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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

#81

Post by sivizius »

p_l wrote: post #68
sivizius wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

or Germany, where the only cost you might have is for the public transport ticket or something like that, and even this is often optional…I am actually curious why there are not so many students from the USA in German universities? Or is this due to language?

Foreign students usually don't fall under the same funding and have to pay full price, while EU citizens are entitled to the same level of support as localssl. Which leads to fun times where English had to pay max UK rate at Scottish universities but EU citizens paid the same as Scots.

Except for Baden-Württemberg, which has tuitions for non-EU-students (1.5k€ per semester afaik), it is irrelevant whether you are German, EU-citizen or from somewhere else. The only tuitions you might have is for studying too long.

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

#82

Post by watwut »

Grustaf wrote: post #80
jacobion wrote: post #78

The thing about efficient markets is that lucrative activities which don't produce much value—borderline scams—can block activity which would be highly wealth creating. For example, there could be a huge untapped retail market for financial derivatives such as interest rate and fx hedges. However, it's very hard to access this market because historically anyone who has started selling such products has pivoted toward…

Just because it’s more lucrative to rip people off doesn’t mean it doesn’t make financial sense to run a good code bootcamp. That’s like saying it doesn’t make sense to work because it’s more lucrative to steal or live off welfare. But sure, it’s a common problem in a market economy. Presumably issues of information asymmetry should be alleviated in the days of the internet.

> Just because it’s more lucrative to rip people off doesn’t mean it doesn’t make financial sense to run a good code bootcamp.

The good code bootcamp wont be able to compete in the sort term. The scam version will first attract more customers in short term and destroy overall trust in the long term.

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

#83

Post by sampo »

abdullahkhalids wrote: post #73
codethief wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You only needed $30k to survive for five years in Sweden ?

My friend did his Masters from Finland and said his monthly expenses were about 200-300 Euros in his first year. I think he spent a bit more in subsequent years after getting a part-time job. That's 18000+ euros if extended to 5 years. Don't overestimate living expenses in a 500 year old walkable town with a small university in a --socialist democracy-- country that cares about its citizens.

> socialist democracy

In Nordic countries, we don't really like it when Americans call us socialist democracies. We are market economies like everyone else. Here's a take from the Danish prime minister: https://www.vox.com/2015/10/31/9650030/denmark-prime-ministe...

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

#84

Post by fmajid »

p_l wrote: post #68
sivizius wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

or Germany, where the only cost you might have is for the public transport ticket or something like that, and even this is often optional…I am actually curious why there are not so many students from the USA in German universities? Or is this due to language?

Foreign students usually don't fall under the same funding and have to pay full price, while EU citizens are entitled to the same level of support as localssl. Which leads to fun times where English had to pay max UK rate at Scottish universities but EU citizens paid the same as Scots.

IIRC Americans study free in Germany, you are right that it is unusual in Europe where the free tuition only applies to EU nationals and residents.

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

#85

Post by checkyoursudo »

codethief wrote: post #48
lawn wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

You only needed $30k to survive for five years in Sweden ?

My family of four spends less than $15K per year for necessities in Sweden (housing, clothes, food, car ins, phone, internet, other utilities), so I can believe that a single student could live for $6000 per year if they have roommates or live in student housing. We live in a very small town and rent a nice house for less than $500/month, so of course your choices will make all the difference. We couldn't do this in Stockholm or Gothenburg, for example.

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

#86

Post by jacobion »

Grustaf wrote: post #80
jacobion wrote: post #78

The thing about efficient markets is that lucrative activities which don't produce much value—borderline scams—can block activity which would be highly wealth creating. For example, there could be a huge untapped retail market for financial derivatives such as interest rate and fx hedges. However, it's very hard to access this market because historically anyone who has started selling such products has pivoted toward…

Just because it’s more lucrative to rip people off doesn’t mean it doesn’t make financial sense to run a good code bootcamp. That’s like saying it doesn’t make sense to work because it’s more lucrative to steal or live off welfare. But sure, it’s a common problem in a market economy. Presumably issues of information asymmetry should be alleviated in the days of the internet.

