As someone with a "shiny" degree as well, education is only the start.
A degree, if anything is proof of hard work and dedication at that stage of your life. You also need the means to afford the degree. It took hard work to achieve my degree and many hours of studying in the latter years. This is only the start of a journey. Many people with a degree amount to nothing. They do not possess the required skills needed for advancement. You can posses a high level of critical thinking, without a degree to back it up. Many of these types work their way up as they grow older into very successful positions. On the other front, I have seen many people with a piece of paper who assume they now know everything. These types fail to continue learning and fail to progress. My father has a higher paper degree than my mother (both in the programming field). While both are successful, my mother has achieved higher levels of success for this very reason. She is the type who spends each and every day learning something new and uses her critical thinking to apply it in her everyday life.