[brogrammernot]

What does your son want to do? In all honesty, I would let him make the decision if he wants to go to university or not.

There is tremendous value in an undergraduate degree outside of just the education. It's the formative years for a young adult to experience life outside the realm of his protective "cocoon" if you will. The least valuable thing I got from college was the actual degree, the most valuable thing I got was learning what happens when you don't budget correctly, whether it be time or money.

I wouldn't advise the boot camps at all, I would advise edX and just have him start messing around with different frameworks/languages. Build some stuff with the MEAN stack. Build tools with Python, you could build some nifty DevOps type stuff with Python. Have him explore data analytics with Python.

Also, MIT or Stanford isn't the end all. Great schools, but it's more about the individual's grit and desire to succeed in life than the school on his diploma.

Just my two cents.

[martin_e]

Agreed on all points. Just looking for a variety of opinions to help think things through.

I think the value of places like MIT and Stanford is in the network. Like you said, not the end-all.