18 and hopeless

I nearly got expelled from high school and ended up dropping out. When I went to college, I had no idea how to study, and I spent so much time writing code for my own private projects that I had almost no time left over to study or do homework, so my grades were awful.

But I kept getting stronger at solving computer problems. Employers asked me lots of questions about Linux, and C, and how I'd solve various problems, and so on. But nobody has ever asked me about my grades, or my GPA, or the courses, or my degree. I know grades and degrees may seem important to you now, but in my experience, it just hasn't made any difference. What has made a difference is the huge amount of time and effort I've put into programming and solving problems.

I'm 35. I work at a startup. I work very hard, but I do whatever I want. I'm still learning and getting better. I don't have a boss. I work with my friends. One friend, like me, had disastrous grades. Another friend, probably the most brilliant and talented person I know, did not finish college.

You simply don't need permission from a university to be what you want. And the university doesn't even have the power to grant anything except a certificate. If you want to become a software engineer, you do it by putting in time every day. Always curiously searching and probing and testing and challenging yourself and making yourself stronger.

Like I said, I know grades seem important to you now, but your dream is not destroyed -- it's hardly even started. Go find an interesting repo on Github and study the code and make a meaningful contribution. Solve a tricky problem and write an article about it (explaining to others is an excellent way to solidify your own understanding).

Don't get discouraged and don't ask people for permission to do what you want! :) Good luck.

Don't regret and work and learn

This is probably not how it works where you're currently living. Without an engineering degree or a lot of money, it will be really hard for you to emigrate to North America or Europe.

Your life is not ruined, in so far that you can probably still get a job in your current country.

I don't know about your education system, but can't you retake the university entrance examinations?

To my knowledge, that's usually possible in most countries. Quit design school, study for the exams, and apply again. You'll lose a year, but that's better than being shut out of the rich country emigration stream.

Ideally, if your parents can afford it, study abroad. Here in Canada, for instance, it's easier to attain permanent residency if you went to school here.

Good luck,

Why not?

I'm 23, programming since 13 and working professionally since 18. Working at a startup at the moment -- my second job ever. Never worked outside the computer engineering area.

Go for it, apply to startups in EU/USA.

If a startup don't hire you because you don't have a degree or whatever, they're doing it wrong. Work for them for 1 week and see how things go.

Do whatever works for you and be happy.

I too had delt with this problem when I was a freshmen in college for cs. Most of the papers were utter bull shit. I had to make a choice and I, somewhat cowardly chose grades, although I did try to do things that really matter (reading books that are good not the ones they want to you mug, writing open source code etc etc), grades were always my priority.

Well, guess what, it is the most stupid decision I ever made. I am out of college, I work in a start up and been to some other companies and none of them ever asked me my grades.

So my advice would be: - Build more things - Contribute some couple of Open source projects - Have a grasp of CS fundamentals (readup on algos, DS, basic computer design)

While getting credentials is a tried and true path for getting a visa, it's still dependent on getting a job offer - certainly in the US, most startups would rather look for exceptional ability/experience over a degree.

If you're really motivated, it's fairly easy to draw up a list of skills that you want to gain/learn focused on development. Then like b6 suggests, participate in some community projects that you are interested and start building up a strong public Github presence/history. If you were willing to dedicate 10yrs to get a PhD and spent that time on this type of personal development path, I think you would be much better off if you're goal is in skills acquisition/actually making stuff. Of course, this depends strongly on your internal drive/discipline and perhaps a bit on your penchant for autodidactism (personally, I think those are acquired skills, but they're rather foundational/catch-22 ones).

In the meantime you should be able to use elance/odesk to gain contracting experience/pay the bills once you're functional.

As you level up, you'll get a better idea of what exactly you want to do and get a better perspective on things.

I have always been a self starter, reasonable at math and have loved computers since I was a kid. Three years ago I began studying business and founded a startup which has grown to 12 employees, is very profitable, and looks to have a bright future.

Its not there yet, but I have created many real opportunities for myself. If you have a skill and a dream, refine it, keep working at it, and keep hustling. If your skills are not there yet, make a plan to get some, if your product is not there yet pivot or drop it and move on.

