I don't understand the ins and outs of this website, or the scoring system. As far as I can tell, my score "went down" because I made an honest (but negative) observation about former world chess champion Gary Kasparov on some previous thread.
Lots of great advice already given, the gist of it being to focus on what you can DO for your employer. On that note, please read _Ask The Headhunter_, or browse his web site.
Also ... think about what your 37 years of life and work experience might bring to a tech company beyond the ability to sit behind a monitor all day. For instance, if you've had some people-facing experience (and who hasn't), you might be much better qualified for a sales engineer or other customer-facing role than some 22-year-old would be. Many customers will prefer to deal with someone who looks and acts more "grown up."
Right now, you need to focus on your self-confidence, and not "fear." The demand for competent developers - which has nothing to do with classes taken - is insatiable.
If you've always wanted a degree, you should go ahead and do it.
Thinking back to my own BA degree in (pure) math, it was highly theoretical, and I don't see how I could have applied any of the upper-division course content to real-life work.
The program you've found seems more applied. That could be a plus. Unfortunately, it also seems really "wimpy" - the course list is massively watered-down version of what a good department would offer. (E.g. instead of "Algebraic Topology" they have "Geometry for Teachers.") That's disappointing.
Suggestions:
1) Can you find a stronger program, perhaps in statistics (to match your interests), or perhaps an interdisciplinary program between math, CS and statistics?
2) Can you find something close to home you can attend in-person, part-time, for interaction with fellow students? You'll get much more out of it.
3) Check out the Math BA requirements at places like MIT, Berkeley, Harvard - to get a sense for what courses a really good US math department offers as well as requires.
Nice initiative. The website is cool (assuming that it is original design - new to me), but the content needs work: I see some sucking up to Evernote, lots of praising yourself with adjectives like "rigorous" and "autonomous." (Remove all self-congratulatory adjectives. All of them.)
Employers want to know that you understand the job and that you can do the job. That's it. Your task is to convey that you can DO THE JOB - by describing the RESULTS that you have ACCOMPLISHED. Also, read _Ask The Headhunter_.
I also use Evernote. Powerful tool. Sucky marketing and training materials, though. They do need help, perhaps from you.
In addition to the good points you make, I've heard that top people within Apple are increasingly assigned to the iPhone and iPad, and there just aren't enough (human) resources left over to design new desktops (to Apple's high standards).
"Years of experience" is a BS requirement from HR. You need to figure how how to convey to the hiring manager that you understand the work/problem and that you know how to do/solve it in a way that will suit them.
Read _Ask The Headhunter_. Really. Best job-hunting resource ever.
Hey, I (much) prefer urban life. Starting from the ground up, I wish they'd built Palo Alto and Menlo Park to be real cities. I wish I lived in a city with a real subway, and the people density to support it. And women.
But all that's not the same thing as adding skyscrapers today's mid-Peninsula. Most of these responses are coming from an idealistic blank-sheet mindset. In the real world, we don't have the option to start from scratch.
Then, when I wrote and published my own book, and learned a lot more about the industry, I realized that the current book publishing and distribution model makes no economic sense (unlimited returns!!??) and is fated to die.
Support your public library. Support online competition to Amazon. But the brick and mortar bookstore, except for a very, very few, is history. Don't mourn it. Create a better, different tomorrow.
Google "urban planning." The "dumb rules" may not be convenient for you or me in the short run, but they exist for a reason: water, sewage, traffic, pollution, supporting a sustainable quality of living for the long term.
I don't have the answer - and I notice that you don't really offer one - but I know that the answer is not to throw out all our laws in a short-sighted imitation of some polluted Chinese metropolis.
Perhaps your decision to leave will be easier if you realize that if they needed to let you go, for whatever reason, they'd do it in a heartbeat. Not out of malice, and perhaps not without regret, but as a rational business decision.
I'm confident that the vast majority of those who agree with this decision are white, and therefore believe (probably correctly) that it will never happen to them.
But if you're a darker-hued, equally law-abiding citizen ...