Hacker School Winter 2013 Applications are Open

I was in Hacker School's first batch, batch[0]. It was awesome. I was brought into the idea when my friend Dave Albert reached out to me. I met Dave through the hacker culture in NYC.<p>There was 6 of us in a small room, all working on things and talking about what inspired us. I had some things I was working on at home and loved the idea of working on them with a bunch of other hackers around. I don't personally like coworking spaces, but I thought the term "school" would mean something quite different, something more compatible with my goal of writing a bunch of open source.<p>Everyone could use their time however they wanted. The basic premise was to see what happens when you put a bunch of people, who love programming, in a room together. Do they sit there? Do they pull out SICP and get to work? What happens?<p>I used my time there to work on building Brubeck and I also built the demo projects most people use to learn Brubeck. I learned a ton just discussing the system with the other people there, but I learned the most when I would just listen to what other folks were thinking about. Everyone ended up building a huge amount of stuff and we improved each other's work by sharing it, picking it apart, etc.<p>We come to HN for a particular reason. We're looking for like-minded folks. The word "Hacker" is significant. It is a beacon for us. Hacker School knows this and takes on the challenge of being another beacon, and they do it well.<p>I have been a reader of PG's essays for 9 or so years and found the culture of Hacker School to reflect the same ideas. They understand the value of doing things simply because it would be neat. They know what it's like to be let down by a typical education experience. Hacker School is what they're doing about it.<p>I wholeheartedly recommend anyone with a passion for learning and technology to consider applying. What you learn is up to you and your passions, but Hacker School is the environment you've been looking to lose yourself in. That's why it exists!

It's a bummer that they don't do the interviews/final answers until after the first couple weeks of January.<p>I'd love to take a semester off and do this, but since there's no guarantee I'd get into Hacker School, I would want to have my usual classes to fall back on, and the payment for that is due the first week of January. If I did get into Hacker School, I'd rather not drop the university classes I'll already have paid for.<p>Maybe this summer the timing will work out better. I'm sure I could learn more in three months there than I ever would here :I

Alum from the third batch here. In the hopes that I can convince someone else to apply, my story:<p>I applied to hacker school, on a whim, while I was working on a php app at an advertising company in Boston. I didn't think I would get in, and I hadn't made any plans to support spending three months in NY. When I got in, I decided to drop everything, and left a month later on the dot. It may have been the best decision of my life to date.<p>Going in, I was a programmer, but I wasn't very good. Hacker school was so transformative, so incredibly valuable that three months later I was accepting an offer at Stripe, where I am now.<p>The strange thing is - the value doesn't come from lectures, or workshops, or anything like that. Hacker school is valuable because it gives you the space to grow into your full potential on your own. Just having three months where I could dabble and play in the company of similarly-minded people was the best thing for me, and it's hard to overstate how much I learned.<p>Do it! Apply! I don't know of a better way to spend three months.

I love Hacker School. It significantly changed the trajectory of my life. I barely didn't go, but in the end I did and as a result met some of the smartest people that were incredibly passionate about technology. Try and apply - they're incredibly warm, open people and a pleasure to talk to in any case.

I'm seriously considering applying, but I'd have to leave a full time job in order to do so. What kind of job placement rate is there post"grad"? Average salary?<p>At my current position I'm being paid well but I don't feel like I'm improving at all as a programmer. This would be a huge risk for me, but I feel like I'd be better prepared for the future.<p>Any alums leave a job to go to hacker school? What was your experience like?

I love the idea of HackerSchool and would love to take part at some point in my life. The only thing that gives me pause is that I've heard the application process heavily emphasizes and selects based on github code and open source contributions vs. other accomplishments. Can anyone verify if this is or isn't the case?<p>Personally, I love oss and have always planned to get more involved. That's one of the primary reasons I'm interested in trying HackerSchool. But so far in my hacker career I've focused much more on achieving financial stability and freedom, which means that while I've produced a lot of interesting code across many domains and studied a decent variety of languages and technologies, the majority of my work has either been for pay or on personal projects that have (so far unsuccessfully) been aimed at least to some extent at turning a profit.<p>Just wondering if there would be a place for someone like me at HackerSchool, or if I'd have to spend some time beefing up my github first to be considered.

I know who would be perfect for this, except she is still in college so she would need to drop a semester to do this instead.<p>Do you have any pitch concerning this?<p>I assume the summer one doesn't conflict with college, but at those times people usually go for internships.

I like this idea so much. Any plans to scale up the Hacker School? In particular, it would be awesome if there was more Hacker Schools in different locations.

Is Hacker school in some way affiliated/linked to YC ? The homepage design looks very close to ycombinator's.

If you are on the edge about applying, I heavily encourage you to apply!<p>HackerSchool changed my life drastically on multiple levels. The intellectually challenging atmosphere made me a better person all around, not just programming wise.

What level of programming knowledge do you prefer incoming students to have? I see a couple testimonials that mention people new to programming, but your code requests and FAQ lead me to believe that's a rare exception nowadays...

I'm currently a CS student and kind of like the idea of doing Hacker School for Summer 2013 or 2014, but could never afford the living expenses. Why do you only do scholarships for Women?

Tiny suggestion that may not be pragmatic: since you folks advocate for Open Source Software, it'd be nice if the default tool for conducting interviews didn't rely on a closed VOIP protocol (Skype).<p>Maybe consider adding an option for SIP addresses on the next round of applications?

Are you guys remaining at Etsy for the time being or is it moving?

I'd be interested in a similar program for Design – is there such a thing?

What's the average age?