Bloom Institute of Technology

As my business was going to crap during the pandemic, a life-long curiosity -- software development -- began to grow stronger and stronger. I had messed with some web dev stuff prior to lambda, but usually using no-code tools like webflow. I had always wanted to develop much richer web applications though. In November of 2020 I decided to go all-in and enrolled for Lambda School's web development track.

I started in January 2021 as part of the Web40 cohort. This is just after some of the changes with TLs and such. I never experienced that, so the way it was setup when I started is all I know. There weren't any major changes throughout my time with Lambda, but there were many incremental improvements.

I'll get into what I liked and disliked about the program, but here's a TL;DR:
You get out of it exactly what you put into it. Don't expect handholding. Don't expect them to teach you everything (there's just simply not enough time). Don't try to hold a job or other major responsibilities while going through the program. Start networking with developers that have jobs at companies you want to work for early. Start building a full-scale project of your own on the side by unit 2 (Not a portfolio site, either... more on this below).

My results:
I had never coded Javascript in my life prior to Lambda. By the first week of labs (Early June 2021), I had a software engineer job offer for a well-funded tech startup for over $100,000/yr. Typical? Definitely not. Doable? Absolutely. 

Some random thoughts:  
1. Lambda is still a new, scrappy company. They are trying their best to do the right thing, but will sometimes make mistakes. In my experience, they did FAR more for helping me be prepared technically and interpersonally to land a job than any other schooling I've done. They've narrowed their focus and are dialing in their core programs after perhaps overstepping a bit with part-time, UI/UX, and the iOS tracks. 

2. I'd say at least 1/3 of the student body shouldn't even be in the program. They are probably the ones you see writing most of the negative reviews. Often times during build weeks where we work together as a team to build a project, many of the students in the team are completely disengaged or do minimal work. They're like the kids in high school that would get an A on a group project despite doing none of the work. In the case of lambda, all they're doing is hurting themselves. Now that I've gone through the program there seems to be a pretty strong correlation between those that participated and their overall understanding of how to code. 

3. Some people are in it, not because they are actually interested in learning to be a software engineer, but because they think it will be an easy ticket to a high paying job. These people will fail. You've got to actually *want* to be a software developer. 

4. People skills and networking are as important as the technical skills. No one wants to hire someone that's uncomfortable to work with because they can't communicate confidently or clearly...or are just plain weird. You've got to learn to be comfortable with people. You've also got to learn to network -- to reach out on linkedin and twitter to complete strangers and be able to forge a relationship with them. Lambda gives some tips on this, but you will need to put effort into this outside of class. 

5. Think of a project and build it. And no, I'm not talking about a portfolio website. Building a fancy portfolio site is like making a really cool looking resume. You know what's more impressive? Impressive stuff ON YOUR RESUME/PORTFOLIO. There is literally an infinite amount of cool things you can build with software. Find a problem or something you wish existed and start building it. Let your Github be your portfolio. Document the journey and what you're learning. Lambda jams a TON of information into your brain in 6 months. You will forget a ton of it if you're not using everything you learn. By the time labs happens (month 6), you've gone 2 months since touching React (Node/express, and CS in between). Good luck remembering it if you aren't building something with it in between. Many students made an excuse that they don't have the time to build something outside of class. I guess it comes down to how bad you really want it. Going from a job to a high paying career is going to take some sacrifice and extra effort. 

6. Leverage the tools lambda gives you. There are countless opportunities to work with instructors in smaller, more intimate settings. I was shocked how few people showed up to some of these sessions. During Unit 4 (backend), I and maybe 3 others in my cohort would show up to a code review session offered just before class started. So we all got an hour of intimate code review. The funny part is that those of us that showed up to that code review were probably the ones that needed it the least. 

There's so much more I could share, but I'll leave you with these parting thoughts: 
Lambda School is 100% worth it, IF: 
1. You go all-in and don't make excuses. 
2. You're a self-starter and will do your own studying outside of class
3. You have a "I can figure it out" attitude. 
4. You actually put in work to grow your people skills, network, and generally be someone that others would want to work with. 

