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How One High School Grad Studied Computer Science Debt-Free and Nabbed a $90k Job

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Re: How One High School Grad Studied Computer Science Debt-Free and Nabbed a $90k Job

#5
If he still has an opportunity to go to MIT, he should do that. It's great that he was able to get into the industry, but not many people have the opportunity to get an education at MIT. He will get to learn a lot of topics(Physics, EE, theoretical CS) that he wouldn't get exposed to in industry. He will probably make some of his lifetime friends there too. This network will be great for his social and professional life.

... and if he doesn't like it, he can go back and get another software developer job.

Re: How One High School Grad Studied Computer Science Debt-Free and Nabbed a $90k Job

#6
He should still go to college or budget his time in such a way that he is able to study the things he would learn in college.

This is coming from someone who has been in the industry for 12 years. I was homeschooled my entire life (until attending and dropping out of a community college). I thought that meant I was using correspondence courses but recently discovered from my mother that she just purchased text books and used those to educate me (save for 1 year during "grade school" and all of high school which was correspondence).

As I said, I've been in the industry for 12 years and to this day I feel like I'm judged harsher in interviews.

Also I'm not bragging about the homeschooling. I'm pretty ashamed of it.

Re: How One High School Grad Studied Computer Science Debt-Free and Nabbed a $90k Job

#9
post #5

If he still has an opportunity to go to MIT, he should do that. It's great that he was able to get into the industry, but not many people have the opportunity to get an education at MIT. He will get to learn a lot of topics(Physics, EE, theoretical CS) that he wouldn't get exposed to in industry. He will probably make some of his lifetime friends there too. This network will be great for his social and professional l…

I'd say it depends on what the costs are. If he has to rack up a TON of student loan debt it may not make much sense. You can make friends and social connections outside of school if you create the environment to do that. Its a lot easier in school but to avoid the traps of student loan debt its probably better to continue making/creating software if thats the end goal.

Re: How One High School Grad Studied Computer Science Debt-Free and Nabbed a $90k Job

#10
He had to pay 25% of 2 years * $90k for this. This is a terrible trade off. MIT is incredibly generous with grants and work study programs. My girlfriend's family ended up paying ~$10k a year to go to one of the best schools in the world. And when you graduate you're looking at a job well north of six figures.

Edit: It was actually ~6k for her. Class of '05.

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