You should be programming in your spare time. You should be well-aware that much of the knowledge that is necessary to start programming/learn to program is no

You should be programming in your spare time. You should be well-aware that much of the knowledge that is necessary to start programming/learn to program is not locked up in labs on college campuses, but is actually freely accessible throughout the web... If you really want to start, then start, there's nothing stopping you. You generally will be better at things you like to do (since you'll get more practice) -- and I think that will be the best indicator of whether you'll be good at it -- there's usually something very long if you love something (like programming) but are bad at it after months of doing it. Really, what colleges are there to teach you (or force you to ingest, if you want to think about it that way), is the algorithmic, high-level side that can be applied no matter what language/framework/etc