I am extremely thankful that Lambda exists. It's not without its flaws (is any school?), but it definitely did its job in preparing me to land a job with a company I really wanted to work for doing exactly what I learned in lambda. 

Also, if you want to ask me questions about my experience in detail, hit me up on twitter: @clintfix 

Here is the thing. When I first started with Lambda , it was ok. But now you are basically learning on your own. They removed stand ups meetings, code reviews, 1:1  help and such. So you are basically left out with live lectures , which even though they are great, you can find the same content on youtube. I am towards the end of the program and can't really do nothing about it but to warm people to stay away. I will have to do my best with the little I got to get a job but you are better off learning by yourself than signup to Lambda School. 

RUN FOR YOUR DEAR LIFE!

I joined Lambda School with high hopes. I began the program when they still had Tech Leads (minimum wage paid students to help you). The Tech Leads were advertised to some degree as subject matter experts.  Once they were removed the value of the program diminished greatly. We started each day with 1hr lectures from mediocre instructors, then you are left to code by yourself all day. If you're stuck, well there is google. Lambda tells you they're not there to hold your hand but to give you the tools to learn on your own, I am still trying to figure out what tools those are. I quickly realized FREE CODE CAMP, CODEACDEMY, YOUTUBE, OR A $10 UDEMY COURSE WITH 100 HOURS OF CONTENT was a much cheaper and better investment. I signed the ISA because they falsely advertised that professionals are there to help. One month into the program is they announce changes are coming, and the TLs are being removed. It was advertised like the changes coming are SO good. I decided to leave the program after trying it for a week into the transition. My ISA went active.  I can't justify spending 30k to learn from anyone other than vetted professionals not that TLs were professionals but it was better than nothing. I asked if they could make an exception with my ISA because I was only a week into the program's transition and it was ONLY 24 hours after my ISA went active. They were careless. They cant grandfather me into what I ORIGINALLY signed up for but expect me to honor the ISA. SO INNOVATIVE! They flat out did not care at all! THEY EXPLOITED THE TRANSITION PERIOD TO GET MONEY OUT OF ME! Don't let them lie to you, and don't believe all the success stories. I know many grads from their program that wish they did not join Lambda. If you have any questions contact me at matthewmsmith1992@gmail.com

I was a new programmer in the field and wanted to develop my skills so I could land a job in software engineering. I saw the Lambda School commercial and was hooked. I immediately applied, and in haste, I received a response from Lambda School to fill out some information, and add a video. A day or so later I received a response asking to complete the assessment exam which consisted of several coding sections, with Q & A. I passed this portion and was immediately enrolled in Lambda schools cohorts. Lambda seemed quite eager to enroll me and help develop my skills, as they knew I worked full-time and had a passion for coding. 

I noticed throughout the program there was organized chaos. At times Team Leads and Leads had conflicting information regarding classwork.  I also saw the curriculum change as well as the style of tests throughout my several months there. As a new coder, I expected more structure. 

I ended up flexing to another class and was told the curriculum would not change so I'll be able to go back and review to do better, but that was a lie. The curriculum had Cyprus.io added to it which made my study more difficult, and time in the class longer. 

Someone tried to withdraw me, prematurely by saying I was not in classes. Luckily, I had slack communication with the TL's to prove I was in class and answering questions. I think it was Lambda School doing this based on my performance, and wanting to get me out. 

I was flexed again and found that the way Lambda tested us had changed, where instead of having a group coding project we actually had a 10-15 question test. I was told by Leads, Team Leads, and the administration that I would move forward to the next curriculum if I passed the test. I passed, but guess what... I was told by my Team Lead that she was going to flex me back a class anyway to relearn everything again. This is not what I was told, but I had no say in the matter. A few days later I received a withdrawal email from Lambda School, saying if I want to appeal the decision I could. I appealed the decision with the same person emailing me with a final decision of withdrawal. I asked If I could come back in six months to reapply, with the same ISA  active, and he told me to come back in 6 months and we'll get you back in.

