does outside of school coding prowess matter?

[Anonymous]

My DS, currently a high school freshman, has been all in on coding for a long time. He's regularly engaged in high-level chats with the guy who wrote Python, has had his projects featured in podcasts and newsletters, has companies paying him to use his work, and has written a program that is part of Python's standard library. BUT, this is all he wants to do. He doesn't play sports; he participates in one extracurricular. He refused to join the coding club. His grades are good (mostly As).

Should I be tiger momming him to do more, or just let him do what he loves? He's happy (has a good group of friends and is a normal sweet kid at home), but I don't want to fall down on the job.

[Anonymous]

He’s too one dimensional - I’d have him do something artsy or linguistics so he can apply as a double major.

Assuming he has high aspirations?

[Anonymous]

Your kid may want to skip college or go into the workforce and take night classes.

It's absolutely an option if you will allow it. The traditional 4-year residential college is not for everyone.

I can see your kid bored/disinterested in many of the general requirements, as well as the intro level courses even in CS.

If anything, encourage your kid to start a hackathon competition team. I bet he thinks the coding club is boring, but a competition team can just pull two or three other experienced coders and then enter Bishop Ireton, TJ, Blair, Georgetown, UMD.

[Anonymous]

I'd leave him be. He's 14yo. Hes going to school, spending time constructively and not getting into trouble. Congratulations!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your kid may want to skip college or go into the workforce and take night classes.

It's absolutely an option if you will allow it. The traditional 4-year residential college is not for everyone.

I can see your kid bored/disinterested in many of the general requirements, as well as the intro level courses even in CS.

If anything, encourage your kid to start a hackathon competition team. I bet he thinks the coding club is boring, but a competition team can just pull two or three other experienced coders and then enter Bishop Ireton, TJ, Blair, Georgetown, UMD.

Don't listen to this. Truly bad advice. Any higher level job wants a college degree.

It's best he be well rounded but if that's it, that's it.

Not all HS have computer science clubs. Ours doesn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your kid may want to skip college or go into the workforce and take night classes.

It's absolutely an option if you will allow it. The traditional 4-year residential college is not for everyone.

I can see your kid bored/disinterested in many of the general requirements, as well as the intro level courses even in CS.

If anything, encourage your kid to start a hackathon competition team. I bet he thinks the coding club is boring, but a competition team can just pull two or three other experienced coders and then enter Bishop Ireton, TJ, Blair, Georgetown, UMD.

Don't listen to this. Truly bad advice. Any higher level job wants a college degree.

It's best he be well rounded but if that's it, that's it.

Not all HS have computer science clubs. Ours doesn't.

You actually don't know what you are talking about. Please, stay out of conversations where you actually have zero true insight.

Go to SFO right now and walk into Open AI, Anthropic, and any number of hot startups and you will find a decent number of people working at those companies without degrees (and yes, a decent number with PhDs and everything in between). These aren't HS dropouts without skills (nor are they the classic Stanford dropout Sam Altman excluded)...they are kids like the OP's kid. You don't have a kid like this so you don't understand.

That said, I didn't say don't get a degree, however, the traditional 4-year college may not be the best fit.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the posters who say he may want to skip college. Computer science may be one of the few types of jobs one can do based on skills vs degree. My brother skipped college and makes a lot of money doing computer stuff. When he hires it is based on coding ability and not degree.

That's not to say your kid shouldn't go to college. I think he's doing everything right and he'll be fine no matter what. I think your kid sounds really impressive and passionate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your kid may want to skip college or go into the workforce and take night classes.

It's absolutely an option if you will allow it. The traditional 4-year residential college is not for everyone.

I can see your kid bored/disinterested in many of the general requirements, as well as the intro level courses even in CS.

If anything, encourage your kid to start a hackathon competition team. I bet he thinks the coding club is boring, but a competition team can just pull two or three other experienced coders and then enter Bishop Ireton, TJ, Blair, Georgetown, UMD.

Don't listen to this. Truly bad advice. Any higher level job wants a college degree.

It's best he be well rounded but if that's it, that's it.

Not all HS have computer science clubs. Ours doesn't.

not true. if he is very talented he could get a job after high school and do quite well for himself. if he has contacts who want to hire him, i don't think college is absolutely necessary. look at some of the founders of the tech companies as examples.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS, currently a high school freshman, has been all in on coding for a long time. He's regularly engaged in high-level chats with the guy who wrote Python, has had his projects featured in podcasts and newsletters, has companies paying him to use his work, and has written a program that is part of Python's standard library. BUT, this is all he wants to do. He doesn't play sports; he participates in one extracurricular. He refused to join the coding club. His grades are good (mostly As).

Should I be tiger momming him to do more, or just let him do what he loves? He's happy (has a good group of friends and is a normal sweet kid at home), but I don't want to fall down on the job.

99.9% of all existing CS kids would be doing cartwheels just to be able shake the guy's hand.

