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Lambda School agrees to end deceptive educational financing practices

dfpi.ca.gov

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Re: Lambda School agrees to end deceptive educational financing practices

#81

Post by marvindanig »

aerosmile wrote: post #77
sicromoft wrote: post #40

See also Lambda School’s Misleading Promises: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/02/lambda-schools-job-p...

I would be a lot more inclined to believe anything they said in this article if they didn't show such blatant bias for sensationalist reporting. > His previous work was mostly concerned with “growth hacking,” which is Silicon Valley jargon for finding underappreciated (or, less charitably, underhanded) ways of marketing something. So anyone who put the term "growth hacking" on their resume will now get publicly discr…

> So anyone who put the term "growth hacking" on their resume will now get publicly discredited as being underhanded?

That is good thing! These 'growth hacks' people should be viewed in the same light as a 'SEO tricks' people. Both damage the quality of results and bring bad faith actors to the top.

Re: Lambda School agrees to end deceptive educational financing practices

#82

Post by [deleted] »

lacker wrote: post #80
sandofsky wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a bizarre response. You were caught putting deceptive language in your contracts. You now have to hire a third-party to ensure all of your contracts comply with the law, and 90 days to review all of your previous marketing material and certify it wasn't dishonest. You're on probation. This is nothing to be excited about. This is similar to when you fought with the BPPE for a year because they insisted you can…

You were caught putting deceptive language in your contracts. Honestly, the California website claims this was "deceptive" but to me that seems like an exaggeration. Lambda claimed this thing wasn't dischargeable in bankruptcy, the state of California says actually it is. Okay, fine. It doesn't mean Lambda was doing something malicious. It's not like California makes it extremely transparent and clear what the rules…

[deleted]

Re: Lambda School agrees to end deceptive educational financing practices

#83

Post by judge2020 »

wakeywakeywakey wrote: post #35
pradn wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your bizarre cheeriness in the face of "Agreeing to End Deceptive Educational Financing Practices" is offputting, especially when coupled with the way college financing has led to generational deadweight, anxiety, and hopelessness.

Reminds me of the 'Human Heater' pitch from the Silicon Valley show [1] [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di3fPj0pUbQ

> It has not been shown conclusively that microwaves (or other non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation) have significant adverse biological effects at low levels. Some, but not all, studies suggest that long-term exposure may have a carcinogenic effect.

He might not be entirely wrong. They're still not going to sell any to the general public, though, especially if it is carcinogenic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave#Health_effects:~:tex...

Re: Lambda School agrees to end deceptive educational financing practices

#84

Post by threatofrain »

davidw wrote: post #37
pradn wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your bizarre cheeriness in the face of "Agreeing to End Deceptive Educational Financing Practices" is offputting, especially when coupled with the way college financing has led to generational deadweight, anxiety, and hopelessness.

What's he supposed to do? Rant about the government? Making the best of it and moving on is probably the best move, since it doesn't sound like a big hit to their business. Also, it looks like you get out of Lambda School debts via bankruptcy, which you don't with regular college, so that's... an improvement?

> Also, it looks like you get out of Lambda School debts via bankruptcy, which you don't with regular college, so that's... an improvement?

That was always the case, Lambda School just communicated otherwise to students.

Re: Lambda School agrees to end deceptive educational financing practices

#85

Post by sandofsky »

davidw wrote: post #37
pradn wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your bizarre cheeriness in the face of "Agreeing to End Deceptive Educational Financing Practices" is offputting, especially when coupled with the way college financing has led to generational deadweight, anxiety, and hopelessness.

What's he supposed to do? Rant about the government? Making the best of it and moving on is probably the best move, since it doesn't sound like a big hit to their business. Also, it looks like you get out of Lambda School debts via bankruptcy, which you don't with regular college, so that's... an improvement?

> What's he supposed to do?

Apologize.

> Also, it looks like you get out of Lambda School debts via bankruptcy, which you don't with regular college, so that's... an improvement?

"You can't discharge student debt," is actually a myth. I have two relatives that discharged their loans due to financial hardship. It isn't trivial, but there's a process.

