<p>My son plans to major in engineering when he goes to college in a year. He has never taken a programming class or any other computer science class because at his school, you have to choose between taking a foreign language or computer science. Seniors can't suddenly switch to computer science. </p>
<p>Will he be at a big disadvantage in college? Should he take a computer science class at the community college next summer instead of trying to find an internship?</p>
<p>He should be fine as is. Introductory programming classes for engineers typically assume zero prior knowledge.</p>
<p>If he feels like he needs to or wants to get some programming knowledge before heading off, I recommend following Stanford’s programming methodology class ([Stanford</a> School of Engineering - Stanford Engineering Everywhere](<a href=“http://see.stanford.edu/see/courseinfo.aspx?coll=824a47e1-135f-4508-a5aa-866adcae1111]Stanford”>http://see.stanford.edu/see/courseinfo.aspx?coll=824a47e1-135f-4508-a5aa-866adcae1111)) which is free, online, and at your own pace.</p>
<p>Same as above but I would suggest MIT Open Courseware. They start with Python which is easier and more appropriate for a beginner. </p>
<p><a href=“http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-00-introduction-to-computer-science-and-programming-fall-2008/[/URL]”>http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-00-introduction-to-computer-science-and-programming-fall-2008/</a></p>
<p>[Learn</a> to code | Codecademy](<a href=“http://www.codecademy.com%5DLearn”>http://www.codecademy.com) is a great interactive tool for those exploring CS.</p>
<p>+1 for codecademy although it now supports only Javascript</p>