<p>"The IT industry is unique, in that, the industry cares very little about someone’s academic credentials. Actually, the very top dogs in software space are either college or high school drop-outs.</p>
<p>I have a better idea. Just skip out the college, and save yourself 4 years of tuition and opportunity and financial costs, and gain those IT certifications. Then get an entry level job. My uncle is a college drop-out, yet he did exactly what you highlighted above (in addition, he learned programming skills, such as Java, C++, etc) and took a job as a developer at a start-up company. After 3 years of experience, he leveraged that to move to a bigger company. Now, he’s a senior manager at his firm, making 300k a year."</p>
<p>Anyone reading this post should be aware that you have no idea about the current state of the IT industry. The situation is entirely different from that which your uncle faced when he entered the industry 20-30 years ago. You generally can’t get even an entry level position at an established company without a degree, and the positions at Google, Microsoft, etc. or the more desirable startups go to top students. Moreover, experienced IT people who lose their jobs for whatever reason often have difficulty in finding new positions unless they have college degrees.</p>