The issue with ISAs, in their current form, is the lack of legal framework. Short of bankruptcy, the best you can do is lawyer up. Lambda School targets people who can't afford lawyers.

Re: Lambda School agrees to end deceptive educational financing practices

#86

Post by aerosmile »

srndsnd wrote: post #6

I'm confused as to why this headline has to be so close to clickbait. I'm not even one to stand up for people like Lambda, I think a lot of bootcamps are shady at best, and actively deceptive at worst (Trilogy). It is definitely important to note that that these loans can be discharged in bankruptcy. But as far as I know, isn't this less stringent than typical student loans, which can't be discharged in bankruptcy? I…

You're right and wrong. You already touched on the latter in your edit, so let's focus on the former for a sec. I was not surprised at all to see your comment, since I walked away with the same impression - someone at a gov agency tried harder than usual to achieve the max juice out of this release. Learning in this thread that this is a brand new agency and that this might have been the very first case they were tasked with (hope I got that right), helped me complete the full picture.

Re: Lambda School agrees to end deceptive educational financing practices

#87

Post by sugarwater »

aerosmile wrote: post #77
sicromoft wrote: post #40

See also Lambda School’s Misleading Promises: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/02/lambda-schools-job-p...

I would be a lot more inclined to believe anything they said in this article if they didn't show such blatant bias for sensationalist reporting. > His previous work was mostly concerned with “growth hacking,” which is Silicon Valley jargon for finding underappreciated (or, less charitably, underhanded) ways of marketing something. So anyone who put the term "growth hacking" on their resume will now get publicly discr…

It's worth mentioning the the CEO Austen had a post on here (now deleted) proclaiming to have creating a bot army via stealing people's pictures on Instagram.

I would qualify that as "underhanded"

Re: Lambda School agrees to end deceptive educational financing practices

#88

Post by TameAntelope »

marvindanig wrote: post #81
aerosmile wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be a lot more inclined to believe anything they said in this article if they didn't show such blatant bias for sensationalist reporting. > His previous work was mostly concerned with “growth hacking,” which is Silicon Valley jargon for finding underappreciated (or, less charitably, underhanded) ways of marketing something. So anyone who put the term "growth hacking" on their resume will now get publicly discr…

> So anyone who put the term "growth hacking" on their resume will now get publicly discredited as being underhanded? That is good thing! These 'growth hacks' people should be viewed in the same light as a 'SEO tricks' people. Both damage the quality of results and bring bad faith actors to the top.

I dunno if "underhanded" is the right word, but it feels like "growth hacking" is something one does only when the higher-than-usual moral cost is worth it.

Re: Lambda School agrees to end deceptive educational financing practices

#89

Post by maximilianroos »

austenallred wrote: post #29

Hey everyone, Pretty excited to reach settlement on this one. The DFPI is a new regulatory agency in California that was tasked with reviewing Lambda School’s new incentive-aligned tuition ( https://lambdaschool.com/tuition/tuition-options ) in California. They came back requesting that we update a bankruptcy provision in the agreement to clarify that these agreements are dischargeable in bankruptcy, and to do a revi…

I'm inclined to be on your side — the sum total of Lambda's impact on the world is likely highly positive, whatever happens in the details.

But that makes this response confusing — I was hoping to see a refutation of the regulator's claims or, failing that, a thoughtful discussion on what went wrong.

Is the regulator accurate? If so, were the statements significant? If so, what happened?

Re: Lambda School agrees to end deceptive educational financing practices

#90

Post by plorkyeran »

aerosmile wrote: post #77
sicromoft wrote: post #40

See also Lambda School’s Misleading Promises: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/02/lambda-schools-job-p...

I would be a lot more inclined to believe anything they said in this article if they didn't show such blatant bias for sensationalist reporting. > His previous work was mostly concerned with “growth hacking,” which is Silicon Valley jargon for finding underappreciated (or, less charitably, underhanded) ways of marketing something. So anyone who put the term "growth hacking" on their resume will now get publicly discr…

> So anyone who put the term "growth hacking" on their resume will now get publicly discredited as being underhanded?

Yes? "Growth hacking" has always been basically a euphemism for saying that you're willing to do unethical things for growth.

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