Where I live, a student coming out of school with a CS degree could expect 55K or so, moving up to maybe 80K after years of experience. That being said, I pay $

Where I live, a student coming out of school with a CS degree could expect 55K or so, moving up to maybe 80K after years of experience. That being said, I pay $450/mo for a 1000 sq ft apartment, and gas is < $3/gallon. Cost of living here is nothing compared to the west coast. There are an abundance of tech jobs at large non-tech companies here. WalMart, for example, is headquarted here. So you get a lot of programmers who don't do much, if any, hobby code and programming is just a job. They get their 4 year degree, sign on with Walmart, work, get married, have a family, etc. Not a very eventful place at all as far as tech goes. I was once on a flight from Texas to Arkansas and sat next to a rails dev from the bay. I was so excited to sit next to a techie and have a chat, and then it occurred to me what a lack of tech community we have around here. This was a big deal for me to meet another dev but to him it was just an average flight.