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> People see the "$30K" price tag for Lambda School and other programs and assume it's a steal, yet most in-state tuitions are in the same range and provide sub

> People see the "$30K" price tag for Lambda School and other programs and assume it's a steal, yet most in-state tuitions are in the same range and provide substantially more education. on the other hand, the time cost of a bachelor's in CS is much higher than that of an 8 month (?) bootcamp. four years is a long time to spend treading water wrt employable skills. I do feel that the degree is better long-term if it's at all possible. but that's not realistic for everyone. if at the end of the bootcamp you get a decent job that you wouldn't have otherwise, that seems like a good deal. if not, you're out a lot less money and time than flunking out of undergrad halfway through.

Retric 5y ago
> four years is a long time to spend treading water wrt employable skills Internships during school can be a massive salary increase for many people. Even 25+$/hour is quite a large pay bump for a large chunk of the population, and many internships go well past that.
- leetcrew 5y ago
  good point. getting an internship for summer and maybe fall/spring part time is a good way to defray the opportunity cost of not having a full-time job for four years. I think you have to be a pretty strong student and well organized to get an internship before junior year though.
munk-a 5y ago
> four years is a long time to spend treading water wrt employable skills. Only if your sole goal in life is the pursuit of money. Most of the people I know enjoyed their time at university, they got to learn in a structured manner about philosophy and other interesting topics while having freedom to indulge in intellectual curiosity. Life isn't a race to get on a career path. I do agree that flunking out is probably the worst outcome though, so if academia isn't for you don't feel pressured to pursue it - it certainly won't make any difference in terms of your job prospects by the time you're 30 as a developer. We just need to stop treating university as a vocational training session.
- presentation 5y ago
  People joining boot camps are often later in life than your typical college student and time is at a greater premium.
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  > We just need to stop treating university as a vocational training session. Is it treated as a vocational training session? I thought university was more about signaling some combination of socioeconomic status and ability to learn/motivation. More selective schools and more difficult coursework (such as hard sciences or engineering) signal a potential employee who is able to learn and manipulate the system they are put in, as well as possibly bringing useful connections.
- randomdata 5y ago
  > Life isn't a race to get on a career path. Presumably life isn't a race at all, which makes you wonder why everyone is in such a rush to attend university when they are young and don't yet have the resources to pay for it. It will be still be there when you are older and the pursuit of knowledge will still be every bit as enjoyable. It may be even more enjoyable as you then have the life experience to appreciate it. Retirement is meant for these types of hobbies.
  - atweiden 5y ago
    > Presumably life isn't a race at all, which makes you wonder why everyone is in such a rush to attend university when they are young It’s the networking opportunities (i.e. “the college experience”) which suffer as the age gap grows between you and the other students. Since networking is the bulk of the value of university, your age during attendance is of disproportionate consequence. I’m speaking from personal experience here — going into a post-grad program, it was immediately obvious to me that the age gap would act as an all but uncrossable chasm. And I’ve seen this chasm in action in undergrad, where it was even more pronounced. Simply put, university is a lot harder to justify when a significant age gap exists. To your point, maybe most people should wait a few years before attending university, but they don’t, and those who’d otherwise prefer to wait before starting university — which is doubtlessly a wise move for some — have to risk their college experience to do so.

Retric 5y ago

> four years is a long time to spend treading water wrt employable skills Internships during school can be a massive salary increase for many people. Even 25+$/hour is quite a large pay bump for a large chunk of the population, and many internships go well past that.

leetcrew 5y ago
good point. getting an internship for summer and maybe fall/spring part time is a good way to defray the opportunity cost of not having a full-time job for four years. I think you have to be a pretty strong student and well organized to get an internship before junior year though.

munk-a 5y ago

> four years is a long time to spend treading water wrt employable skills. Only if your sole goal in life is the pursuit of money. Most of the people I know enjoyed their time at university, they got to learn in a structured manner about philosophy and other interesting topics while having freedom to indulge in intellectual curiosity. Life isn't a race to get on a career path. I do agree that flunking out is probably the worst outcome though, so if academia isn't for you don't feel pressured to pursue it - it certainly won't make any difference in terms of your job prospects by the time you're 30 as a developer. We just need to stop treating university as a vocational training session.

presentation 5y ago
People joining boot camps are often later in life than your typical college student and time is at a greater premium.
lotsofpulp 5y ago
> We just need to stop treating university as a vocational training session. Is it treated as a vocational training session? I thought university was more about signaling some combination of socioeconomic status and ability to learn/motivation. More selective schools and more difficult coursework (such as hard sciences or engineering) signal a potential employee who is able to learn and manipulate the system they are put in, as well as possibly bringing useful connections.
randomdata 5y ago
> Life isn't a race to get on a career path. Presumably life isn't a race at all, which makes you wonder why everyone is in such a rush to attend university when they are young and don't yet have the resources to pay for it. It will be still be there when you are older and the pursuit of knowledge will still be every bit as enjoyable. It may be even more enjoyable as you then have the life experience to appreciate it. Retirement is meant for these types of hobbies.
- atweiden 5y ago
  > Presumably life isn't a race at all, which makes you wonder why everyone is in such a rush to attend university when they are young It’s the networking opportunities (i.e. “the college experience”) which suffer as the age gap grows between you and the other students. Since networking is the bulk of the value of university, your age during attendance is of disproportionate consequence. I’m speaking from personal experience here — going into a post-grad program, it was immediately obvious to me that the age gap would act as an all but uncrossable chasm. And I’ve seen this chasm in action in undergrad, where it was even more pronounced. Simply put, university is a lot harder to justify when a significant age gap exists. To your point, maybe most people should wait a few years before attending university, but they don’t, and those who’d otherwise prefer to wait before starting university — which is doubtlessly a wise move for some — have to risk their college experience to do so.