nicesnowoman

Former student here as well. Can confirm everything here. I know multiple students “withdrawn” (kicked out of Slack with no warning and still on the hook for the ISA) after they gave respectful negative feedback. The whole thing is a giant scam after I realized a $10 Udemy course was higher quality than all of Lambda’s lectures.

Former student here. You are a grifter and a liar who is fully aware that students are punished for leaving negative feedback.

They had many students sign NDA-like terms as well to get out of their ISAs. This school is not to be trusted and Austen is known to lie frequently.

I doubt they'd do that because it'd be bad for Lambda's financials.

This, 100%. I'm a student and, while ISAs make Lambda interesting, am mostly disappointed due to the terrible educational quality (and staff's refusal to admit that the quality is pretty low across the board).

Still, though, I've noticed the ISAs create some nuanced perverse things happening that are specific to Lambda - students attracted to the value prop are often much lower income (Lambda cited $22K average starting salary amongst their students) than the average bootcamp student. If Lambda fails them, these students may leave in worse financial prospects than they started with no safety net.

The ISA also kicks in at 40% when you're only 4 weeks into a 40 week curriculum. After that point, it's very hard to leave due to sunk cost fallacy, and you are roped along wasting time, hoping for them to get their stuff together. I wish I and others left well before.

They pull this BS all the time to students - it's terrible: https://twitter.com/nwilliams030/status/1219687148972056578

I cannot believe how often Austen flat out lies on things so easily disproven.

It's absolutely shady. Lambda doesn't want students/customers to sue because they know they have committed fraud, and would lose in the courts.

Austen's lying again. Students fought hard to get the ISAs cancelled. They should have been working towards learning and job searching instead, not fighting a pathological liar and terrible organization.

I'm a student - "reviews are fine" because students are also scared of being truthful to staff. The staff do not have a good history of listening to negative feedback and criticism. They are either ignorant or delusional.

Look at Dustin Myers and how he responds to criticism: https://twitter.com/dustint314/status/1156423191645917184

Look at Trevor McKendrick (Chief of Staff) and how he responds to criticism: https://twitter.com/TrevMcKendrick/status/108285421890879488...

Look at all of Austen's interactions on Twitter to students and how he gaslights them: https://twitter.com/Austen/status/1213711252175740928

Look at Ben Nelson (cofounder) and see how he only interacts with positive testimonials and discount negative ones: https://twitter.com/sunjieming/likes

Look at Ryan Holdaway and see how he only interacts with positive testimonials and discounts negative ones: https://twitter.com/Ryan_Holdaway/likes

Look at Ryan Hamblin - same thing: https://twitter.com/RyanleeHamblin/likes

There's a clear pattern here. These are key people in staff who should be listening and responding with empathy to the horrifying student stories throughout Lambda. All negative dissent is squashed by dividing and siloing students. They are made to think their issues with the "school" are due to some personal deficiency.

It is no wonder that negative student accounts rarely get amplified or even created. I was personally scared to write negative reviews for fear of being admonished by their "Student Success" team. There's been rumors circling of students removed from Slack after they complained about the quality of education. Leadership and key members of staff are all complicit.

Dude stop lying. Also, other UX students with similar shitty experiences as that cohort have been trying to get their ISAs cancelled, and are getting the runaround. Come on.

Did you not read the scathing letter? If you want to address these issues - why don't you publicly post the letter and address every single damning issue highlighted if you are so confident? There were things outlined outside of just "bad instruction" and "misaligned expectations". Do better.