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Lambda School (YC S17) now pays eligible students $2k/month

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Re: Lambda School (YC S17) now pays eligible students $2k/month

#191

Post by JamesBarney »

tptacek wrote: post #190
JamesBarney wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

University of Texas at Austin. Their cs department is(or at least was) heavily influenced by Dijkstra so it was extra heavy on the theory(especially math) and extra light on the software engineering. By the end I was pretty good at proofs and dog shit at development.

I don't see it listed there; I do see mandatory Calc 2-3 and linear algebra (the linear algebra is useful!).

This was a decade ago and looking at the curriculum now it seems like they emphasize discrete mathematics less or I accidentally took way more discrete math and logic than I needed to.

And yeah linear algebra is definitely something I wish I got more out of. In college I did enough to get a good grade but not nearly enough to grok it. I'm hoping to take fast.ais course on it some day to rectify that mistake.

Re: Lambda School (YC S17) now pays eligible students $2k/month

#192

Post by bbg215 »

austenallred wrote: post #112
bbg215 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly is your admissions criteria for someone to get accepted to LS? How big of a problem is that for your student-to-job conversion rate when the criteria has to become less stringent to scale?

We look mostly at how well they do on our pre course work, how hard they work and how quickly they can climb steep programming learning curves. We’re seeing over 1,000 applications/week. Top of funnel is not our issue.

Appreciate the response!

First part: Makes perfect sense

Second part: How do you assess this beyond prior school/work history or how quickly they finish the prep course? I could see it being much more difficult to assess with older students/parents/people who struggled in school etc.

Third part: As a non-programmer, any examples of one of these steep curves?

I wasn't meaning to imply the demand isn't there, was just trying to picture LS at scale in 3-5 years (say 25k-100K students a year). Do you think that 75%+ placement is possible at scale -- I'd assume abandonment/failing students etc would increase greatly similar to other "open enrollment" coding bootcamps.

Regardless, it clearly is a +EV decision for any student who is able to get in. Congrats on creating a great product.

Re: Lambda School (YC S17) now pays eligible students $2k/month

#193

Post by bbg215 »

t0mmycollison wrote: post #187
_JasonE wrote: post #174

Hey Lambda team. Congratulations on the ISA program and living stipend! I'm sorry for having so many questions. We have an ISA program as well and I found these to be the most important questions people have about coding bootcamp ISAs: 1. Do the payments begin if the new job is not in-field (not related to Software Engineering)? 2. Is there a grace period or deadline (depending on your point of view) before the payme…

1. The language around what counts as in-field is in our ISA. It's more dependent on what skills you use in your job as opposed to your title. You can see a sample ISA we use at https://lambdaschool.com/faq/ . 2. You pay nothing between when you finish the technical portion of the class and when you get a job, and after you start your job, there's a 30-day grace period. 2. The payments stop if you stop working. You c…

Wait, does #3 imply you enroll students who don't want to work as a programmer after graduating? i.e. a online marketer who wants to learn coding as a skill set.

I would assume these types would be filtered out during the admissions process.

Re: Lambda School (YC S17) now pays eligible students $2k/month

#194

Post by bbg215 »

RandomBacon wrote: post #98
duxup wrote: post #53

It is an interesting system. I did a "full time" 3 month long more "traditional" structured boot camp. I really wish it had been longer and that they.... filtered .... students as it went.

Are there any bootcamps that filter/drop students?

I don't think it would make sense to do so from a business perspective unless they were concerned about elevating their post graduate placement rates. Most students pay upfront or on a monthly basis for bootcamps.

It would be a lot easier to just tighten your admissions process.

Re: Lambda School (YC S17) now pays eligible students $2k/month

#195

Post by tptacek »

JamesBarney wrote: post #191
tptacek wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see it listed there; I do see mandatory Calc 2-3 and linear algebra (the linear algebra is useful!).

This was a decade ago and looking at the curriculum now it seems like they emphasize discrete mathematics less or I accidentally took way more discrete math and logic than I needed to. And yeah linear algebra is definitely something I wish I got more out of. In college I did enough to get a good grade but not nearly enough to grok it. I'm hoping to take fast.ais course on it some day to rectify that mistake.

I'll be the 999th person to recommend the OCW Strang lectures on Youtube as a good intro, as well.

Re: Lambda School (YC S17) now pays eligible students $2k/month

#196

Post by kakaorka »

cm2012 wrote: post #73
vikp wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're only getting repaid when someone is employed and making over 50k, which seems to be the case from your website ("Upon completion of the program, students will pay 10% of their [pre-tax] salary for a five year period once they're making at least $50,000 per year"), then the "repayment floor" for Lambda school is 25k (with probably a close-to-50k "repayment average"). I'm assuming that if someone loses a job,…

This is laughable. As they scale, they will get 10-20% deadbeats that avoid paying, minimum.

They’ll probably sue them.

Re: Lambda School (YC S17) now pays eligible students $2k/month

#197

Post by _JasonE »

t0mmycollison wrote: post #187
_JasonE wrote: post #174

Hey Lambda team. Congratulations on the ISA program and living stipend! I'm sorry for having so many questions. We have an ISA program as well and I found these to be the most important questions people have about coding bootcamp ISAs: 1. Do the payments begin if the new job is not in-field (not related to Software Engineering)? 2. Is there a grace period or deadline (depending on your point of view) before the payme…

1. The language around what counts as in-field is in our ISA. It's more dependent on what skills you use in your job as opposed to your title. You can see a sample ISA we use at https://lambdaschool.com/faq/ . 2. You pay nothing between when you finish the technical portion of the class and when you get a job, and after you start your job, there's a 30-day grace period. 2. The payments stop if you stop working. You c…

Thanks for answering those - Sounds like a great program!

Re: Lambda School (YC S17) now pays eligible students $2k/month

#198

Post by austenallred »

bbg215 wrote: post #192
austenallred wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We look mostly at how well they do on our pre course work, how hard they work and how quickly they can climb steep programming learning curves. We’re seeing over 1,000 applications/week. Top of funnel is not our issue.

Appreciate the response! First part: Makes perfect sense Second part: How do you assess this beyond prior school/work history or how quickly they finish the prep course? I could see it being much more difficult to assess with older students/parents/people who struggled in school etc. Third part: As a non-programmer, any examples of one of these steep curves? I wasn't meaning to imply the demand isn't there, was just…

At 100k students/yr we won't be all software engineering and we won't be only in the United States

Re: Lambda School (YC S17) now pays eligible students $2k/month

#199

Post by shinryuu »

austenallred wrote: post #139
deilline wrote: post #124

I'm an experienced developer looking to dabble in some of the tracks you offer. What's the best way to determine if this is a fit for me?

Email admissions@lambdaschool.com. Admittedly we're mostly built for folks trying to break into tech right now, but will be modularizing and offering different segments in the near future.

I’d be really interested in filling in some gaps that I have.

I’m self-taught, but I definitely have some gaps in the algorithm side of things.

Re: Lambda School (YC S17) now pays eligible students $2k/month

#200

Post by westpfelia »

austenallred wrote: post #175
westpfelia wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you thinking of expanding into programs outside of web development? As a cyber security engineer I think that this is something that would really help get more people into the industry. And there just isnt enough universities that have programs. My Alma Mater is going to be starting one soon but... Looking at the class list I cant help but feel like the 4 years are wasted and a more concentrated program would yie…

Yes, cyber security will be our next track. We also have a UX design track, as well as data science, iOS development and android development.

Thats really cool to hear! I'd be interested in what you guys end up commiting to teaching for it.
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