[warwick]

Have you contacted any startups about jobs? If nobody shows any interests in your level of experience, then you don't have a dilemma, just go to school

[Edit]

This isn't to say that if you don't have an offer firmly in hand, go to school, but if nobody has even said 'gosh, we wish we had the money to hire you', then you might be much better off going to school and working on some impressive side projects.

[Graduate]

I haven't contacted any startups. I really only seriously started considering it when I got into college, which was the beginning of April. However, now that I've thought about it, I really would like to do it.

[warwick]

Getting into college doesn't limit you. Apply to some places you'd like to work anyway. There's no cost associated with seeing if startups you'd like to work for show any interest in you. That college admission will still be there if they show no interest.

Send some emails. There's no point in us telling you to go and try for a startup if nobody is willing to hire you.

I don't say this to be harsh.

When I was going into first year University, I was working for a startup doing tech support and I was pretty sure that I was amazing.

I wouldn't hire the kid I was when I started in University. He was smart, ambitious, and knew a few things, but he didn't understand business and he didn't understand that there's a whole lot of programming that goes beyond SQL statements.

During University I started my own business and learned a lot both in and out of classes. I'm graduating in a couple of weeks, and I've got a good business ready for me to focus on it.

The time I spent at school has helped me enormously, but only because I've been working as hard as I can to make the time worthwhile.

Startups are hard, you have to be a good to great programmer to participate, and sometimes the ambition isn't enough without experience to back it up.

[Graduate]

I totally agree with what you said. I will send out some emails, and see what they say.

As for startups being hard, I'm looking for experience now, so that when I start my own, I won't be lost.