College for web design?

[Jocka]

Would it be a good or bad idea to go to college for web design? I was thinking about it but then I looked into it and all I'll get is a certificate from every college I checked out. Now I know I can get php certification without college so why can't I get certification for "web design" the same way?
Never mind that. Do you think it would be a good idea to spend 1-4 years in college for web design or just go in freelance and give them a great portfolio to look at?

[nethnet]

I guess it would depend on how much you feel you would benefit from formal schooling in web design.  Do you already feel like you're on the same level or superior to graduates of that program?  If so, I would say it wouldn't be worth it.  Web design "certification" isn't generally used as a criteria that clients would look at anyway.  If you have a nice portfolio, enough to convince them that is, then you don't have to worry about pieces of paper hanging in your office.  It all depends on your personal comfort level with professional web design.

[pixy]

I agree with nethnet. I think pretty much anybody can learn just as much, if not more by themselves than going to schooling for it. I've taught myself HTML, CSS, PHP + mySQL, and I'm currently learning Actionscript and 3d Modeling. Going to college for that kind of thing would cost so much money, but I've spent less than $200 on books that teach me just as much.

[Jocka]

I know HTML, CSS, PHP, MySql, Javascript.. thats about it lol.. I want to PERFECT my PHP skills before I move on to other languages. I think for the most part I have them down.. So I'll probably go to ASP or .NET soon.

::EDIT::
Oh, and I decided against college. It took me less than 6 months to learn most of the PHP I know and I learned ALL of it for free online. So yea, no college for me :)

[SharkBait]

If you know PHP then why go to ASP?  Of course unless you want to make web applications via a MS IDE. 

I know VB.NET, HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, MSSQL and others but definately have room to learn more.

I asked my employeer if I would benefit from going to school to learn more programming but he said I've already gone past what they would of taught me.  So it would be a waste of money.  I would like to goto school for graphics (ie Illustrator and Photoshop) to me there are far too many tutorials and not enough about basics that I want to learn ;)

I use PHPFreaks.com as my classroom for learning PHP.  After I bought 2 books on PHP and MySQL and mastered thoughs I stumbled upon this website and use it every day to learn new things or to tweak things I've already learnt but want to improve on.

I learnt VB.net from scratch.  I learnt VB6 too and had to convert my projects to VB.net because of the applications they were used with.  I used google as much as I could as well as www.xtremevbtalk.com to ask questions and look up things.

I do wish I went to school though.  Mainly because if I ever leave my current employeer, I have no 'Piece of Paper' to prove to other companies what I know.  Most of them out there require some sort of Certificate or Diplomia.  Nether of which I have except for the High-school stuff and my Electrician's Ticket ;)

[Jocka]

Yea, thats why I brought this up. I was applying for all these jobs I found and just about every one asked for at least a Bachelors degree. Most said Bachelors or 5+ years experience. or whatever. But it just seems that if you have a bachelors, they'll look at you quicker.

[pixy]

The thing is, chances are you'll know just as much as those people with degrees (and possibly more).