Can you compare your model to Modern Labor, which also received a lot of attention for a similar premise recently?
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
#22Re: Lambda School (YC S17) now pays eligible students $2k/month
#23While this program could be useful to many students, it's a loan program.
> Upon completion of the program, students will pay 10% of their salary for a five year period once they're making at least $50,000 per year. The max possible payment is capped at $50,000.
Re: Lambda School (YC S17) now pays eligible students $2k/month
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you collect the money? What's preventing a student from not paying you?
We get students’ tax returns to verify income and they sign a contract. What’s stopping them from not paying is the American contract law system which is severely underrated.
I suppose the contract obliges them to look for / accept a job after graduating? I mean, I'd be happy to take money to study for a while, but I wouldn't look for a job afterwards.
Re: Lambda School (YC S17) now pays eligible students $2k/month
#25Can you compare your model to Modern Labor, which also received a lot of attention for a similar premise recently? https://modernlabor.com
Modern Labor’s founder used to be a finance partner of ours, and decided to do something similar to what we had been working on. Modern Labor is (and this is my biased opinion) focused on the finance part and on bringing cost down, less on building “the school.” We are mostly focused on building the best school there’s ever been, and finance is a necessary piece for us but not necessarily the driver.
Just different models!
Re: Lambda School (YC S17) now pays eligible students $2k/month
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
We get students’ tax returns to verify income and they sign a contract. What’s stopping them from not paying is the American contract law system which is severely underrated.
I suppose the contract obliges them to look for / accept a job after graduating? I mean, I'd be happy to take money to study for a while, but I wouldn't look for a job afterwards.
Looking for a job is built into the curriculum itself. Of course, you could just turn job offers down and never get paid a high salary, but most people aren’t optimizing like that.
Re: Lambda School (YC S17) now pays eligible students $2k/month
#27Re: Lambda School (YC S17) now pays eligible students $2k/month
#28While this program could be useful to many students, it's a loan program. > Upon completion of the program, students will pay 10% of their salary for a five year period once they're making at least $50,000 per year. The max possible payment is capped at $50,000.
It’s an income share agreement, which is quite different than a loan, and you only repay if you get hired making $50k 94 more. And it’s also a school that’s run quite differently than other schools out there. We have to do everything differently from first principles to make this work.
If your point is “the $2,000 isn’t free” then yes you’re 100% correct.
Re: Lambda School (YC S17) now pays eligible students $2k/month
#29While I think what Lambda School does seems pretty great I have to wonder what will happen when the next recession hits. If their new grads aren't getting hired, they can't afford to pay for their current class. It feels like something that is only possible right now because of bubble economics and cheap VC capital.
Re: Lambda School (YC S17) now pays eligible students $2k/month
#30While I think what Lambda School does seems pretty great I have to wonder what will happen when the next recession hits. If their new grads aren't getting hired, they can't afford to pay for their current class. It feels like something that is only possible right now because of bubble economics and cheap VC capital.
We have to prepare pretty seriously for a recession - recessions are when school enrollment explodes because job opportunities dry up.
I can’t go into all the details publicly, but it’s something we have to take serious consideration to prepare for.