
42 comes to Silicon Valley: free, non profit coding university - jpkenobi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OKfktv3k-0&feature=youtu.be
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g123g
What is the reason for having the age restriction of 30? Does it not
implicitly contribute to the existing ageism issue in tech industry. Why can't
a professional working in another industry learn something new at the age of
35 or a mother who wants to come back to the workforce after her kids start
going to school?

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melvinmt
I'm guessing most people over 30 can not commit to a 3-year full time study,
but it's weird indeed that they're not even allowed in.

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jbob2000
_3 years of study_?? What!? That's insane, you do not need 3 years of study to
enter this industry. At that point, I may as well go and get a Computer
Science degree at a local college and at least have a legitimate degree.

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volent
Would it be tuition free ?

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jbob2000
Can you afford to take 3 years off? Tuition at a community college is pennies
compared to living expenses for 3 years.

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gravypod
Why did they move to such an expensive area? If their goal is to provide
services and help everyone why not build your university in an area like
Detroit?

No one who is really interested won't go because of the location and it makes
rent really cheap.

Hell, you could also have the Detroit government chip in and give you a great
deal on land. What is bad for an economy about bringing some of our nations
smartest programmers to a single location?

I'd love this if I could afford to go to it.

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stillworks
So...start a coding school in a place in the world where you are likely to
find a very dense population of people who already know how to write code ?

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gravypod
If you want to go to teach people how to program, then going some place where
most people already know how to program lowers your prospective client base.

If you go to some place that is currently economically unstable, you can have
a huge client base as many people there will want to improve themselves.

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venomsnake
So I am to strive to become a "very valuable asset for any company" ... I
guess dehumanization is bad only when it is done by noncorporation people.

Also - can we stop with teaching to code already. Assume instead of literacy
and writing in schools we thought people how to flip pages on books with green
covers. Or we were teaching people how to multiply only by 8.

Without the broader body of IT literacy, coding is not that useful skill.
Except for future corporate drones working on waterfall.

We need to give people basic IT literacy - the critical mass of knowledge that
allows them to obtain more and diverse knowledge on their own - so when faced
with a problem to know how to formulate a question and where to look for
solution.

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volent
It is not only teaching development, it's teaching UNIX, 3d, Security and much
more [0].

In fact, the most important thing it's teaching is to learn by yourself. Most
people just don't know how to learn without a teacher and that's the best
skill you can learn if you wish to work in the industry.

