I applaud that you aren’t charging a base tuition in addition to your income-based repayment. 30k for a useful education, job placement assistance, and community is worth it.
Launch HN: Lambda School (YC S17) – CS education that's free until you get a job
191–200 of 275 posts
Re: Launch HN: Lambda School (YC S17) – CS education that's free until you get a job
#192In the registration process:
Are you legally authorized to work in the United States? Just a note: We are currently unable to offer income-based repayment outside of the United States. You can still attend Lambda School, but you would have to pay at least $10,000 up-front
$10,000 - that's about as expensive as a high quality bachelor's degree (in Germany) at private university via distance learning, where someone can pay flexibly btw. Additionally: We are talking about 6 semesters worth of material and study, study time can be extended for free.
What you are offering is a 6-month crash course where someone will have _NO_ degree whatsoever afterwards. I also doubt how much computer science you can teach in that time. Normal CS curriculum spends about one module (one semester's worth) on just the introduction to programming, has probably 2 modules (that you would do in 2 semesters) of computer science basics like computer architecture et cetera... there are so many good resources already available, including lectures of incredibly professors from some of the greatest universities.
Also: You have to create the learning resources once and can take on as many students as you want w/out any additional cost, great for you, seems like selling snake oil to me. I am unsure besides the resources and apparently online group working ("group work happens live and interactive") what it is you provide for possibly 30k$ in cash? 1 success finances the cost you have w/ an incredible amount of failures, and it's not clear to me if that one guy finding a job will have done so bc of your awesome curriculum and support?
It seems to me like anyone who can possibly finance proper education some other way should (and I want to repeat: it's a 6-months crash course, not a degree)
Re: Launch HN: Lambda School (YC S17) – CS education that's free until you get a job
#193In the registration process: Are you legally authorized to work in the United States? Just a note: We are currently unable to offer income-based repayment outside of the United States. You can still attend Lambda School, but you would have to pay at least $10,000 up-front $10,000 - that's about as expensive as a high quality bachelor's degree (in Germany) at private university via distance learning, where someone can…
Germany is an outlier in higher education. In the US, $10k is lucky to get you 1 year of in-state tuition and books (excluding room and board) at an average public state school with a CS program. If you go to college in a state different than what you live in, the rates are even higher.
Re: Launch HN: Lambda School (YC S17) – CS education that's free until you get a job
#194For those outside of the US take note: Just a note: We are currently unable to offer income-based repayment outside of the United States. You can still attend Lambda School, but you would have to pay at least $10,000 up-front
Do you have plan to support student outside us so they will have a change to get remote job or even full-time job?
Re: Launch HN: Lambda School (YC S17) – CS education that's free until you get a job
#195In the registration process: Are you legally authorized to work in the United States? Just a note: We are currently unable to offer income-based repayment outside of the United States. You can still attend Lambda School, but you would have to pay at least $10,000 up-front $10,000 - that's about as expensive as a high quality bachelor's degree (in Germany) at private university via distance learning, where someone can…
Germany is an outlier in higher education. In the US, $10k is lucky to get you 1 year of in-state tuition and books (excluding room and board) at an average public state school with a CS program. If you go to college in a state different than what you live in, the rates are even higher.
I am quite aware that the situation might be different, I still consider most of my points valid for the US though, for example regarding quality of education provided + that the business seems a little bit "shady" to me.
btw: a degree from the University of London (via distance learning, can be done from many parts of the world) is about ~5000£ (~6482$) - again we are talking about flexible payment + great study resources (6 semester's worth) + a full bachelor's degree!
This however seems (to me) w/ all due respect like a "get rich quick" scheme that won't work for 99% of people. And the other 1% would have probably made it some other way and are possibly paying 30k$ for it (and I want to stress again: 30k$ for a 6 month crash course with _no_ degree in the end)
Re: Launch HN: Lambda School (YC S17) – CS education that's free until you get a job
#196In the registration process: Are you legally authorized to work in the United States? Just a note: We are currently unable to offer income-based repayment outside of the United States. You can still attend Lambda School, but you would have to pay at least $10,000 up-front $10,000 - that's about as expensive as a high quality bachelor's degree (in Germany) at private university via distance learning, where someone can…
Germany is an outlier in higher education. In the US, $10k is lucky to get you 1 year of in-state tuition and books (excluding room and board) at an average public state school with a CS program. If you go to college in a state different than what you live in, the rates are even higher.
Or is USA the outlier? I paid $100 a year here in Norway, e.g. nothing.
Re: Launch HN: Lambda School (YC S17) – CS education that's free until you get a job
#197Bravo! This is overdue. Back in the early 80's my dad ( a chess teacher from Odessa ) immigrated to NYC ( with just $150 ). My mom worked 3 jobs to put him through Yeshiva Uni where he learned Cobol, JCL, and Fortran. He ended up getting hired right away by Lehman Bros, and realized he was sitting on a gold-mine. Tons of well-educated immigrants were coming onto the golden-paved shores, with 0 knowledge of computer p…
Fascinating story; why don't you write this up long-form and submit it here to HN?
Re: Launch HN: Lambda School (YC S17) – CS education that's free until you get a job
#198In the registration process: Are you legally authorized to work in the United States? Just a note: We are currently unable to offer income-based repayment outside of the United States. You can still attend Lambda School, but you would have to pay at least $10,000 up-front $10,000 - that's about as expensive as a high quality bachelor's degree (in Germany) at private university via distance learning, where someone can…
It's not a great deal outside of the US, that's largely because our income share agreement relies on US infrastructure and is not internationalized. So you can still attend in the U.K., but unfortunately it's under different (probably worse) terms.
Also, everything we do is live and interactive, so it's not a matter of just "creating learning resources." It's a lot of one on one time with instructors.
Re: Launch HN: Lambda School (YC S17) – CS education that's free until you get a job
#199I'm going to play devils advocate here. I don't think I'd be in your target market primarily because I feel for 15k a year I can achieve a decent education just by online resources alone. It would be just as well recognized; I'd even think that a local community college could be cheaper. Granted, upfront cash is a luxury that few without the bank of mom and dad can access. An Irish degree costs 3000 euros a year to e…
Indeed, it is difficult to compete with the price of a fully subsidized education.
That said, we still have students from the EU that attend Lambda School. It's not all about cost, it's also about use of time. You can get a degree that is more well recognized in four years, or you can attend Lambda School and work for three years. Would you rather hire someone with an official degree from a community college or someone that attended a CS Academy and worked for three years? You could argue either way, but it's not clear to me that the degree is the clear winner.
Re: Launch HN: Lambda School (YC S17) – CS education that's free until you get a job
#200Mixed feelings ... 50k/yr hardly sounds like a successful placement for a semi competent programmer, more like a pipeline to the gulag in a profession that's notoriously bad at obtaining fair wages. (I presume OP will be teaching the segment on living in your car in Palo Alto ... ;p ) However, I've always been curious about this business model for schools and hope it succeeds!