advicethrowaway

>First world problems...

Depression is an every world problem.

People capable of building a quality product will not settle for " stock options, connections, real life code examples, etc".

Does anything?

If you're wondering why you're being downvoted, google the phrase. It's a well known joke.

Thanks for the link.

1. That's good to hear.

2. I am a bit worried about that, which is why I want to take advantage of the opportunity now rather than four years from now when it might not be available.

3. I do have family to stay with there.

4. That's definitely true but I personally value money/opportunity/career to dating.

5. My plan right now is to do exactly that. I am a bit worried about how a gap year will affect my scholarship opportunities though.

I completely agree. I know that I won't be able to self-teach everything that I would learn in college.

Thanks for the advice.

>Do you want to be an entrepreneur? Do you want to build a product and company, work for startups, or work in enterprise software development?

I want to be an entrepreneur, running my own company on organic growth rather than VC money. I don't have a problem with being acquired but I don't want to be using other peoples' money.

But before I attempt that I want to work as an employee of startups to gain business experience, making mistakes and learning from them while still earning a salary.

Both of my parents are professors so I've had a lot of pressure to choose to go to college but I really appreciate everyone's input on this. I think the best decision is to go to college while simultaneously building side projects, contributing to open source, doing freelance/remote work, etc.

I have a follow-up question, however:

With my qualifications, how likely is it that I could land an internship in San Francisco this coming summer?

I'm currently learning many new (to me) technologies, ramping up my open source activity, and writing a blog. Is there anything else I should to do increase my chances?

Great advice, especially:

>plus you might miss out on learning things you wouldn't self-study.

I'm certain there are subjects I would love to build products around but I won't be able to teach myself as adequately alone.

>if you are in-state for UT-Austin I doubt it is too expensive.

I am in-state and I have some money in savings so I could probably manage it well.

>nobody knows what will be important 10 years from now

That's one of my fears about going to college. Perhaps it's irrational but I have this feeling that I'll miss out on prime opportunities which might not be available after I graduate.

>The skills you pick up in college, as well as the credentials, may prove to be useful.

I definitely agree with you on that. If I ever want to get into more rigorous software development like machine learning, searching, etc. college would be very valuable.

>it's a hiring filter at lots of established companies and you'll be defending not having a degree for the rest of your career if you don

I agree, it's essentially putting a handicap on myself for the rest of my life.

Do you think four years of full time experience and networking wouldn't outweigh a degree?

These probably don't factor in but here are some more details about my background/credentials:

SAT is 2040 (not superscored)

Top 7% of my class

#8 in the nation in web design for BPA.