You seem to be overlapping your experience (hobbies, class structure 20 years ago when you went to school, which school you went to, how you focused your electi

You seem to be overlapping your experience (hobbies, class structure 20 years ago when you went to school, which school you went to, how you focused your electives, etc) with what "colleges teach" There are lots of "foundational knowledge" materials out there you can pick from the realm of "CS" - there's a theoretical track, practical track, grad school track, "just enough CS to be CS while I have fun doing other stuff" track ... If it's vital [to you] that an intern (which, most often, is defined as someone you'll only have for a few weeks or months and who is distinctly still in school) have all that "foundational knowledge", then put it in the job posting :) Most internships I've ever seen have far fewer requirements (because the company is going to do some amount of training for the interns during their tenure). They're more along the lines of: - Jr majoring in <degree> with minimum <GPA> And ... that's it I knew "a lot" coming out of high school - more than ended up being covered in pretty much every [core] class I took over the next couple years Didn't make me at 20 comparable to someone who'd been doing the work professionally for a decade or more :)