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Peter Norvig and eight others are Hacker School residents
- dillonforrest 13y agoSo jealous!!
- charlescearl 13y agoSeems like it's in the category of things like going to Paris to learn advanced culinary skills...the kind of thing that you typically only have the resources to do if you're either extremely wealthy or have the Leo Batuta/young-Steve-Jobs detachment to eschew comforts in search of a higher goal. Perhaps that's who they're looking for?
- Evbn 13y agoRight, it is artificial social barriers set up to exclude the many for the benefit of the few, like the "Ivy League" imprimatur or being in a "good family".
- charlescearl 13y agoAt least in the Ivy's you can in principle get a scholarship, part time work to sustain you, or gasp take out a lifetime loan, this requires a bit more thought...maybe there's kickstarter funding...hey maybe Peter N. can subsidize a deserving Hacker?
- stephencanon 13y agoThe Ivies give out financial aid packages far more generous than most other schools. There are all sorts of ways in which they are exclusive, but affordability (for American students, at least) is not one of them.
- lfranchi 13y agoHacker School is 4 days a week (at least this batch and last batch). You can definitely work part time during HS. I worked during the last batch of hacker school, and as a commenter above says, it's possible to live (he's doing it!) in NYC paying $650/mo in rent. That doesn't look like an arbitrary social barrier designed to exclude the many to me. MOOCs are still there, and still awesome.
- charlescearl 13y agoIt does seem like there are probably lots of formal and informal ways of getting someone there if they've got the potential and desire. That's really good to know!
- Sean-Der 13y agoHackerSchool does give out scholarships already to some. Also someone did run a kickstarter to get funding for their expenses in NY, and it met the funding goal almost overnight. Hacker School is a one of a kind experience. If you attend you will be among a group of people that will have 100% participation, no one there is unsure about what they want. You also will work with some of the smartest people in the industry through the Resident program.
- skaevola 13y agoIt's not an arbitrary social barrier, it's an inevitable economic one.
- gruseom 13y agoOh come on. It's obviously a scaling problem, not something "set up" to be evil.
- Jayschwa 13y agoHacker School is free.
- charlescearl 13y ago...but room and board in NYC isn't...
- milkshakes 13y agoThis fact is not lost upon them. It's why they offer financial aid and scholarships.
- pyvek 13y agoThey do provide financial aid but it is only for females. :(
- jckt 13y agoThat's Etsy. They are by no means prohibiting financial aid for men.
- Jayschwa 13y agoSo? The Universe does not provide us free food and housing simply by virtue of existing. It's going to cost money to live anywhere. I don't see how this is Hacker School's problem though. Part of the experience is having a physical space to work in together. Right now, that space happens to be in NYC. The service Hacker School provides is free.
- danielna 13y agoI'm in the summer batch. I put in my notice yesterday at work and saved for many months to have enough money to live in NYC and not starve. Attending hackerschool is not solely a matter of circumstance but intention. If you want something enough you'll do what you need to do in order to get it.
- revx 13y ago
- avolcano 13y agoErm, it's not really that exclusionary. It's just small because it has like eight people on staff and is still in its early stages. I mean, I'm in Hacker School this batch (which is sadly ending this week) and I live in a hostel in Bed-Stuy for $650/mo. You don't have to be rich. Certainly way cheaper than college tuition for me.
- AlexanderDhoore 13y agoMan, I'd give an arm and leg just to be there! But I have no time, nor money for it...
- majke 13y agoMartha tried really hard and I think got in: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/becoming-a-better-programmer http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/becoming-a-better-programm...
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- rycho 13y agoi am a novice programmer (learn python the hard way, codecademy, coursera, etc), but i'd do anything for a chance like this. does anyone have any advice on what specific skills/areas to work on to maybe have chance at admittance into this program next time around? i don't think i have anything worth submitting for the may 2 deadline.
