"I have found, however, that hackers (eg: people who taught themselves when they were young) right out of highschool are about as equally prepared for employment life as (most) people with CS degrees right out of college"
I doubt you meant it this way but that's pretty damning - in my experience people with CS degrees (or any degree) right out of college are horribly ill equipped for most things.
The problem with college is while it teaches some really great stuff, it gives people an over inflated sense of what they know and what they're ready for.
In that sense they're often the opposite of many high school graduates who might be a little too unsure of themselves because they're too worried about not having a degree.
I suspect it's an accurate statement. Employment life comes with many requirements many of which aren't taught at schools and aren't always easy to pick up when self-schooling either.
I don't think "ill-equipped" is the right word. You probably have the right "equipment", just none of the experience or secondary skills needed. Neither hacker nor college graduate. One might have more programming experience and the other might have more formal scientific training, but that's just not what is being talked about there.
I doubt you meant it this way but that's pretty damning - in my experience people with CS degrees (or any degree) right out of college are horribly ill equipped for most things.
The problem with college is while it teaches some really great stuff, it gives people an over inflated sense of what they know and what they're ready for.
In that sense they're often the opposite of many high school graduates who might be a little too unsure of themselves because they're too worried about not having a degree.