Can University and Bootcamp Graduates be called "self-taught"?

Can University and Bootcamp Graduates be called "self-taught"?

Self-taught - it's one of the most used words in the software development space, especially when it comes to the learning part, I'm also guilty of this as I even made an article and a video about whether you should go to a university, enroll in a Bootcamp or learn on your own(again "self-taught"), but can university/college and Bootcamp graduates be regarded as self-taught developers.

The short answer is YES.

Now for the long answer.

If you think about it, even though students go to classes and boot camps hold cohorts, it still comes down to how much time you're willing to put in to actually learn the skill of programming. You have to study, read books, and even watch videos about programming concepts, and 80% of that, you have to do on your own.

Many people are in the university studying software engineering but don't program outside class or even know how to code. Then how did the ones that know how to code do it, they're going to the same lectures, the same department, the answer is simple, they learned by studying in their own outside classes.

Being self-taught doesn't necessarily mean someone didn't go to university or enroll in a Bootcamp, it also means studying outside of that stuff and really putting in the work to learn the skills it takes to be a software developer. Universities won't teach you everything, in fact, 80% of the most valuable skills you'll need in the real world, you'd have to learn them on your own.

As I'm writing this, I'm going through the 100DaysOfCode learning full-stack development which I know will take me way more than a hundred days to achieve, we did web development for only one semester which is nowhere near enough to teach you what you need for web development, meaning you'll have to still go and learn on your own.

I think the only difference between a "self-taught" and a university or Bootcamp student is the guidance that students get(even though some of it is not that good). But that's just my own two cents.