This already happened to me. Early on I realized that grades weren't that important and the best thing about going to school was having time to take huge intellectual risks with few consequences. In addition to the basic computer science concepts I learned, I also took on personal projects that caught my interest.
Through these projects I learned new ways of making things using current technologies like Ruby on Rails, Python, Mapreduce, Amazon S3 (and friends), Lisp, and other technologies that someone simply fulfilling the graduate requirements would likely not have learned. I also met great people along the way who were far more impressive than any programmer, designer, or manager I've met in the industry.
Oddly enough, now I'm in grad school, hacking the iPhone for a degree.
Eventually, I imagine that my continual curiosity will bring me to the startup arena, or perhaps to the international sphere.
Through these projects I learned new ways of making things using current technologies like Ruby on Rails, Python, Mapreduce, Amazon S3 (and friends), Lisp, and other technologies that someone simply fulfilling the graduate requirements would likely not have learned. I also met great people along the way who were far more impressive than any programmer, designer, or manager I've met in the industry.
Oddly enough, now I'm in grad school, hacking the iPhone for a degree.
Eventually, I imagine that my continual curiosity will bring me to the startup arena, or perhaps to the international sphere.