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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

#61

Post by anonymousJim12 »

jamestimmins wrote: post #33
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…

This is amazing! I'm curious, one of your student stories mentions a student who was immediately hired into a senior engineering role upon graduating. While I've heard great things about Lambda School and its students, that gives me pause. When companies hire new grads directly into senior roles, do you think that they're set up to succeed in those roles? I'm genuinely curious.

This isn't that surprising for someone that has a lot of experience in something like project management or academia and/or is very good at negotiating.

For instance the place I work just hired as a senior engineer a former math professor with a math PhD that hasn't written a line of production code in their life. If this person decided to go through a 9 month bootcamp before applying the outcome would have been the same.

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

#62

Post by raidicy »

I'm a current student at Lambda School going part time. So this is pretty biased:

I've been enrolled for about 6 months. I've had previous programming experience so I feel I've had a leg up. But had no idea how to use the skills or build anything. I've never felt this confident with what I've learned in my life. Period. Everyone I've interacted with is genuine, welcoming, and gives me the impression they want me to succeed. I'm truly grateful to be able to be enrolled and I look forward to working to be able to pay back the school the value they've imparted in me.

Thank you Austen and everyone from Lambda School!

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

#63

Post by laurencerowe »

austenallred wrote: post #17
tylerhou wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I make $50,001, would I have to pay back the full 10%? Or is there some sort of gradient?

Yes, you’d pay $5k/yr. In fact you might just want to ask for a raise to $55k and be net ahead because that’s not a great software engineering salary.

Being net ahead at $55K suggests the repayment is tax deductible. Is that the case?

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

#64

Post by austenallred »

anonymousJim12 wrote: post #59
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?

Meaning a hyper-focus on data structures and algorithms to get you through the interview circuit?

We train students on that stuff but they’d really struggle in the long run if that were too much of a focus.

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

#65

Post by austenallred »

anonymousJim12 wrote: post #61
jamestimmins wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is amazing! I'm curious, one of your student stories mentions a student who was immediately hired into a senior engineering role upon graduating. While I've heard great things about Lambda School and its students, that gives me pause. When companies hire new grads directly into senior roles, do you think that they're set up to succeed in those roles? I'm genuinely curious.

This isn't that surprising for someone that has a lot of experience in something like project management or academia and/or is very good at negotiating. For instance the place I work just hired as a senior engineer a former math professor with a math PhD that hasn't written a line of production code in their life. If this person decided to go through a 9 month bootcamp before applying the outcome would have been the…

He was a recent college dropout and bodybuilder, but yeah it’s not an absolutely absurd result.

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

#66

Post by austenallred »

chirau wrote: post #60
austenallred wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Canadians should in two weeks. EU is live now (https://lambdaschool.com/eu), no firm plans elsewhere but working on it.

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

#67

Post by austenallred »

japhyr wrote: post #57
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?

I guess “seems too good to be true” is an OK marketing problem for us to have.

If you’d like you can attend classes on a trial basis and check it out!

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

#69

Post by throwawaymath »

austenallred wrote: post #65
anonymousJim12 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't that surprising for someone that has a lot of experience in something like project management or academia and/or is very good at negotiating. For instance the place I work just hired as a senior engineer a former math professor with a math PhD that hasn't written a line of production code in their life. If this person decided to go through a 9 month bootcamp before applying the outcome would have been the…

He was a recent college dropout and bodybuilder, but yeah it’s not an absolutely absurd result.

I have to be honest, it sounds absolutely absurd. What kind of definition must a company be using for "senior" if they're willing to hire someone into that title with no prior professional experience? It's almost certainly title inflation.

Note this is not a comment about the quality of Lambda School. I've heard good things about it. But it's almost tautological that someone shouldn't be eligible for a "senior software engineer" title after they've graduated Lambda School, just as they shouldn't be eligible for it after they've graduated university. Such training is necessary but insufficient for being able to meet the level of responsibility you're given at that title.

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