From my time working on the internet (i'm a professional PHP developer), I've seen that experience is worth more than a college degree. I dropped out of Uni in my 2nd year (they started teaching us business, instead of embedded systems - fascists).
Employers who are just trying to fill a position will look no further and hire someone with a degree. IT managers, however, will look beyond that. If you spent your time well, learning new skills on your own, doing your own thing, then you're likely to have a lot of success. If you're a truly talented programmer, you don't need a certificate to speak for you - your code does that.
I agree that a degree can be a "foot in the door", but it's not the be-all and end-all of a job. A clueless guy with a 1st degree from Cambridge won't last as long as a kick-ass PHP coder who dropped out of high school. Remember - you're going to be judged on what you do, not where/if you studied.
I dropped out of college in my 2nd year, and got a job at a large dot com. I learned so much when I was there, that when I came out, I had two more years of full, unadulterated commercial experience under my belt than other people my age. That, especially in the fast-paced world of IT, meant everything. Bear in mind that computer courses aren't as up-to-date as the real world, so unless your course tutor has his/her ear to the ground, chances are you're missing out on the real killer languages you're going to encounter in the work place.
Maybe I'm biassed, but I believe the best computing education you can get is one you teach yourself, in the real world. We're not talking about theological discussion and analysis here - we're talking 0s and 1s. You don't need to go to college to figure that out. Buy some books, and mess around until you break your computer. Fix. Repeat. Seriously - if this method works for you, you will be laughing 🙂
