3 ms·

I went to college and did a bootcamp. College - 212K tuition (current) - 4 yrs - no job guarantee Bootcamp - 18K tuition - 3 months - money back if no job wit

I went to college and did a bootcamp. College - 212K tuition (current) - 4 yrs - no job guarantee Bootcamp - 18K tuition - 3 months - money back if no job within a year Can you spot the scam?

snakedoctor 6y ago
Haha yeah. Though, some of the boot camp folks who I noticed . Usually have earned a bachelors with a major in something else than CS etc. Then made the transition to tech via a bootcamp. I applied to the recurse center a while back and got rejected.
bawolff 6y ago
To be fair, money back promises are often used as part of a scam. Personally i think neither are a scam (although 212k is ridiculous, glad i dont live in usa) just make sure you understand what they are selling and that it matches what you want.
- fallingknife 6y ago
  I actually know someone who got the money back in this case, so not a scam.
BeetleB 6y ago
While I sympathize with your point, I also see someone who made a really poor choice in picking a college. I'll wager that in every state there is a decent university that will get you a 4 year degree for under $60K. It's as if I compared your average college with a crappy bootcamp. Let's not cherry-pick. The number I want to see is the percentage of college grads with a BS in CS who get a (decent) job within a year, vs the percentage of people who complete a bootcamp who get a (decent) job within a year. I suspect the numbers will favor college, but I honestly have no idea. Getting your money back sounds like a good deal, but you'd still have spent a whole year without a job, and nothing to show for it.
- fallingknife 6y ago
  I would also say that going to college was a bad choice, but the one I picked was one of the good ones where the name means something. Still a rip off, but a lot of people paid the same for absolutely nothing.
  - BeetleB 6y ago
    > but the one I picked was one of the good ones where the name means something. As someone who went both to an average university and one ranked 3rd in the country, I can tell you: The name doesn't mean much in the engineering discipline. Certainly, a CS degree from CMU will likely get you into more interviews, and they probably earn more in the long run, but the person who got his BS in CS from an average state school with a good GPA will almost certainly get a job within a year. Very few exceptions. With bootcamps, I expect that percentage is a lot lower. As a data point, I work in a top tech company and while people from big name schools are slightly overrepresented, the majority of folks are not from big name schools. Certainly plenty of people from my average state school here have senior positions.
    - fallingknife 6y ago
      I know it means nothing in engineering, which I think is great. But I went for finance, which is exactly the opposite.

I went to college and did a bootcamp. College - 212K tuition (current) - 4 yrs - no job guarantee Bootcamp - 18K tuition - 3 months - money back if no job within a year Can you spot the scam?

snakedoctor 6y ago

Haha yeah. Though, some of the boot camp folks who I noticed . Usually have earned a bachelors with a major in something else than CS etc. Then made the transition to tech via a bootcamp. I applied to the recurse center a while back and got rejected.

bawolff 6y ago

To be fair, money back promises are often used as part of a scam. Personally i think neither are a scam (although 212k is ridiculous, glad i dont live in usa) just make sure you understand what they are selling and that it matches what you want.

fallingknife 6y ago
I actually know someone who got the money back in this case, so not a scam.

BeetleB 6y ago

While I sympathize with your point, I also see someone who made a really poor choice in picking a college. I'll wager that in every state there is a decent university that will get you a 4 year degree for under $60K. It's as if I compared your average college with a crappy bootcamp. Let's not cherry-pick. The number I want to see is the percentage of college grads with a BS in CS who get a (decent) job within a year, vs the percentage of people who complete a bootcamp who get a (decent) job within a year. I suspect the numbers will favor college, but I honestly have no idea. Getting your money back sounds like a good deal, but you'd still have spent a whole year without a job, and nothing to show for it.

fallingknife 6y ago
I would also say that going to college was a bad choice, but the one I picked was one of the good ones where the name means something. Still a rip off, but a lot of people paid the same for absolutely nothing.
- BeetleB 6y ago
  > but the one I picked was one of the good ones where the name means something. As someone who went both to an average university and one ranked 3rd in the country, I can tell you: The name doesn't mean much in the engineering discipline. Certainly, a CS degree from CMU will likely get you into more interviews, and they probably earn more in the long run, but the person who got his BS in CS from an average state school with a good GPA will almost certainly get a job within a year. Very few exceptions. With bootcamps, I expect that percentage is a lot lower. As a data point, I work in a top tech company and while people from big name schools are slightly overrepresented, the majority of folks are not from big name schools. Certainly plenty of people from my average state school here have senior positions.
  - fallingknife 6y ago
    I know it means nothing in engineering, which I think is great. But I went for finance, which is exactly the opposite.