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IMO, the cost of living is the core problem with CS education programs like this. It's always been possible to teach yourself to code for free if you have a com

IMO, the cost of living is the core problem with CS education programs like this. It's always been possible to teach yourself to code for free if you have a computer, Internet, and 40 hours a week to spend on practice. But who can afford to do that? What these programs need most of all are cheap dormitories that offer room and board. (Close proximity to students can also help provide one another with a support network.)

austenallred 9y ago
> What these programs need most of all are cheap dormitories that offer room/board. That's also true, but it's much more easily for someone to find a place to crash for six months than to come up with $10k out-of-pocket. Eventually we'll be able to provide a stipend for living expenses and/or dormitory style living as well, but for now it is what it is.
- dfabulich 9y ago
  A studio apartment in Oakland is $1,500 a month. There are already a bunch of great free resources to learn to code, including Codecademy, Coursera, Khan Academy, MIT OpenCourseware, and freeCodeCamp. Right now, the people who need to learn to code need room and board, not yet another free coding school.
  - austenallred 9y ago
    First, why live in Oakland? A lot of our students move to more friendly environments (read: cheaper) during that time. There are a lot of great resources, no doubt, but those don't really compare to an in-person experience with an instructor and a school incentivized to take you all the way to hired.
  - MarkMc 9y ago
    The difference is that with Khan Academy, Coursera etc. you need self discipline. With Lambda you have a coach who expects you to be at your computer at 9am every weekday, and who has a strong financial incentive to ensure you learn. Plus in time a Lambda qualification may become more respected by employers than a Coursera degree.
    - heedlessly 9y ago
      LOL keyword may Udacity's full stack developer nano degree was co-created by Amazon, Google, GitHub, and ATT. Lambda is light years behind.
  - heedlessly 9y ago
    okay, if you're paying $1500/month, then you can afford places outside of Oakland. I've lived in Daly City for $1000/month before
joshuarcher 9y ago
100% agree being around other students would be a huge plus. I went to a school where I was surrounded by 40 other amateur programmers all driven towards building awesome products and writing quality code. Being in that environment is what made me obsessed with software. There's actually a program called Make School that's pretty similar to this Lambda school, except they DO have student dorms and even offer a 2k/month living stipend in SF. Finding Make School on ProductHunt a few years ago was probably one of the highlights of my young adulthood. https://www.makeschool.com/product-college https://www.makeschool.com/product-college https://www.producthunt.com/posts/makeschool-gap-year https://www.producthunt.com/posts/makeschool-gap-year
- austenallred 9y ago
  You're still surrounded by other software engineers; you have a set class you'll get to know very well.

austenallred 9y ago

> What these programs need most of all are cheap dormitories that offer room/board. That's also true, but it's much more easily for someone to find a place to crash for six months than to come up with $10k out-of-pocket. Eventually we'll be able to provide a stipend for living expenses and/or dormitory style living as well, but for now it is what it is.

dfabulich 9y ago
A studio apartment in Oakland is $1,500 a month. There are already a bunch of great free resources to learn to code, including Codecademy, Coursera, Khan Academy, MIT OpenCourseware, and freeCodeCamp. Right now, the people who need to learn to code need room and board, not yet another free coding school.
- austenallred 9y ago
  First, why live in Oakland? A lot of our students move to more friendly environments (read: cheaper) during that time. There are a lot of great resources, no doubt, but those don't really compare to an in-person experience with an instructor and a school incentivized to take you all the way to hired.
- MarkMc 9y ago
  The difference is that with Khan Academy, Coursera etc. you need self discipline. With Lambda you have a coach who expects you to be at your computer at 9am every weekday, and who has a strong financial incentive to ensure you learn. Plus in time a Lambda qualification may become more respected by employers than a Coursera degree.
  - heedlessly 9y ago
    LOL keyword may Udacity's full stack developer nano degree was co-created by Amazon, Google, GitHub, and ATT. Lambda is light years behind.
- heedlessly 9y ago
  okay, if you're paying $1500/month, then you can afford places outside of Oakland. I've lived in Daly City for $1000/month before

joshuarcher 9y ago

100% agree being around other students would be a huge plus. I went to a school where I was surrounded by 40 other amateur programmers all driven towards building awesome products and writing quality code. Being in that environment is what made me obsessed with software. There's actually a program called Make School that's pretty similar to this Lambda school, except they DO have student dorms and even offer a 2k/month living stipend in SF. Finding Make School on ProductHunt a few years ago was probably one of the highlights of my young adulthood. https://www.makeschool.com/product-college https://www.makeschool.com/product-college https://www.producthunt.com/posts/makeschool-gap-year https://www.producthunt.com/posts/makeschool-gap-year

austenallred 9y ago
You're still surrounded by other software engineers; you have a set class you'll get to know very well.