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Going back to school for programming? Yes? No? Are you crazy?

7 points by wfoster4 ↗ HN
After learning about YCombinator almost a month ago I ended up applying for my project that I've been working on. As I've read more and more though I know I face an uphill battle. A) I'm not a programmer so I'm trying to work with a company. B) I'm founding my project solo.

Truth is I have an economics and finance background. I am absolutely fascinated with the possibilities of the internet over the past few years and have see the proverbial "light" or I keep leaving my MAC on at night. I'm considering going back to school for a postbac in computer science. Should I go this route or are there other alternatives? At the moment I have an enormous amount of student loan debt and I am nervous about adding to what seems like an already insurmountable amount but I believe I can be successful in this field. But do I need another degree to be so?

4 comments

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gexla
A common theme here is that computer science doesn't teach you to be a programmer. You learn to be a programmer through practice and experience. Also, learning a scripting language for web development is relatively easy. Rather than spend time in class, take some time to go to a coding cave and learn the basics of one of the popular scripting languages. Take some time to practice every day. Build some applications. Read Hacker News to see what people have answered for similar questions.

Personally, I'm not sure this is the best route to go. Bootstrapping by learning web development is fine, but keep in mind there are still more roles that you may not be able to fill. For example, people who spend most of their days writing code generally aren't great designers. Designers who can make things pretty may not be the best user interface people. A great development team still needs people who can make sales and know how to run a business well. So, you could spend a lot of time learning to be a coder and still have big gaps to fill depending on what you are building.

triviatise
You can be up and running in just a few days to weeks if you just start doing it on your own. You dont need to go to school. There are some fundamentals of computer science that would definitely be useful like basic algorithms and data structures that may take longer to learn but are still doable. Taking a single language course at a community college might not be a bad way to start though.
ch00ey
If you're thinking of going back to school strictly just to learn how to program in a "structured" way that you do in school, I would suggest checking out the free courses that MIT offers online. (http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/#electrical-engineering-and-compu...)

And it will give you a taste if learning programming in a school like environment is right for you.

Good luck!