<p>Any thoughts on what language you’d like to start with? C++ and Java seem to be the standard choices at universities, so if you have an idea of the language your chosen school prefers, that would be a good place to start. I took C++ using Gaddis’s Language Companion and Microsoft Visual Studio Express (free to download and use), and it was an alright experience. I’d encourage you to download Visual Studio and bop around with that for a while using cplusplus.com as a reference. That way you can see what it’s about before sinking any money into it.</p>