Nice to offer a pay-it-later approach (like App Academy) but seems a bit expensive for an online course?
The expense of these courses is instructors, regardless of where the course is held.
Launch HN: Lambda School (YC S17) – CS education that's free until you get a job
201–210 of 275 posts
Re: Launch HN: Lambda School (YC S17) – CS education that's free until you get a job
#202How long does the student have to wait before getting a job to void the agreement? What if a student takes the class, can't get a job, then spends 6 months of their own time on MOOC and gets a job should they still pay 17%?
Re: Launch HN: Lambda School (YC S17) – CS education that's free until you get a job
#203Mixed feelings ... 50k/yr hardly sounds like a successful placement for a semi competent programmer, more like a pipeline to the gulag in a profession that's notoriously bad at obtaining fair wages. (I presume OP will be teaching the segment on living in your car in Palo Alto ... ;p ) However, I've always been curious about this business model for schools and hope it succeeds!
The number is $50k because of folks in smaller/more rural areas. There $50k can be quite a lot.
Re: Launch HN: Lambda School (YC S17) – CS education that's free until you get a job
#204In the registration process: Are you legally authorized to work in the United States? Just a note: We are currently unable to offer income-based repayment outside of the United States. You can still attend Lambda School, but you would have to pay at least $10,000 up-front $10,000 - that's about as expensive as a high quality bachelor's degree (in Germany) at private university via distance learning, where someone can…
If I wanted to spend 10,000 $ on a CS education, I'd put some of it into the Georgia Tech online MS program [1] and still have 3k+ left. Admittedly I do have a Bachelor's degree in (non CS) engineering,so I meet their eligibility criteria.
Burning 10k for a non accredited "CS" education makes no sense. How much Computer Science you can learn in 6 months is another question. If you don't want accreditation,why not work through some CS MOOCS at edx in that time and save the 10k?
I doubt many companies will take 6 months of such "Computer Science bootcamp" seriously.
OTOH I suppose this might be better than paying for a code bootcamp. And many people do pay that much to learn barebones javascript, might as well learn some barebones 'computer science' instead. Why not?
Might be interesting to see how this turns out in a year or so.
[1] From the Georgia Tech online MS FAQ
How much does the degree program cost? Exact cost will depend on how quickly students complete the program. We anticipate that working students will take an average of two courses per term, resulting in a total program cost of about $6,600 over five terms. Students who complete their programs more quickly will pay less; those who take longer will pay more.
Re: Launch HN: Lambda School (YC S17) – CS education that's free until you get a job
#205I'm going to play devils advocate here. I don't think I'd be in your target market primarily because I feel for 15k a year I can achieve a decent education just by online resources alone. It would be just as well recognized; I'd even think that a local community college could be cheaper. Granted, upfront cash is a luxury that few without the bank of mom and dad can access. An Irish degree costs 3000 euros a year to e…
Indeed, it is difficult to compete with the price of a fully subsidized education. That said, we still have students from the EU that attend Lambda School. It's not all about cost, it's also about use of time. You can get a degree that is more well recognized in four years, or you can attend Lambda School and work for three years. Would you rather hire someone with an official degree from a community college or someo…
I'm curious how your students in Europe will agree to return the % of salary back to you. I would imagine there would be more restrictions in that regard than with the IRS.
In Ireland even a degree in CS from the worst school guarantees a base of education that has been reviewed and agreed upon. I'm unaware if the same vigilance has been applied in your own curriculum.
Also, please remember that degrees are necessary should one wish to migrate internationally in many situations so don't discount them out of hand.
Personally, I'd hire the person with the degree before any bootcamp on its own. That said, I believe that most degrees are useless without real world knowledge and application. I've hired 10 staff over the past 12 months from a variety of backgrounds, some with MSc level, others who have barely scraped through their B.Sc. Qualifications means competence at school, doesn't always equal to success in the software engineering field.
Re: Launch HN: Lambda School (YC S17) – CS education that's free until you get a job
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed, it is difficult to compete with the price of a fully subsidized education. That said, we still have students from the EU that attend Lambda School. It's not all about cost, it's also about use of time. You can get a degree that is more well recognized in four years, or you can attend Lambda School and work for three years. Would you rather hire someone with an official degree from a community college or someo…
I'm curious how your students in Europe will agree to return the % of salary back to you. I would imagine there would be more restrictions in that regard than with the IRS. In Ireland even a degree in CS from the worst school guarantees a base of education that has been reviewed and agreed upon. I'm unaware if the same vigilance has been applied in your own curriculum. Also, please remember that degrees are necessary…
We don't know how students in Europe can agree to return a percentage of salary yet, which is why we don't offer income share agreements in Europe yet.
I don't discount degrees at all, I just don't think they're the ultimate solution to anything nor do I believe they're the only way to be qualified for a job.
We have a lot of students with CS degrees that starting out could barely code their way out of a wet paper bag. I'm entirely unconvinced that a degree guarantees any real level of ability. That's not to say that no one with a degree can code, just that not everyone with a degree can code.
Re: Launch HN: Lambda School (YC S17) – CS education that's free until you get a job
#207Let's say I make $60k a year now in an unrelated field and I join your school, but after graduating, I was unable to find a job in software.
Would I still be on the hook to pay you 17% of my income despite not landing a programming job?
Re: Launch HN: Lambda School (YC S17) – CS education that's free until you get a job
#208Let's say I make $60k a year now in an unrelated field and I join your school, but after graduating, I was unable to find a job in software. Would I still be on the hook to pay you 17% of my income despite not landing a programming job?
No, you'd never pay us a dime.
Re: Launch HN: Lambda School (YC S17) – CS education that's free until you get a job
#209I'm going to play devils advocate here. I don't think I'd be in your target market primarily because I feel for 15k a year I can achieve a decent education just by online resources alone. It would be just as well recognized; I'd even think that a local community college could be cheaper. Granted, upfront cash is a luxury that few without the bank of mom and dad can access. An Irish degree costs 3000 euros a year to e…
Indeed, it is difficult to compete with the price of a fully subsidized education. That said, we still have students from the EU that attend Lambda School. It's not all about cost, it's also about use of time. You can get a degree that is more well recognized in four years, or you can attend Lambda School and work for three years. Would you rather hire someone with an official degree from a community college or someo…
The timeline for community college is usually 2 years or 3 with a work term.
In the end it feels like a bad deal because you need to pay 17% and you miss out on the extra year of education
Re: Launch HN: Lambda School (YC S17) – CS education that's free until you get a job
#210I'm going to play devils advocate here. I don't think I'd be in your target market primarily because I feel for 15k a year I can achieve a decent education just by online resources alone. It would be just as well recognized; I'd even think that a local community college could be cheaper. Granted, upfront cash is a luxury that few without the bank of mom and dad can access. An Irish degree costs 3000 euros a year to e…
Indeed, it is difficult to compete with the price of a fully subsidized education. That said, we still have students from the EU that attend Lambda School. It's not all about cost, it's also about use of time. You can get a degree that is more well recognized in four years, or you can attend Lambda School and work for three years. Would you rather hire someone with an official degree from a community college or someo…
>Would you rather hire someone with an official degree from a community college or someone that attended a CS Academy and worked for three years?
obviously, one would eventually transfer from community college to a university