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What we look for in students

hackerschool.com

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Re: What we look for in students

#31

Post by antics »

cuttooth wrote: post #10

I'm fine with a program like HS existing if people want to join it, but I'll have no respect for them until they treat both genders equally in terms of the tuition assistance. Note that I'm all for women joining the program, but I'd presume people with the time to commit to the program are a) not working, and b) don't have much money, so it's completely unfair to exclude men to receive assistance just because they ha…

To be clear, there is no "tuition" and therefore no "tuition assistance". The living stipends are provided by external companies, like etsy, and they are provided as an outreach effort.

Now. On a purely practical note, HS is a business, and the core objective is to deliver excellent batch dynamics. The responsibility is to attendees and attendees only -- how are they delivering an experience that makes the time (and, indirectly, money) commitment of the students worth it? The issue of "fairness" does not enter the conversation because this is not a charity. Or, more straightforwardly, their responsibility is not to people who did not get in.

Now, ok, you might argue that you are not convinced that having a roughly-equal gender ratio is beneficial to the batch as a whole, but I am in the current batch and I'm telling you it makes a huge difference. If you don't believe me, let's chat over email or skype.

Re: What we look for in students

#32

Post by future_grad »

dbancajas wrote: post #29

Hi, This will be a tldr. I am a senior PhD student this fall 2013. I have always wanted to sharpen my C++ OOP skills and overall programming skills. I'd like to think I have a good grasp of computing systems since my phd is centered around computer architecture/vlsi. But in most times, when I read other people's code, mostly simulators with 50K-100K lines, I have a hard time following through as I think my fundamenta…

Hey, don't worry so much. You seem like you would be a great applicant. You obviously want success if you're a senior PhD student and I think you would be a great fit. Good luck to you! I hope the best.

Re: What we look for in students

#33

Post by future_grad »

wismer wrote: post #28

Regrettably, I'm not an autodidact and my ADD can sometimes get in the way when to learning programming. Knowing this from an applicant, does that dissuade you from accepting that person? Much of what I have learned in programming already was simply finding ways to automate tasks at my current job - the motivation to learn was there, I suppose, and helped keep the ADD at bay. But, for all I know the stuff I wrote cou…

This should NOT stop you from applying. Do it.

Re: What we look for in students

#34

Post by future_grad »

semisight wrote: post #12

I really want to do this at some point, but I'm still in college, and the schedule never lines up with when school starts and ends. Have any college students attended hacker school/what do you guys think about college students attending? (I'm a Comp Eng major btw).

Hey, thanks for posting. Same situation as you. Seems like an amazing program and would love to do this at some point as well, but with the alignment of our schedules...do we see this ever happening?

What can we/HS do to assist people like us?

Re: What we look for in students

#36

Post by xinn »

antics wrote: post #31
cuttooth wrote: post #10

I'm fine with a program like HS existing if people want to join it, but I'll have no respect for them until they treat both genders equally in terms of the tuition assistance. Note that I'm all for women joining the program, but I'd presume people with the time to commit to the program are a) not working, and b) don't have much money, so it's completely unfair to exclude men to receive assistance just because they ha…

To be clear, there is no "tuition" and therefore no "tuition assistance". The living stipends are provided by external companies, like etsy, and they are provided as an outreach effort. Now. On a purely practical note, HS is a business, and the core objective is to deliver excellent batch dynamics. The responsibility is to attendees and attendees only -- how are they delivering an experience that makes the time (and,…

Do you think a lower standard is required of female applicants in the application process than of male applicants?

Re: What we look for in students

#37

Post by Schwolop »

zachallaun wrote: post #18
qnk wrote: post #15

I really feel that I meet all the requirements mentioned here, but sadly, I was rejected for the previous batch. Looking back, I want to believe that I was rejected because I was living abroad and they probably felt I wasn't really sure about moving to The U.S. They also need people who can legally work here as the referrals are their business model. Well, I came here anyway on a sabbatical year. Been learning iOS pr…

I'm a facilitator at Hacker School, which makes me responsible for a large number of admissions decisions. While we do make money through referrals, our ability to place someone at a company we work with is not something we consider while doing admissions. (This may be hard to believe, but trust me.) We have a significant number of international students, as well as students who we don't believe will get a job throug…

Curious about this - what if someone (say, me) has a job and has no immediate intention of leaving it, but also wants to get better at programming and is willing to take a 3 month sabbatical to do so. Recognising that you're unlikely to capture a referral fee for such a person, would you truly ignore that in the admissions process?

Re: What we look for in students

#38

Post by antics »

xinn wrote: post #36
antics wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be clear, there is no "tuition" and therefore no "tuition assistance". The living stipends are provided by external companies, like etsy, and they are provided as an outreach effort. Now. On a purely practical note, HS is a business, and the core objective is to deliver excellent batch dynamics. The responsibility is to attendees and attendees only -- how are they delivering an experience that makes the time (and,…

Do you think a lower standard is required of female applicants in the application process than of male applicants?

Absolutely not. I have been quite impressed with each and every female participant. It is incredibly obvious that no one in the batch was a pity case. But even if you don't believe this anecdotal evidence, consider that the ratio is worse this time around than any other batch. Since the facilitators are acutely aware of the batch balance (and other statistics), it clear to me that this decision was deliberate, and that it reflects a very strong male applicant pool this time around.

As for my speculation, given the rejection statistics, I'm guessing the HS facilitators could have chosen to admit many more females before this would have even been an issue that should have borne consideration.

Re: What we look for in students

#39

Post by bhoung »

deepGem wrote: post #23
nicholasjbs wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on the specifics of the situation, but it can be a sign that the person doesn't actually like programming. This isn't always the case -- e.g., we've had alumni who had stopped programming to raise families -- but it's frequently true (e.g., for people who study CS and then get an MBA. When they apply to Hacker School it seems more often than not they're looking to find a cofounder or learn enough to hack t…

What about people who have switched from programming into management, rejected that, and have gotten back to programming :)

here here. That's a global maximum.

Re: What we look for in students

#40

Post by jacques_chester »

nicholasjbs wrote: post #6
lquist wrote: post #4

One negative signal for us is if you previously programmed and then stopped (e.g., you studied CS and then become a product manager). Interesting. Why is this a negative signal?

It depends on the specifics of the situation, but it can be a sign that the person doesn't actually like programming. This isn't always the case -- e.g., we've had alumni who had stopped programming to raise families -- but it's frequently true (e.g., for people who study CS and then get an MBA. When they apply to Hacker School it seems more often than not they're looking to find a cofounder or learn enough to hack t…

Folk with mental illnesses such as depression or ADD are going to raise false positives here. In my case, depression cost me my twenties.

You can't really ask people "hey, have you ever had a mental illness that you may be super uncomfortable about discussing". Not just because it's problematic, but because it'll probably open you to something involving expensive typists (people call them "lawyers" for historical reasons too tedious to enumerate).

I'm not sure how to get around this. Maybe a blanket statement of some sort.

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