What word describes a person who never went to college, but is very successful, and well learned?

Solution 1:

The noun might be autodidact.

a self-taught person

Solution 2:

Consider self-taught

having acquired knowledge or skill on one’s own initiative rather than through formal instruction or training: a self-taught artist

There is also a phrase in US usage that suggests learning from experience, and especially adversity, rather than formal schooling. Such a person is said to have attended the School of Hard Knocks.

Solution 3:

My grandfather, who never went to college but spent a lot of his professional time explaining physics and engineering to those who had gone to college, would, when asked, say that he was a graduate of the College of Hard Knocks. Sometimes he would be asked where Hard Knocks was located, geographically.

Solution 4:

You might consider:

resourceful adjective : able to meet situations : capable of devising ways and means

in the sense that education (and its underlying funds, typically) are a resource, thus a person who does without this resource is resourceful.

from m-w.com

Solution 5:

Automath may be useful also.

from: http://webster-dictionary.net/definition/automath

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autodidacticism - a history of the idea of being self-taught.

My personal theory, is the the goal of home-schooling is autodidactic children. That is, the educating of children who go on to being adults that continue to learn through teaching themselves. However, the goal of institutional schooling is diametrically opposite. That is, institutions manifest a culture of mass-production and limited innovation, encouraging or even mandating it's students to concede to dictatorial erudition. Thereby keeping most of them simple.