I dropped out of school when I was obsessed enough with Max and render engines, spending 12-14 hours a day just testing every area. After some time I started getting contacts via the forums where I had posted my renderings to share with others.
My "secret" tool is Vray2SidedMtl. It's a cool way to create realistic leaves for vegetation and, in my opinion, it's better and also faster for rendering than using translucence map.
Looking back on my education process, i wouldn’t take back all the sleepless nights dedicated to tutorials, design articles, and so on, as they all, along with the university i attended, shaped me into the artist i am today.
Now our industry is growing, people also are learning traditional skills of sketching, clay art, photography, they are developing their own concept, using new techniques of story telling