OoO

I think I've settled on lisp, python, and c to be the basis of my education in programming. What's the optimal order to learn these in?

That's a decent selection. Of course you'll need to learn other languages too to get a decent pool of jobs, but that's not really much about ``education''.

Any order will be fine. You could start with Python given that you'll find plenty of material written for beginning programmers. There are also extremely-high quality texts on-line that use Scheme (like HTDP or SICP), so you could start with those, but they are long, in depth and require a bit of effort.

But then again, if you've enrolled into a CS program already, chances are that you'll be dedicating most of your time to preparing for their courses and preserving your sanity.