Can vouch for this. I've had one for a little over a year and love it. Get compliments on it all the time and then most people love the story behind how it's Helvetica and Swiss and I'm a designer, etc etc

Nope.

I dropped out in 2008 after my 3rd semester of not getting anything out of it. I've been happily employed at startups, dev shops, and my own freelance business, at very comfortable salaries ever since.

Still paying college loans. 3 semesters equalled around $30k.

I don't think any of the reasons you provide for staying in school are exclusive to school.

I made a ton of friends on day one of leaving school to join a startup. I also think you get exposure to plenty of things in a new industry the same way you do pursuing a degree. Granted they can be vastly different things, the amount of "awesome ideas" you can get exposed to probably doesn't differ much between school and real life.

The benefit from doing it on your own is you don't amass hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, in fact you get paid to do these things :) The 4 years you spend in college might take you to 30-40 in your career to pay off!

It was the best decision I ever made. I always tell people to leave school in favor of learning via real world experience (especially if you've already got a job lined up).

If I had stayed in school (I left in 2007 after 3 semesters) I would have continued to learn their dated, useless curriculum and waited even longer to start growing myself in a booming tech industry.

I make a living designing and understanding interfaces and I can't for the live of me make heads or tails of what's going on here.

Even the "helpful" overlay looks like it was thrown together in a flash, as it repeats vertically down the page... what?

I almost typed up this exact same thing. I second every point listed here.

He's serious about the taxes too. Holy crap are they for real.

Private video

Because sarcasm is conveyed exceptionally well over the Internet.

Kind of stupid since, as is stated in the OP, almost everyone that has access to post on DN is a freelancer and very few are potential clients.

SEEKING WORK - http://fyates.com

Always looking for more work. Remote, freelance only. I'm in Connecticut and can travel periodically to Boston, New York, or RI. :)