Lambda School is located in Silicon Valley, California. However, all of our classes take place entirely online. Various cities have local meetups and gatherings. Students do not work out of our offices, and can take classes from anywhere. You must be a US, EU, or UK resident to attend.

No. The most important aspects of Lambda School happen in small, interactive groups, and require full attendance for all hours of the class. Although we do record and archive all of our lectures, the lectures alone are not what makes Lambda School great.

Lambda School does have some part-time programs that may work better for those that have jobs or are working.

Lambda School students don't pay anything upfront. Instead they pay for Lambda School using an income share agreement, or ISA.

Under an ISA you agree to pay 17% of your post-Lambda School salary for 24 months, but only once you're making more than $50k per year (or the equivalent of $4,166.66 per month). The income share agreement is also capped at a maximum repayment of $30k, so you'll never pay more than $30k under any circumstances.

This is our way of investing in you. We select students we believe will be successful, and cover the costs of your education until you're in a financial position to pay us back.

It depends. The ISA is tied to your income, so how much you pay will vary based on how much you're earning. Like many investors, Lambda School takes a portfolio approach, knowing that some students will pay more for their education and others will pay less. This investment approach is how we can make the program financially accessible to everyone. Because the ISA is capped, the maximum anyone could possibly pay is $30k.

No, we don't control where you work. Since developers tend to get raises fairly quickly, we do recommend not over optimizing your job search and getting a job as fast as possible.

We do everything we possibly can! We have a full team dedicated to career development. They help you prepare a resume and portfolio, practice interviews, and even help you in salary negotiation. At the end of the day though, you're the one who needs to apply, interview, and land the job.

The income share agreement has no interest. It's a flat percentage that goes away once you've reached the $30k payment cap, you've made 24 payments, or five years has passed since you graduated (even if you haven't paid us anything).

You'll pay a percentage of your gross salary (before taxes).

Minimum
1.6 GHz Processor
4 GB RAM
120 GB Hard Drive
Web Cam
Microphone
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Recommended
2 GHz Processor
8 GB RAM
256 GB Hard Drive (preferably solid state)
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Recommended operating systems (in descending order): macOS, Windows 10, Ubuntu

Other versions of Windows work but students should anticipate occasional environment issues. Chromebooks are not supported, as coursework involves installing and running software locally.

For the iOS course, the computer specs are different, as iOS development requires a Mac.

Minimum
128 GB SSD (or Fusion Drive)8 GB of RAM
macOS Mojave 10.14, which is supported on the following:
• MacBook (Early 2015 or newer)
• MacBook Air (Mid 2012 or newer)
• MacBook Pro (Mid 2012 or newer)
• Mac mini (Late 2012 or newer)
• iMac (Late 2012 or newer)iMac Pro (2017)
• Mac Pro (Mid 2010, Mid 2012, and Late 2013)
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Recommended
2 GHz Processor
256 GB SSD

Lambda School students don't pay upfront tuition. Instead, they pay for Lambda School using an Income Share Agreement, or ISA.

Under our ISA you agree to pay 17% of your post-Lambda School income with 24 monthly payments, but only when you're making more than $4,166 per month (that is, $50k per year).
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For example, if you get a job paying $60k/year, you’re earning $5k per month. 17% of $5k is $850, so you pay $850 that month for your ISA. You make 17% payments on your income every month until you’ve made 24 monthly payments, that is for 2 years worth of payments.

If your income ever drops below $4,166 per month, you don’t make a payment that month.

Our ISA is also capped at a maximum of $30k. You'll never pay more than $30k under any circumstances.
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You have 5 years after your last day at Lambda School to complete the 24 monthly payments. If 5 years go by, and you haven’t made enough money to trigger 24 monthly payments, the ISA automatically expires.

Yes, you can see a template we use here.

Your ISA payments are based on your income so it depends:

• If your income never reaches the $4,166 monthly threshold, you’ll pay nothing.
• If you’re making really good money (congratulations!), you could pay up to the $30k cap.
• You’ll never pay more than $30k.

ISAs are not a loan so they have no interest.

The 17% is a percentage of your gross income, i.e. before taxes.

Your ISA goes into effect on your last day at Lambda School. It lasts up to 5 years from that date. You don’t pay a penny until you’re earning $50k a year (that’s $4,166 a month). If you never make more than $4,166 a month, the ISA automatically expires after 5 years and you’ll pay nothing, ever.

