I met a guy local to me that flew for ASA. He was an ex--mechanic at LCAL and had a few thousand hours in the RJ....no interview at UAL. He was *****in and a moaning one day and I asked him "Do you have a 4 year degree" and he said "no".
I told him "You gotta play by the rules they set" I would suggest getting that degree as fast as possible, in which he did!
He works for UAL now....and very happy.
GET THE DEGREE