I'm in the same boat, mate. I'm a Junior majoring in Computer Science and Engineering. Lately, I've been getting more and more frustrated at my complete lack of

I'm in the same boat, mate. I'm a Junior majoring in Computer Science and Engineering. Lately, I've been getting more and more frustrated at my complete lack of time that I can devote to doing what I actually care about: starting up TextMate and programming. I've thought about a few options and to be honest, I still don't know what I plan on doing. But it's cathartic for me to think like this. The way I see it I have a few options. Note that all require some sort of sacrifice: 1. School requires a lot of time because that's the time that's required to achieve high grades. It's not easy to get an A in a course and that often comes with doing a lot of work and assignments. Yet, it's still possible for you to learn what you actually needed to learn from the course while not doing every little tedious exercise. That frees up time. Example: Last quarter, I had this really awful EE class. I understood the basics of the course, as evidenced by my midterm/final grades (both were 91%, some 20% above class average), yet I didn't bother to do most of the homework. That was 20% of my grade and I got a C+ rather than an A because of it. That's the sacrifice...but on the flip-side, I got a solid headstart on a personal project that I'm really excited to work on. Second example: There's a little story out there about Zuckerburg when he was creating Facebook. He allegedly had stopped going to class or focusing on his school-work when Facebook started taking off. 2. Consider doing a major besides EE/CS if you already know how to program. That frees up your time and you could easily get work done on your startup on the side with an English or Economics degree. 3. Admit that you can't focus on a startup and get great grades at the same time. Tough-it-out for a few years and start thinking about startups once you graduate. Do things like have a life and having fun now. 4. Consider starting something with a few co-founders to alleviate some of the required invested time. 5. Think small. Don't think of a huge time-consuming idea. You don't have time for that AND getting good grades. I'd love to talk more. Email's in my profile if you're interested.