Higher full-time education in IT, the possibility of obtaining it, the need for applying for a job, for your own business?

Question

IT education

Hello Toaster. I am turning here because there is nowhere else - the conservatism of relatives and a lack of understanding of reality do not make it possible to adequately approach the solution of the issue.
What is available:
11 classes of education.
Desire to learn programming. I want more to the web, web applications, etc.
I am interested in design and interface design, although I myself take orders mainly for layout and plugins for CMS.
I myself want to make independent applications, and in a complex way (front + back).
Current knowledge (a little js, a little php + html5+css3) was obtained independently, from books and personal experience. This is enough for freelancing. I have not yet tried to work full-time remotely.
They force you to go to uni.
Heard that:
1. In Russian universities, it is impossible to obtain normal knowledge in the field of IT, because they are outdated / not required for the target profession / teachers are incompetent.
2. Normally it is impossible to combine full-time education and work (it is important for me - especially if you can’t break through to the budget).
3. You can get a quality education abroad.
4. Companies are not interested in diplomas. You know how to do things that the company needs - they take you. If you can't, don't take it. Those. You don't seem to need a degree.
There is no desire to work in a company, "uncle". I would like to develop my own offspring, on which I can earn in the future. Therefore, the path of self-education and embedding of this very "brainchild" is logical + all sorts of success stories of quite ordinary people and even acquaintances are additionally added fuel to the fire.
Questions:
How wrong am I on the first 4 points?
Is it possible to earn enough (from 100 thousand rubles) without having a diploma?
How great are the chances of success in the case of complete withdrawal into yourself and your project?
Are there universities that will give decent knowledge in the profession of a developer?
Is it necessary to enter a specialized university or is it enough just to have a faculty, and the university is not important?

Answer 1

In my humble opinion
1. It is not clear what is considered normal. The truth is half: algorithms, networks, discrete and other basics will be taught, but a cool web developer will not be made.
2. It depends on what kind of work: full time in the office really cannot be combined, but freelancing or 20 hours in senior courses is completely.
3. Very stretchable.
4. True . This point is really difficult to explain to the older generation - apparently, they have never studied outside the institute.

Is it possible to earn enough (from 100 thousand rubles) without having a diploma?

It is not prohibited by law :-) It all depends on you: you can open your own business, you can turn big orders with trusted people on freelance, you can accumulate many years of experience, become a cool dude and get those same 100k, working "for your uncle". Of course, in all these cases it is necessary to make a lot of efforts.

How great are the chances of success in the case of complete withdrawal into yourself and your project?

What success? Finding an investor and getting into the gold stream? I would say negligible if this is your first project.

Are there universities that will give decent knowledge in the profession of a developer?

If you are guided by the web, then in the Russian Federation I don’t know such people. If you want decent knowledge at the intersection of Computer Science, Software Engineering and applied mathematics, then SPbAU , MIPT, HSE, ITMO, St. Petersburg State University, Moscow State University. This is the first time that an academic university is accepting undergraduate students, so there may be some fluctuations there, but, nevertheless, the people there are serious and they are in the mood accordingly . MIPT has a basic department, and HSE now has a whole Yandex faculty (these guys generally have a lot of all sorts of educational programs, be sure to check it out). Well, ITMO, St. Petersburg State University and Moscow State University are recommended by default :-)
I can also say about UrFU: there is a cool IT movement ( CTF , for example), contacts with the industry.And due to the provinciality (all of the above-mentioned universities are located in Moscow and St. Petersburg), admission to the budget should be easier.

Is it necessary to enter a specialized university or is it enough just to have a faculty, and the university is not important?

Why is it necessary? Nothing matters except the knowledge gained. Even an MIT diploma with an empty head will not help you in any way.
Summarizing:
- If a delay is not needed (that is, the army does not threaten) and you want to deal with the web, then with the current level of Internet development, 4 years can be spent with greater benefit. Any knowledge of this world is at your fingertips in a couple of search queries - why wait for classes if you can start gaining knowledge right now? At the same time, self-education in this case must be approached responsibly: self-motivation is not as simple as it seems, the "curriculum" should be discussed with more experienced colleagues, English is a must have. Ideally, you need a mentor who will guide you on the right path and answer questions, but if this is not the case, then it can be done through "crowdsourcing" (I believewith all its sections is an example of a system that can answer almost any question, the answer to which is known to mankind)
- If you want to do "science-intensive" tasks (Google Self-Driving car, detecting the faces of friends in Facebook photos, building fault-tolerant systems), then without a good education, nowhere and nothing. Of course, it is not enough to enter a good university and study there: you also need to actively engage in self-education.

Answer 2

While there is an opportunity, it is worth getting a higher education. Do not listen to any type, I did not receive a diploma and I know how to work and make good money. Find a normal educational institution, where there are good specialized teachers. If you want, they will teach you (many people think that they should chew everything and put it in their mouths, but you need to approach and ask, competent interlocutors will explain faster and better than you read on the Internet). At the university, you can really expand your horizons perfectly. Of course there are all sorts of non-core items and other crap.
Plus, from the university you can get an internship somewhere in a cool company. Students have a lot of goodies. Getting a visa or green card is much easier. If you have your own project and a leader, they can give a grant (not much, but still)
And the university is not only education, it is also a student movement. Hostel, students, equator and more. Those who lived through this will understand. For me it was the best period in my life.

Answer 3

1) As much as possible. Our mathematicians and engineers are highly valued abroad and can give odds to the whole world. Look ITMO has been winning first place in programming for several times in a row.
Without the fundamental sciences, you will be an inferior engineer without the structure of an algorithm, discrete logic, etc. There is nothing complicated in writing AJAX requests and retrieving data from the database. If you solve this level of the problem, then yes, it will not come in handy. There is simply nothing complicated in coding. Knowledge of a programmer does not rest on the ability to code and knowledge of libraries.
2) There is a way out. Go to the evening form of education (part-time).
3) In Russia, mathematical / engineering can be obtained no worse. One of the strongest schools.
4) It depends on which company. Sharashkin's office may not need your diploma, you just plowed it. For further growth, more is needed. It's not always easy to be a developer. It is necessary to strive for a team leader -> head of department -> tech. director.
You can earn money without a degree. This is not the question. And that you can work and develop and grow. And there is room to grow.
Or you can become a waiter and get more tips than in the office, but there will be no growth.
Success on your project is extremely small. Look at the statistics of opening startups and businesses. only 5% of them survive after a couple of years.
Of course, there are universities that will give knowledge if you yourself will contribute to this and be interested. And not to sit for the crust.
See university rankings. If you live in a metropolis, you can get a decent education. Well, if St. Petersburg or MSC is even more so.
If I were you, I would do this, go to a software engineering evening. And I went to work full-time or half-time as a front-end programmer (AngularJS, Ember, Ext and other)
ps. If you work as a programmer, then after a while you will feel that you need a crust and sooner or later you will still return to enrollment and getting this very crust.
But right now, while there is time to combine work and study. It is quite realistic if there is interest.