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Comment by tempsy | Hacker News Reader

I think it would be tough to comment on any of this without having gone through the program myself, though I do wish there was an “undercover” senior software engineer who would sign up for the part time program and do maybe a month or more of the curriculum and write about it.

Knowing nothing else about the program the biggest red flag For me is that you owe 40% of the ISA after only 5 weeks of the 9 month program (e.g. less than 14% complete). That seems really excessive, and would seem like it would drive employees to “accept” students even if they knew there was minimal chance they’d be able to complete the entire program.

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The ISA is highly restricted though.

Only kicks in if you're employed in a software job making more than 50k/yr.

ISA stops after repayment or ten years whichever happens first.

My favorite part of it is the ISA structure, it aligns the incentives between the school and the students. Universities don't have skin in the game, charge outrageous tuition fees and provide primarily signaling (even in the best cases). If Universities had to switch to an ISA model we'd see which ones were actually valuable - if they'd even be capable of adapting.

Doesn’t matter in my opinion. 40% after 5 weeks is a joke. If the student felt the need to drop out due to any reason so early and then ended up either completing another program or becoming self-taught and then finding a job it is silly that Lambda would still collect up to $12k from the student for very little value.

If Lambda were extremely confident in their program and who they select they would at least move it up to 25% of the curriculum complete, not 14%, or lower the 40% to something actually proportional to the time spent in the program.

Yeah - I think that's a fair criticism.

It sounds like you agree with the ISA concept but are only unhappy with the price. I'm guessing the terms are this way to discourage the less motivated.

If I drop out of college in a given quarter, I only owe tuition for that quarter. This is like dropping out my first quarter in college and owing my university 5 quarters of tuition.

No I don’t really like ISAs and personally would never do one myself.

If you drop out of a two-quarter college in the first quarter, you only owe the first quarter (50%) which is roughly equivalent

A four year university is 12 quarters. There is no such thing as a 2-quarter degree as far as I’m aware. Potentially this is more equivalent to a 2-year associates degree, which would be 6 quarters.

I mean Lambda School is the equivalent of a 2 quarter college program. Everyone understands how fractions work -- the push back is that people don't think the fraction analogy you're using makes sense here.

I teach a 10 week program and students who drop out 4 weeks in are offered an option to return to complete during the next offering but are on the hook for the full program costs. This does not mean I think someone who drops out of college after 1.5 years should have to pay for 4 years. It's not the same situation.

No it's not. Even the CEO has said the amount of hour is equivalent to a 2-year program.

Traditional college courses meet for a few hours a week. This is a 9-month all day program.

40% after 5 weeks is a joke.

This makes sense to me if their capacity to admit students for a particular class is fixed. If someone starts the class and later drops out, they can't be replaced. So once you have started the program, Lambda School is paying for your instructor for the whole class no matter what.

Don't you still have to pay for the whole semester if you drop out of a regular university after 5 weeks?

If I drop out of college in a given quarter, I only owe tuition for that quarter. This is like dropping out my first quarter in college and owing my university 5 quarters of tuition.

It’s an online course. There’s minimal cost to adding one person in a massive Zoom session.

9 months is 3 quarters, so it seems more like they are charging 1.2 quarters if you drop out after 5 weeks.

A four year university is 12 quarters. 40% of the total quarters is about 5 quarters.

I don’t have any opinion about Lambda School, but I believe it’s normal for schools to charge tuition before classes are completed. I believe the drop deadline at my college (after which you can’t be refunded at all) was around halfway through the semester. I think a pro-rated tuition policy would be laudable but atypically consumer-friendly.

Don't the payments only kick in for a decent job? That can be bad if you already have a decent job, but maybe don't sign up if you are starting from there and aren't sure about it.

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