[daven11]

I was self taught then did a CS degree, so have a foot in both camps. Some of the things I learnt in the degree which I never would have learnt by myself were (and others have mentioned some of these) - algorithms, relational theory, O-notation, symbolic logic, stats, CSP. Then there were things I learnt myself that I never learnt at uni because I wanted to - assembler, 2d/3d graphics, c++. Then there are things I've taught myself since uni - compiler theory, database optimisation, functional programming (actually did this at Uni but couldn't see the point then - hardware was rubbish then though), web stuff.

So difference would be in broad for my case - uni gives you the theoretical foundations that you probably wouldn't learn yourself, teaching yourself programming gives you the hands on stuff you'd never learn in depth at a uni. Two sides of the same coin I suppose, it would be rare to have a self taught person learn the theory that you'd learn at uni, and I don't think you'd ever get that depth without some uni training imho.

The other thing that comes to mind is if you're smart and self taught - why wouldn't you do a degree? The only good answer I can think of is that you're so friggin awesome you're churning out code that everyone says is awesome and google or apple has hired you already, there are perhaps 10 people in the world like this - everyone else do your degree :-)