Here's another aspect of what you might miss if you don't go to college.
Everywhere I have worked (including Google), I've been surrounded with great developers, some of which who came from college, others who dropped out early and just learned on their own because they were passionate about software.
Both types of engineers are doing a great job, but when it comes to being involved in important decisions, or choices that will impact the company or the infrastructure for a long time, either the non-college people have very little to contribute or they are simply not invited to the meetings. Practically, they are good at getting things done based on what they are told but not much more beyond that.
Our profession needs both types of backgrounds, but you are vastly, vastly underestimating the amount of opportunities that will just never present themselves because of your choice of not going to college.
Everywhere I have worked (including Google), I've been surrounded with great developers, some of which who came from college, others who dropped out early and just learned on their own because they were passionate about software.
Both types of engineers are doing a great job, but when it comes to being involved in important decisions, or choices that will impact the company or the infrastructure for a long time, either the non-college people have very little to contribute or they are simply not invited to the meetings. Practically, they are good at getting things done based on what they are told but not much more beyond that.
Our profession needs both types of backgrounds, but you are vastly, vastly underestimating the amount of opportunities that will just never present themselves because of your choice of not going to college.