That’s … a lot. And a lot of extremely diffuse inferred judgments from statistical or imagined others, rather than specific people (including yourself) who will care about it.
You’re absolutely right that the signaling game has enough truth behind it that it’s generally best, for most people, to just follow. You’re forgetting that you’re not most people, and it’s quite possible that structured undergrad education is way harder for you than for most people with your IQ. Some will judge you for that. Most won’t care.
On a practical side, it is a hurdle. I dropped out of college long ago, it slowed my career by a fair bit for the first decade, but stopped mattering at all once I had significant job successes. However, I’ve just changed jobs, and even with significant time with Principal and Distinguished Engineer titles, I had to get my prospective new boss to change their req to say “or equivalent experience” on the job description or HR wouldn’t let me interview. And my background check took extra time because they had trouble verifying my HIGH SCHOOL transcript.
So, I can’t answer for you. The costs (in terms of emotional work) are likely higher than you say, but you may be enough of a different person that they’re not all that high. The benefits are real, but most of them are intangible, and far more about how you think of yourself than how others see you.
That’s … a lot. And a lot of extremely diffuse inferred judgments from statistical or imagined others, rather than specific people (including yourself) who will care about it.
You’re absolutely right that the signaling game has enough truth behind it that it’s generally best, for most people, to just follow. You’re forgetting that you’re not most people, and it’s quite possible that structured undergrad education is way harder for you than for most people with your IQ. Some will judge you for that. Most won’t care.
On a practical side, it is a hurdle. I dropped out of college long ago, it slowed my career by a fair bit for the first decade, but stopped mattering at all once I had significant job successes. However, I’ve just changed jobs, and even with significant time with Principal and Distinguished Engineer titles, I had to get my prospective new boss to change their req to say “or equivalent experience” on the job description or HR wouldn’t let me interview. And my background check took extra time because they had trouble verifying my HIGH SCHOOL transcript.
So, I can’t answer for you. The costs (in terms of emotional work) are likely higher than you say, but you may be enough of a different person that they’re not all that high. The benefits are real, but most of them are intangible, and far more about how you think of yourself than how others see you.