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Lambda School’s Misleading Promises

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Re: Lambda School’s Misleading Promises

#41

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

dehrmann wrote: post #9
cm2012 wrote: post #4

I mean, it's still a vastly, vastly better deal than college or other boot camps. It has no up front monetary investment, and you only pay for it if i works for you.

> it's still a vastly, vastly better deal than college or other boot camps I'd like to see ten-year outcomes before claiming this. That said, it's also hard to control for different student backgrounds.

Sure, but controlling for different student backgrounds is a super high standard. Very few people try to control for example colleges by student background; almost nobody would say that Stanford admits having high grades is a point against Stanford.

Re: Lambda School’s Misleading Promises

#42

Post by nkrisc »

hundt wrote: post #36
nkrisc wrote: post #29

About these ISAs: do they require any kind of good faith effort to find a tech job after completing the boot camp? If someone was just interested in tech, but worked in an unrelated field with no intention to switch, how would Lambda protect themselves? Obviously they could probably sue if there was bad faith on the student's part, but do these agreements address this scenario? Do they focus on screening students to…

My understanding is that Lambda school is very focused on teaching you what you need to get a job, so if you were just "interested in tech" you would probably be better served by Udacity, other free or nearly-free online courses, or just reading books.

Right, there are certainly better options. I'm not necessarily interested from a practical standpoint, more of a theoretical one, being relatively unfamiliar with how these agreements work beyond a one-sentence description.

Re: Lambda School’s Misleading Promises

#43

Post by brenden2 »

From seeing this guy's (Allred's) tweets pop up on twitter a few time, I always got the feeling that he was a scammer or con artist. This article provides a lot of evidence that seems to confirm my hunch.

I've seen people have success in startups using similar tactics throughout my career, and one realization I've had about this is that sometimes perception matters more than the actual numbers. It's especially true when it comes to investing and VC fueled businesses where success tends to follow the funding (i.e., if you get enough money you can buy your way to success).

Eventually, however, everything comes out in the wash. At some point lying about the numbers won't work anymore, and maybe for Allred this is an example of that. As a founder, if you don't eventually deliver on what you've promised, it will all unwind and you'll be left with nothing.

Re: Lambda School’s Misleading Promises

#44

Post by brenden2 »

akanet wrote: post #6

Hi, I'm the author of the piece, perhaps better known here as founder of CoderPad. Feel free to ask me anything but things are a bit crazy right now!

Thanks for publishing it! It takes a lot of courage to go against the "who's hot in the valley" zeitgeist.

Also, CoderPad was life changing when we started using it at Airbnb. It made phone interviews so much more effective, thanks for creating it.

Re: Lambda School’s Misleading Promises

#45

Post by intherdfield »

akanet wrote: post #6

Hi, I'm the author of the piece, perhaps better known here as founder of CoderPad. Feel free to ask me anything but things are a bit crazy right now!

I don't think you mentioned that the student doesn't have to pay back Lambda after 60 months of deferred payments. That seems important. From the Lambda site:

"The income share agreement has no interest. It's a flat percentage that goes away once you've reached the $30k payment cap, you've made 24 payments, or after 60 months of deferred payments (even if you haven't paid us anything)."

But you wrote in the article:

"Students with no safety nets experience real financial pain from the nine-month hiatus from work, in addition to the looming dread of possibly having to pay Lambda $30K one day."

Re: Lambda School’s Misleading Promises

#46

Post by dilap »

dehrmann wrote: post #9
cm2012 wrote: post #4

I mean, it's still a vastly, vastly better deal than college or other boot camps. It has no up front monetary investment, and you only pay for it if i works for you.

> it's still a vastly, vastly better deal than college or other boot camps I'd like to see ten-year outcomes before claiming this. That said, it's also hard to control for different student backgrounds.

50% placement doesn't seem bad to me at all...

Re: Lambda School’s Misleading Promises

#47

Post by kwisatzh »

brenden2 wrote: post #43

From seeing this guy's (Allred's) tweets pop up on twitter a few time, I always got the feeling that he was a scammer or con artist. This article provides a lot of evidence that seems to confirm my hunch. I've seen people have success in startups using similar tactics throughout my career, and one realization I've had about this is that sometimes perception matters more than the actual numbers. It's especially true w…

He’s a white guy founding a company with the biggest tech backers on the planet. He will fail upwards; he will be handsomely rewarded.

Re: Lambda School’s Misleading Promises

#48

Post by mattmcknight »

akanet wrote: post #6

Hi, I'm the author of the piece, perhaps better known here as founder of CoderPad. Feel free to ask me anything but things are a bit crazy right now!

Why did you choose to write about this program as opposed to other programs that teach people coding skills, but have vastly worse payment plans, including some which can't even be dispensed in bankruptcy? The criticism seems unmoored from its placement in the set of alternatives for people who want to try to see if they can get a job coding. The undergraduate degree is notoriously bad for this purpose, from time, practicality and cost perspectives. How do you propose that people learn these skills- or learn if they are capable of achieving these skills?

Re: Lambda School’s Misleading Promises

#50

Post by conanbatt »

caust1c wrote: post #37

Having friends in the program, I can tell you it's run like a circus. Expecting 10 people who don't have any experience programming to cooperate on a project without any support or oversight is just asking for student failures. Of course they'll say that the students have supports through their PMs, EMs or TLs (depending on the mood, they change the role title), but they're never available and miss meetings constantl…

Did your friends learn to code?
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