Interview of Austen Allred CEO of Lambda School by Trent Mano at Silicon Slopes 2019 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Austen Allred: / austenallred Trent Mano: / trentmano Lambda School: lambdaschool.com / lambdaschool
Why does Lambda discriminate against applicants from outside the U.S? Just tried applying and was asked for $20,000 upfront. That's equivalent to 2,000,000 in my country. Why would I be appliying to Lambda if I had two million to pay for tuition? That doesn't make sense. It's seriously discriminative and unfair. If these guys are really about helping underprivileged aspiring developers, then the least they can do is come up with a better plan for non-U.S citizens, that is if there's a genuine issue making them hesitant to accept non-U.S citizens with no upfront pay. Which I doubt in the first place because online schools like Microverse support applicants from any country with no upfront charges. Asking an underprivileged non-U.S applicant for $20,000 upfront is just another way of saying No to non-U.S citizens. Which is both biased and unfair. The only way this could make sense is if they consider non-U.S citizens a non-factor. They just couldn't care less. Non-U.S citizens are people too. And not only that, they are people Worth Investing In as well. If Lambda can't see that, then maybe they are better off keeping their offer.
It is less a matter of discrimination and more a matter of the laws in varying countries that affect the income share agreement that Lambda uses to get repaid. They have to have some sort of contractual arrangement between the student and the school to ensure repayment after you graduate. Since contract laws vary country-by-country each country that they accept becomes its own special circumstance.
Every country has its own legal code and views Income Share Agreements differently. In some countries, the legal structure doesn't exist to make financing an education based on an Income Share Agreement possible. Lambda is working hard to fix these problems or find alternative models that will still keep incentives aligned between the school and the students. We're actively working to be able to support more countries, but where it's not possible yet the tuition has to be paid up-front for the time being. Keep working hard to learn to code and hopefully, Lambda will have a solution that works for your country soon!
