Finish college for yourself, not a job. Challenge yourself in school and then in life. Learning and education are important. However, I would not give up the day job if you can get it. I worked through most of college at a brokerage firm, and all of grad school. School never helped me get a job, but I was self employed for 25 years. I'm glad I did it. NYU-class of '82 and '87 , then my daughter went to NYU, class of 2008. What will you want for your children? Demand that of yourself.
Yes, degrees are overrated, but education is not. A good school will teach you how to learn things, how to interpret data, how to build on a hypothesis and so on. True, it's very hard to get to a Wall Street or a buy-side job without a degree, but it is even harder to survive in the modern finance without an education.
I am sure it depends on the definition of what a "successful Hedge Fund manager" is. There might be some people out there managing ten bucks who got through life without going to college or even dropped out of high school.
Thank you all for the input. From what I've gathered by all your responses, I'm not doomed if I DON'T go to school but it will probably be more difficult to break into the industry. If I do go to school it significantly ups the speed at which I will get into portfolio management plus I might learn some good things in the classroom. I think I will grind my degree fast.. 1.5 Years super full course load will land me my undergrad. Need 40 half course equivalents and I have 12 (yeah I dogged it when I first went to Uni, no stimulation). That leaves 28 half course equivs to go, in 1 year I can do 22.. So about a year and half. I guess the saying goes its better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. I understand where you guys are coming from that are saying you don't need it, but I'm not on a mission to be the successful underdog. I'm on a mission to become a force in the industry--I want to give myself the best possible chances at success. Time to buckle down!
IMHO, you need to finish school and get a degree... In that, I am completely in agreement with sle. One thing I'd like to add is a point that's often forgotten about education and school. It's based on my personal experience on both sides of the interviewing table. As an interviewer I care about the academic record of the applicant. However, it's not because I think it indicates how intelligent or educated the candidate is. It's because an academic record is one of the few available measurements of discipline. College is an environment where, almost for the first time in your life, you're occasionally forced to do things you have very little motivation to do. A candidate that demonstrates an ability to excel in such circumstances is someone I will take very seriously, since in a real professional setting (esp finance) this skill is likely to be called upon often.