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  • The Atlantic

    Code Now. Pay Tuition Later.

    Coding schools are offering free classes in exchange for a percentage of future income. But at what cost?
    by Lindsay Gellman Jun 30, 2018 6 minutes
    Source: Santi S / Africa Studio / hansslegers / Shutterstock / Katie Martin / The Atlantic

    Last year, Lavell Burton decided he wanted to learn to code. He searched online for coding bootcamps, and was surprised to find that many of them cost several thousand dollars upfront. Burton, then 36, was hoping to move from his maintenance job aboard an American naval ship to a career in software engineering in California, where he grew up. He finally came across a 30-week remote program, Lambda School, that was free to attend. The program would provide comprehensive web-engineering training, and would help with job placement. Once employed, graduates would be required to pay back a set portion of their salary under an arrangement called an income-share agreement, or ISA.

    Burton made it through Lambda School’s rigorous selection process, including an entrance exam covering math and logic. By last fall, he was back in the Bay Area, where he moved in with his ailing grandmother and prepared to begin classes. “They’re taking a chance on me,” Burton remembers thinking of

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