I agree 100% - this can't be actual cost fair share type pricing. More of a "what the market will bear" price. What's tuition running these days? Are semesters 15 weeks? For in-state students it was about $4k/semester at UT Austin when I left. We definitely need more accessible alternatives one way or the other - I'm digging coursera right now. Also MIT opencourseware has lots of free content. No substitute for having in-person access to experts in a given field on a regularly scheduled basis with feedback on your progress though. Jan 31, 2014 10:48:30 AM, craigrouskey(a)gmail.com wrote: The access issue with the bootcamps is what really freaks me out. $15k for a 10-week intensive? I don't know, I thought there was a value of access/justice encoded within the general ethics of 'hacker.' Maybe that's not true... Jan 31, 2014 07:54:22 AM, romy(a)snowyla.com wrote: FYI: I know a lot of the people running the hacker schools and who have graduated from them. I think most of these schools are legit, but I'm wondering if that is because it is due to the location (SF Bay Area) and the very high talent pool here. >None of these bootcamps claims to replace a university education, they are offering a very different thing. >I'm spooked by people who would advocate replacing an education with vocational bootcamps. I don't see these bootcamps competing with computer science departments at universities. >I can see a lot of potential abuse occurring as well: >1997 New Yorker article on the University of Phoneix, a for-profit institution:http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1997/10/20/1997_10_20_114_TNY_… >>>>Message: 10 Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 18:22:50 -0800 From: Pete Forsyth peteforsyth(a)gmail.comTo: GtwoG PublicOhOne g2g-public01(a)att.netCc: Sudo room sudo-discuss(a)lists.sudoroom.orgSubject: Re: [sudo-discuss] "learn to code" events subject to full-WTF         scale crackdown...any ideas? Message-ID:         Gw4mLX9DdVxkcSNR2iEsksf1okHOKbpuKD=-Zg(a)mail.gmail.comContent-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" I think Sudo Room has a stake in the existence of effective hacker-training programs, regardless of whether they are offered *by* Sudo Room. So, thanks Hol for posting the link. I agree with GtwoG that there is some possibility for abuse; but neither the article nor the agency's web site offer a concise presentation of what it means to "be in compliance". Is the agency throwing up regulations that will deter good work? It's hard to tell! I posted this to a couple email lists in the Wikipedia space, so check out these discussions too if interested: * http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/gendergap/2014-January/thread.html * http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-sf/2014-January/thread.html -Pete peteforsyth.com >============================= >Romy Ilanoromy(a)snowyla.com >_______________________________________________ >sudo-discuss mailing list >sudo-discuss(a)lists.sudoroom.org >http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss _______________________________________________ sudo-discuss mailing list sudo-discuss(a)lists.sudoroom.org http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss

Here's a good Fast Company article, they highlight the people who paid the money but didn't find jobs: http://www.fastcompany.com/3023456/become-an-ios-developer-in-8-weeks-the-t… - One example was pretty weird... there was a pregnant woman who enered dev bootcamp, and she couldn't compete with her 12 hours study days against others who were studying 16 hours a day. -- wow! what were they thinking? I think a hacker bootcamp would be a terrible idea for a pregnant woman / new parent. - One hacker school is in the Midwest, where there aren't that many mobile developer jobs and they were training people to be iOS Developers. Kind of weird. I love hacker schools, but they have to be extremely selective if they advertise to people that graduating students are going to get $70K a year jobs after only 10-15 weeks of study. The advertising of salaries is what bothers me a lot... As we've been discussing, I see totally shady for-profit institutions copying the hacker idea and fleecing unqualified students in the future. I don't want the good hacker schools to get shut down :( ============================= Romy Ilano romy(a)snowyla.com On Fri, Jan 31, 2014 at 10:45 AM, Hol Gaskill <hol(a)gaskill.com> wrote:

I know the people that run HackBright - it's legit, and they do place their students in very well paying jobs. They have extremely competent instructors. They are very selective about choosing the right people.... but just as importantly, they market their students to Silicon Valley Start-ups, and frequently take their students to networking dinners. that's one of the key actions a hacker school must take, building relationships, in order for their students to get good job offers. - Is a government accreditation agency going to recognize that the networking component is crucial for such schools, justifying their costs? - Could a fly by night online education start-up make similar claims that their students get amazing salaries... but lack these crucial networking events? Wow, googling "trade school fraud" opens up a whole can of worms: - http://wp.tradeschoolscams.com/gainful-employment-regs-its-up-to-the-states/ ============================= Romy Ilano romy(a)snowyla.com On Fri, Feb 7, 2014 at 8:19 AM, David Rorex <drorex(a)gmail.com> wrote:

In case anybody's still following this thread, the California Report radio program had a good, in-depth story about it this morning: http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201403180850/b Pete On Fri, Feb 7, 2014 at 5:59 PM, Anca Mosoiu <anca(a)techliminal.com> wrote: