NetSyn:

I am currently finishing off my Sophomore year of college, and I'd have to say tha which school you go to depends on what you want to do with your life, and what you want to learn there. If you enjoy the administration side of things the most, and you don't know a lot about it, you might want to consider technical school. If you enjoy mathematics and theories of computation then go to college for computer science or engineering. If you would rather be a product manager you might want to go to college for IT or MIS. I'll tell you right now you will learn very little, if any, system administration skills from college courses. Very few colleges have courses in computer/network security, or computer/network administration.

Personally, my advice is to go to a college where you enjoy the environment and the people, and study something that truly interests you. As I stated earlier, if your interests fall into IT, MIS, or Computer Science/Engineering, then take those courses, but make sure you are in all the way. I'm a computer science major, and I've certainly been taken by suprise by the sheer amount of mathematics that is involved in a computer science degree. Not just math requirements, but there are a number of CS courses that are escentially high level math courses (I'm taking one now called 'Models of Computation' which is all about langauges and automata theory). The reason you should really go to college is because when you are up for a promotion to manager, or director, and you are going up against an equally qualified peer, the person with the formal education wins. Not just because of the piece of paper, but because of the broad education that the paper comes with. Don't expect to get far in the corporate hierarchy without at least a BS or BA degree.

Regards,
Wizeman