It seems like much of what I would call fundamental in a CS degree is integrated into projects in their curriculum. I mean I get that they call it "applied" but a CS major with a data science specialization that doesn't seem to have dedicated statistics courses for example? I'm really wondering what kind of graduate that produces.
Aside: Is this weird income share agreement model common in the US at this point?
Edit: found a seemingly non-ad interview on the accreditation and incubation period https://www.wscuc.org/news/wscuc-incubation-policy-supports
No, rather radical, and a key point of this school.
What is common in the US is debilitating levels of student debt upon graduation.
edit: typoos
We don't have a traditional summer break, so that's a big part. And we have course material that enables students to get credit during their internship or first job (which some students will do after completing all other courses).
My personal feelings on the curriculum aside, the website and sentences like this make it seem like an intense program. How do you avoid producing a bunch of burnt out at 23 interns / handle mental health of your students? I see you're hiring counselors through Angellist, is that an integral part of the organisation?
The program might be "intense" compared to the average college students workload, but I doubt it is outside the norm of someone taking a difficult degree at a good college.
This one claims: Total Seat Hours: 37.5 hours, Total Out-of-Class Hours: 75 hours in 7 weeks to completion.
Second, I pulled 23 credit hours at a regular collage in a normal semester. Keeping that pace for 2 years without break would have caused burnout, but 20 credit semesters * 5 + 12 over summer break * 2 = 124 in 2.5 years.
Thus, doing this at a normal collage is viable assuming schedules work out.
PS: I kind of felt like a slacker at the time because a friend was pulling 18, while keeping a full time job.
Good for you. But that's not "viable" for most students in the first place – 18 is probably pushing it.
Really, an elite admittance process coupled with a school that focuses on getting people out quickly vs ramping up course difficult seems like a viable tradeoff. The biggest issue with early graduation is often a few rare required classes. Design the schedule to avid that issue and you have a huge advantage.
A standardized definition most accreditation agencies have settled on for a "credit-hour" is approximately 45 hours of work total (so e.g. a 3-credit course requires 135 hours over the semester). Originally that came from an assumption that an N-credit class met for N hours a week, plus 2N hours of homework per week, for a 14-week semester plus a 15th exam or final-project week. But any split is ok under current standards as long as it adds up to about the same (different semester lengths, no-lecture classes purely based on videos, fully in-person lab-style classes, etc.). Either way though, a 124-credit-hour degree would end up at around 5580 hours of work. To do it in 2 calendar years, you'd need to average 54 hours/wk, with no vacations. Not physically impossible, but...