- Evbn 13y agoNorvig is a great scientist and teacher, but you don't need this. In Residence concept is a throwback to the bad old days of exclusionary education. We have the Internet and great books (Norvig wrote one) and MOOCs the future is egalitarian.
- jacquesm 13y agoStrong disagree here. nothing beats learning hands on from a pro.
- freyr 13y agoCouldn't disagree more. The experience of receiving personal attention and guidance from a brilliant and skilled mentor is simply not replicated through a book or MOOC. Not to say books and MOOCs can't be excellent learning tools, but you're creating an either-or fallacy.
- sitong 13y agoWatching a veteran debug their way through a problem in person is equal parts fascinating and humbling. When you're one person, you're limited by the scope of what you can learn/accomplish on your own time, but when you're one of many, you can pool that time and expertise to really accomplish some amazing things. It's true that the internet is a force for equality but more often than not, apprenticeship and hacking together is faster and more fun :)
- riggins 13y agoIn Residence concept is a throwback to the bad old days of exclusionary education. considering Hacker School is free, I find this claim pretty indefensible.
- ih 13y agoYou can also take a free course online (https://www.udacity.com/course/cs212 https://www.udacity.com/course/cs212) by Peter Norvig with Udacity (https://www.udacity.com/ https://www.udacity.com/) in case you can't make it to hacker school.
- davidbalbert 13y agoHi, I'm one of the founders of Hacker School. I'm happy to answer questions that anyone might have.
- danielrakh 13y agoThis is awesome. I applied a few weeks ago...really looking forward to hear back from you guys. Any chance when that might be?
- davidbalbert 13y agoWe're working through applications as quickly as we can, generally in the order that we got them. You're guaranteed an admissions decision by May 17th, so you should hear back about your application well before then.
- danielrakh 13y agoSounds good. Thanks.
- pnathan 13y agoWhy in NYC and not Seattle/SF?
- rdl 13y agoPresumably because he's based there. If he wanted help/sponsorship running SF or Seattle, I'm sure he could find it, though. I actually think Hawaii or Thailand would work -- you could get a few cheap house rentals on the big island, with minimal distractions, and do it there.
- zackzackzack 13y agoCost of ticket would offset cheap housing probably. Any small midwest town would work and be much easier to reach.
- hschool 13y agoI applied and I got a rejection email after the first interview. I was really disappointed to hear. This just feels like rubbing salt on my wound :(. Is there anything I can do to make it to Hacker School this summer?
- pyvek 13y agoThis might inspire you (got it from HS's twitter) - http://netrabaha.tumblr.com/post/46341372342/try-try-again-a-lesson-in-persistence http://netrabaha.tumblr.com/post/46341372342/try-try-again-a...
- hschool 13y agoThanks! I definitely plan on applying for the next batch. I wish I would get some feedback from Hacker School on what my interview lacked.
- pyvek 13y agoI guess the situation is a lot similar to YC's rejections (see http://ycombinator.com/whynot.html http://ycombinator.com/whynot.html). I recently got into programming and wanted to apply for HS but living for 3 months in NYC isn't affordable for me. I'll be applying for next year's summer batch. Till then I'll arrange money and build up my knowledge.
- akaptur 13y agoHS facilitator here - If you email me (allison at hackerschool), we can give you feedback.
- thomasballinger 13y agoAnother facilitator here - I'm two weeks behind in responding to emails asking for feedback after being rejected, but I'm getting to them soon, and appreciate that folks are asking.
- davidbalbert 13y agoUnfortunately admissions decisions are final for this batch. I'm sorry this felt like rubbing salt in the wound :(. On the bright side, as long as you continue to improve as a programmer, you can apply for the next batch, hopefully with different results. We have plans to better communicate what we're looking for in admissions and our thoughts on becoming a better programmer, which will hopefully be helpful when you apply again.
