>When I interview people I _definately_ look for some college. Doesn't have to be CS--my prejudice is towards Liberal Arts. College is valuable, but not for passive students and not for everyone, I know. It's NOT the place to learn the nuts and bolts of a language. But it IS a place to learn to organize thoughts and develop ideas and test hypotheses. And how to KEEP learning--which we are doing constantly in our business. It IS a place to learn how to communicate what you do and to listen to others communicate (usually poorly) what they do. This is also-known-as, oh, "needs assessment" or "system design planning," right? It IS a place to learn that there are a lot of different solutions to most problems. Sounds like our profession again, doesn't it?
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Back in the dark ages, when dinosaurs and Big Iron ruled the world and I was a Math major, the Computer Science department at the University of Houston required 15 hours of advanced Math for a CS degree. This upset MANY CS students to no end..."Why do I have to learn this? I can write a program to solve this!" The best answer I ever heard to that was from one of the (then) top 5 differential equation men in the country: "If you don't know the logic of solving the probem, how can you write the logic of solving the problem?"

Yes, I have a 4 year degree. Does it help me in my day to day programming life? Yes, definately. Would I hire someone without a 4 year degree? Yes, if the other qualifications mentioned here and in other posts were met. Do I think grads should get more money? Definately NOT. Yeah, I'm a "same job-same pay" kinda woman.

>Oh, and the comment about how would your agent like to work for less money than a man? Well, now, I can feel my sarcasm welling up, so I apologize in advance...But, sweetheart, you DO NOT want to go there. It is not even close to being analogous.
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>Wow. This is a much touchier subject than I thought at first and I _knew_ I was troubled by the posting.

And I think that any woman working in what is/was considered a "primarily male profession" will have the same problem with the "work for less money" bit. For many of us it's a case of "Been there, done that....got the T-shirt...used it to throttle the boss....." (grin).