You can learn things well being at a shitty uni. I did this. You miss out on the whole experience of being surrounded with awesome people with awesome ideas, though. It's a very important aspect, which is difficult to make up for if you try to. It's possible with computer-related topics because of nntp, irc, ftp, web, and now places like hn. It doesn't fully replace it but it's a good prosthesis. It doesn't work for most other subjects. To put it simply, you can learn to cook italian never have been to Italy -- but you won't be a good cook.