

Ask HN: Life advice - failure with college? Aspiring CS Maj. - rh32010

First - thank you for even clicking on this and attempting to read and help me.  I understand this is a long post, but I would really value your input as a human being and a member of<p>This is a very touchy subject for me - as I have not talked about this with anyone.  The best place to start is the beginning I guess.  I would think that the first part is what most of the HN community can share as a common quality.<p>====background===<p>Ever since I had a computer in my hands (10-11 yrs) I have tinkered around with everything I could.  Starting with simple things like HTML - basic copying and editing to make stuff portray the information I wanted - even though it was very bland.  The next hurtle for me was the arrival of cable internet - being able to not wait 30 minutes to download a 2 mb file seemed unreal.  Getting the router set up for all the computers and setting up sharing and local games of quake III arena with my dad seemed like such a daunting task until completed.<p>Then 16 came and the ability to drive - and make my own money and with what I wanted was amazing.  But what would I do with this little stream of income?  I ended up renting a game server from a friend who worked at IBM.  At the time I had no idea how to work linux (thank God he set aside time to help me) - or edit server game files - or even what a cvar was.  So here I was a 16 year old kid running Wolf: Enemy Territory servers for a gaming community - that brought in its own questions - how to get files onto the server for people to download, etc.  Then came along Counter-strike: Source and I picked up another linux box - mind you the cost of this box along was ~$100 a month which was pretty much half of what I made in a month.  And I went on to create a site that accompanied the server - and now a forum.  Editing that forum created so much headache.  MySQL?  Php? What is this stuff. And starting out the school year I took the first computer programming class available ever at the school - VB.net it seemed so fun to be able to make something from 'scratch' and make it to what you told it to!  Even if it wasn't what I wanted.<p>====background===<p>Then comes college at 18 - What to major in?  Well my first thought is Comp Sci - after my experience the last 5-6 years I thought I would be a shoe in.  The first CS class I took was with Java.  What is this? There is an actual meaning beind all this programming?  Syntax vs. Semantics, Black Box vs. White box, Object Oriented programming - retaking a same modular element and using it else where?  I ended up with a D in the class, due to my programming, and changed my major.  The decision I regret most so far.  Ended up changing to accounting to finish the 2nd term.<p>Now here I am 4 years of college later struggling to attempt to like accounting - management - all that fuzzy goodness that comes from Business just to get a degree and move on.  Every business course I took - I would actively attend class the first 5-6 weeks up to the first exam with a solid 'A'  then I would disappear until the next test.  In the meantime I would continue playing around with aspects of the computer - finally installing linux myself as an O/S and understanding how items worked.  Setting up my own computers with seperate parts  Many teachers found this irritating and would drop my grade to a C or even a D just from not coming to class - even though I still read and understood all information that the course was supposed to teach.  And I want to go back and start over as Comp Sci major - even if it means 4 more years of college.  It almost seems at this point it is better to apply to a new University and not transfer credits and start fresh.  Up to this point I have no student loans - or debt - and I do not claim financial aid.<p>I really do want a career with computers - and not helping people with IT support, not doing peoples taxes, or making sure the zen of accounting is upheld with debits and credits.  I want to touch, feel, breathe computers.  I understand this is a long post - and many will not read let alone post but I would like your feedback - even if it is a smack on the back of my head.
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rh32010
Thanks for your input guys,

@DanielStraight - I guess it just comes natural for me to want a degree -
having grown up in a private school until college they drive down your throat
- you finish high school, finish Undergrad and work on Masters. And I guess I
never realized it until now - but you are right I do have a drive to learn I
just don't think of it as learning because it is so fun at times.

@mfrye I am located near Philadelphia, PA. I am going to try to contact the
county commerce offices - maybe find some one close by to work with for free.

If anyone in Philadelphia area happens to read this - I know .NET, HTML/css
(not the recent 5.0 stuff though), PHP, MySQL, Java, I am currently learning
Common Lisp(halfway through Siebel's and Grahams books), and I can read C++
but do not have an active interest in learning to program in C (so far,
although I am sure it would be a nice learning experience as it seems like a
good number of robust applications are in C).

For now I think I will continue to try to become a Comp Sci major - even if
the piece of paper has no meaning. But if an opportunity arises with a job I
will definitely jump on it.

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matomesc
I have a similar problem - i'm studying electrical engineering (currently in
3rd year) but i'm passionate about programming and web development. I recently
wanted to switch to software engineering but i realized that switching will be
a pain in the ass - i would be delay my graduation by at least 1.5 years +
spend more money. Anyways, i decided that it wasn't really worth the changing
majors at this point. Instead, i will be attending some software engineering
lectures on campus and self teach.

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mfrye
I'm under 25 and I have a similar story.

I quit college three times, I have 0 credits. You will freak out my parents
and friends a few times but it's well worth it.

Learn programming on your own, but find a good hacker to pair up with. Work
for free for him so you can get up to speed.

College majors don't mean a thing. One of the smartest programmers I know is
an English major.

Where are you located?

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DanielStraight
Why do you feel you need 4 years of schooling given how much you've learned
with none at all? You've already got the drive to learn. Keep doing that.

