Hey! I was going to PM you but maybe there are lurkers with similar questions!
Yes I'm in the USA, in the east coast specifically. I also had no prior experience group before I got to college, you're not alone in that! My only experience with CS was basic HTML on blogging sites and forums.
My schools did not help me find a job. Unless you go to a well-funded or respected community college, they won't be able to do much for you when it comes to job-hunting, because they simply don't have the alumni connections that a university would have. Even at a university, they don't hold your hand much. The main benefits come from name recognition and the huge job fairs they hold, especially at state schools. The job boards and postings your school has might be useful, but my community college had very low-growth jobs (IT help desk, field tech, cell phone sales etc) vs. my current state school which has more actual engineering internships on their job board.
As for the math, you will almost never use Calculus, Linear Algebra, or anything like that at work, unless you go into very technical subfields of CS like machine learning or graphics, but you need grad school for most jobs in those fields so don't worry about that. Focus hard during Discrete though! The problem-solving skills you use in that course will be so useful. Stuff like languages, automata, and Boolean algebra are gonna pop up often. You also need to have decent logic skills. Get comfortable with dissecting a problem and coming up with ways to pinpoint what's wrong on your own.
I recommend starting with math from the very basics. I've always had trouble with computational math because some of my foundational algebra skills were super weak. What helped me prepare for college math was doing Khan Academy starting from like 5th grade math, testing out of what I knew, and then going from there. On Coursera, Arizona State University has a great self-guided course for math. It will tell you exacrly what you need to review in order to prepare for college-level math.
The important thing with higher ed is that you stick with it. Try not to take breaks from school if you can afford it, I know it's hard and expensive but the minute you stop school, you open yourself up to distraction. Especially if you work a tedious job like manual labor, retail, or service in order to cover tuition. Also since you're also on SS, I'm gonna assume you deal with depression or another mental illness, and I know how it is when you're struggling with life and need to put aside school. But really try to stick with it, use your school's counselling center and tutoring services. School can give you a routine, goals, and purpose. That's really important when you're dealing with suicidality especially. Plus at the end of it all, you'll have that piece of paper that will open you up to a lot of opportunities. Even if you don't stick with CS, just having a degree will open you up to a bunch of higher paying jobs, even in industries like service/retail/labor/sales! Corporate HRs just love to see "Bachelor's" on a resume even if the job doesn't need one.
