> I've got a few [applied] math credits but no degrees.
> Since that club includes people like Bill Gates and Larry Ellison,
> I don't mind the company.
>
> Other than situations, where the necessity of dealing with monopolies
> where a degree is required (lawyers, doctors and to a lesser degree
> universities), why would you ever want to be a member of a club that
> would admit you? :-)
In some enlightened states where the old boy's club of the state bar assosiation doesn't have quite so strong a stranglehold, it is possible to become a practicing attorney without paying tribute to law school just by passing the bar exam.
Medical schools and the AMA, though, still have a monopoly on practicing medicine, although many specific procedures have been moved out of that realm and into the hands of nurses and techs. It is also possible--though strongly discouraged and very hard-- to be admitted to medical school without a bachelor's degree. I've considered doing that myself, and probably would if I could scrape together the money to quit work for that long.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC