

Should Dev Bootcamp scholarships help classes besides race and gender identity? - aaronbrager

Dev Bootcamp is offering $425k in scholarship money (in ~$12k chunks) to these classes:<p>- Veterans
- Anyone who identifies as female or non-male
- Anyone who identified as an ethnic minority group underrepresented in tech (African American, Chicano&#x2F;Latino, Native American, Pacific Islander)<p>See http:&#x2F;&#x2F;devbootcamp.com&#x2F;tuition&#x2F;<p>This is a really cool initiative, but it feels weird to me that a bunch of protected classes are left out: religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age, etc.<p>For example, &quot;median earnings for people with no disability were over $28,000 compared to the $17,000 median income reported for individuals with a disability&quot; [1] according to the 2006 census. And gay men earn 10% to 32% less [2] than heterosexual men.<p>Should Dev Bootcamp&#x27;s new scholarships include other classes? Or is it better to just focus on race and gender identity as a &quot;first step&quot;? Why?<p>----<p>sources:<p>[1]: http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.apa.org&#x2F;pi&#x2F;ses&#x2F;resources&#x2F;publications&#x2F;factsheet-disability.aspx
[2]: http:&#x2F;&#x2F;williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu&#x2F;wp-content&#x2F;uploads&#x2F;Badgett-Sears-Lau-Ho-Bias-in-the-Workplace-Jun-2007.pdf
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panorama
1\. As a function of population count, women and people of color are
significantly under-represented in engineering. This is DBC's way of making
those numbers better, and they're doing a good job (each cohort seems to have
a better-than-industry-average ratio).

2\. They don't have to offer scholarships at all -- not every bootcamp offers
scholarships, why not hold _those_ schools to a higher standard?

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aaronbrager
1\. I know this is true anecdotally, but are there data to back this up? Is
any information available about these other classes?

2\. It's not my goal to hold anyone to a specific standard or complain, just
to explore what the best scholarship approach is.

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panorama
What data are you looking for specifically?

Re: 2, yeah I understand, good topic.

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lalwanivikas
Absolutely! Why not give to everyone on need or merit basis? I was admitted
last year but wasn't able to attend because of money.

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feybay
Well, I guess it's time for me to identify as a non-jew just long enough to
pick up some easy cash!

Seriously, how does this strike anybody as acceptable? For example, imagine if
there was a prize in college that was available to everybody but degenerate
Germans. People would be upset, and rightly so.

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proveanegative
Have you tried contacting Dev Bootcamp for comment?

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aaronbrager
I'll send them an email now and post a response if I get it.

