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Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

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Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#31

Post by panorama »

It's upsetting to see Lambda making so many negative headlines because it truly is in a position to do the most Good and provide the most value (especially after Dev Bootcamp and Hack Reactor were acquired).

I attended Dev Bootcamp in early 2013, when bootcamps were still largely unknown, and had a transformative time. Just stellar teachers all around that compensated for any perceived weakness in curriculum. The industry business model hasn't changed much, so this implies to me that a bootcamp is really only as good as its instructors and the amount they care.

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#32

Post by arvindamirtaa »

dna_polymerase wrote: post #26
arvindamirtaa wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you give a little more context on what led you to this decision? What value do you see in Lambda (or any other similar program) that you don't when learning on your own? Is it the network effect? Just curious!

You could ask the same question for any university program. It's the degree that opens doors. HR doesn't care for your EdX or udemy certs.

I really am just curious about the decision making process behind choosing Lambda vs traditional college vs Moocs (with certificates).

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#33

Post by arvindamirtaa »

AntiImperialist wrote: post #22

Isn't their selling point that you don't have to pay unless you get hired? I haven't read the fine print though.

What good is it if they just sign you up, do nothing and show up on pay day to collect without actually giving you the promised experience?

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#34

Post by arvindamirtaa »

grenoire wrote: post #23
arvindamirtaa wrote: post #15

I just want to give a quick shout out to 42. They're closed for Covid19 right now. But if you can wait for them to open up, this is a good place to look into - https://www.42.us.org/ or https://www.42.fr/ (if you're in Europe).

42-styled schools also exist, generally loosely affiliated. A friend of mine started CODAM (42 in Amsterdam, essentially; https://www.codam.nl/ ) around a year ago and has been quite happy so far. I recently started working with him on a couple projects and honestly I can tell the education and the syllabus he got was high quality.

Good to know about CODAM. Will check it out. Thanks

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#35

Post by nicoburns »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #29
thaumasiotes wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What costs more, $30,000 and 6 months, or $30,000 and 48 months?

Depends; do you get 48 months worth of education in 6 months? I doubt it. A lot of learning also takes time to process, to settle in. That said, half my 4 year software engineering education was hands-on, figure-it-out-yourself stuff; a year of internships and a ton of group projects.

48 months of education still costs more, even if you get more benefit from it. And if you can't afford the time commitment then it doesn't matter how much benefit you might derive from it as it's not an available option.

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#36

Post by lawn »

st1x7 wrote: post #8

People are paying ~$30k for bootcamps? Why not get a degree at that point?

Fun fact: $30k is almost exactly how much the Swedish student loan gives you for 5 years of full time study, which I used to pay for everything (housing, food, clothes, computers, books for school etc).

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#37

Post by Galanwe »

jcelerier wrote: post #27
thaumasiotes wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What costs more, $30,000 and 6 months, or $30,000 and 48 months?

You can get a degree for muuuuch less in europe. In france it'd be something like 1k€ at most over your whole post-high-school studies unless you go to specialized art school or something like that.

(Did all my studies in France at public schools (university).)

I think the fee was 300€/year, most of it was headed toward paying mandatory access to the university library. That would be 300x5=1500€ (~2k$) for a complete engineering degree.

Lets not forget that all this is paid with tax money though. You will sort of pay back these studies when paying your taxes once working :)

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#38

Post by AlchemistCamp »

jcelerier wrote: post #27
thaumasiotes wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What costs more, $30,000 and 6 months, or $30,000 and 48 months?

You can get a degree for muuuuch less in europe. In france it'd be something like 1k€ at most over your whole post-high-school studies unless you go to specialized art school or something like that.

Are you sure?

Back when I was in school, I looked hard at all the options for studying abroad in France and found none with tuition even close to that cheap for even just a semester or summer.

I suspect the prices you're talking about are heavily subsidized and only if you're French (which the OP probably isn't).

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#40

Post by bambax »

blntechie wrote: post #14

Most open world reviews i.e. non curated ones I have seen for Lambda school have been negative to at best neutral. I believe they have a place in the education market if they do it right. Model is good enough but execution appear to be severely lacking. It’s interesting that pg is a big fan though.

> pg is a big fan though

He seems to have a lax definition of the word "earnest". (See his latest blog post.)

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