Caveat: IF YOUR CODE HAS A BUG DUE TO THE BACKEND ENGINEERS AND YOUR CODE WAS GOOD TO GO, YOU STILL FAIL IF THE CODE ALL TOGETHER FAILS TO LOAD. THIS IS WHY I FAILED IN A COUPLE OF THE  BEGINNING CLASSES. ALSO, NEVER LET A STUDENT YOUR PAIRED WITH ACCESS YOUR VSCODE. THIS GUY I WAS PAIRED WITH MESSED MY CODE UP AND CREATED AN ERROR MESSAGE WHERE MY TERMINAL WOULD NOT ALLOW ME TO USE IT.

Anyway, I came back 6 Months later with a more in-depth understanding of coding languages, and frameworks. 
This is where I go from being a student to being a number. I have not heard from Admissions since reapplying!!!! I emailed them on December 27th 2020. I had to reach out to the Lambda School website help button that blinks on and off periodically on the website and explain to the employees that Admissions has not responded. They told me admissions would get back to me in a day or two, but they never did. Since then I've been emailing and calling Lambda School, but still no response. I think they have my email and information on a do not respond list now, as even when trying to reach someone from the website with my email address there is no longer a response. 

ISA CAVEAT: MAKE SURE YOU TELL YOUR ISA REP THAT YOU WANT THE TECH CONTRACT. IMMEDIATELY UPON BEING WITHDRAWN I RECEIVED AN EMAIL FROM ISA ASKING WHEN I WOULD BEGIN MAKING PAYMENTS. I HAD TO TO TELL THEM I WAS SUPPOSE TO HAVE THE TECH CONTRACT. THEY THEN SAID OK, WE HAVE TO SEND A NEW CONTRACT. 

Now I am a number!!!! A number with a $30,000 ISA, that was given high hopes of having another shot at getting my cert from Lambda School and landing my dream job, but when the time came to reapply I was ghosted. 
Not to mention the sleepless nights, nose bleeds from stress, and the constant imposter syndrome.

Be careful with your decision. Especially if you're new to coding. 

 Lambda School was great. Just what the doctor ordered. I love the instructors and the community. Not perfect, but it has definitely put me on track to become a Data Scientist. About me, I was a preschool teacher before and as of today I am looking at 3 potential prospects for data sci work in regenerative agriculture, federal government contracting, and ironically training others in data science, with more opportunities coming down the job hunt pipeline. Lambda's Flex program was a huge help. With "flex", if you fail a month of the curriculum, you can just retake it, no penalty or expense incurred. It may feel like a bummer to prolong it all by a month, but it is very worth it to learn the content well. I had to "flex" twice, on the predictive modeling unit and the computer science unit, and I feel super confident now in that content which I initially failed. I don't blame Lambda for those failures, I just needed more time with that content to truly get it, and they designed the program for just that. Also the career team is super dedicated and accessible, with lots of great tactics for the job hunt. Lambda literally will not get paid until I get hired as a data scientist, so they are legitimately invested in getting me that big win. Unit 3 on Data Engineering was a bit rough in curricular design and instruction, and Lambda could take better advantage of the flipped classroom structure of learning, but despite these drawbacks, Lambda was definitely worth it. Nothing less that life transforming. 

 After I was a few Units in (3) and thus financially obligated to pay the ISA, they removed core components of the program. There are no more assigned team leads. There are no more standups with your classmates so you can discuss the same project and see the many different ways to approach a solution. There is no more 1 on 1 review of your work. Where a mentor was paid to mentor you, you are now forced to mentor other students and vice versa. I've never heard from my mentor. You grade your own work. There is no attendance. I signed up for 18 months of programming, choosing Lambda especially because of the length of time of the program that was advertised. They suddenly reduced it to 12 months. As of yesterday, I've withdrawn after 4 months as this is not the program that was sold to me. I completed 22% of the program I thought I was signing up for, but under their new reduction, they said I owe 37% withdrawing before Unit 4. People in my cohort don't even understand basic Javascript and I'm not faring much better. I'm nowhere ready for a job. Now I have to find an education elsewhere and probably teach myself because now I don't trust boot camps. 

