If you want to study at a better college, look for professors in your field, find someone that does something interesting, and ask them if they will take you as a student. If you are good, some institutions will actually pay you for studying there.
This is easiest if you already have at least a bachelors degree, and want to go to grad school. At least in Europe, most grad schools pay PhD students (in science/engineering), and if you are smart, it's not that hard to get accepted.
At least in Austria it's quite common to receive a stipend for your masters' thesis (in science/engineering). It's not always enough to fully cover living expenses, but it sure helps a lot (eg. I got 400€ a month while working on my master's thesis).
After that, PhD positions are almost all paid normal wages.
That said, if you can't find an engaging and challenging experience learning about software in your college, either A) you are at a bad college and need to change or B) you haven't actively tried to take full advantage of the resources available to you.
When I was an undergraduate I took graduate courses, TA'd intro courses, worked on research projects, got published, etc, and I wasn't some uber student. I just was really interested in things and spent a lot of time asking professors and graduate students stuff. I had the opposite problem, there was so much I wanted to learn about and so little time to do it.