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No Tuition, but You Pay a Percentage of Your Income if You Find a Job

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Re: No Tuition, but You Pay a Percentage of Your Income if You Find a Job

#71

Post by AnimalMuppet »

ggggtez wrote: post #17
mcherm wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The big issue is for universities is how they would handle marriage. I don't see why this is an issue at all. If the college claims that "finding the high-income person you will marry" is one of the reasons to attend that college, then they should please return to the 1950s (or earlier!). If they DON'T, then the repayment should be based on the individual's income, regardless of their spouse's income. Does this mea…

I've heard professors argue that college as a physical location is only useful for meeting people, and the learning itself was not even relevant. I don't think this is a 1950s outlook.

If I understand correctly, at least at elite universities, that's about meeting contacts, not so much about meeting spouses.

Re: No Tuition, but You Pay a Percentage of Your Income if You Find a Job

#72

Post by austenallred »

twblalock wrote: post #70

> At Lambda, students pay nothing upfront. But they are required to pay 17 percent of their salary to Lambda for two years if they get a job that pays more than $50,000. This appears to create a cliff: If you make $50000 a year, you keep $50000 a year. If you make $51000 a year, you pay 17% ($8670) and you keep $42330. That extra dollar cost you a ton of money. It really ought to be a marginal rate like tax brackets.

In an ideal world that would be possible/simple. The real solution is to get someone a job that pays more than $50k/yr.

Re: No Tuition, but You Pay a Percentage of Your Income if You Find a Job

#74

Post by nthot »

atiredturte wrote: post #48

Australia has a system that, while different, has similar perks to this. We have a government loan system called HELP (formerly HECS). Basically students can get a zero interest government loan (rises with inflation), and only need to pay it off once they make above a certain threshold ($51,957 according to the official website[1]). The payments are deducted as a percentage of your income, with the payments increasin…

Is it stepped at all? Do you owe nothing before 50k and then once you cross that threshold you now owe money? That would seem to incentivise staying below that threshold for a percentage of borrowers.

I also have difficulty seeing the first benefit you list as being a benefit. I don't have a problem with people pursuing degrees in fields that aren't big money makers, but I also don't know that the government should be in the business of incentivising people to study in these fields.

On the other hand, there is societal benefit to these fields being pursued in general. And the market economy may not adequately pay for the benefits it receives. As a society we wouldn't want everyone to major in poetry, though.

Re: No Tuition, but You Pay a Percentage of Your Income if You Find a Job

#75

Post by applecrazy »

rland wrote: post #31

We're asking the wrong questions. A full semester at my local community college is under $1000. Extrapolating to four years of undergrad education, that's $8,000 total. WHY do we need this never ending whirlpool of sophisticated financial schemes to take care of this problem?

That’s true, but community colleges can’t award baccalaureate degrees. You would still need to transfer to a more expensive four-year university after 2 years (at least here in California).

Re: No Tuition, but You Pay a Percentage of Your Income if You Find a Job

#76

Post by austenallred »

Hey, co-founder of Lambda School here.

Yes, some countries have similar structures, where you pay after a certain threshold. The difference is:

1. In those structures the school gets paid no matter what, the taxpayer just swallows the cost. With Lambda School we will literally go out of business if a large percentage of our students don't get jobs. That causes a lot of stuff. For example, we have an entire sales team dedicated to bringing companies in to hire students, and there are 2-3 that come in every day to hire students.

2. Our minimum is much higher than government minimums ($50k in the US).

3. We only collect a percentage of income if you're hired in field (using the skills you learned)

4. If you don't get a job within 5 years the agreement simply goes away and you owe nothing.Happy to answer any questions, though I'll be in and out.

Re: No Tuition, but You Pay a Percentage of Your Income if You Find a Job

#77

Post by pkaye »

austenallred wrote: post #60
skywhopper wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One that's heavily subsidized by its community, the same way most public universities in the United States used to be. The neverending slashing of education funding at the state level has led to sky-high student debt which leads to bad ideas like this one.

I still have never seen tuition that low, even subsidized

In California Community College is $46/unit for California residents. Typically people take 10-15 units. There are a few additional fees probably total under $100/semester.

Re: No Tuition, but You Pay a Percentage of Your Income if You Find a Job

#78

Post by ChrisLomont »

rayiner wrote: post #43
ChrisLomont wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>they just lure students to the school helping them fill out student aid and loans and then give them subpar educations with curriculum being taught like it has been for years but they don’t care to change or innovate because the school has already been paid by an entity — the US education department who has deep pockets. Total tuition loans outstanding is around $1.5T. Total US Education Dept annual budget, 70B. Med…

The DOE budget doesn’t include disbursed student loans. These days, the DOe disburses over $120 billion in loans per year. Almost all student debt ($1.33 trillion of $1.5 trillion) is Federal government issued.

Do you have a source? Every one I find states the numbers I posted above, no where near your number. Total federal and non federal combined is currently around $100B annual.

Re: No Tuition, but You Pay a Percentage of Your Income if You Find a Job

#79

Post by malshe »

austenallred wrote: post #76

Hey, co-founder of Lambda School here. Yes, some countries have similar structures, where you pay after a certain threshold. The difference is: 1. In those structures the school gets paid no matter what, the taxpayer just swallows the cost. With Lambda School we will literally go out of business if a large percentage of our students don't get jobs. That causes a lot of stuff. For example, we have an entire sales team…

Congrats on the funding!

I think that this is a viable model for professions where high paying jobs are available aplenty. How are you planning to scale with this narrow model? Also what is your competitive advantage? I am trying to figure out the valuation as an investor.

Re: No Tuition, but You Pay a Percentage of Your Income if You Find a Job

#80

Post by wbronitsky »

RunawayGalaxy wrote: post #46
wbronitsky wrote: post #42

While interesting, this is not a new approach. I graduated from App Academy in San Francisco over 5 years ago, paid a percentage of my income for 6 months in my first engineering job, and after roles at Stripe and Bain Consulting, have never looked back.

Out of curiosity, does Bain hire a lot of web developers?

Great question! I asked myself the same thing initially. Bain now has a design and development lab to help solve problems using software. We add human driven design and development to the traditional Bain toolkit. Its an interesting role to say the least!
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