Advice for a Student?

I know nothing more about you than what you have said here, so I am responding only to this.

> ... exam ... determines what college you get into.

Noted.

> I performed terribly on my exam so I could only get into very mediocre colleges.

Noted.

> ... will be trying again but I don't think that results will be much different this time either.

So you are demotivated, and despite the gap year, you feel you won't do any better.

> ... the mediocre colleges here are straight up garbage. The quality of teaching is abysmal.

Noted.

> I feel like I'd be better off learning things on my own than going to such a college.

If you are demotivated, why do you think you will do better studying on your own? Will you be able to create and maintain the motivation? What is it that motivates you?

> There are so many amazing CS courses online that I can use to teach myself.

Yes there are, but the ones worth doing require significant amounts of work, and maintaining that level of commitment is hard. Perhaps you need to work out why your preparation for your exams is going poorly, try to get to the root cause of your lack of motivation.

> ... for most jobs here, a college degree is an essential requirement.

Then you need a college degree.

> Any advice would be deeply appreciated.

So:

* You need a college degree;

* The colleges you can get into are rubbish;

* You feel you could study on your own.

Based purely on that it would seem that you should go to one of the colleges, meet their minimum attendance requirements, study on your own, making sure that you cover all of the material that will be on the exam, ace the exams, get your degree, and move on.

The fact that the teaching is rubbish will be irrelevant, and the existence of the exams will help to give you focus on your study. You will be forced to cover even those things you don't really like, which if you do solely self-study is a danger.

Take control of your own learning, but allow it to be guided by the college's curriculum. You will get your degree, be experienced at self-learning, and have a complete and well-rounded education.

Okay, I am just going to assume that you are from India(if not, situation in India is very similar).

I took the Gap year and couldn't clear JEE, the most prestigious test in India. So I took admission in some private college. Yes, education might not be the best but going to college is a whole different life experience I mean other than just studies. It might be difficult for you to just go to "any" college or you might feel like "you wasted a year" but it's not like that every day you learn something new and once you go to a college you'll realize that gap year was actually very important(not just for study but for personal development too.)

Also all these marks, who scored how much, how much you scored in high school etc all these matters until you go to college, after that it won't matter at all. Going to college will help you find a lot of different paths, different "career options".If end up going to college you'll meet people from different background having a different mindset that will help you a lot to develop your thinking and to understand how things actually work in the "real world".

P.S: You are 18 worries less, enjoy more :-)

Whichever college you'll go, you'll need to commit yourself and learn a lot by yourself. The earlier you take the habit, the better you'll be. Don't wait knowledge comes to you, grab it by all means.

In some countries, college degrees are mandatory to obtain jobs, and you'll need one. But college is not only for learning (remember: learn by yourself whatever you want, all is accessible) college is also to meet people, to create a network in your field of interest. So use this time to achieve this, meet the futures CTOs, coworkers or maybe your future cofounders ! This is far more important than you think, and in fact, I would have liked I had this advice more younger...

If college is extremely cheap, you should at least try to go to the ones you can get into, because sometimes it is good to have "any degree" for immigration/resume screening purposes.

If your goal is to find work as a programmer, putting 3 years of literally any experience on your resume and passing some kind of technical interview is all you need to get a job in the current industry. Good luck!

Source: I am a US citizen, I have a non-technical degree, I have 8 years of """"professional"""" experience, and I passed a few technical interviews ranging from leetcode problems to portfolio review to random questions about SDLC

hey, I went to one of the best uni in my country and that makes me regret too as I picked that uni & major because my friend said it was very hard to come and I have should pick the other. my advice to you is: you should ask yourself which professional career you want to take & talk to professional people working in that field to seek advice. Don't compare with your friends, they may have reasons for their choices. You 'd better have deep understanding of yourself first. If you want to be Software engineer you can pick online courses & make your own products as your porfolio is more important than your CS degree, but if your type is more about researching, think to take a degree.