But it doesn't make economic sense to work rather than steal, unless there are enforced rules and sanctions against stealing. Most people who choose to work do so either because of the sanctions, or because of various reasons which are not about maximizing returns in a narrow economic sense.

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

#87

Post by ruined »

arvindamirtaa wrote: post #12
ruined wrote: post #6

Well, this is disappointing. Lambda was my plan B if i didn't make it into the competitive program i selected.

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!

network effect, a roadmap, peers, milestones set for me so i don't waste time, and an institution that i can put on a resume. most importantly free up front.

i'm a dropout with no savings, on-and-off homeless for the past few years. i've been playing with tech since i was a kid but not in any capacity that looks professional. the pandemic has ironically given me stability and opportunity to try and get my foot in the door. a somewhat respected program that provides a structured environment and job leads at the end is breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

and if it doesn't pan out and i go back to tossing pizza for minimum wage, at least there's no debt like last time.

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

#88

Post by freshhawk »

thinkingemote wrote: post #64
michaelt wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lambda School pushes "income sharing agreements" where once you're paid over $50k you pay back 17% of your income until you've paid back $30k. Depending on your opinion, it's either a brilliant investment in students, aligning the interests of the school and the students - or it's a loan by a slightly different name, fooling the naive into overpaying for instruction from teachers who barely make minimum wage.

For the consumer therefore it matters what the actual value of the thing they bought for $30k is. Will it lead to a $150K job, or a $80K job? Will not doing it lead to a $80K job? For the company, what risk do they have if most students will earn over 50K regardless of the quality of their product? I'm not good at economics, but I think one can look at this deal from both the consumer and the provider and see that th…

Trust or a monopoly position.

And in this context trust doesn't scale, you need good teachers for every [class size] students. That means profit only scales linearly with good teachers (the scarce resource).

Marketing scales though, and what matters to the consumer is how much they believe the actual value is compared to the competition for what they believe their options are.

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

#89

Post by jacobion »

Grustaf wrote: post #80
jacobion wrote: post #78

The thing about efficient markets is that lucrative activities which don't produce much value—borderline scams—can block activity which would be highly wealth creating. For example, there could be a huge untapped retail market for financial derivatives such as interest rate and fx hedges. However, it's very hard to access this market because historically anyone who has started selling such products has pivoted toward…

Just because it’s more lucrative to rip people off doesn’t mean it doesn’t make financial sense to run a good code bootcamp. That’s like saying it doesn’t make sense to work because it’s more lucrative to steal or live off welfare. But sure, it’s a common problem in a market economy. Presumably issues of information asymmetry should be alleviated in the days of the internet.

How does the internet 'alleviate issues of information asymmetry'?? I thought it was well understood that this has not generally happened, except in open markets for very transparent and easily comparable products.

Holiday accommodation for example, much less complex than coding bootcamps, is far from a solved problem.

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

#90

Post by abdullahkhalids »

sampo wrote: post #83
abdullahkhalids wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My friend did his Masters from Finland and said his monthly expenses were about 200-300 Euros in his first year. I think he spent a bit more in subsequent years after getting a part-time job. That's 18000+ euros if extended to 5 years. Don't overestimate living expenses in a 500 year old walkable town with a small university in a --socialist democracy-- country that cares about its citizens.

> socialist democracy In Nordic countries, we don't really like it when Americans call us socialist democracies. We are market economies like everyone else. Here's a take from the Danish prime minister: https://www.vox.com/2015/10/31/9650030/denmark-prime-ministe...

Sorry. But I am Pakistani. From my perspective, if the government is providing free health coverage, subsidized accommodation to students, free education [0], and good public transit, then it is fulfilling the ideals of socialists. However, the label of the actual system might be different, which is totally fair.

[0] I think Finland is now charging a small tuition fee, at least for non-EU students.

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