An alternative to a college degree in programming?

Question

IT education

Hello. We need advice from both people with higher education and those without it.
I graduated from the secondary specialized in jurisprudence, revised my views, and began to study programming on my own. In the IT field, I have always been attracted by the fact that only your knowledge is important. Not a diploma red blue or purple, namely knowledge.
Unlike jurisprudence, where such factors as connections, money, diploma also play a role in further development after university.

But then again, I have always been sure that the university provides a very strong knowledge base (mathematics, computer science, etc.), and if a person studies not for grades, but for himself, then in most cases he will be more literate than the one who studied on his own.

Basically my story is this. I didn't have the opportunity to go to uni. I learned web programming on my own (html, css, js). Now I am 22 years old and I work as a Web programmer (react, react native). But I am tormented by the fact that I seem to be a delitant, and people who come after high school are much better as specialists. And again, I’ve heard that I can’t get a job in a normal company without a higher diploma (Yandex, Avito, mail ru, yula, olkh).
Now I have 2 options:

1. Go to university for the first year. And only at 27 to get a diploma. Again, I can only study part-time, so the quality of education will be so-so.
   
2. 
   Look for an alternative. It seems to me that it is fashionable to take courses from mail.ru or similar ones. As a result, I will get better knowledge, and in a shorter time (I may be wrong), but at the same time I will not have a diploma.
   
   

Please tell me, maybe there are some educational programs or something like that, so that they would have a weight similar to a university diploma. That when applying for a job it was possible to indicate this certificate. Or is it all nonsense and you have to go to the university?

Answer 1

An alternative to a university degree in programming?

Is absent.

I will only be able to study at school, so the quality of education will be so-so.

Known misconception. You will study the way you want, unless, of course, you constantly need someone who will poke you with a sharp stick in the ass so that you try better.

It seems to me that it is fashionable to take courses from mail.ru or similar ones. As a result, to get better knowledge,

Anyway, I didn't read any further. I answered the question.