My suggestion would be for your brother to pursue education in an area that is important, yet less familiar to him. Depending on what he chooses can help dictate the where he lives and how he could fund it.
Ex. I recently took 5 months in between jobs that were largely managerial and qualitative in nature to participate in a full-time code school program. Besides the practical use of learning to code, the greatest benefit to me was in the way it pushed me to be more structured with my thinking and explicit in my instructions to others. As your brother is a CS/Math major, I would think something along the lines of philosophy and history might be interesting topics to explore. Below are some examples.
What to study: History/Philosophy Focus: Modern Philosophy and the making of the modern world Where to live: Paris, London, Berlin - Bonus points if you live with a local host family What to read: Hobbes, Rousseau, Locke et al. What to do: Learn the basics of another language, travel, experience the culture, and connect it to your readings and apply your new found appreciation for history and philosophy to your work. It will help you frame your arguments. How to fund: English and Math tutoring
What to study: History/Philosophy Focus: Ancient Philosophy and Alternative Economics Where to live: China What to read: The 5 classics, the 4 books, History of China Podcast (its excellent), Poetry, Communist/Maoist lit. etc. What to do: travel, learn about Chinese culture and basic Mandarin (Peking Uni in Beijing offers courses in culture and language at a fairly cheap rate) How to fund: English and Math tutoring will work most anywhere, but China has more options for Americans in terms of paid gigs. He would be a hot commodity in China.
Bonus Points: Focus on physical fitness and developing a routine to manage physical health (prep for life at a desk)
Hello, all. My sibling asked my for advice recently, and I'm making this post on his behalf.
Said sibling is currently currently has one more year to go at MIT before he gets his bachelors degree in Mathematics/CS. He is also enrolled in a 5-year masters program, so he will need one more year after that to finish a Masters, after which he anticipates getting a job somewhere the CS Industry / Finance / Academia. Anyway, he is interested in taking a gap year after finishing his Bachelors to pick up some novel experiences, and trying something different from what he has been doing already and plans to do after graduation.
Right now, he is in the brainstorming stage, and is looking for ideas. Note that he is not opposed to getting a job or something of the like - as long as its a different experience that what he would get working for a large software company, or a hedge fund, or something of the like. Financially, he does need to earn enough to live on (this isn't quite a vacation), but he isn't worried about money aside from that (so the "money" constraint only needs to be satisficed, not optimized.) With that said, what are some things that he might consider doing?