We use CakePHP. Our MVP was hacked from Drupal, but we trashed that quickly due to performance issues with our project management system.
I think there are plenty of startups using PHP. It just isn't quite as trendy, so you don't hear about it as much. There are many reasons to pick PHP over Ruby/Python. PHP and its frameworks tend to be quicker to start working with, and PHP often executes faster (sometimes much faster) than Ruby or Python ever will. Apps that need to scale would probably do better to use PHP/HipHop than Django or Rails. Plus, there are definitely more PHP programmers out there than Python/Ruby, so there is the added benefit of having a larger pool of talent to hire from.
I know the guys who put Dwolla together. It shows a lot of promise, and is a huge boon to merchants because of the extremely low transaction fees (flat $0.25 per transaction vs Paypal's 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction).
However, as pg said, it is hard to encourage adoption when buyers only use it if merchants support it and vice versa.
I faced a similar problem when I was starting college. My father is disabled and my mother passed away during my junior year of high school, so I had zero financial support from my family for school.
Due to financial considerations, I chose a state school where I had some scholarships instead of the big name tech school that accepted me. Let me tell you, I have regretted it ever since.
The simple fact is that if you -can- get into a top tier school like MIT then you should go. The caliber of your fellow students will be much, much higher than at a state school, and that alone is priceless. One of the best things about college is networking and, for hackers, finding like-minded individuals to make things with. Once you factor in faculties, facilities, and opportunities, it should be a no brainer.
Regarding money, almost no college students have credit history, but that doesn't stop almost all of them from getting loans. I would be very surprised if you didn't qualify for student loans, even if you have to get them from a private organization / bank. I would talk to MIT's admissions/financial aid office, as they can probably help you piece together how you can pay for things.
Don't let money stand between you and your education. The connections you'll make and the experiences you'll have at MIT will be worth the extra money you pay. Of course you'll also like college a hell of a lot more. I know plenty of people who, like me, settled for a state school and have been bored out of their minds.
tl;dr -- Go to MIT and find a way to make the finances work.
I have to echo ncash's comment. Don't let money stop you to choose a school that you are supposed to go. Any problem that can be solved by reasonable amount of money is not a problem. When you look back after 10 years, $100K is not much of money. Try to raise money by loans, working, and even from friends/relatives. No doubt this is not easy but you are young that got nothing to lose.
I've been using Catch (www.catch.com) to organize and record just about everything. Their mobile app is pretty well designed, so I'm able to record any random thoughts I'd like to revisit later without much of a hassle.
I'm primarily self-taught, and at the age of 21 I'm comfortable listing 8+ years of C/C++ development on my resume. I built my first web site when I was 11, and I started learning C when I was 13 so that I could add features to a multiplayer text-based game (MUD).
I spent a few years running a MUD, doing some coding competitions, taking on small freelance projects, and learning about data structures, networking, graphics, and other things. When I was 15 I created a full Win32-based 2D game engine for a school project. It even had a terribly designed scripting language for defining levels and game behavior. After that project I vowed to never touch Win32 development again.
When I was 16 they allowed me to take CS courses at our local university, and I thought I'd found my home. Unfortunately I realized most college students at our university don't really care about programming and are just there for the degree. We had no hacker culture, and I tutored several seniors who couldn't fix their own syntax errors.
I've been happily employed since I was 16. I've done freelance, small projects at our university, computer technician work, and embedded systems software development. When I was 19 I got recruited by Lockheed Martin to write flight control software for the FAA for a summer. It was amazing, but I didn't want to work at a big company in the long run, so I turned down the offer to return.
Last March I dropped my job and began working on my startup full time :) I should also note that I'm in college part-time as a CS/Economics double major.
I have to admit that most epic programmers I know didn't get a formal education in CS. Some have degrees in other fields, and some have no degree at all. I think passion for software and building things takes people further than a degree. However, most of the programmers I've worked with that had CS degrees did quality work and had a good understanding of CS concepts. They just rarely seem to be coding demons.
Investors and raising capital are the top ideas these days. I also think about how if I could go back in time and change one thing at my startup, it would forcing myself to get a co-founder.
As a solo founder it is already difficult to work on product development and handle business operations. You throw in raising capital to hire four people and your workday in the short-term hits 12+ hours if you want to make any progress.
The guy who won Entrepreneur magazine's Student Entrepreneur of the Year in 2009 did so with the idea of paperless/digital receipts. You can see his service here:
Burnout sucks, and it can be hard to deal with. I began work on my startup in my spare time in college because it was fun. Once I jumped into it full time it turned my life on its head. After several months I was tired of working solely on my product, and I was tired of being at the computer in general. To gain perspective, I unplugged for a while. I read more books. I took up running again. I watched talks on TED.com and rediscovered movies and TV shows. Most importantly, I began coding stuff for fun again -- stuff that was totally not related to work. I felt guilty at first, but I ended up being far more productive in the long run.
It turns out it's the little things in life that keep you sane.
Are you a founder? Do you hold a significant amount of equity? If so, you have the power to chill out and take some time off. If not, you should remind your employers that you are a human being who will work reasonable hours. Maybe that means extending your deadlines; maybe it means they need additional developers to help handle the work. The bottom line is this: if you aren't being compensated the same as the founders then you should not be expected to have their level of dedication.
Also this. I started teaching myself programming when I was in middle school, and by the time I got to college the only thing I found in our CS department was disappointment and boredom.
However, the economics department was fantastic. We also have an entrepreneurship program that is amazing. If you have a handle on Comp. Sci. stuff then I would say find some business/entrepreneurship related program to get involved in. You'll be much more prepared to launch viable products if you have some business background. Also, I think you'll find that networking is far more important (and worthwhile) in the business community at a college than in the CS community.
I think there are plenty of startups using PHP. It just isn't quite as trendy, so you don't hear about it as much. There are many reasons to pick PHP over Ruby/Python. PHP and its frameworks tend to be quicker to start working with, and PHP often executes faster (sometimes much faster) than Ruby or Python ever will. Apps that need to scale would probably do better to use PHP/HipHop than Django or Rails. Plus, there are definitely more PHP programmers out there than Python/Ruby, so there is the added benefit of having a larger pool of talent to hire from.