I know a guy who was a FreeBSD expert by 16, didn't go to college, and at 19 joined Yahoo for $90,000pa.
And what year was that?
As recently as 2006 or 2007.
Unless that fellow is such a prodigy that he goes on to found his own company or become very highly placed, there is a very high probability that he will be fired - perhaps in 10 or 15 years - during a downturn, when better-educated colleagues are retained.
I have seen this happen many times to former whizkids who perform competently as compared to less-educated colleagues, but never did get around to matching them in other ways. Whizkids can learn mediocrity too.
Also: Thad is extremely correct in that a masters is the new standard of higher education. Bachelor's degrees are all but worthless now. And for the love of gods stay out of the arts - get something with technical or professional certification attached to it. Most other education is garbage in terms of pure return on investment.