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Just keep in mind that most higher education is "free" anyway in France (either around 400€ a year for registration fees or totally free for people which have a

Just keep in mind that most higher education is "free" anyway in France (either around 400€ a year for registration fees or totally free for people which have a government scholarship) and there is no exams entry at the university. Some formations are selective and some require some money to enrol but overall the only innovation this "school" provide is... the absence of teachers.

cassandrajam 8y ago
And the project based work, and the help of older students that force you to learn by yourself, and the opportunity to help students that aren't good with the classic way of doing school (shut-up and listen to a teacher talk for 3 hours), and teaching you to be independent and responsible, and forcing you to think like a real world professional, and making you own up to your decision, the ability to go beyond what was asked and be rewarded for it... I could go on and on about this school which is in my opinion becoming worse every year, but the core concept is amazing and truly adapted for an IT school of the 21st century.
- titanix2 8y ago
  Everything you cited exists also in the traditional university system. Projects (one or two per subject per semester, sometime with a high degree of liberty for the details), getting help from other students (just go in the CS student association and ask), tutoring others (I did it a few time), independence & responsability (going only in class you need, skipping others and taking the exams), going beyond what asked (for instance, majoring in two diploma at the same time), etc. You can make your university journey almost anything you want. But the main failure point of most student imo is that they consider the teacher are against them. Some are, but most aren't and are really likely to help any motivated student who ask for it. So, I thing that the no teacher style school is very bad in the sense that it have no-one to force student learning stuff they don't want to but that are important. This can form bubbles of knowledge with important or interesting things not included. One the reverse, the traditional university still consider students as children (which most are, actually) and does not give enough space to do thing in one's way. It is still possible to go, but it require a lot of efforts.

cassandrajam 8y ago

And the project based work, and the help of older students that force you to learn by yourself, and the opportunity to help students that aren't good with the classic way of doing school (shut-up and listen to a teacher talk for 3 hours), and teaching you to be independent and responsible, and forcing you to think like a real world professional, and making you own up to your decision, the ability to go beyond what was asked and be rewarded for it... I could go on and on about this school which is in my opinion becoming worse every year, but the core concept is amazing and truly adapted for an IT school of the 21st century.

titanix2 8y ago
Everything you cited exists also in the traditional university system. Projects (one or two per subject per semester, sometime with a high degree of liberty for the details), getting help from other students (just go in the CS student association and ask), tutoring others (I did it a few time), independence & responsability (going only in class you need, skipping others and taking the exams), going beyond what asked (for instance, majoring in two diploma at the same time), etc. You can make your university journey almost anything you want. But the main failure point of most student imo is that they consider the teacher are against them. Some are, but most aren't and are really likely to help any motivated student who ask for it. So, I thing that the no teacher style school is very bad in the sense that it have no-one to force student learning stuff they don't want to but that are important. This can form bubbles of knowledge with important or interesting things not included. One the reverse, the traditional university still consider students as children (which most are, actually) and does not give enough space to do thing in one's way. It is still possible to go, but it require a lot of efforts.