We're on a continent with massive potential, a need for innovation and a hunger for leaders and free thinkers. Your dream can only be created by you, and in the same destroyed by you.

You've chosen your product over grades, so don't whine, get busy making sure it was worth it.

Here's my story... when i was your age i started programing for a local company while i was in high school, i had no idea how to do a basic for loop. My grades suffered too, but i never gave up and i didn't go to college or university. But i tought myself PHP, and then C#, right now I'm working full time and paid well.

for the past 6 years I've worked for 5 companies and i have freelanced for a while. I've went to about 15 job interviews, only 3 decided not to hire me because of the lack of my formal education, the others were mostly looking for someone with more experience.

The important thing here is that without a degree I still get hired over people with college degrees. If you are smart kid it doesn't really matter where you are located because you can still practice what you love. Don't give up.

P.S. Try to create few personal projects that are really interesting to you and have passion for. showing people what you've built in your free time is what's most likely to get them to hire you. And if you get to earn some $$ from those projects that's going to be even better for you!

Said actually technical person is probably going to be a lot more interested in whether you can code than whether you have a piece of paper claiming you spent three years studying how to code.

Forget about degree, do your own business

Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Netherlands and a few others allow you to do so even if they say they don't.

However since you do not have an extensive practical experience, you might run into problems actually getting someone to offer you a job overseas.

Being a person with similar background (no degree) and that worked legally in a few countries already, I can just advice you to keep your head up and acquire more experience, the right time will come and the job offers will start flowing. :)

I made that decision because I have a lot of momentum in business and entrepreneurship, and I feel like college will not be able to teach me more than I can learn where I'm at now.

I recently started an online teenage entrepreneurship community, and I would love for you to join. There are some teens in the community with professional experience in computer programming (they get paid good money), although they don't have a degree and haven't even graduated high school. They are self-taught, and I'm sure they would be more than happy to give you some advice on learning to code.

The email of the school is: maroc@supinfo.com

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But most importantly is that you don't give up even if things look grim right now: as long you don't give up, the dream is not dead, it's merely postponed :)

Worst case scenario, you could continue the design school, get a job in that branch to save money, then try for the engineering school again later and by then you would have improved your skills by learning online.

Cost-wise it's an optimal option, since US undergraduate tuition is generally a rip-off, while in grad school there are assistantships and research grants.

If design school is easy for you, spend your free time studying computer science and concepts. If you plan to apply to a US graduate school for an engineering/CS degree, you should also prepare for GRE and GRE CS - even if schools don't require them, impressive scores convince them that someone without documented background put in enough effort.

Also, the governments give are going to give you a really good price for your your education, unlike our friends in the US who pay crazy amounts for their degrees. That could be something to look into.

In Sweden I'd say Chalmers University (in Gothenburg) or KTH (in Stockholm) are the top schools. They both provide education in English, classes are mixed with foreigners and Swedes. In Berlin, Germany you should check out TU (Technisher Universität (or however it's spelled)), I recall they do English-speaking courses in Computer Science (they call it "Informatik" there). Keep in mind though that all of these places are f%$#ing cold, haha!

Best of luck buddy! In a few years looking back at this you're gonna be fine, and have a great degree and interesting life!

Unless you plan on working for a large corporation or the government, your credentials are not really that important. Credentials were important in the last century because graduating from college was so rare and knowledge was only taught at the university. I view credentials as a screen mechanism used by HR departments who don't have the time or energy to understand the strengths of a candidate.

If you are determined enough you can learn anything. You can look at the curriculum at the top schools (i.e., MIT) and find books and online courses that match their major requirements. One of the things that you will find is that what is taught in school is a very small subset of skills that you need. Once you finish with the academic courses, you real lesson begins in a far more unpredictable environment-- the real world.

Everything you need is open to you on the Internet. You just need to find he harder and more theoretical stuff (in addition to practical) and make yourself work through it.

Almost all CS papers are open, except for the dratted ACM and many of those can be obtained via a professor's site, etc.

I'm not saying you shouldn't have any guidance in terms of putting a curriculum for yourself together but that too is available to you! Go get 'em.

Don't fear for have failed some exams, cause those are just bugs from an antiquated sys，just hack your way out! lol