[dantle]

I would never hire a highschooler to do a real demanding coding job, and I would imagine that it's all a startup would have to offer. "A little bit of programming" is what a lot of your peers entering college have, and they're not jumping on the startup bandwagon or being recruited by tech companies. College is a necessary hurdle to weed out the people who suck. If at the end of the day the startup fails (and most do), then at least you still have your degree. I doubt admissions officers are really going to understand why you took a year off; after all, they're not going to be engineers.

Also, college is a terrific formative experience. I can't think of a better way to spend my time between 18 and 22. As an engineer you can pay for it by doing coops, which are usually $15-25/hr and you do it for six months (and get overtime pay). I have some friends that did two and were able to make payments on their cars and handily pay their tuition and housing.