I had an irrational fear that I’d be blown out of the water by “hacker kids”
Totally rational. If you take a CS course at a major university, you will be, even if you think you’re a good programmer. But you’ll still learn a lot.
Depends on what is meant by “hacker kids,” I suppose, but I took plenty of CS courses without substantial prior programming knowledge or hacking experience and was not blown out of the water by anyone.
Being a good general problem solver / logic puzzle solver / game manipulator (3 innocent spells/items = infinite wishes) seems more important to programming than being a l33t hax0r with prior experience. Maybe these goes away with sufficient experience, but not for the level found in experienced college students.
Totally rational. If you take a CS course at a major university, you will be, even if you think you’re a good programmer. But you’ll still learn a lot.
Depends on what is meant by “hacker kids,” I suppose, but I took plenty of CS courses without substantial prior programming knowledge or hacking experience and was not blown out of the water by anyone.
Being a good general problem solver / logic puzzle solver / game manipulator (3 innocent spells/items = infinite wishes) seems more important to programming than being a l33t hax0r with prior experience. Maybe these goes away with sufficient experience, but not for the level found in experienced college students.