The first month or two of Lambda is good and has a lot of useful information, but the moment your ISA takes effect and you owe them money the curriculum goes downhill fast. The morning material is useless and teaches you practically nothing. The instructors have absolutely not experience with teaching which makes for a bad learning experience. Just because someone knows how to code, doesn't mean that they can teach someone else how to code. 

The majority of the time I have to refer to third-party sources to learn that day's topics. I understand that they can't teach everything, but the amount of "information" they provide is not worth the price tag that comes along with it.

TL:DR: You'll get more bang for you buck if you just pay for udemy courses or go to frontendmasters.com and take their lessons. 
Lambda: $30,000
Udemy/Frontendmasters: A few hundred at most

 Lambda has changed how things are done!
All the reviews here prior to 10/2020 are for something far different then the current set up. 
I think it is important to understand how drastically the changes have devalue Lambda for myself and others.  
When I started Lambda my schedule for each sprint looked like so:

• 1 Hour of ‘fluff’ Career Readiness
• 8 hours guided projects / instruction 
• 10 hours work on project time  
• 2.5 hours 1 on 1 code review
• 3 hours self-guided study
• 2 hours Stand Up Meetings with TL group
• 3 hours test project time

The workflow was great.  Every project I did was looked at and graded by a Team Lead (more advanced students employed by Lambda). At the end of every “work on project day” I had a stand up meeting. These meetings were led by the same Team Lead I did 1 on 1’s with as well as some other students in my group.  These meetings allowed for us to share our projects, ask questions, share roadblocks (as well as if and how we got around them) and other opportunities. 
They have change the schedule for each sprint to this:

• 1 Hour of ‘fluff’ Career Readiness
• 1.5 Hours of ‘fluff’ 100% Student Ran “Track Team” meetings (More on this later)
• 8 hours guided projects / instruction 
• 10.5 hours work on project time  
• 3.5 hours self-guided study
• 3 hours test project time
• 2 hours Mentor Meeting time (on this later)

Let’s talk about “Track Teams”.  Track teams replaced “TL groups”.  Track teams are 100% student run.  Students have “ jobs” within the team that would match real life roles in a dev team.  The idea sounds great. Until you realize no one shows up and the ‘work’ is un-inspiring. Track team meetings moved focus from learning from others on your level to doing busy work with people at all levels of study so you can “get to know each other”.  
Example meeting if it went perfect:

• Everyone joins a zoom 
• Independent Reading (10 minutes) 
• Independent Reading, yes again (10 minutes)
• Discussion (10 Minutes)

The readings on this assignment focused on how to ask and answer questions. “What makes a good question?” as well as an article from Harvard Business Review. This pattern of joining a zoom meeting, reading to yourself for 20 minutes, and chatting about the article you just read for 10 minutes is the basic pattern to these meetings.  Overall they swapped out being able to reinforce your learning with a group of your peers to read to yourself in a zoom meeting about soft skill topics that, while somewhat important, should not take up so much of our time. 
Now about that 2 hours of Mentor meeting time
Lambda stopped employing students as TLs and shifted 100% of that job on to students.  You as a student grade 100% of your own work. It is not looked at by anyone at lambda at any time. This was confirmed by a member of the student success team via e-mail.  Lambda states that:

