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Comment by JonathanMerklin | Hacker News Reader

> There will be so many students that will struggle to learn python-specific topics that are irrelevant to learning the act of coding

Correct me if I'm wrong - I just went to an unrespected state school - but I would think that the MIT admissions filter selects for students who wouldn't particularly struggle with something as small as language idiosyncracies, especially in an introductory course.

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No, you're right. I'd go so far as to say even people at my unrespected state school wouldn't struggle with things like that.

Hm, perhaps your state school is "less unrespected" than mine, but my CS program had a very real funnel from "couldn't hack it in Programming 1" to "couldn't hack it in Calculus 2" to "couldn't hack it in Data Structures and Algorithms" to "couldn't hack it in one particular professor's mandatory upper-level courses" to "tripped on their gown."

I digressed a little. Point being: while I'm unsurprised that some % of people from a broader range of abilities couldn't get functions or iteration or inheritance or whathaveyou to stick, I'd be very surprised if ANY % of the culled-by-18 right end of the Bell curve couldn't grok both fundamental concepts and any relevant part of the standard documentation (on which we appear to be in agreement.)

If you have never been exposed to programming before chances are you will struggle no matter the name of the school. The name will, most likely, help you get a better job but don’t worry about the skill level attained (unless you went to something like Trump university).

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