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I got a scholarship to Flatiron, should I go?

2 points by hough ↗ HN
I got a 50% scholarship to the online full stack web development course at Flatiron, but I'm unsure if it's worth the cost?

For the past month or so I've been working on their community bootcamp which has been good so far. And I believe my progress on there is why I was offered a scholarship.

I don't care about the job guarantee + I don't qualify for it because I'm 18.

Would appreciate your opinions on the school and their curriculum. I am aware of the lawsuit against them.

3 comments

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brudgers
It does not really matter whether or not the internet gives or withholds permission. There is no generic answer and there is no certainty regarding whether one choice is better or worse for a particular individual. In the end, it is just a matter of personal choice.

Do you have the money?

What would you do instead with your time?

Why do you want to study at Flatiron versus an alternative?

Do you feel like you are learning something?

Keep in mind that Flatiron is a for profit company. The cost of delivering an online course can be very low (which is why early MOOC's could be free) and the list price without the 50% scholarship is a way of anchoring a high price so that 50% off looks like a bargain. I suspect that in six months, a similar discount will still be available.

Good luck.

hough
I understand that it comes down to my opinion. I'm merely interested in the what professionals think of the school and the quality of the alumni.

I do feel like I am learning something, and I enjoy it. But I have no way of telling if what I'm learning is what I should be learning according to what is needed today and into the future.

Thanks for your help they are good questions I should ask myself.

brudgers
Professionals have mixed opinions of alumni. But again those opinions matter at the level of the individual, not in general. While there are companies that tend to hire the graduates of particular bootcamps, my impression is that these are more the exception than the rule and that even that fraction is primarily graduates of in person bootcamps versus online bootcamps.

Realistically, whether or not someone gets hired depends on whether there is a job. If a person lives in a rural setting without many programming jobs, then training is less of an issue than finding somewhere to work. In many places, finding somewhere to work as a programmer is harder than going to school.

So it might be worth trying to find a job as a programmer now, while making your decision. It may turn out that the local job market is for Java programmers rather than web developers and a community college provides more relevant training for the local market.

Going a bit further, if you want to build websites, building a website does not require anyone's permission or any training. It just requires building and probably a lot of struggling. Sometimes, getting training can look easier than that, but programming is usually hard no matter how much a person knows...that's why people pay for it.