 “With your peer mentor, you’ll talk through projects, practice technical interview skills, and get 1:1 support from someone further along in their Lambda journey.”
The idea is great, but implemented poorly.  People that are mentoring right now are forced into it. It was not part of the program when they signed up.  My assigned mentor has never once contacted me. I have reported this on every form asking about the experience.  No one looks at these forms … so no one knows. When I expressed my disappointment I was told to submit a ticket.  Why are we filling out these forms then? Why am I paying 30k to have to chase down things I am paying for?
More changes… less technical educationLambda recently changed the end of the technical education replacing it with more career development . They also chopped the computer science portion of learning in half.  Instructors went from knowledgeable and well prepared to excuses and error filled guided projects. The first words I hear you say as an instructor should not be something to the effect of “I don't use this stuff so I'm not sure what I'm doing”. 
We used to have schedules for “office” hours. These are no longer part of the program. 
I feel like I could go on and on. But, it boils down to this… 
You can learn all this stuff online. Watching a YouTube video is not much different than a “live" guided project. You can ask questions in a live zoom for 30k or the YouTube comments for free. Both ways have the same chance of being answered correctly in a way you can understand. Actually with the quality of Lambda instructors… YouTube offers edited videos so it is probably better. 
You are self grading all your work based on how you “feel” you did. Lambda calls this “holistic” grading.  You can grade yourself for free. Any other reason to pay has been done away with. 
Also with a reduced length/quality why not a price reduction?
 

If you would have asked me about the school before the overhaul I would have rated it highly and recommended it.  Once you had TLs and a small group of 10 or fewer students that would help you along the way and could help push you and give you tips etc. Now they don't have TLs or TL groups at all.  You are pretty much left to go at it on your own and good luck if you need any help with anything.  Save yourself some money and go through a couple Udemy courses or maybe Zero To Mastery or something like that.  Because you will get a similar experience to lambda going through Zero To Mastery and you will save yourself a lot of money and quite possibly come out knowing more than a Lambda grad.

The course was questionable to begin with. This is a bootcamp who produced web developers - their "training kit" was nothing more than a semi-organized dump of YouTube videos and links to free third-party resources. Nearly every instructor would say, at some point during their class, "You should really take this Udemy course to really understand the material." And it's true - there was simply no time, in the complete disorganization of the course, to dig deep into topics. It was just useless daily project after useless daily project.

My Team Lead (a fellow student hired to be a teaching assistant, essentially) was only given one week (!) to familiarize himself with Java - a full-time course topic that is supposed to take a month, and STILL culminates in "take this paid Udemy course to actually learn something" - all while he was also doing classes for his part time web dev course. The poor kid had no clue how to help most issues other than tell us to google the issue.

And I'm cool with googling, sure. But I'm not paying someone tens of thousands of dollars for them to tell me to do stuff that I can already do for free, or through a $30 Udemy course. There is an assumption that there are instructors when they market this to you, but the truth is that there is one experienced (usually very experienced) instructor for like... 130 people. If you went to a normal school where every class was like that, office hours would be a nightmare - and that's exactly what it was like at Lambda, too. Tons of questions for instructors by confused students, making it nearly impossible to really get any good info you could trust.

They also changed their ISA situation - sure, you still have an ISA, but they have now essentially divested themselves from the risk of ISAs by batching them into investment vehicles and getting a cut of the money up front from investors - completely going back on the whole logic of "we don't get paid unless you do". Nah, they get paid. Yay derivatives! Nothing bad ever happens with THOSE!

And the latest changes are a nightmare. Hey students, is it already not insulting enough to go through the above? Well, guess what!? Let's get rid of TLs, and now YOU can be an UNPAID INTERN MENTOR! Get ready to feel uncomfortable as you have to answer questions for something you haven't worked with in a while all on top of your existing coursework! What, that's hard? That's fine, we'll just take grading assessments out of the mix! Now you don't even have to work, just BS your way through!

To top it off, in a statement directly from Austen, the "growth hacker serial entrepreneur" founder (yes, he calls himself that), it has been explained that their "hiring partners" (whoever they are - they probably meant to say "investors") aren't concerned about portfolio work. Which is funny, because since being here, we haven't worked on portfolio work yet, and the 5 recruiters I have talked to have asked me, "Uhh, why do you not have portfolio pieces if you've been there for that long?"

To which I would have to reply... "Uhh, because my bootcamp's 'hiring partners' say they don't matter..?"

