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[quote=Anonymous]"If she is in her own company, sure she doesn't need a degree but if she works for someone else she does. My husband has a CS degree. He has no issues getting jobs. A friend, who is equally as good, doesn't have his degree and has been laid off multiple times and lots of trouble getting jobs. Maybe early on its fine but as you get older it gets more competitive. Force it."

Almost.  You don't need to force her to get a degree but rather that she will 100% regret not getting a degree.  This poster is 100% correct up until the last sentence.

What she needs is a plan.  Something like:

1. Call the year after she graduates from HS a "gap year".  That means she needs to apply to college like everyone else but then defer enrolling for a year.  Some schools may allow a second deferral, which might be useful so make sure she looks into that.
She doesn't necessarily have to go to college, just have the option in writing from a college that she has deemed, the least objectionable.

2.  All of this should be written out in a contract that assigns a certain ownership percentage of her "company" to her parents who are major investors, paying room and board.

3.  During the "gap" she should work basically full time on developing an app or freelancing.  She needs to understand that this year should be MORE work than going to college.  [b]More independence means more responsibility, period.[/b]
She needs to have the idea that if she doesn't make it work in 15 months, that she needs to go to school hanging over her head.  She needs to regularly give presentations on her progress to her "board of directors",
her parents, to make sure she is on track.  On track not only means, producing code, but also is keeping the books in order.

4. She should take 2 classes each semester at CC or the state school down the street.  Most likely these should be business related and useful to her fledgling company.  
Anybody can make a little cash on the side that looks like a lot of money to someone who can't get an $18/hr job stocking selves.
The trick comes when you do enough work and make enough money so that you want to move out of your parents basement, but still have to follow all the rules, pay taxes, insurance and hire an assistant to have enough time to do the work.

5. While the first few classes should be business related, the degree eventually can be in anything.  If she thrives on this type of arrangement, depending on if she takes any classes over the summer, she could get her degree in 5 to 8 years at this rate.  At that point, you can/should give your percentage of the company to her as a graduation present.

Obviously, I just wrote this out as fast as I could type.  She and you need to work this agreement out carefully, maybe even have a lawyer read it over.
For the right situation, it can work wonders whether you actually implement it or just use it to get her to see the full picture.
Good luck

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