social capital from his parents.

Three, intellectual: Although I enjoy being a self-directed learner and feel pretty confident about my smarts, I do go through deep and horrible abysses of self-doubt, and often feel ashamed of not having fulfilled my intellectual potential by completing and exploiting a degree. I'm just shy of 43 now; whereas in my 20s I felt very proud of my ability to learn, navigate life, and make a living sans degree (and still do in many respects; I've built an impressive resume as a high-level film technician over the last decade despite never having taken a film class), these days I hate admitting that I don't have a degree and feel that my career overall has stalled for lack of direction and focus. True, people often tout their degree as a substitute for actual skill and experience, and an excess focus on credentialism is a negative aspect of our society and economy. But at the same time, I am sick to the back teeth of explaining why I don't have a degree, having to sell myself from scratch every time instead of simply saying 'oh yes, I have a BS in Economics from Berkeley' or whatever. Also, I struggle with a nagging feeling of being a dilettante and lacking a solci intellectual focus, so when I'm down in the dumps I don't feel like a smart guy who has a decent life in defiance of the odds, but a bullshit artist whose run of relative good luck could end at any time. Having to regularly re-sell yourself to yourself on your own merits is just as tiresome as having to sell yourself to others. It's a large and omnipresent confidence drain.

[anigbrowl]

PS you can email me if you want.