College or Bootcamp?

I think it depends on what you want to do. If you want to work for a large company then you may want to consider college. If you want to make money now, I would go to programming boot camp. If it was me, I would go to programming boot camp now, make money and get experience and then go to college. But it might turn out that you don't need the degree. Any time I look at a good company to work for, they usually want a degree.

I am currently in college right now and I will tell you almost everything that the college has offered so far is either not practical to a job, or mostly out of date. I am not trying to bash schooling at all and it can help as others have said, but I agree with the others as well bootcamp is the best option and you will learn the skills you need now and not have to worry about things that college makes you do such as speech class getting in the way and prolonging your learning. I have learned more on my own then I have in 5 semesters at University.

I personally think it comes down to the type of job you want to work as too. I think a programming boot camp is all well and good when it comes down to a field like web development (front-end, and possibly back-end). However, I believe a degree (Masters specifically) is required if you want to go into a fields such as software engineering, software architect, and software development. In those fields from what I personally understand and see, most applicants who don't have a Software Engineering/Computer Science Degree are not even looked at. A programming boot camp is probably great for learning programming for a certain field relatively quickly, but in my opinion do not cover the range of skills needed for a jobs such as software engineering which require high level math, and programming skills, something I just don't see happening in a couple of months.

Also Bootcamps are very much a gamble, they are around the same price as 2 college semesters (public and if you are local) and are either hit or miss. That being said, bootcamps are still a great way to get into the field of web development quickly, but in my opinion, any other jobs like software engineering may very well require a degree.

I'm gearing up to tackle a bootcamp next after I finish the rails track. App Academy more than likely. I think for what its worth like Dane Parchment said before, depends on what you are trying to do. To get in the door, do some front-end, and some light back-end stuff bootcamps are the way to go. Me personally, I feel that its worth it to start working first, and then go to college after. Most companies tend to support employees going back to school to advance anyway. Can't lose either way, just one takes much longer to actually start putting stuff to use.

I'm in the UK and there doesn't seem to be much of a bootcamp setup over here (not north of London anyway), but if possible, could you do both? Say bootcamp over summer, college over the rest of the year? Practical experience seems to be the thing that most employers are looking for (saw a recent development job asking for either a degree or a HNC (first year basically) with experience).

Wow guys thanks for all the insight! I think I may just do what Greg is suggesting. It seems like it would be a great way to really learn programming, and then I could learn the engineering process at University. Also with the knowledge gained, at App Academy particularly, it seems I could get a relatively high paying job, and pay for my schooling that way. Thanks again everyone, I appreciate your take on this! :)