> for the reputation of going to one of the better ones. > as someone approaching middle-age, I would be taking my classes more seriously than many students 10

> for the reputation of going to one of the better ones. > as someone approaching middle-age, I would be taking my classes more seriously than many students 10 years younger than me. I've been to the CS departments at Stanford, Harvard, MIT, CalTech, and the like. The competition is brutal. For every student that's slacking off there is another doing everything they can to keep their 4.0 GPA. Don't kid yourself that your fellow students won't be taking their classes incredibly seriously. > The path of least resistance to getting $BIG_CORP on your resume is by interning as a student. It's easier to get in that way than as an experience developer, where you'll be evaluated more harshly. I promise you this isn't true. Google gets around 50,000 applications for 1,500 internships. That's a 3% acceptance rate. You will be competing for internships against wunderkinds who have been coding all their life. Have you asked yourself what you would do if you spent several years getting a CS degree and didn't get the internship you were looking for at a big tech company? Because that's statistically the most likely outcome. You say you've had interviews and failed: do you think a CS degree would help you pass? Because having been in hundreds of technical interviews I can say that most of the things being tested can be picked up in a few months of prep. Networking is more than taking a business card. It's building relationships, friendships, and connections. It is hard work, and not everyone can do it. If you do go back to school, I would absolutely concentrate on building as many of these connections as you can.