Anyway, I've dropped the course, subsequently, and am now working on stuff that I should have been working on this entire time - actual portfolio work to show recruiters/employers/hiring managers. I have a bit of experience working as a dev previously and I was hoping this place would really get me to tighten up my skills, but I could have googled for better - and far cheaper - resources. And after the changes, there is literally nothing this place has that you can't get through a dev discord server or slack channel, a couple Udemy/coursera courses, and free projects and github repos online.

I am SO pissed that I am locked into (most of) the ISA. I would never have joined this had I known this is the end result. I did expect more, and in hindsight I know a lot, but there was no way I could have expected it from the start and from the (completely different) course they provided a while ago when I was looking at reviews.

Hard pass, now.

This place is a garbage fire about to go under. Avoid at all costs. Their most recent changes are a clear indicator that they are just trying to make a super cheap model of pumping people through at little cost to the company, so that the handful of people who would have gotten a job anyway can make their investors a return by getting placed at a FAANG. Go buy 10 $30 Udemy courses, you'll spend a ton less and actually learn something, instead of proving to yourself that you can just cram enough that you forget it by next week when you're on to something totally different, and getting stuck trying to help a poor kid a month behind you work on something you don't even remember while you don't get paid for your effort.

Before you continue reading I must state that one should be suspicious of the predominantly positive ratings about Lambda School on this platform because it is biased towards individuals asked to complete reviews after finding employment.  People who have bad experiences may not even bother finding review sites like these and posting on them.  Also, I can assure you that the signals of the internal level of satisfaction with Lambda from students (based on comments by students within the platform on Slack suggest a significantly lower true approval rating).

About a year ago a Lambda graduate wrote a reddit post that criticized Lambda School (henceforth "Lambda") for:

• cohort size
• inflating positive PR by encouraging students to say good things about LS on social media platforms
• not having a proven track record (due to the Lambda's relative youth compared to, e.g., App Academy)

This post was followed by a comment that said the real problem was:

• Negative students stirring up trouble
• Over-reliance on a "teaching you how to learn" Motto

This is by no means the only reddit post that says less than pleasant things about Lambda, but it's likely the top one if one Googles something like "should I join lambda school?". I won't agree or disagree with any of the statements in that linked post, but I think it forms a useful backdrop for my critique of the Lambda School Data Science program. The purpose of my post is to offer a review of Lambda School that is 1) specific to the Data Science program and 2) not constricted within the heavily-curated official Lambda subreddit. When I wanted to join the Lambda DS program, there were very few useful reviews (most were web-dev-centric), so I hope I can help others who are researching the program.---------------------------- Last year around this time Udacity did a major overhaul to its pricing structure that made it no longer an affordable option for me to use to pursue a career in data science (DS). I went on a google search to find cheaper alternatives and I found a reddit post about the Udacity price hike in which one of the commenters said something to the effect that Udacity's new pricing would make schools like Lambda more popular for career training. I Googled "Lambda School" and was sold on the length of the program, the topics covered, and the income share agreement (ISA) that would allow me to defer tuition costs until after I found a job paying $50,000 or more in a relevant tech field.I considered the length of the program (7-9 months) good because I personally would be more convinced about someone saying they obtained a certain skill set from a 7-9 month program than from a 3-month program (which is a common time period for many bootcamps). I liked that the program would spend a lot of time on statistics (4 weeks) instead of only introducing it as part of the EDA on an otherwise Machine-learning focused curriculum. I don't have any links to post you may see a lot of complaining online about DS education not being stats-focused. I appreciated the attempt at spending more time on the subject. Lastly, the ISA meant I went from allocating a budget for a lower-cost version of Udacity to a free-for-now (deferred cost) program, which allowed me to use that money to pay off my apartment lease for one year. This was advantageous since fulltime Lambda programs are time intensive (11 to 7 EST, in theory, but 11-9pm EST in reality)--so not not much time to earn an income (few jobs would be down for working around a schedule like that anyway, FME).Good things about the Lambda Data Science Program:

