Launching a new model of college
A Bachelor’s program that puts students first
Over the last two weeks Make School has received a wave of press coverage announcing that we have received final accreditor approval for the launch of the first fully accredited Bachelor’s degree program with no tuition until students are employed.
TechCrunch reported that our program is the first to create an accelerated 2 year path to a Bachelor’s degree with a progressive, project-based pedagogy.
Time highlighted our industry partnerships and commitment to covering our students’ tuition and living expenses through Income Share Agreements (ISAs).
Axios put a spotlight on our inclusive admissions practices and the diversity of our student body — 40% of our students are underrepresented students of color and 60% come from households making $60k or less per year.
The SF Business Times featured our impressive students and their reasons for choosing Make School’s project-based program even when presented with full scholarships elsewhere.
Several more publications covered us, including the Washington Post and industry publications Inside Higher Ed, Education Dive, and Campus Technology. All noted that we are the first Bachelor’s program to fully align ourselves with our students’ success.
This new Bachelor’s program is the evolution of Make School’s Product College, first launched in 2014. Since 2014, we have already been delivering outcomes on par with top schools — students are landing jobs with an average salary of $95,000/year. They have already been hired by Facebook, Google, Apple, Tesla, NASA, and top YC startups.
We created the computer science college we wished existed
When my co-founder Ashu and I met for lunch at University Café in Palo Alto over the summer of 2011, we were shocked at how much our college experiences had in common. After meeting in computer science class in high school in 2007, we both launched iPhone apps and went on to study computer science, him at UCLA and me at MIT. We were both losing sleep over our personal software projects, left unimpressed by our traditional college classes that emphasized book learning, traditional problem sets, and outdated curriculum.
We left school that fall and by January 2012 we were teaching the courses we wished existed in college. By 2013, we were providing curriculum to MIT and Carnegie Mellon. In 2014, we launched the pilot for what would become the new model college we are announcing today.
At Make School students learn computer science by building and launching software products using the same tools and technologies the companies they want to work at use. Since 2012, “Design, Code, and Launch” has been the motto for our technical courses, blending product design with technical depth as every student builds a portfolio of projects through the classes they take.
We’ve built a roster of over 30 industry partners who are deepening their integration with our degree program, from guest lectures to recruiting events and soon co-created courses. We’ve hired stellar faculty with strong industry backgrounds under the leadership of our new Dean who combines over a decade of experience as a tenured Computer Science professor with industry experience as a software engineer and years running the first ever software engineering bootcamp in San Francisco.
Our technical curriculum is paired with strong foundations in the liberal arts, ensuring that students learn not only the technical skills they need to succeed on day one on the job, but the critical thinking, writing, and analysis skills they need to chart successful careers in tech.
Join us
If you are a high school senior, a community college student, or an undergrad looking to transfer, you can learn more and apply to Make School’s news Bachelor of Applied Computer Science program here. Our regular application deadline is January 7th.
If you are an education or technology industry professional and want to join a team redefining the future of higher education in the United States, you can find our open positions here.
If your company would like to partner with us, whether it is to recruit our students or get involved with our pedagogy, please reach out at partners@makeschool.com.
To the next chapter in the nearly 400 year history of US higher ed!
Jeremy and Ashu
This piece was originally published on the Make School Blog.
