A good way to get a leg up: 1. Do some jQuery tutorials and really bone up on flashy javascript. 2. Learn to use any popular web 'stack' - LAMP is easiest on

A good way to get a leg up: 1. Do some jQuery tutorials and really bone up on flashy javascript. 2. Learn to use any popular web 'stack' - LAMP is easiest on *Nix servers, RoR and Django are not rocket science. Nor is ASP for that matter. 3. Go out and find a web designer, or yourself bone up on design and CSS 4. Find easy contract work such needs basic web programming. Eg "install a picture gallery in my website" = $200/300/400. 5. Move on up with the contract work or launch your own site. 6. ??? 7. Profit! If you do this through college (and I didn't start until my senior year, a deep regret), you will level up to the forefront of web programming by the time you graduate. Also, now that web is mature - there are multiple paths to success. I think getting the Server Side Language/ Javascript/ CSS/ HTML loop right in your head is the most important. You can follow that up with MVC frameworks, Adobe Air, Silverlight there are at least 4 or 5 solidly "employable" paths you can take