1. The Slack-based Learning Platform: Lambda school has a student dashboard webpage that may have been made to be the source of knowledge/information, but everything really goes down in the Slack app. While the instructor is teaching via Zoom, you can ask questions on Slack that can be answered by the instructor (more on this later) or answered by other students. Questions and comments are then visible and can be pinned to the Slack Channel for future reference. For anyone who has experienced the asynchronous "discussion board" layout of many online learning institutions (I have), knows the value of a synchronous learning environment. A good instructor will make excellent use of the to ability communicate with students while teaching by asking and answering questions, creating polls (including anonymous ones), and interacting positively by liking/adding emojis to certain comments. The emoji thing may seem trivial but the more interaction the better and an approval signals to others what is the "best answer".
2. The chance to interact with people who are in different stages oflearningandemployment. A Lambda Student will be assigned to a group with is led by a team lead (TL) who is former Lambda student who is still on the job hunt. They are not DS experts yet, but they have the potential to provide useful perspectives and even learn more themselves (as a lot can be learned by teaching). As a lambda DS student, you will also have access to Slack channels where students in other cohorts (ahead of and behind your own cohort) discuss various DS-related topics. Students who secure employment can remain active in communal Slack channels after securing employment.

Also, you can actually talk to real Data Scientist during weekly "Brown Bag" Lunch presentations from guest experts. I personally never had time to attend a "Brown bag" session (and I don't see how a serious student could have such time, but the brown bags do exist).I suppose all of 2) still ties into the fact that Slack is used as the main hub for Lambda school and so one can avail of all the features Slack offers.3. The openness of administration to conversations about improvements to Lambda. There is a particular Slack Channel called "announcements" in which a new change/service is announced, and students can respond to it in a related channel called "announcement threads". An outsider would be shocked at the kinds of conversations that happen here in which students to varying levels of zeal, express how they feel about an actual or potential change. Administrators are exposed to a level of criticism that one can't help sympathize with but a lot is learned in the process. Also students (including grad) can and will offer criticism about specifically the DS curriculum in relevant slack channels. They are often a fun read after getting through a day of hard work.So far so good, right? Ready to enroll? Not so fast...Bad things about the Lambda Data Science Program:One might note that the benefits of Slack are more or less independent of Lambda School's educational quality. Meaning, putting a bad driver in a Lamborghini doesn't make them a good driver, but they will have more options and might be more motivated to learn to become a good driver (why let such a good vehicle go to waste?)

1. Admissions: It becomes apparent very quickly that not all students completed or understood the assignments that are supposed to be completed prior to being accepted into a cohort. I won't delve too heavily into this subject because such criticism about Lambda are echoed elsewhere. I do want to clarify, however, that my issue with whether or not a student was "smart" enough to be a part of the program. Instead, my issue is with, how at the very beginning, they did not demonstrate level of effort needed to be part of an intensive educational program. I don't care if they have to complete the precourse work five times, make them do it until they pass, and it can be certain that someone who constantly failed the precourse work, but stuck through it
2. Poorly evaluating students who in the program: Once students are in the program, they still are susceptible to being passed through even if their understanding is low or work is mediocre. The problems with this is the same as those mentioned in 1)
3. Confusing "Expert" with "Teacher"

