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Interesting thoughts!</p>
<p>I started college right after HS, but due to a situation out of my control, I had to quit school after 2 years and started all over at a community college when I was 26, then transferred to a state university and received my BS degree a few years later. I was admitted to all grad schools I applied to, but decided to take a job instead.</p>
<p>3 years later, I was a manager of a group of engineers, many of them MS degree holders and younger than 25. My compensation was among the top 10% of people with similar experience/responsibilities.</p>
<p>Everyone cared about how good (or how bad) I did my job. Noone ever cared when I got my degree, or even what degree I earned.</p>
<p>My boss later told me the main reason he promoted me so quickly was that in addition to the ability as an engineer, I seemed to be more mature than other individuals. He attributed the maturity to what I went through before I re-started college (he knew the story of my life).</p>