[0]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/42_(school)#Academics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/42_\(school\)#Academics)

~~~
venomsnake
That is surprising. But it seems that the talking heads in the video have not
gotten that memo. Come to us to make 3d games, AI and viruses would have been
a killer slogan. And instant differentiation from all the others.

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codingdave
The age restrictions are odd. 3 years to learn a skill seems too much. Having
to apply, so it is becomes an elitist programs, seems wrong. And their web
site describes having to prove your worth in a 4 week 24x7 code fest before
getting final acceptance into the program, which sounds like they do not
understand the concept of burnout.

There are so many ways to learn to code... the only part these guys seem to
have right is "free"

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louisrochal
If you like coding and learning, the 24x7 coding period is a blast

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melvinmt
> There are no school fees: running costs for the 10 first years (estimated at
> 20 to 50 million euros) have been personally funded by Xavier Niel. 42 will
> train each year one thousand students...

There are so many billionaires and millionaires in Silicon Valley who could
easily fund a school like this, it simply baffles me that none of them have a
tuition-free school of their own.

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pierre
So Xavier Niel
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xavier_Niel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xavier_Niel)
French entrepreneur, do not own any US interest) is committing millions from
his personal fortune to open a FREE school to teach programming and computer
science in the US to student regardless of their academic background and
commenters critics the initiative because the school have an age limit.

I really love 42, and I'm happy that they open a new school in US. Their
curriculum is great and previous iteration have give us technical talents like
the docker team.

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gbersac
He invested in more than 1000 startups, some of them in the US.

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stacywebb
From their site:

WELCOME TO 42,THE MOST DARING CODING UNIVERSITY. DISRUPTIVE EDUCATION. TUITION
FREE. NON-PROFIT. OPEN TO ALL.

False Advertising.

"OPEN TO ALL" "42 is open to anyone who is between the ages of 18 and 30"

Perhaps someone there should attend a class on demographics.

I suspect in the land of 42, you don't exist if you are <18 or >30\. Such
special little snowflakes they are.

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teh_klev
I'm 49, mostly agree with your sentiment, but shouty all caps and the tiresome
"snowflake" thing totally ruins your point. Sigh.

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msane
Why not call it 30? 42 is 12 years too old apparently.

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karn09
Why the 18-30 age limit? Seems a bit... ageist?

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WaBlueKey
I couldn't agree more with you. This seems like an old model of assuming that
those under 30 can't work well with those over yet they are expected to enter
a diverse workforce. I'm 37 and in my 4th month at a school similar to 42 in
SF. I'm glad that Holberton School didn't have that age restriction or I'd
still be looking for another option.

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karn09
Yea, with you on that. 32 and back in school. There are a few folks that are
late 30s, early 40s. Sure majority are early to mid twenties, but that hasn't
stopped anyone from working together.

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iFelix
I'm surprised with all the negative comments focusing on the age limit. Xavier
Niel committed millions to launch the school in Paris and it was an immense
success which already benefits to the whole ecosystem. What is not said in the
video is the type of candidates they are looking for. In France, as education
is free, traditional "excellent" high school student don't apply to 42 and
prefer to secure a place in the notorious engineering schools. 42 is rather
focused on giving a second chance to bright people that didn't fit into the
traditional system. The test to get qualified for the 4weeks session is only
about fit/culture questions: no maths, no logic, no programming. No skills
required, everyone has the same chance. Although the target in the US might be
different as tuition fees are a real problem there. Curious to see what type
of students will go there.

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jnbiche
> Curious to see what type of students will go there.

Well, we know they'll all be between the ages 18-30.

And yes, tuition fees are a real problem here, for people of all ages. Shame
he chose to limit the program to a demographic that is already welcome and
advantaged in the US's technical community.

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fbucher
All people over 30 can send us an email and we look To all files. When we
think it can match we let people over 30 to come. In Paris we have a lot of
people over 30. We also work with the french gov service for unemployed people
over 50 and we have special cursus for them To give them basics to apply To
new jobs. But the Time and investment needed the first year can clearly
destroy people over 30 who have already family children ...

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howandwhy
I am currently 41, went to a Coding bootcamp in Bay area and after I
graduated, I struggled to find a job for 6-8 months but ultimately succeeded
to land one as a developer job. But I have had to drop $12k on tuition which I
think it will take couple of years to pay off. The bootcamp did very little to
add value to my learning skill and portfolio of projects.

I would have applied to institution like this in a heartbeat but I guess 42
would have been a no-entry for me. Why this discrimination? And also it is
irony that they wont take anybody above 30 much less 40 years old but the
institution is named as 42. Can anybody tell me why the organization named
itself 42?

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JohanByttner
42 is from Douglas Adams, the answer to the question of life and all that.

I do t know about the age limit, but it might be some (possibly faulty)
reasoning about commitment. Staff have been tight-lipped. We have some people
from the Pole Emploi (unemployment agency) here at the moment, and they are a
bit older, so some kind of trial is underway.

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howandwhy
Ah. got it. I suspect they discourage people older than 30 assuming it will be
tough to get a position in a age-biased job market? May be. Just my guess.

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grrrrreg
There's an already existing university in San Francisco named Holberton School
running on this non-profit, peer-reviewed, project-based non traditional
curriculum. If the arbitrary limit set by 42 excludes you, Holberton doesn't
and diversity is actually one of their grander mandates. I have spoken with
the current students and school staff: they really are getting quality
training. (Disclaimer: I'm a mentor at this school)

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Ramiuz
I'd love to signup to 42, specially after E.E. to become a soft. Eng. In fact
I've been looking something like this (an internship or codecamp) that will
accept someone from abroad. But as always, the need for the in-person signup
and test it's what deters me.

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ValentineC
From the website:

> 42 allows students who have successfully completed the selection tests to
> continue their training at the Silicon Valley or Paris campuses (under the
> condition that they have the necessary immigration visa for their choice.
> The visa formalities need to be completed by the student, 42 cannot give a
> visa).

In the application form itself:

> If you are applying for 42 Paris you must either be a citizen of the
> European Union or have a valid titre de séjour while you are a student at
> 42.

> 42 cannot provide immigration visas for students. If you are applying for 42
> Fremont you must be a citizen of the United States or have a valid green
> card while you are a student at 42.

What does this mean? Would 42 be able to act as a sponsor of sort if a student
is successfully admitted into the program, or will this be open only to those
fortunate enough to either be born in the US or EU, or have a residence permit
of some sort?

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JohanByttner
From what the staff have told us in Paris, 42 isn't approved by the
authorities, so they cannot use the official channels to offer visa
sponsorships.

Some students sign up for language courses so they can attend. Sad, but not
much that can be done at the moment.

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Swinx43
This is something that looks very interesting. I wonder if this would ever
come to the UK. I know France is just across the channel but there surely is
massive demand for this in the UK as well.

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JohanByttner
There is something similar called NMITE, which is run by a few universities.

If you want a 42-like school, speak with your local MP. 42 is run on a budget
of €7m (approximately) per year, and it would be very affordable if the
government got behind it with a Royal Charter.

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j_h_s
Has there been any discussion as to what happens after Neil's funding runs
out? Is the school then going to start charging tuition?

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fbucher
Nop. We have already funding solution for now or after.

