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Comment by nostromo | Hacker News Reader

My head almost exploded from sloppy statistics reading the article.

> Six months after the first Access Code class of 21 students completed the 18 week course, the 15 graduates who accepted job offers have seen their income rise from under $15,000 to an average of $72,190; the other six students are either still in college or have chosen to launch their own startups

1: Those not getting a job were not included in the average. 2: The analysis is comparing student incomes with working incomes. I imagine every college and university could show amazing income growth using these measures.

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Also:

People switching car insurance providers saved money. Those who would have spent more money probably chose not to switch.

I think the rule of thumb is that articles containing statistics are guilty until proven innocent. There are just so many ways to get a wrong answer that fits a convenient narrative, and so few right answers.

The infamous - survivorship bias :-o

1. Yes that's what they said. The average included those who accepted job offers.

2. After paying $20,000 a year and/or going in to debt.

The average before and the average after don't measure the same group of people. So you can't use them to compare anything.

I don't think people are charged $20,000. Alexis Ohanian is raising money for the program, and he has a goal of $20,000. That fundraiser also says that the program awards partial and full scholarships.

Also, the NY Daily News is saying they are trying to raise $1,000,000 for the program to pay for 100 students. So that would put the cost at around $10,000 per person without scholarships. http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/queens-techies-fu...

I didn't see any figures about how much the average student paid though. I would be interested in that figure.

The program is fully scholarship oriented, we intend to serve low income communities so that adults can all backgrounds can enter the tech industry. Our students were from 18-37, most were not in college at the time and didn't know how to code. We also believe it's not just about working at a tech company, we want to empower those through the course to be tech entrepreneurs. Those that aren't working are pursuing their own projects and launching new ventures. The income mobility statistic shows potential for what coding can do to raise income and improve peoples lives, but it's important for us to increase opportunity for people to create their own startups and apps.

Tuition is $850. Many paid less. Some paid nothing.

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