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Lambda School (YC S17) now pays eligible students $2k/month

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Re: Lambda School (YC S17) now pays eligible students $2k/month

#51

Post by AlexeyBrin »

austenallred wrote: post #7

Hey, co-founder of Lambda School here. We launched our online CS academy with no upfront tuition almost two years ago. Now with thousands of students enrolled and hundreds already employed and paying back we wanted to take the next step and open up access to folks who couldn’t afford to pay to survive while attending. Of course, that introduces significant risk on our part, as students still only pay us back if they…

> We launched our online CS academy with no upfront tuition almost two years ago

What about international students ? Can a Canadian apply to Lambda School ?

Re: Lambda School (YC S17) now pays eligible students $2k/month

#52

Post by austenallred »

AlexeyBrin wrote: post #51
austenallred wrote: post #7

Hey, co-founder of Lambda School here. We launched our online CS academy with no upfront tuition almost two years ago. Now with thousands of students enrolled and hundreds already employed and paying back we wanted to take the next step and open up access to folks who couldn’t afford to pay to survive while attending. Of course, that introduces significant risk on our part, as students still only pay us back if they…

> We launched our online CS academy with no upfront tuition almost two years ago What about international students ? Can a Canadian apply to Lambda School ?

Ask me again in about two weeks :)

Re: Lambda School (YC S17) now pays eligible students $2k/month

#54

Post by zachruss92 »

patio11 wrote: post #6

This is a far, far better deal than the one that I got for university (CS at a major US research institution, class of 2004), which involved a sticker price of about $140k, a work study assignment unjamming printers to justify ~$2k of wages per semester to cover (barely) the meal plan, and ~$X0k of non-dischargeable debt which started ticking the day I graduated, despite the fact that I was earning salaryman wages (~…

I couldn’t agree more. The traditional education system is broken for training software engineers in my opinion. I thankfully dropped out my freshman year, but some of my classmates were literally not capable of using Git (branching & resolving merge conflicts) for their senior capstone projects. Given almost every company uses Git all day every day how is a $250k education helping prepare them for working in the real world?

I love that programs like Udacity (and likely Lambda School as well) teaches Git(hub) as a 101 level course and use traditional workflows to submit, critique, and grade code.

I do, however, still think traditional universities still have a place, especially when it comes to research. I’m referring to things like AI/ML.

Re: Lambda School (YC S17) now pays eligible students $2k/month

#55

Post by kasey_junk »

zachruss92 wrote: post #54
patio11 wrote: post #6

This is a far, far better deal than the one that I got for university (CS at a major US research institution, class of 2004), which involved a sticker price of about $140k, a work study assignment unjamming printers to justify ~$2k of wages per semester to cover (barely) the meal plan, and ~$X0k of non-dischargeable debt which started ticking the day I graduated, despite the fact that I was earning salaryman wages (~…

I couldn’t agree more. The traditional education system is broken for training software engineers in my opinion. I thankfully dropped out my freshman year, but some of my classmates were literally not capable of using Git (branching & resolving merge conflicts) for their senior capstone projects. Given almost every company uses Git all day every day how is a $250k education helping prepare them for working in the rea…

Under no circumstances would I be happy if my degree program taught me how to use git.

I can’t think of a single skill more stupid to learn in university.

My degree came a lot cheaper than the modern ones but if I got a similar experience now as then I wouldn’t feel cheated.

My undergraduate provided opportunities to program lisps & assembly & write published articles on data structures & I literally went to the local state school.

Re: Lambda School (YC S17) now pays eligible students $2k/month

#56

Post by opportune »

zachruss92 wrote: post #54
patio11 wrote: post #6

This is a far, far better deal than the one that I got for university (CS at a major US research institution, class of 2004), which involved a sticker price of about $140k, a work study assignment unjamming printers to justify ~$2k of wages per semester to cover (barely) the meal plan, and ~$X0k of non-dischargeable debt which started ticking the day I graduated, despite the fact that I was earning salaryman wages (~…

I couldn’t agree more. The traditional education system is broken for training software engineers in my opinion. I thankfully dropped out my freshman year, but some of my classmates were literally not capable of using Git (branching & resolving merge conflicts) for their senior capstone projects. Given almost every company uses Git all day every day how is a $250k education helping prepare them for working in the rea…

That would be a waste of time to teach. It takes maybe a few hours to learn almost everything there is to know about branching or merge conflicts. You should learn the hard things in school, not the minutiae or trivia you would learn in your first month of any job.

When I was in school I'm glad I went out of my way to take all the math-heavy and theoretical classes I could, and no classes like "modern web design" or "software engineering project". Learning basic programming is trivial and something I literally get paid to do (so long as I learn at a decent rate) while all the knowledge I have about math and theory is a lot harder to learn outside of an academic setting and is a force multiplier on most things I do for work.

Re: Lambda School (YC S17) now pays eligible students $2k/month

#57

Post by japhyr »

pl0x wrote: post #47

@austenallred What's the catch? Lambda School has always struck me as scam like with a very vocal CEO and over promises. What happens when regulators start cracking down on these practices and what makes you think Lambda will be successful when most bootcamps have failed or been acquired.

I agree that Lambda School sounds too good to be true, but once you start looking they've got real answers for just about everything. I'm a high school teacher, and after watching students struggle with decisions about what to do after high school, I love what I'm seeing with Lambda School.

What do you think regulators need to address at Lambda School?

Re: Lambda School (YC S17) now pays eligible students $2k/month

#58

Post by meowface »

incompatible wrote: post #31
austenallred wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looking for a job is built into the curriculum itself. Of course, you could just turn job offers down and never get paid a high salary, but most people aren’t optimizing like that.

Interesting, is the job market in the US so good that even new graduates without work experience can expect to find well-paying jobs? I'm in Australia, where things seem a bit different.

In software development and other IT fields, yes. In many other fields, not so much.

Re: Lambda School (YC S17) now pays eligible students $2k/month

#59

Post by anonymousJim12 »

austenallred wrote: post #7

Hey, co-founder of Lambda School here. We launched our online CS academy with no upfront tuition almost two years ago. Now with thousands of students enrolled and hundreds already employed and paying back we wanted to take the next step and open up access to folks who couldn’t afford to pay to survive while attending. Of course, that introduces significant risk on our part, as students still only pay us back if they…

For people with their sights set on a FAANG type company, do you have a "grind leetcode" track?

Re: Lambda School (YC S17) now pays eligible students $2k/month

#60

Post by chirau »

austenallred wrote: post #52
AlexeyBrin wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We launched our online CS academy with no upfront tuition almost two years ago What about international students ? Can a Canadian apply to Lambda School ?

Ask me again in about two weeks :)

Who should ask you in two weeks? Internationals or Canadians specifically? Huge difference because the latter is for most intents and purposes, 'half American'. The Canadian case is super different from the rest of the outsiders. So some clarity would be nice.
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