I am 22 years old and I was home schooled my entire life. I sat around all day everyday programming and have been doing it about 15 years now. I left home when I was 18 and my mother never graduated me. I recently got my GED and I scored in the 80-99 percentile on all tests. I enrolled in college this summer and have been doing pretty well. I hate the community college I'm at right now and I feel like all of the courses are not challenging me at all. I know I could test out of all my computer programming classes without a sweat.

I have been looking into CLEP as a way to expedite my degree but my current ghetto college does not offer it. I really want to move to nearby Raleigh, NC and attend NCSU. Also Epic Games is in Cary, NC which is very close and it would be my dream to work there. I have devised a plan which could allow me to reach all my immediate goals within the next 6 months or at least bring me very close to them.

First, I will drop out of next semester at my current college. Next I will study very hard to get a high score on the SAT then when I am sure I will do well I will take the test. After that I will apply for admission to NCSU. If they accept, I will transfer my work over there and move. Finally, I will attend college next spring and I will take the CLEP tests for as many computer programming courses I can(I believe the max is 30 credit hours) Apparently I can use a pell grant to pay for them as well. After that I will try for an internship at Epic Games but if that does not happen it won't really matter because I will still have my current job.

This seems kinda crazy to me but I honestly think I can do it and it would set me a lot closer to my goals. Should I go for it?

Honestly I think its a bad idea..., Trust me Iam all for getting school over with myself, but if there really isn't a pressing need for you to immediately graduate whats the point of rushing it?

If you take your time you'll find out that you will learn alot more then skipping along, regardless of what you knew before college about programming, you will come out of it with a even better grasp of programming then you did before, epsecially with so many concepts to explore with computer science,

Every year I like to make myself believe that Iam a top notch programmer lol, but with every year that passes there is always something new to learn and explore, I suggest take the time to explore and learn some new topics in college, you might not find another four years where you can just expand your mind.

[Edit] I actually took some time off a college for a full time Lead development job at this small shop. But now I really wish I had the time I had before to go back to school and finish it all (which I will going back this fall) granted I was a math and physics major, all the rules still apply.

I honestly learn better on my own and I have personal projects I would prefer to spend that time on instead of sitting in class. Plus I am sure I will get a far better education at NCSU than I am getting now. I am more worried about the risk of not doing as well as I think I can. On my college placement test I scored 97-99% on every category but this test was not timed... It seems like I should be able to do this but I still feel like it's a big risk...

I'm a little confused by the OP, but I think he's talking about bailing from school?

I didn't finish college when I was younger and I regretted it later.

Granted I was somewhat ill and that affected my brain negatively... But once that got fixed one of the first things I did was enroll in school again. I'm 24 so I feel a bit old to be doing this, but I'm on my last term for my associate's degree, then I'm going for engineering. I'm hella happy about it. School kicks ass.

If the classes are not enough for you, take the time you have to build a portfolio. Start making games. Where are some games you've completed?

The classes are plenty enough as far as consuming all my free time but they do very little to provide me with any new knowledge.

If you wanna transfer schools, thats perfectly fine, but why drop out for a semester if you dont have to?

I need to get high scores on my SATs to get into NCSU and I won't have any time to study for it. I am going to school full time and working a full time job... Moving, registering, transferring work, transferring credits, taking tests, and all of the other stuff would take time that I just don't have.

I honestly learn better on my own and I have personal projects I would prefer to spend that time on instead of sitting in class. Plus I am sure I will get a far better education at NCSU than I am getting now. I am more worried about the risk of not doing as well as I think I can. On my college placement test I scored 97-99% on every category but this test was not timed... It seems like I should be able to do this but I still feel like it's a big risk...

And there is your answer! Your instincts are warning you against leaving.
Dont drop college, just keep side projects and keep learning extra skills.
You can even make a couple of games and sell them (Angry birds anyone?). Use them as portfolio, showcase them to other companies, try to get sponsored/scholarship.

But trust me when I say this: Being good at programming isnt enough. You need more skills that cannot be self taught.

Being Able to Talk in Public
Managing a Team
Discussing project features and deadlines
Handling a broken milestone (very important to be able to explain to the managers why you just missed a deadline)

Those skills are extremelly useful and companies will rather hire people that can express themselves than nerds that cant communicate unless its via email or msn. And you will never learn those from a book or sitting by yourself.

Yours Truly
K

[quote name='SteveDeFacto' timestamp='1309277751' post='4828726']
I honestly learn better on my own and I have personal projects I would prefer to spend that time on instead of sitting in class. Plus I am sure I will get a far better education at NCSU than I am getting now. I am more worried about the risk of not doing as well as I think I can. On my college placement test I scored 97-99% on every category but this test was not timed... It seems like I should be able to do this but I still feel like it's a big risk...

And there is your answer! Your instincts are warning you against leaving.
Dont drop college, just keep side projects and keep learning extra skills.
You can even make a couple of games and sell them (Angry birds anyone?). Use them as portfolio, showcase them to other companies, try to get sponsored/scholarship.

But trust me when I say this: Being good at programming isnt enough. You need more skills that cannot be self taught.

Being Able to Talk in Public
Managing a Team
Discussing project features and deadlines
Handling a broken milestone (very important to be able to explain to the managers why you just missed a deadline)

Those skills are extremelly useful and companies will rather hire people that can express themselves than nerds that cant communicate unless its via email or msn. And you will never learn those from a book or sitting by yourself.

Yours Truly
K
[/quote]

I'm not dropping college... It's just one semester which I can far surpass if I do the CLEP tests but if I don't do this I won't even have a chance to take the CLEP tests. Also a lot of my credits from this community college won't transfer to other schools...