If readers will indulge one more comment from a guy who didn’t go to college but learned a lot of very useful skills in the military, I also heard this from Mike Florio in Nevada:

Please allow me to echo Chief Brecher’s comments. In 1967-69 I attended the Navy’s Data Systems Technician school. This was the early days of computing, and the Naval Tactical Data System (predecessor to Aegis) was very complex, based on a computer designed by Seymour Cray (Yes, that Cray). Since this was a pretty new field they had to teach us everything — from semiconductor physics through Boolean Algebra, Finite Math, and Systems. That’s why the school was so long.
After a tour of sea duty I was transferred back to the same school as an instructor. I enrolled in a local university, and in my spare time completed my BA and earned an MS in computer science. In my master’s program I didn’t encounter a single topic that I hadn’t learned in the Navy School! In many areas I knew way more, and had practical experience the professors didn’t.
I left the Navy and pursued a very successful career in Silicon Valley, where I encountered many of my old shipmates, equally as successful.
The interesting thing is that my specialty, Data Systems Technician, was abolished by the Navy in the mid-’90s. Computers were now so ubiquitous aboard ships and shore stations that every sailor needed to be competent in their use and maintenance.