Hey dude, here's a more 'industry specific' story.
I started uni straight after school, transferring between random courses and subjects and all that kinda stuff.
- mostly because i wanted to go drinking and meet girlies.
then I got sick of traveling every day, and got yelled at too much by the folks for not doing anything useful, so I transferred and did a Adv. Diploma of comp science at tafe a few minutes away from home.
If you've done the same course ... then good on you - this was the best education on software engineering and the reality of the job (i.e. it's not all about normalizing DB tables... rather, you have to know how to hold meetings, how to win a shitfight, or compromise with someone about the best way to solve a problem, work with n00b clients blah blah blah ... etc)
Anyway, after I finished up, I went with my folks recommendation and went back to uni. -> (doing bach. of computing? or comp science? or something along those lines).
I spent 6 months drinking instead of going to class again (doh!) and didn't really do any work.
I did want to prove a point, though - so I stayed till my first set of exams, and absolutely ACED them all - in fact, I think I passed every single subject solely based on my exam results
lol.
So after I proved the point that i wasn't "too stupid" for uni, I decided to go make some moolah, cause I was down and sad since I had no Torana anymore.
- and I was a few grand in debt with hecs, and all my mates were 2nd-3rd year apprentices pulling in money that I could only dream about
Anyway, like 4-5 years, 3-4 jobs and a couple of tax brackets later, I'm about to step into a "Senior PHP Analyst/Developer" position for a decent company.
I guess I look at it this way;
I haven't needed a degree to get to pretty much the 'top' of the 'on the tools' development pyramid. However - this is the end of the line, really. Unless I step into my own business full-time, or want to go into management (CIO, project manager etc) there's not too much more cash to be made here, Robbo.
These kinds of positions are generally the ones that do actually require a uni degree. - Although there will be some without this requirement, chances are that to end up working management for a big company with mega bucks, you will need a degree.
So now I've come to a point in my life where I am investigating doing a degree part-time after hours. Not sure exactly what yet - something more specific to a management position, though
. This would open a lot of doors down the track for me when I decide I want to move on from being "on the tools".
I guess..... I can't say uni is good/bad or worth it/not, however, I can say that it depends on the timeframe that you're looking at, what you want to be doing, and how keen you are to 'progress', or whether you're just happy at the same cash/job for long time.
I looked at the next 5 years or so when I decided to quit uni - and I believe I've made the correct choice looking at that time frame.
As I step into my new position and consider doing an online degree etc - I'm a lot more mature, and am probably looking at the next 10-15 years
....and if I'm alive after that still, I will re-evaluate my situation and see where to go from there...
Would it be an idea for you to start working full time in web development, and do a tech/management/business degree at the same time? - do the degree slowly online - it might take 6-7 years, but that's when you will actually need it! - and it solves the XOR scenario with degree and experience/cash.