- edw519 13y agoVery cool. Nice job, Hacker School. I'd love to try it myself someday. Being surrounded by all that positive energy has got to be a great experience. With that in mind, please remember: QualityTimeWithResident + HardWorkBuilding = HigherProbabiltyOfSuccess QualityTimeWithResident + not(HardWorkBuilding) = LowerProbabilityOfSuccess not(QualityTimeWithResident) + HardWorkBuilding = HigherProbabiltyOfSuccess not(QualityTimeWithResident) + not(HardWorkBuilding) = LowerProbabiltyOfSuccess So while very nice, QualityTimeWithResident is neither necessary nor sufficient, but HardWorkBuilding is definitely necessary. Best wishes to those who get this opportunity. And best wishes to those who don't.
- carlsednaoui 13y agoThis is amazing! So happy to be a part of the upcoming hacker school batch :)
- revx 13y agoHaha! Me too. See you in June :D
- dillonforrest 13y agoWoah Carl, you're doing Hacker School?? Awesome!! I was in the batch last summer!
- pc86 13y agoEDIT: I forgot, I'm not allowed to express an opinion on HN.
- jckt 13y agoThe point (Etsy's point) was to balance the male-female that was lacking in the early hacker school batches (which, AFAIK, was lacking).
- ritchiea 13y agoIt is not at all the case that 5k doesn't do much. If you live somewhere relatively inexpensive in Brooklyn (or even Queens) & live reasonably you can cover most of your expenses for 3 months with 5k. If you are good at being frugal you could easily cover all your living expenses with 5k.
- pc86 13y agoI've never lived in NYC so it's very possible I'm overestimating the COL based on being in Manhattan now and then.
- nicholasjbs 13y agoFor what it's worth, I (Hacker School founder) live off of about that much, though admittedly I live quite frugally. ($5k isn't enough to support a family, but it has been enough to make a difference for past alumni with families.)
- darkarmani 13y agoNothing against Jessica because her personal page says it differently, but this bio snippet on HS seems odd: > "...runs the Boston Python Meetup," From http://meetup.bostonpython.com/ http://meetup.bostonpython.com/ > "Organizers: Ned Batchelder, Deb Nicholson, Giles Hall, Jason Michalski, Jessica McKellar" I don't know enough about the other organizers, but I know Ned does a tremendous amount of work for the meetup group.
- nicholasjbs 13y agoThat's my fault; I wrote Jessica's bio and will make it clear she's one of the organizers and not the organizer. Thanks for the correction! EDIT: Just updated the site.
- euccastro 13y agoI think you only need to hear her talk to know you want her around when learning: http://pyvideo.org/speaker/377/jessica-mckellar http://pyvideo.org/speaker/377/jessica-mckellar [Disclaimer: HS alumn, from a batch before she joined.]
- darkarmani 13y agoI wasn't saying anything against her. I don't know anything about her.
- rdouble 13y agoIs there a program or summer institute like Hacker School but more graphics programming and interaction design oriented?
- intrazoo 13y agomaybe this? http://www.gschool.it/experiencearchitect/ http://www.gschool.it/experiencearchitect/
- ameen 13y agoGood job. But Hacker School shouldn't be the model for future disruptions in education. If anything this can be an exclusive coders retreat (well, unless we get to cloning Peter Norvig and other great computer scientists), and is sort of a goal to achieve. Each Hacker School attendee needs to be the best they can be and motivated to learn more and teach others. The fact that there are no teachers and each attendee is a teacher is a wonderful model, and as such they have to be exclusive. Not everyone who could code up a FizzBuzz deserves an admit. This is not where you go to learn common stuff, this is where you go when you're already good at coding & looking to expand further and can contribute positively to the class. Disclaimer: I applied for the second or the third batch and got rejected promptly. Only then did I realize that I never deserved an admit.
- revx 13y agoI've been describing it as a "writer's workshop for coders".
- charlieflowers 13y agoI hope Peter Norvig will be around for more than one batch. I can't make the summer batch, but I'd rearrange a lot of stuff to be in the next batch he's there for.