A relative of mine decided to try starting a new career in software development and opted to join an online “bootcamp” course which is “run” by a university.* As condition of joining, you have to sign a contract saying, effectively, that you’re liable for the full course fees regardless of how long you attend the course. E.g., if you only attend for 1 month out of the full 6 and then drop out, you still pay for the full 6 months.
Going into week five of the course, said relative has now spent most of the last 14 days in tears because the coursework is simply going by too fast and, starting from effectively no knowledge of any of the relevant technology, there has not been enough time to even get somewhat comfortable with the fundamentals that were taught in the first week or two before launching into advanced topics.
Regardless of anything, we’re dropping out of the course but we’re trying to determine if there’s a way to recoup the cost?
Things we’ve considered:
Small claims court, citing mental hardship and suffering.
A class action suit for fraud. The course was advertised as being suitable for anyone who could solve a simple riddle - no prior knowledge needed nor any other special learning abilities. We were also told that they have something like a 20% dropout rate but already about half the class has disappeared.
Any recommendations? Or are we basically out of luck or is there some way to get out of this?
We’ve since determined that the university has a deal with a 3rd party company, Trilogy, to give the courses.
Its the equivalent of a college course. You always pay fees before classes start. Most have a time limit to drop and get a refund. If you want to be a bit sneaky you could claim they have covid and cant continue with the course. Colleges seem to be more forgiving for that.
“A deposit of One Thousand Dollars ($1,000) is required to secure your spot in the Course whether you pay in full or your initial payment is less than or equal to that amount. If your initial payment is less than $1,000, your spot is not reserved until you have paid the full $1,000. One Thousand Dollars ($1,000) of your deposit is not refundable. You are eligible for a refund of any fees paid in excess of One Thousand Dollars ($1,000) only within one (1) week from the start date of the Course (“Final Refund Eligibility Date”), provided that you contact TES via phone at 1-866-948-9237 prior to the expiration of the one (1) week period. Once the Final Refund Eligibility Date has passed, you are liable for and required to pay the full Course fee. Non-attendance of classes does not classify as an official withdrawal and does not relieve you of your financial obligation or entitle you to a refund. Violation of this Enrollment Agreement for any reason, including non-payment, voids your right to a refund. To the extent that applicable state law conflicts with the provisions of this section, the terms hereof shall be applied in a manner so as to be consistent with state law.”
It smells SOLish to me, which was why we were thinking more along the lines of fraud or mental hardship.
Actually, we’re on a month-by-month payment schedule.
My assumption would be that if we stopped paying, they would seek a lien on us?
Probably just sold to a collections agency. You’ll get a lot of threatening letters and phone calls. Eventually they’ll take 15-20 cents on the dollar because they only paid 5-10 cents on the dollar to buy the debt.
Impossible to say for certain, but probably. AFAIK collections agencies aren’t required to report their activities to credit agencies, but most do as SOP.
I interview and hire software developers, have done so for 20+ years. I have never come across a resume of anyone who had an online bootcamp course instead of a degree. So I did a little googling on the subject.
My first reaction (after the sticker shock on the cost), was that some are self-paced and offer mentorship.
I guess the one you signed up for isn’t self paced? Have you reached out to the instructor or facilitator about your concerns over the pace? How mush time was estimated to be needed for this course? The ones I looked at were around 20 hours a week.
If it goes to collections and it settles, you need to do a “Pay for delete” to keep it off credit reports. If not, it will show “paid settled” for 7 years, which is just as bad as an unpaid debt for credit scoring purposes. Also, any balance that is forgiven in a settlement is subject to taxes and you will get a 1099 if it’s over $600.
I’m surprised you’ve never come across such a resume. These bootcamps are VERY popular and most of them have some sort of job search program and support team. I did one that was paid for by my employer and decided not to get a job in the field. I opted to remain in their pool of graduates who receive job search support, though. I get daily Slack, email, Linkedin invites, and calls about job openings and resume evaluations. They have regular Zoom meetings with employers. I do believe most of these employers are specifically open to hiring from these programs and they reach out to build relationships. So, perhaps online grads just don’t apply many places that don’t seem receptive to it.
True, or like you say, the bootcamp works with a select list of employers and all their customers are steered toward those companies upon completing the course.
The terms aren’t necessarily out of line with regards to educational institutions. Most colleges don’t give pro-rated refunds if a student drops out. Typically, full payment is expected at the start of the semester for the whole semester. Since they are paying monthly they can stop paying, but I’m not sure that will relieve them of the obligations.
As for getting into software development, a bootcamp isn’t really the right way to go. It might be good if someone has a strong interest in software and has dabbled in some already, but it’s not a good way to switch careers. Even if they complete the bootcamp, getting a job from that alone will be almost impossible. They’ll be competing with college grads and experienced programmers. Virtually no company will hire a developer with just a 6-month bootcamp class.
What they might want to do instead is get into software testing or support. Tons of companies large and small have plenty of those kinds of jobs. And once they are in, they can get involved with small software projects and branch out from there. For example, a support person may use Unix command line commands and write simple shell scripts. From that, they may advance to doing some scripts in more advanced languages like python. Eventually, they could end up being involved with the actual software development side. Something like that would be a more viable way to get into software development without going to college.