I also didn't learn to program until late in college. Worse still, I'd tried to teach myself to program in high school and failed. I was definitely intimidated

I also didn't learn to program until late in college. Worse still, I'd tried to teach myself to program in high school and failed. I was definitely intimidated by my classmates who had been doing it for years, and I struggled with concepts like recursion. But more than 10 years later and I'm doing just fine. Not only am I gainfully employed as a programmer, but I've had the pleasure of working on some pretty sophisticated systems. It just starts by trusting that you can (eventually) learn the material, and just work at it until you do. That being said, I like Dr. Bob Harper's description of CMU's CS program as essentially and extension of algebra, and that it doesn't particularly favor students who have experience coding. > This quote drives the point home that programs like KodeWithKlossy don't seem to really focus on helping those who are economically unable to seek out CS education, but those who have the money; as long as there are women/gender minorities in our program (who can pay), who cares if they actually need help accessing CS programs or are the groups of people that need the most help? This seems consistent with the observation made by the journalist Douglas Murray that affirmative action-type programs invariably serve to benefit only the most privileged members of the target minority group.