29 years old Software Engineer from Europe wants to study (Bachelors) at Stanford and needs advice

Applying to College
1

tl;dr
I’m 29 years old. I’m working as a Software Engineer from many years. I have ADHD (not diagnosed until 5-6 years ago). I want to study Computer Science at Stanford in USA and need help figuring out if it’s possible.

Longer version:
I’m 29 years old and I was born in Poland. I became fascinated in computers and programming when I was 11-12 years old, and from that time I’m tied with web development.

From the young age I had huge problems with focus, so for most parts of my school’s life I was struggling with frustration, depression, because the farther it went my grades and self-esteem were going down pretty fast.

Despite frustration, lack of focus and amount of time which I had to spend on everything I was improving myself as a software engineer (frontend developer at the beginning and more generic software engineer later). I knew that I’ll probably not get any Computer Science degree, but I managed to do Master Degree in Social Communication and Journalism.

Around 5-6 years ago I was diagnosed with ADHD, and I started treatment, which for me was like starting a new life. I learnt a lot about myself and I have spent thousands of hours learning and improving myself, which showed me, how much important for me is learning and intellectual challenging myself.

A year ago I moved to UK (I have accepted a role as a Lead Software Engineer role in London’s startup) and from few months I’m spending around 30-40h a week learning math (something that was not possible before) without any particular reason or expectations, but farther I’m going the idea about studying Computer Science is growing in my head.

Next Monday I’m starting at much bigger IT company and I want move to the USA in around a year or so and I’m thinking about studying at Stanford.

  • My question is if it's even possible to start studies at Stanford in age of 30 and working at the same time.

My plan is to spend another next few months with math, then start
improving my English skills (especially writing, and speaking).

I tried to find any materials related with starting a studies in
situation like mine but for a person which has no experience with
American education’s system it’s really overwhelming, so I decided to
ask here.

  • What should I start with? Do I need to pass some exams (SAT?). Can I even pass that exams as a non USA citizen?
  • Should I receive some kind of recommendations from someone at Stanford?

I’m working really hard and I’m determined to make it happen, but without any help I know that it will be much harder so I will be very grateful for any clues and help in that matter.

2

Why do you want to study at Stanford? Do you already have an undergrad degree that trained you in CS/ Software engineering?

3

Unfortunately I don’t. I want to study there, because it’s easier for me to move with my current company to Silicon Valley so it’ll be closer.

4

There are lots of universities in silicon valley your best bet if you’d start from scratch and your company can pay for you to go part time would be to apply to San Jose State University. You’ll need a high school GPA and and excellent SAT scores + TOEFL.

5

What does your current company offer in the way of relo, visa and tuition help for you? WIll you even get a visa for the USA? Will your company actually relocate you and do the visa leg work as you don’t HAVE a qualification to help you get a skilled visa? Have you looked at what you could do in the UK? apprenticeship style degrees sponsored by your employer? Open university? University might need official pre reqs anywhere. Look At adult education options where you are (further ed colleges or whatever the community college equiv is in the UK these days) that gets non trad students university ready.

6

Honestly, Stanford isn’t likely to be one of your options.

7

Is your company willing to pay for you to take night classes somewhere?

8

https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/partners/degree-apprenticeships/index.aspx

As an example.
9

Is your company relocating you to the SV?
(If not, you’re not allowed to work there).

10

I know about working permissions etc. and yes, my company will relocate me, and help with University tuition

11

Then your best bet is SJSU. It’s top notch for CS and software development, in the SV, but more predictable than other universities since it uses a formula with GPA*test scores. Those fields are the most competitive, so a high test score is expected. But if you clear that bar then your odds of admission are extremely high.

12

Stanford grad checking in by way of transfer. From the 5 transfer classes I know of (~150 transfers) there was 1 international student. He was the son of Chinese billionaires.

Good news is age won’t be an issue at all…the fact that you have a Masters Degree means you aren’t eligible to pursue a bachelors degree though. I assume you already have a bachelors? Look into the MSCS programs at Stanford/Cal/SJSU/Santa Clara and the MS software engineering from CMU-Silicon Valley