If yoy want your son to get an IT career get him a plane ticket to New Deli.
Do you have some spare computers lying around the house?
If not, you can pick up old computers at the thrift shop or Craigslist for pennies on the dollar.
All he needs are some computers he can network, and maybe a book, and then some exam question cheats.
Self Test and Transcender were two of the traditional market leaders:
http://www.selftestsoftware.comThe advanced Cisco [and Juniper] exams are about the only ones where you might need some classroom time, because there you are dealing with actual hardware.
But people have been known to purchase used Cisco and Juniper equipment off of eBay and have taught themselves that way.
certifications are a dime a dozen. A good education is worth more, experience even better. Certifications arent a waste but they are better from a well known reputable source.
Send him to a community college get a two year degree. If you want to avoid liberal colleges, send him to Bob Jones or Liberty.
Online classes are crap. I’ve done them.
Certifications aren’t worth much. An associates degree from a community college is worth a lot more.
Trust your gut instinct on this, and don't let these guys talk you out of it - by and large, college is a total waste of money [and when you think about what your tuition money is subsidizing, it's even worse than a waste of money].
In today's business world, it is almost essential to get some type of certification if for the only reason that it can get your foot in the door. The single most valuable thing your son can have in this effort is an insatiable appetite for learning, a rabid curiosity about how things work, and a single-minded focus and terminal perseverance on figuring out why something doesn't work.
If he has these qualities, he will become very valuable and earn his way to an IT job that will pay quite well. There are still plenty of employers who, once you get past the HR department, are really focused on what a person can do as opposed to how many degrees they have.
You basically just answered your own question with this. He is going to need schooling outside of the house at some point if he wants to achieve certain goals.
As far as his dealing with the liberal aspects of community college goes, seriously, big deal. It's a part of life and if he is going to succeed he is going to have to learn to adjust in all environments. The world is not going to bend to his thinking just because he wills it to be so. He can still aquire knowledge while filtering out the garbage. That's a lesson that should be learned by junior high.
Teach your son something that can’t be done just as well by someone named “Venkataperumal” in India.
For $5 a day.
He went to college, and has a few upper level certifications (he's an RHCE, which is a very difficult test to pass as the second half is a timed live test on a broken system).
Here is a review of the test to give you an idea:
http://www.linux.com/feature/35283
He would tell your son to do what he loves. Buy or find old systems being thrown away, as previous folks have mentioned, set up networks, build clusters, install new operating systems, break it all, fix it all, and do it all over again.
At various times, my guy has had everything from ancient Macs to an old Alpha Server at home (iirc, it was about the size of a dishwasher). Sparcs (Ultra & pre-Ultra), SGI, some HP Apollo machines running HP-UX, endless PCs, and he knows every last one of them inside and out. He's run AIX, HP-UX, Tru-64, various versions of Linux, every version of Windows except ME, DOS, SCO-Unix (:(), and others.
He says that some people he works with have degrees, some don't. Some have certifications, some don't. But either way, it is key to master what he wants to know - to really be able to do it and do it well.
He also suggests that if your son goes to college (and he should if he possiby can), he should sign up for as many user accounts on as many systems at school as he can and learn as much as possible. Those accounts are free to students and they can be great way to get real-life experience on systems that may otherwise be hard to get access to.
While he's in college, your son could work to get certifications if he'd like to, or at least build the foundation for doing so once he gets out.
Good luck to your son & congratulations to you! It sounds like you have a great couple of kids!
My husband is an IT manager and hires all the time. Your son needs the degree (at least a 2 year degree.) He can get a two year degree (A.S.) that specializes in IT, or he can get a 4 year degree in something like MIS or Computer Science, and add certs if he wants.
As far as the “liberal” stuff, he can go to a community college for his general requirements and you don’t get all the liberal leaning profs you’d find at a larger university.
If he goes for the 4 year degree, his courses in his major won’t have a liberal slant (how do you make a course in programming or network administration “liberal.”)
Have him seek out internships while he’s going to school (even unpaid internship) that will give him experience. Certs with no experience are useless. Degree with an intership will get you much further.
Do the college or community college thing and ignore the over inflated certificate nonsense. Stare run colleges are a MUCH better deal.
We home schooled our four children into HS. Oldest son is now a programmer and owns his own business so he can afford to be a youth pastor.
What will my son have from four years of college that your son won't have, besides student loans?
A network of buddies that can get him past the first line of interviews into lots of jobs. Local folks that he can call when he encounters something strange for the first time.
Does your son at 15 know how to build a webpage? (And I don't mean MySpace)
Can he install Windows onto a new box?
Can he take a Vista machine and turn it to Linux, and then back to Vista?
Does he like hardware or software? Probably as good a starting point as any.
Can he stay organized while he upgrades several computers at once, including tracking all expenses?
Have him join the IT dept at your church as a volunteer. Have him volunteer at the local library. Find a position at a local nursing home and help out all the old folks that need help emailing their “good-for-nothing” kids that never come to visit ... for that matter, have him help out all the folks in your family who get a virus or spyware attack.
IT is NOT about hiding in a cube, its about interacting with people to solve their problems.
My value comes from being able to explain to anyone (literally) how to accomplish their daily tasks on a computer. From doctors to ditch diggers, from Mac to Vista to Linux to DOS. What value will your son bring to those that are willing to pay for help? Because if they are not willing to pay for his help, then he is truly a volunteer.
If going to a liberal school is your big concern, then have him attend Bob Jones University, Pensacola University, Tennessee Temple, Hillsdale, or even BYU. Any of these will provide him a college education grounded in Christian principles and a marketable degree.