school was never interesting or challenging for me until I was in my last 3 semesters (mostly last two) of college.

also muffin man FWIW i wasn't the best high school student and as such I didn't get into my first choice: UC Santa Cruz. My degree is from the csu analogue Humboldt State. Perhaps if I went to the UC I would have gone straight into graduate school (im going 2014) instead of getting an industry job, but I appreciate the perspective and real world experience im getting.