I've long thought that there are too few hackers and too many CS students. Nobody can merely just educate people to turn them into hacker programmers but you ca

I've long thought that there are too few hackers and too many CS students. Nobody can merely just educate people to turn them into hacker programmers but you can give some support in that regard. First, set the bar high enough in universities/colleges that only people who have that magical natural programmer aptitude and lots of spare time programming experience can make it. Limit investing the precious university resources to that level and above only. This prevents academic CS education from being dragged down and dumbed down because they have to shovel nearly anyone who got accepted through the system. Then, supplement those who wish to become the CS students but who lack the necessary mind and experience with training courses that begin from zero. These can be private courses or public education available in some other, non-academic institution. If it turns out that, given some experience, some of the trainees actually have the right aptitude then they can collect more experience and eventually apply to the university/college like the rest of the hackers.