The Lambda DS program, at the time of this post, has an energetic, interactive teacher, Ryan A., who teaches Unit 1. He makes full use of the synchronous learning environment that slack provides. Ryan stays on topic (or keeps his tangents short), constantly asks questions to check for understanding, creates comprehensive end-of-week exams that are sufficiently more difficult than the daily assignments (so you're not just copying and pasting and editing), and consistently makes himself available to video conference Q&A sessions during the time allotted for completing the daily assignment. It's true that he's a data scientist, but through either talent or effort has confirmed that he is a teacher as well.I won't bother calling out any names about the teachers that proceed Ryan A., but I can promise you that the learning experience after Ryan is a downhill tumble stemming mostly from the fact that there doesn't seem to be any standardized protocols or metrics for judging how well a teacher has performed except for feedback forms on which, one a week, ask you to rate your instructor and leave a comment if you wish.You will see a lot talk about how the CS section of Lambda school kills off a lot of students...many students attribute the problem to the curriculum. I can't speak for the other programs but the CS section the DS program (unit 3) doesn't have a curriculum problem, it has a teacher problem. I have no doubt the teacher in question has a CV that qualifies him for the role of "data scientist", but his level of interaction with students, ability to seek out gaps in understanding, ability to organize his allotted instructional time, eagerness to interact with students after class, ability to multitask (by looking at both slack and text editor, ability to live code instead of editing pre-coded material, ability to explain his steps as he does, ability handle criticism, are all LOW. This is the simple truth.The main point, even if it is against common belief, is that it is better to have a person with mediocre domain expertise who is a good teacher than an "expert" who is a poor teacher if the chief goal of an institution is to provide others with an education (think about a manager who "knows everything" but is despised...how effective could she/he be?) . Otherwise, you might find leaning too heavily upon pedagogical philosophies of "learning how to learn" when signs point to a lack of understanding among the students/customers who are banking their future incomes on the quality of your education.----------------------

Today, I quit the DS program even though I had passed all previous assignments and could easily be in the 85% percentile of my cohort in terms of understanding the material. I personally have no patience for a consistently poor learning experience and unfortunately Lambda has its DS program setup such that the same instructors teach the same units. So, at the moment, students will continue to enter the program with a false sense of how their learning experience will continue due to either a coincidental or clever decision to make the best teacher the teacher for unit 1. I say "clever" because if you don't withdraw from Lambda within 4 weeks, you will still owe part of your future income to the company (and each unit is 4 weeks long).I think the potential for Lambda's DS program to garner a reputation that catches the eyes of employers is high. I speak, nevertheless, only of potential because at the moment there are some serious pedagogical concerns that need to be addressed. I might suggest something like peer training (where different teachers show how they would teach the same lesson, for example). Ideally, there would be 360 feedback (teacher to student, student to teacher, and teacher to teacher) but any attempt to be more vigilant of instructional quality would make the program not worth dropping out of. Until then, there current platform is easily replicable by those who want to also get into the DS Bootcamp industry (or those who are already in it). Recipe: Slack, Zoom, small group of instructors, and a team of administrators, and some venture capitalists. Emphasis on the Slack and Zoom.I hope others find this helpful and I trust Lambda will eventually improve its DS program. I like the CEO and the leader of the DS program (Aaron). They seem to have their hearts in the right place, but education first, guys.

I was highly skeptical with the program in the ads. It seemed too good to be true. After enough nagging from my friend who is a designer, I started to look deeper into it, and eventually applied.

I started classes in March of last year. I had just lost my house in my divorce. I was living with my grandma, sharing a room with my son. I started my classes on an old laptop I got from a pawn shop in my bed.

I was a single dad who woke up at 4am every day. I'd take my son to his early entry daycare so I could start work in the warehouse at 6. After we got home I had just enough time to cook dinner and put him to bed before class started, where I'd then sit for another 3 hours and take in something entirely new.

In November of the same year, I accepted a role as a software engineer for a university, doubling my wages. I bought my son and I another house. We got a new car. I can afford to put him in preschool instead of daycare. He has never been happier, and it really is all for him.

Everyone will tell you, it's hard. At no point is it ever not hard. Every other day you have to learn something new and apply it, in addition to every single thing you learned before. It nearly infinitely builds upon itself. But the Lambda staff is there for you every step of the way. Your peers want you to succeed as much as they want to succeed themselves. Lambda is not for the faint hearted or the weak. Lambda is for the strong, the gritty, the determined. Lambda is for the people who not only want to do better but those who need it. The unique tuition arrangement allows people to come in at their lowest, and completely turn their life around. I am forever grateful.