Can I catch up if I start a full-time computer science degree at 24 years old?

Yes you will...in Israel (startup nation) it's common to see people starts their degree at age 24...(after army,trip and working at some part time job to get money for the degree...)

Yes, you can. If you have enough time and resources to go and complete formal education CS course, by all means do it. You will gain solid understanding of fundamentals you'll be able to build upon for decades. By the time you reach professional maturity which is in about 7 years of production experience, the age aspect will not make a difference and your previous real life experience may actually prove advantageous. What will make a difference is the amount of your practice, overview of technologies and an expert mastery of two or three mainstream or trending ones. Another obvious advantage is actually having relevant education in your CV.

Yes, you can. But you must clearly understand that programming is an area where your learning NEVER ends.

A degree in Computer Science alone will not make you a good programmer. Computer Science is not just about programming though you will get a better grasp of the fundamentals if you implement the concepts as programs. To be a good programmer all you need is a knowledge of algorithms, datastructures and a lot of practice. The courses will surely provide you opportunity to practice programming but they go beyond just programming. The degree will introduce you to basics of Computer Science and give you a new outlook. If you just want to be a better programmer, you can study the algorithms and data structures om your own and practice on websites like http://www.topcoder.com/ and others and try building things. But I feel that a degree in a good university is worth it. And you can definitely definitely catch up. All you need is dedication and practice.

The primary objective for someone studying Computer Science should not be becoming a "good" programmer. The primary objective should be gaining a solid basis in the fundamentals of Computer Science while exploring a few advanced topics of interest to gain breadth. Here are a few topics that I feel are fundamental (in no particular order): Probability and Statistics Discrete Mathematics Data Structures and Algorithms Theory of Computation Computer Networks Operating Systems Cryptography Security (To understand how flawed cryptographic implementations can fail

I am a Marine and Being in opens us up to soo much more than just a full time student. you are already running on a whole nother  track than the rest of the world and your journey is not in need of ketchup (although i do like it on my fries) your opportunities are enormous. Remember when school starts by no means will life stop this is an outlet it should not confine you even while in school never stop chasing your passions for if you are driven to follow your passion you will be lead past where you could possibly expect ~Love and Let GOD~