Westwood -- and "game schools" aren't the only option, mind.

Why can't you take loans out to pay for school? Are you just afraid of being in debt? As far as I know, going in to debt to pay for school is pretty common practice. At least among my acquaintances, extremely few of them were able to pay for school out-of-pocket as they went. Those that did were actually supported entirely by wealthy relatives, as of course they were in school and not in a position to making money.

Educational loan debt is relative safe.

I agree with the general "get a degree" sentiment. You will meet a lot of people who work in the industry now who didn't get degrees, but you also need to keep in mind how long they've been there and when that means they started -- things were very different years ago. In most hiring experiences I've been through (on the "interviewer" side, not the interviewee side) I've seen enough enough incoming applicants that lack of a degree was often a very easy thing to use to cull down the volume -- regardless of whether or not you believe that an education and degree have any real bearing on your capabilities, you can't escape the reality that it does get used commonly as a way to thin the herd.

I agree with most of swiftcoder's points vis-a-vis your page. For me especially the implication of seclusion and isolationism is a huge negative, because I care very much about my ability to interact and socialize with my co-workers in addition to their technical prowess.

I also dislike the color scheme, but that's just me.

What is "Microsoft Native C++?" I've never heard of such a product and Google doesn't find me anything useful in the first page of results either. I am similarly turned off by your capitalization of "Graphics Programming, Artificial Intelligence," et cetera. They aren't proper nouns and read to me either as sloppy copyediting on your part or sleazy attempts to hit case-sensitive buzzword searchs (depending on how cynical a mood I'm in at the time).

I appreciate that you're trying to convey your passion for the field in your description here as well, but when you say things like that you have a "contempt for bureaucracy" that is a negative. Some amount of that is going to be present anyway, and it sets you up as arrogant and a loner, which feeds back into the isolationist drawback.

You spelled "oppurtunity" incorrectly (opportunity).

I think you missed (or just didn't respond to) what I thought was the most important point, which is that Westwood is not the only option. Even the traditional four-year university isn't the only option. A quick search reveals Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College offers the first two years of a BS in Computer Science (after which you can transfer to the University of Southern Mississippi - Gulf Coast). That should run you less than $20,000, all told. That sounds like a lot, but when you break it down into $1,800 a year for MGCCC and $5,100 a year for USM-GC for tuition, then add books and other expenses, it doesn't seem like too bad a stretch.

If you take out the usual government-subsized loan for half of that amount, it'll run you just over $100/month for 10 years. And that's with today's unfortunately high interest rates. Many people spend more than that for their cell phones. So yeah, the risk is very low, unless you have absolutely no confidence that you'll finish.