Assuming what you say is true, this is the equivalent of becoming a Thiel scholar (maybe an option, regardless of one's views on Thiel)...which is worth 100x any college degree (though some decide to get a degree after their 2-year commitment).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS, currently a high school freshman, has been all in on coding for a long time. He's regularly engaged in high-level chats with the guy who wrote Python, has had his projects featured in podcasts and newsletters, has companies paying him to use his work, and has written a program that is part of Python's standard library. BUT, this is all he wants to do. He doesn't play sports; he participates in one extracurricular. He refused to join the coding club. His grades are good (mostly As).

Should I be tiger momming him to do more, or just let him do what he loves? He's happy (has a good group of friends and is a normal sweet kid at home), but I don't want to fall down on the job.

99.9% of all existing CS kids would be doing cartwheels just to be able shake the guy's hand.

Assuming what you say is true, this is the equivalent of becoming a Thiel scholar (maybe an option, regardless of one's views on Thiel)...which is worth 100x any college degree (though some decide to get a degree after their 2-year commitment).

It's real. His name is Guido van Rossum, and my kid was super star-struck the first time he engaged with him. I actually just think it's cool that he (Guido, not my kid!) is still so involved in discussions about the mechanics of Python.

[Anonymous]

He should start his own company or start selling services now.

[Anonymous]

Geez, this type of stuff is way better than being president of the coding club at school. I think you know this. Sometimes it is good to be pointy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS, currently a high school freshman, has been all in on coding for a long time. He's regularly engaged in high-level chats with the guy who wrote Python, has had his projects featured in podcasts and newsletters, has companies paying him to use his work, and has written a program that is part of Python's standard library. BUT, this is all he wants to do. He doesn't play sports; he participates in one extracurricular. He refused to join the coding club. His grades are good (mostly As).

Should I be tiger momming him to do more, or just let him do what he loves? He's happy (has a good group of friends and is a normal sweet kid at home), but I don't want to fall down on the job.

Nope leave him alone.

Absolutely leave him alone.

He will major in CS and graduate and have a fantastic job and it won't matter what school he goes to either. And he has a great advantage to interviewing for these jobs as most have tests or projects that involve coding and many can not pass them because they didn't do what your kid has already done.

Mom of a similar DS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your kid may want to skip college or go into the workforce and take night classes.

It's absolutely an option if you will allow it. The traditional 4-year residential college is not for everyone.

I can see your kid bored/disinterested in many of the general requirements, as well as the intro level courses even in CS.

If anything, encourage your kid to start a hackathon competition team. I bet he thinks the coding club is boring, but a competition team can just pull two or three other experienced coders and then enter Bishop Ireton, TJ, Blair, Georgetown, UMD.

Don't listen to this. Truly bad advice. Any higher level job wants a college degree.

It's best he be well rounded but if that's it, that's it.

Not all HS have computer science clubs. Ours doesn't.

not true. if he is very talented he could get a job after high school and do quite well for himself. if he has contacts who want to hire him, i don't think college is absolutely necessary. look at some of the founders of the tech companies as examples.

This back-and-forth is exactly why I asked the question. I don't know that he cares to go to college, and what he is doing now is beyond what they teach in college CS (from what I can tell but I'm a layman looking in at a world beyond me), but that feels very strange to me. In my family, the rare people who didn't go to college didn't go because something was really wrong from a mental health perspective. I don't know whether to doubt my paradigm, or to doubt him. When it comes down to it, this would be quite the fight to pick if I were to pick it. He wouldn't be happy, and I could very well not win the battle. But, I felt like I had a fiduciary duty to at least consider it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your kid may want to skip college or go into the workforce and take night classes.

It's absolutely an option if you will allow it. The traditional 4-year residential college is not for everyone.

I can see your kid bored/disinterested in many of the general requirements, as well as the intro level courses even in CS.

If anything, encourage your kid to start a hackathon competition team. I bet he thinks the coding club is boring, but a competition team can just pull two or three other experienced coders and then enter Bishop Ireton, TJ, Blair, Georgetown, UMD.

Don't listen to this. Truly bad advice. Any higher level job wants a college degree.

It's best he be well rounded but if that's it, that's it.

Not all HS have computer science clubs. Ours doesn't.

You actually don't know what you are talking about. Please, stay out of conversations where you actually have zero true insight.

Go to SFO right now and walk into Open AI, Anthropic, and any number of hot startups and you will find a decent number of people working at those companies without degrees (and yes, a decent number with PhDs and everything in between). These aren't HS dropouts without skills (nor are they the classic Stanford dropout Sam Altman excluded)...they are kids like the OP's kid. You don't have a kid like this so you don't understand.

That said, I didn't say don't get a degree, however, the traditional 4-year college may not be the best fit.

Stop with your non-sense. Those people are few and far between. My spouse is in high level IT and no one is getting those jobs without a degree. Basic jobs, sure. A good friend doesn't have a degree, equally skilled and he has a much harder time getting and keeping jobs.

And, yes, I have a kid like this who wants to go into CS. They know they need a bachelors and we are pushing for a masters as its good to have. You are giving bad advice that will hurt someone in the long run.