I'm extremely skeptical of politicians. I give it a high probability chance of being forgiven, although I agree it's not a 100%. If it isn't, it will be inflated away through dollar devaluation and inflation. So, why would someone pay for their school and go to Lambda or have a high probability of school debt being forgiven going the traditional route? This isn't rocket science here. And your comment is quite insulting to assume that a commenter on HN would just 'believe' politicians or that I would want college debt forgiveness. I'm a libertarian. I don't want any bailouts, but I understand human nature and incentives so I know the bailout of college debt is coming.
College debt will be forgiven in this administration, so you have to be really dumb to pay for Lambda school, which isn't backed by the government and isn't going to be forgiven.
Lambda preys on the dumbest of the dumb, only dumb people are paying for school with their own money.
I think part of the problem is the funnel. They don't charge students until a month in. They start off with a large number of student who they anticipate will drop before the ISA kicks in, then they prorate the ISA, although not evenly. The count should probably start once the ISA kicks in, even if the student doesn't get through the entire program. Fair enough right? Otherwise do not charge students unless they graduate. I think they aren't transparent about how the count/ outcomes are measured.
My biggest concern with the program, however, is the instruction and the lack of one on one feedback with qualified people.
The other concern is will their desire to fill diversity quotas. Perhaps this is coming from the market, demanding certain races in hiring, but in my personal experience, highly qualified people who can easily pass the entry exam were denied the female scholarship and given to racially diverse woman who couldn't pass the entry exam.
Also, the founder tweeted out that over 50% of their students surveyed were LGBTQ like that was a goal of some kind.
I think Lambda is more concerned with racial quotas than training software engineers. So if you want a token hire look towards Lambda.