9 ms·

Lambda School is renaming itself to Bloom Institute of Technology

45 points by minimaxir 5y ago

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
crate_barre 5y ago
These bootcamps get a lot of heat, and I’m rarely one to defend them, but I think these camps should embed themselves into Universities as an accelerated program. Something like a three-year program (College is just too long in general), followed by a one year embedded bootcamp. Edit: I meant a total of only three years (the third year being the bootcamp).
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- detaro 5y ago
  ... isn't that then the same length as a normal uni degree in the US, and longer than one in plenty other countries?
- JohnHaugeland 5y ago
  what motivates a college to want to give over part of its money to a bunch of not-educators with a track record of fraud and failure to do curriculum replacement though
- akanet 5y ago
  This is happening rapidly in the bootcamp space right now (2U, Trilogy, etc). It's unclear whether this will work well in the long term, as the bootcamp sort of begins competing with its host body (marketing, curriculum, lead generation), but only time will tell.
  - starwind 5y ago
    There’s a bootcamp that does something with a university near me in analytics that has called me a couple times to teach there. They tout their connection to the university but it doesn’t look like the bootcamp and the university really integrated in the four or five years since it started. I think the bootcamp just uses extra classrooms. (I’ve never been super impressed with their curriculum—it seem super scattershot and designed to let students check a bunch of boxes so I’ve never pursued it.)
- 908B64B197 5y ago
  > I think these camps should embed themselves into Universities as an accelerated program If you want students teaching you a course, why not simply run something like the MIT missing semester? [0] [0] https://missing.csail.mit.edu/ https://missing.csail.mit.edu/
- starwind 5y ago
  I just wish universities connected with trade schools. Why couldn't I get a minor in aircraft maintenance or welding while I was majoring in economics?
- devwastaken 5y ago
  They're fundamentally incompatible. No bootcamp is accredited. Therefore you can't get grants and student loans. Classes at one bootcamp don't translate to another, there's no oversight on the curriculum, etc.
  - throwawaysea 5y ago
    Perhaps we need to redo the accreditation system. It feels a bit like regulatory capture, preventing progress and innovation.
    - LMYahooTFY 5y ago
      Agreed. It's filled with some ridiculous details in the modern age, like (I might be a bit imprecise with this but) requiring you to have a full time Librarian employed with a graduate degree in "Library Studies", among other things.
1270018080 5y ago
Is the brand that bad? I guess they won't be around for much longer.
908B64B197 5y ago
I'm extremely skeptical of bootcamps, especially after learning that some of the TA's at Lambda are hired to help with teaching as little as two months into the program as students[0]. I guess that counts toward their "placement" stats! Not only that, but Lambda seems so desperate that they will offer a fresh grad at no cost to any company for a 4 week trial period. [1] I don't think I've seen a single hire out of a bootcamp work out in the end. Except a few cases where the person actually came from a STEM degree from a good school (and more crucially, already had some exposure to programming during the degree) but it's unclear to me that they actually needed the bootcamp and not just a good primer on modern software development and something like the Missing Semester [2] or a few classes at their school covering software engineering. [0] https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/02/lambda-schools-job-placement-rate-is-lower-than-claimed.html https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/02/lambda-schools-job-p... [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25138610 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25138610 [2] https://missing.csail.mit.edu/ https://missing.csail.mit.edu/
- LMYahooTFY 5y ago
  > I guess that counts toward their "placement" stats! I'm constantly amazed how badly people respond. This is blatantly false, they're explicitly noted in the outcomes reporting. Furthermore, they don't "help with teaching", they're basically paid tutors. You're taking the weakest interpretation to strawman Lambda with, and I'd argue you're mostly just arguing against falsehoods. Yes I went to Lambda, and yes I'm employed as a Software Engineer. "Bootcamps"/Vocational schools, or whatever you want to call them, are the market's response to the college system falling apart at the edges. IMO the weakest universities are as bad as the worst bootcamps. Edit: Also just curious, have you compared placements rates for Lambda or any other "bootcamps" to any universities?
  - 908B64B197 5y ago
    > Furthermore, they don't "help with teaching", they're basically paid tutors. So they teach the class or just help the teacher (hence helping with teaching)? > Yes I went to Lambda, and yes I'm employed as a Software Engineer. Ahh, so there's an incentive to defend the brand here.
sprkwd 5y ago
Funny way to spell Meta.

45 points by minimaxir 5y ago

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

These bootcamps get a lot of heat, and I’m rarely one to defend them, but I think these camps should embed themselves into Universities as an accelerated program. Something like a three-year program (College is just too long in general), followed by a one year embedded bootcamp. Edit: I meant a total of only three years (the third year being the bootcamp).

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
detaro 5y ago
... isn't that then the same length as a normal uni degree in the US, and longer than one in plenty other countries?
JohnHaugeland 5y ago
what motivates a college to want to give over part of its money to a bunch of not-educators with a track record of fraud and failure to do curriculum replacement though
akanet 5y ago
This is happening rapidly in the bootcamp space right now (2U, Trilogy, etc). It's unclear whether this will work well in the long term, as the bootcamp sort of begins competing with its host body (marketing, curriculum, lead generation), but only time will tell.
- starwind 5y ago
  There’s a bootcamp that does something with a university near me in analytics that has called me a couple times to teach there. They tout their connection to the university but it doesn’t look like the bootcamp and the university really integrated in the four or five years since it started. I think the bootcamp just uses extra classrooms. (I’ve never been super impressed with their curriculum—it seem super scattershot and designed to let students check a bunch of boxes so I’ve never pursued it.)
908B64B197 5y ago
> I think these camps should embed themselves into Universities as an accelerated program If you want students teaching you a course, why not simply run something like the MIT missing semester? [0] [0] https://missing.csail.mit.edu/ https://missing.csail.mit.edu/
starwind 5y ago
I just wish universities connected with trade schools. Why couldn't I get a minor in aircraft maintenance or welding while I was majoring in economics?
devwastaken 5y ago
They're fundamentally incompatible. No bootcamp is accredited. Therefore you can't get grants and student loans. Classes at one bootcamp don't translate to another, there's no oversight on the curriculum, etc.
- throwawaysea 5y ago
  Perhaps we need to redo the accreditation system. It feels a bit like regulatory capture, preventing progress and innovation.
  - LMYahooTFY 5y ago
    Agreed. It's filled with some ridiculous details in the modern age, like (I might be a bit imprecise with this but) requiring you to have a full time Librarian employed with a graduate degree in "Library Studies", among other things.

1270018080 5y ago

Is the brand that bad? I guess they won't be around for much longer.

908B64B197 5y ago

I'm extremely skeptical of bootcamps, especially after learning that some of the TA's at Lambda are hired to help with teaching as little as two months into the program as students[0]. I guess that counts toward their "placement" stats! Not only that, but Lambda seems so desperate that they will offer a fresh grad at no cost to any company for a 4 week trial period. [1] I don't think I've seen a single hire out of a bootcamp work out in the end. Except a few cases where the person actually came from a STEM degree from a good school (and more crucially, already had some exposure to programming during the degree) but it's unclear to me that they actually needed the bootcamp and not just a good primer on modern software development and something like the Missing Semester [2] or a few classes at their school covering software engineering. [0] https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/02/lambda-schools-job-placement-rate-is-lower-than-claimed.html https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/02/lambda-schools-job-p... [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25138610 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25138610 [2] https://missing.csail.mit.edu/ https://missing.csail.mit.edu/

LMYahooTFY 5y ago
> I guess that counts toward their "placement" stats! I'm constantly amazed how badly people respond. This is blatantly false, they're explicitly noted in the outcomes reporting. Furthermore, they don't "help with teaching", they're basically paid tutors. You're taking the weakest interpretation to strawman Lambda with, and I'd argue you're mostly just arguing against falsehoods. Yes I went to Lambda, and yes I'm employed as a Software Engineer. "Bootcamps"/Vocational schools, or whatever you want to call them, are the market's response to the college system falling apart at the edges. IMO the weakest universities are as bad as the worst bootcamps. Edit: Also just curious, have you compared placements rates for Lambda or any other "bootcamps" to any universities?
- 908B64B197 5y ago
  > Furthermore, they don't "help with teaching", they're basically paid tutors. So they teach the class or just help the teacher (hence helping with teaching)? > Yes I went to Lambda, and yes I'm employed as a Software Engineer. Ahh, so there's an incentive to defend the brand here.

sprkwd 5y ago

Funny way to spell Meta.