Amazing, if I was going to college now I would definitely put this on my short list.
Make School (YC W12) gains accreditation for 2-year applied CS bachelor’s degree
21–30 of 38 posts
Re: Make School (YC W12) gains accreditation for 2-year applied CS bachelor’s degree
#22Sorry but 100k is just absurd. A computer science AS degree at any decent California community college is about $1500 instate tuition, and would be vastly more respectable and useful.
That's a good thought, but low tuition costs mean CS professors at California community colleges are making close to nothing. Warning, anecdotal evidence, but I took CS at CCSF and when asked how to tell if a number was prime in Java, the professor responded "I don't know, google it. There's probably a function that does that."
To be fair, that's the correct answer if you're trying to do a primality test for some non-didactic reason. They're complicated.
There are very simple ways to test for primality, but they're... slow. (And at that level, the "in Java" part of the question doesn't make any sense. "What cryptography libraries do you use in Java?" is a perfectly sensible question. "How do you divide numbers in Java?"....)
Re: Make School (YC W12) gains accreditation for 2-year applied CS bachelor’s degree
#23I would really like to see more evidence about what effects income-share agreements have on higher education.
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Re: Make School (YC W12) gains accreditation for 2-year applied CS bachelor’s degree
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Students will on average pay ~$100k for their degree, but because they enter the workforce 2 years sooner they also have $200k more earnings than their peers (pre-tax/tuition). From a net-worth standpoint, this ends up being comparable to getting a full ride at a 4 year institution. Perhaps avoid going into specifics next time. Is it true to say that earlier graduation makes it cheaper? Yes. Is it true to say that…
> $70K/year is what many would pay for in-state including living on campus. A quick check of UCs shows total all-inclusive annual cost estimate for in-state students tend to be $25-35K depending on living situation. (Which includes things like housing and food that getting a degree sooner doesn't actually save that much, if anything, on.)
I think they might have meant for all four years of state school on campus, which rings true with me. I went to a state school and lived on campus for four years and it cost me roughly 80k.
Re: Make School (YC W12) gains accreditation for 2-year applied CS bachelor’s degree
#25Sort of off topic, but I wish every company didn't put these in their privacy policies:
"user information related to the Service may be among the items sold or otherwise transferred"
"The Company may modify or update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect the changes in our business and practices, and so you should review this page periodically"
For 70-100k in tuition, one would hope for a less revocable promise of privacy than that, especially from a school.
It would also be nice if these policies had parts that clarify whether the 'anonymized' data they inevitably transfer can reasonably be re-identified later. I'm never sure how to read those, personally.
Re: Make School (YC W12) gains accreditation for 2-year applied CS bachelor’s degree
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks for the positive feedback :) We're not as cheap as online Udemy courses due to high touch instruction at a physical campus. Though we are substantially undercutting traditional bachelor's degrees on cost. Students will on average pay ~$100k for their degree, but because they enter the workforce 2 years sooner they also have $200k more earnings than their peers (pre-tax/tuition). From a net-worth standpoint, th…
> Students will on average pay ~$100k for their degree, but because they enter the workforce 2 years sooner they also have $200k more earnings than their peers (pre-tax/tuition). From a net-worth standpoint, this ends up being comparable to getting a full ride at a 4 year institution. Perhaps avoid going into specifics next time. Is it true to say that earlier graduation makes it cheaper? Yes. Is it true to say that…
$100k is highway robbery for a CS BS.
Re: Make School (YC W12) gains accreditation for 2-year applied CS bachelor’s degree
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Make School co-founder here - now that we have accreditor approval, we're going through the necessary steps to ensure the program is GI Bill eligible. It's looking like we'll be able to confirm early next year.
That's awesome! One suggestion -- if the VA slow-rolls anything, call up Pelosi's staff. Not only is she your local SF rep, she will be looking for quick wins as she takes back the gavel and improving transition opportunities for vets is hot right now in DC.
Very helpful advice, thank you!
Re: Make School (YC W12) gains accreditation for 2-year applied CS bachelor’s degree
#28Sort of off topic, but I wish every company didn't put these in their privacy policies: "user information related to the Service may be among the items sold or otherwise transferred" "The Company may modify or update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect the changes in our business and practices, and so you should review this page periodically" For 70-100k in tuition, one would hope for a less revocable pr…
You're right that our privacy policy is generic / written for web services - that policy applies to our website rather than our student data. FERPA laws govern student data, so those are definitely better protected than the generic policy may indicate!
Re: Make School (YC W12) gains accreditation for 2-year applied CS bachelor’s degree
#29This is great. I love that people are taking on the higher education space. During my masters I would take the uni's online courses that were of absolute garbage quality. I've gotten better content from Udemy for 45$. The only reason they could get $3500 per class from me is because they were one of a limited few accredited universities in my area. Competition in this space is much needed. I hope that Make School wil…
Thanks for the positive feedback :) We're not as cheap as online Udemy courses due to high touch instruction at a physical campus. Though we are substantially undercutting traditional bachelor's degrees on cost. Students will on average pay ~$100k for their degree, but because they enter the workforce 2 years sooner they also have $200k more earnings than their peers (pre-tax/tuition). From a net-worth standpoint, th…
It worried me a little that you compared yourself to Udemy. Because Udemy is at best a decent look into a little bit of a certain technology, and at worst an amateurish stride through a topic. Maybe it’ll allow you to google program, but it won’t teach you computer science.
So I looked over your courses at, https://www.makeschool.com/course-catalog and I have to ask, but do you really teach computer science? You seem to lack a lot of the fundamentals on how computers, compilers and programming languages actually work, and instead offer a range of introductory courses on specific technologies.
Don’t get me wrong. I like applied computer science, we have it in my country as well, as an alternative to the universities and real CS. Such a degree takes 2.5 years, and it makes people very hireable, but it’s not comparable to a real bachelors of computer science.
I think you should aim instead, and instead compare yourself to EDX and their free course of CS50x from Harvard. I’d feel a lot more comfortable hiring someone who had completed those courses than someone who had learned React on Udemy.
Good luck though, the CS field has room for, and needs more craftsmen, but maybe don’t call it a bachelor of science if you don’t actually teach the science.
Re: Make School (YC W12) gains accreditation for 2-year applied CS bachelor’s degree
#30Sorry but 100k is just absurd. A computer science AS degree at any decent California community college is about $1500 instate tuition, and would be vastly more respectable and useful.
> A computer science AS degree at any decent California community college is about $1500 instate tuition, That's about 32 semester units ($46/unit). An AS typically has a minimum of 60 semester units as a requirement. Plus, an accredited BS is likely to be better regarded than an AS for many purposes.
Nobody cares about accreditation in CS. Stanford is not accredited, for example.