
How One High School Grad Studied Computer Science Debt-Free and Nabbed a $90k Job - Reddichu
http://www.fastcompany.com/3043275/my-creative-life/how-one-high-school-grad-studied-computer-science-debt-free-and-nabbed-a-90
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mateo411
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.

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chriogenix
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.

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jim_greco
You don't have to rack up student loan debt at MIT or any of the other elite
colleges in America. If your family can't afford it then you'll get a ton of
grants from their endowments (and work study to supplement). It's the next
level down in colleges, especially at liberal arts schools, where students get
stuck with the bills.

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jvrossb
Two of my closest friends went $100k+ into debt during their MIT undergrad
graduating in 2013/2014\. Not everyone gets covered by financial aid.

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USNetizen
People confuse entry level programming with true computer science. I'm sorry,
but there is no way a few months at some "hacker school" will replace a four
year degree heavy in mathematics, theory and design.

Schools like these are producing mediocre coders, at best. Which is fine if
you just want to write a few small apps. But you REALLY need that CS
experience and education to effectively work on large scale engineered
systems. There is no way around it.

On a side note, I also got a CS degree debt free. I served my country to get
it. People want so much for nothing - there are no true shortcuts in life.

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woah
Actually, CS degrees have little to do with programming skill. I work with
hacker school graduates that write cleaner more maintainable code faster than
others with CS degrees and 20 years of experience.

EDIT: Actually, the fact that you mention "large scale engineered systems" is
interesting. Generally, I have found large, monolithic, tightly coupled
systems to be very unmaintainable. "Building a small app" (or a bunch of
them), along with in-house libraries tends to be the way to go if you want
maintainability. "Building a large scale engineered system" might actually be
a red flag when it comes to code reusability and quality.

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USNetizen
That is your social proof. Try passing one of these hacker school grads off in
an engineered environment at Google scale - they fall apart quickly.

You proved my point, though. Programming is only one small aspect of computer
science. Engineering, mathematics and theory is the biggest part which you
can't get at a 6 week school.

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nostrademons
I worked at Google, in Search. Some of my best co-workers studied Film
Studies, Philosophy, never went to college, or toured with a punk rock band in
their early 20s.

A CS degree is one way to learn about algorithms and core CS concepts. It is
not the only way.

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toomuchtodo
> A CS degree is one way to learn about algorithms and core CS concepts. It is
> not the only way.

This is a dangerous idea to those who spent 4-6 years of their life in school
before they started receiving real life experience.

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seanflyon
"Debt-Free" is a real stretch.

> In contrast, students at Make School pay tuition through their internship
> earnings and 25% of their earnings in the first two years on the job.

Coming out of a 6 month program owing $45k of future earnings sounds like debt
to me.

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joshstrange
This is an easily overlooked point, that's about how much debt I had when I
dropped out of college to go into software development full time. That said I
would have probably picked Make School over college if given the option....

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jim_greco
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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robotkilla
do they give grants to people in their 30s who already know how to program?

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diverightin63
Make School takes 25% of your salary for two years. $45,000 is quite a price
tag in my mind.

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robotkilla
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.

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qmalxp
FWIW I regularly got destroyed by the homeschooled kids in math competitions
in high school. That said, they were a weird bunch.

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robotkilla
I was raised in an ultra religious hosehold that didn't allow me to associate
with people from the "World".

What do you mean by weird? This seems perfectly cromulent to me.

endsarcasm

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calebhicks
I love working in an industry where it's about what you can make or build on
your own, not necessarily what your degree says.

As a past junior high teacher, I'm really excited about the new ideas around
practical education.

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urda
I obtained my B.S. and M.Eng in Computer Engineering & Computer Science also
debt-free, and landed a 100k+ job straight out of college.

I had to work my butt off with a few part-time gigs, had to do some smart
saving, and cost managemen. I was able to do it without locking myself into
anyone who wanted a cut of my pie.

It's not impossible, but you have to be willing to commit to it.

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rhodysurf
Except the 45k he owes back to the school is about the same amount my
engineering degree cost me total.. That's not exactly debt-free

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atmosx
I know more about _computers_ than most guys I know with a CS degree. Then
again I know physicists (Google has a huge number of them) that know more
about computers than I will ever learn.

I don't think that a CS degree is all that important. It's the self-drive that
makes the difference IMHO. Then of course, having a background helps a lot,
but in todays world there is little that you can't learn by yourself given the
right amount of (free) time and effort.

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Bouncingsoul1
How I studied CS Debt-Free: I live in Europe. End.

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slam3s
That's extremely impressive and goes along the line of experience over
education.

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tapatio
Children of retired military get a free college education so that's another
way.

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joshstrange
As someone who dropped out of college to go into software development full
time [0] I can relate quite a bit to this article. After graduating HS I went
to college, that's just "what you did", I never considered another path until
around my second year in college and even then didn't do anything until spring
break my junior year when I worked a full 40hr week and loved it, my stress
levels plummeted and I decided "Why wait?" I talked to my parents and my boss
then went to the guidance office and dropped out.

I'm still young (24) so I'm not going to say "Everything worked out perfectly"
because I can't know that yet but so far it has. After I had 2 companies under
my belt I was able to go just about wherever I wanted (That is anywhere that
my skill set lined up with what they were looking for) because I've found
employers care a lot more about what you can do/what you have done than a
piece of paper from a university. I'm not ready to write off college
completely but in it's current state I don't see it lasting much longer. The
college bubble will burst if they don't start making changes. The world has
changed but colleges have not, they no longer prepare student for the real
world (if they ever did in the first place) and they don't guarantee a job.

I love my job and what I do. I have no plans on finishing my college
education, I might take community classes at some point but really I don't see
the point. It doesn't affect me in my job searches and that money could be
better used to pay off my college loans. I have older people tell me all the
time that I should finish college but I think this is more because they grew
up in a time when that worked not because they are actually right that I'll
need it in the future. IMHO a degree only helps for your first-second job (if
that) and after that no one cares.

I think another important point is a number of people I am friends with or
have talked with seem to think the end of college marks the end of learning.
That couldn't be further from the truth, I learn every day and spend a vast
majority of my free time working to get better at what I know and/or pick up
new languages/skills. I didn't drop out to stop learning, I dropped out to
start learning things that mattered. If I ever went back to school I don't
know if I would even go for my CS degree but instead take classes on subjects
that are not as easy (for me) to learn online or that I might just like the
classroom atmosphere for like writing or history maybe.

[0] [http://joshstrange.com/why-i-canceled-my-college-
subscriptio...](http://joshstrange.com/why-i-canceled-my-college-
subscription/)

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sogen
So sad to see that being debt-free causes a headline.

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username3
$90k with benefits?

