[daxfohl]

I have to disagree with that. I came into college as an engineering student with a strong interest in humanities. I really wanted to get a lot out of some sociology, philosophy, and psychology classes, and signed up for more than required. But the reality of it was, they were complete wastes of time and ended up turning me off of humanities.

For me personally, I'd have been much better off just following some curricula and reading the material on my own, not fussing with memorizing arbitrary details for a test and working on team reports with other disinterested students.

I think there's something to the apprenticeship thing, and would love to see this succeed. Even if it's not for everyone, I think it's good for lots of people. Six months seems a little short, for sure, but maybe 18 would be enough to learn the main algorithms, learn some project management, and push to be a productive team member. And I think working on "real work" is much more motivating than classwork for the average 18 year old, so that's going for it too.