What we look for in students • Hacker News Board

Re: What we look for in students

#51

Post by qnk » Fri, Jul 05, 2013, 2:12 PM UTC

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…

Thank you Zach, those were the conclusions that I jumped into only to make myself feel less bad about not making the cut. It is clear by the comments here that your process gives an equal opportunity to each one of the candidates and referrals are not a decision factor.

I'll reach out to you by e-mail. With so many applicants, I thought you couldn't afford to explain the reasoning behind rejections on a case by case basis. That's why my reply to the rejection e-mail was the standard 'thank you for letting my try' note.

Re: What we look for in students

#52

Post by jamesjporter » Sat, Jul 06, 2013, 6:48 AM UTC

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 I'm a bit late on this but I figured I'd chime in. I'm part of the current batch and I left school two weeks early to attend, so its possible even if your schedules don't line up. That said, I was only a part time student last quarter and it was still pretty tough doing HS by day and finishing up my finals by night, but I made it happen, feel free to email me if you want to talk about it (email in profile).

Re: What we look for in students

#53

Post by thumbtackthief » Tue, Jul 09, 2013, 8:44 PM UTC

jacques_chester wrote: post #40

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…

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 rea…

All the applicants get interviewed. Hard to believe the facilitators wouldn't say, "So hey, you quit programming for five years. What's up?" Also, I know that they're not necessarily looking for work experience--if someone loved programming but waited tables for five years, they'd still probably have some personal projects for fun they'd have worked on. If not, they probably wouldn't be a good fit for Hacker School anyway.

Plus, and I'm only going on my own experience and observations, the mentally-deranged fit right in at Hacker School.

Re: What we look for in students

#54

Post by khaullen » Wed, Jul 10, 2013, 3:00 PM UTC

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 joined the last batch (winter 2013) after having been rejected from the prior one. The rejection sucked, I questioned my programming skills, my legitimacy as a real developer. Turns out I'm just awful at interviewing - spent most of the time talking about startups for some reason, probably because it seemed safer than exposing my relative programming inexperience at the time.

I'll second the sentiment that admissions are based purely on fit for Hacker School, not likelihood of making money for them, gender, or any other criteria. I just came across as too much of a "startup guy" first time around in the limited interview time.