The Income Share Agreement requires you to do a few things, including (but not limited to):
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• Reporting your monthly income
• Reporting your job status
• Submitting your tax returns
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We partner with Leif, a company that handles all of the collecting, reporting, and other administration related to our Income Share Agreements. If you’re accepted to Lambda School you’ll sign and manage your ISA through them. Leif will contact you to remind you to report your income, but it’s important to understand that the ISA contract obligates you to self-report your income, job status, and submit your tax returns for an income reconciliation. These are serious requests, and we don’t make them lightly. We offer the opportunity to study at Lambda School to thousands of students for no money upfront. To make that work we need to ensure that payments are made correctly and fairly on our students’ ISAs.

Leif handles all of this on their site where you create your account. You sign up with Leif as soon as you’re admitted into Lambda School.

You’ll report your income and your job status through your account on their site. They also provide customer support to answer more detailed questions.

The Income Share Agreement requires you to submit your tax returns to our partner Leif. That said, we’re only interested in your personal income. If you can provide documentation of your spouse’s income, it won’t be included. The ISA contract specifically says:

‍Earned Income includes any amounts earned by or payable to you, directly or indirectly, as a result of your provision of services to a related party. If you file tax returns jointly with your spouse, your Earned Income shall not include any income earned solely by your spouse.

If you don't have a bank account, you'll need to open one.

Whatever bank account you use to receive your income is the account you must connect to Leif.

We offer a refund policy for people who leave Lambda School, based on completion of sprints. For full-time students, a sprint is one week long. For part-time students, a sprint is two weeks long.

If you drop out during the first 4 sprints, your ISA is cancelled completely. After 4 sprints you become responsible for 40% of the ISA. This means instead of paying 17% for 2 years, you'd pay 6.8% for 2 years (40% of 17% = 6.8%). Each sprint thereafter you become responsible for another 10% of the ISA. After 10 sprints, you're responsible for the full ISA.

The 5-year life of your ISA starts on your last day in class.  

Yes. Tuition for our courses is $20k. On the admissions application there’s a box to check to tell us you’d like to pay upfront, instead of signing an ISA.

We accept students from all around the world.
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Income Share Agreements are available to people who live in the US who are US Citizens, US Permanent Residents, or DACA recipients.

Other people can still attend Lambda School by paying the tuition upfront.

Almost all courses are taught on Pacific time so it's important to think about how you will adjust according to your time zone.

Not at this time. In order to start class, you must either have a signed ISA or have made your upfront tuition payment. You do not have the option to pay upfront tuition once you have a signed ISA.Students still have the option to pay off their ISA in full (cap amount).

You will sign the ISA through Leif, our ISA partner. Leif will originate and service the ISA.

No. The ISA begins on your last day of school. (To be clear: the life of the ISA is 5 years, meaning we have 5 years to collect payment. But once you’ve made 24 monthly payments the ISA is complete.)

No. Our ISA requires that you sign no other ISAs. (Also we want to make sure you get a job, not go on to more school.)
Once either your ISA is paid off or the 5-year ISA term has ended you can sign another organization’s ISA

Payments are collected on the 1st of the month, and Leif gives a 28-day starting grace period to Lambda Students.

For example, if you start a job on August 15th, the 28-day grace period would bump you past the September 1st payment. Your 1st payment would then be the next month, October 1st.

You’ll find the upcoming start dates for each course on our application page: https://lambdaschool.com/apply/

We offer part time courses for most of our tracks:

Part-Time Schedule
Monday-Thursday 6 pm to 9 pm PST
Plus your choice of either Friday 6-9pm, Saturday 9-12pm or Sunday 6-9pm

Secondary Part-Time Schedule
(currently offered for Web Development only, every other cohort)
Monday-Thursday 4 pm to 7 pm PST
Plus your choice of either Friday  4-7pm, Saturday 9-12pm or Sunday 4-7pm

Students must attend 95% of course hours. Live instruction and real time interaction with classmates is an integral part of learning at Lambda School. Missing class isn’t an option.

If all looks well with your application you should receive an email from our admissions team within 4-5 business days.

Make sure to check your spam folder as often our first email finds its way there!

Students are allowed on a case-by-case basis to switch to a different course within the first two units of the course, or 8 sprints. In order to switch to a new course, you must go through the standard acceptance process including satisfactory completion of all pre-course work.  Students are allowed to switch courses once.
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Switching between full-time and part-time within the same course may be approved on a case by case basis and will not affect the terms of your ISA.

After we've run a few iterations of the full time course, we may decide to offer a part time track depending on the level of interest. Be sure to check back on our application page.

Intro course videos are posted to our YouTube channel.

Our Prep Slack is the best place to find information, guidance, and support for all things related to the intro courses. Ask your question there and an instructor, PM, or fellow classmate will help you out.

Please visit https://lambdaschool.com/shift to learn about the program, including an FAQ section at the bottom of the page. If you have additional questions, email:  pathways@shift.org or send a text to 205-557-4935.