I’m a CS grad from an average school, with average grades. School helped me land a job, just not in the way you think. I got an internship that led to a job through networking and resources provided by my college. Networking and job related resources are hands down one of the best things you can get out of going to college. Internships, job fairs, recruiters are all more available when going to college than otherwise.
Regardless of what you major is, higher level education can provide you with more opportunities while in school, you just need to find and leverage them.
Computer Science is one of the degrees where having just a bachelors is good enough, as you don’t need a master degree to get a good job. If you have a bachelors in another non-tech degree, then having a CS degree as your masters is more or less the same but better.
Also there is nothing stopping anyone from learning computer science without going (any paying) for school. Sites like https://teachyourselfcs.com/ go over all the same subjects any common CS degree program goes over. Obviously you don’t get a diploma, but if your learning it for the sake of learning, the knowledge is out there.
Having more practical experience is better than any theoretical most of the time. CS degrees focus on theory, where as bootcamps focus on practical skills. There is some major overlap just different approaches to understanding. Leveraging both will give you the knowledge on, and the why.
I failed a few classes and thought the same, I was dangerously close to getting kicked out but didn’t simply because I knew I didn’t give it my 100%, and could do better. Computer Science isn’t easy, but you don’t need to be a genius to be successful at it. You do need to work hard to understand the concepts, as they aren’t easy. For some people it comes easy, for other it will take more work.
I don’t have experience with boot camps, so I can’t comment there. I personally learned more by just building stuff on my own. I took my winter break between classes to build a small application to learn more stuff. I build a number of side projects while going to school to learn more stuff. Once I graduated I already had some practical experience, where as my peers were still looking for jobs that would teach them those same skills.
Degree programs can only teach you so much, but the idea it magically teaches you a bunch of stuff you’d never learn elsewhere isn’t true. The knowledge is available and out there, its just a question about how you consume it, and if your fine without “officially” learning it as you don’t get any diploma.
**Get the degree if you want or need the degree, but if you just want to learn, then go out and learn. **
PS. The idea of going to higher education to learn is kinda false, which is really dumb, but its true. You go get degrees for the degree, not necessarily for the knowledge as the knowledge is out there for anyone to learn.