Secure your future as a software engineer
with Launch School’s
Deferred Payment Program

The courses and curriculum are exactly the same in Core and Capstone. You are required to take the same courses, pass the same assessments, and complete the same assignments; there are no special provisions for DPP participants. Our staff won't treat DPP participants differently, and in many cases, may not even be aware that you are a DPP participant.
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When you progress through Core, you accrue $299/month, rounded up. For example, if it took you 7.2 months to get through Core, we will count that as 8 months. Your first month is on us, so in the 7.2 month example, your Core Curriculum deferred cost would be: 7 x $299 = $2,093.

Only when you enter Capstone do you sign our Income Share Agreement, which is 18% percent of your first year's base salary or $18,000, whichever is higher (we don't take from bonuses, raises, side income, etc). The maximum cost across Core and Capstone is $25,000, all deferred until you start collecting paychecks.

However, the Deferred Payment Program differs in a few ways from the standard Launch School program:

• Admittance into DPP implies admittance into Capstone. In our standard program, we do not make Capstone admissions decisions until students are close to finishing Core. Because of the pre-acceptance into Capstone, admissions into DPP is strict.
• You will have to complete the Core Curriculum within 24 months. We will make special provisions for pregnancies, bereavement, and other documented hardships on a case by case basis.
• You must schedule check-ins every 3 months with Launch School staff during participation in Core Curriculum. This is to ensure the program is a good fit for you and you don’t accrue unnecessary fees if it’s not a good fit.
• You will accrue $299 / month for each month you are enrolled in Core Curriculum, rounded up. Your first month is on us.
• All of your fees are deferred until you secure a technical position with a salary greater than or equal to $60,000 following the completion of Capstone.
• If you do not secure a technical position with a salary greater than or equal to $60,000 after 12 months of full time career search following the completion of Capstone, we cover all of your fees.

You might have had some "what if" questions come up as you read the above bullet points. Keep reading this FAQ.

There is a huge difference and the biggest is that we designed our DPP program from the ground-up with two ideas in mind:

1. We are 100% committed to Mastery-based Learning and the DPP has to revolve around that.
2. We wanted our DPP program to be far more student-centric.

In summary our DPP has:

• Lower switching cost, so students can leave without major consequence
• We'll only look at first-year base salary, ignoring bonuses, raises, and other supplementary income
• Shorten the ISA term to only 12 months

We feel strongly that these terms are, by far, the best and most student-friendly in the world.

The DPP includes both Core and Capstone. If you're admitted into DPP, it is implied that you are also admitted into Capstone. However, Capstone isn't mandatory; you are allowed to leave DPP at any time, during or after finishing Core with or without participating in Capstone.

• If you leave during the free Prep Courses, then you owe us nothing.
• If you leave during or after Core, but before Capstone, then you just owe the accrued monthly fee. We will work with you on a payment plan to pay back the deferred fee.
• If you leave during Capstone, the fee will be pro-rated as specified in the Income Share Agreement for Capstone.

One major benefit in the way that we've structured DPP is allowing students to leave anytime before Capstone without major consequence. Most other programs force an ISA on you from the start, preventing you from joining any other ISA training program and staking a claim on your future earnings even if you were there only a couple of months. We won't do that to students. Before Capstone, DPP participants can leave at any time without any obligation about your future earnings; you are thus free to join a different ISA training program outside of Launch School.

We allow this because we believe in a more student-centric learning process.

We think the DPP can be an exceptionally beneficial and life-changing program for many, but there are legitimate risks that you should carefully think through. Unlike other marketing-driven bootcamps, we want you to come into Launch School with clarity and 100% understanding of the risks involved. We will try to articulate some of them below.

• Opportunity cost. Launch School’s pedagogy may not be the best way for you to learn or the best fit for you. It’s possible that another learning format or program would be better for you.
• Our program is very rigorous. The reason we see such high salaries from our graduates is because we ask a lot of our students. Learning how to learn is the meta-skill that you will have to develop to be successful at Launch School, and it’s one of the reasons why our students both respect and love what we do. But, that rigor can be difficult if you’re not used to it. In MBL, you are afforded the time to figure out how to study and how to learn and what works best for you. That’s really the secret and key, but it also means you have to be willing to take time to figure that out.
• There’s a real risk that we may not be a good fit for each other. We’ve been doing this long enough to realize that it’s impossible to be everything to everyone. If you want to be the best, you have to pick something to focus on. We picked MBL and long-term perspective as our guiding principles. Sometimes, this doesn’t fit with those who come to us. That’s ok. The hard part is that we don’t know anything about you, so we don’t know — and maybe you yourself don’t even know — if this will work. There’s a couple of things here that we did to decrease this risk:
  •    We put a lot into our prep courses. If you can’t complete our free prep courses, then we are definitely not a fit.
  •    We lower the switching cost. We don’t lock you into a demanding ISA from the outset and force you to learn with us when it’s obviously not working. If it’s not working out, just leave Launch School and pay us for the time you participated in the Core Curriculum.
  
• There’s a risk that you don’t get a job after Capstone; however, to date, 100% of Capstone graduates secured software engineering jobs within 180 days. So we believe it’s a fair bet to make that you will secure one within 12 months.
• Finally, associated with the previous risk, if you participate in Capstone, which is ISA bound, then you will not be able to participate in another ISA training program. All ISA training programs are mutually exclusive, because there cannot be more than one stakeholder on your future salary. This is a risk that's often not articulated and you should think carefully about which one ISA training program you will engage with. We think you should try us first, because we do not lock you into an ISA from the start. Our ISA only kicks in during Capstone.

We take on the cost of providing education and learning first and then receiving payment much later. We take on the risk of your defaulting, or running away, or abusing us. By not collecting payment first, we take on a lot of risks.

But we’ve been doing this since 2012 and we know that when we find the right type of student, our mastery-centered curriculum can unlock incredible results. We’re willing to take on this risk to see if there’s a fit and if we can achieve great results together.

Sure! Let's go over a few example potential outcomes and analyze the fees.

Example 1

First, the simplest case is the expected path, where you complete Core and Capstone successfully and find a job. Example: 8 months to go through Core and post-Capstone salary of $115,000, which is right about our average.

In the above scenario, you could make $950/mo payments for 24 months after you start collecting paychecks. Prior to that, you pay nothing -- it's all deferred.

Example 2

Next, let's say you finished Capstone and got a job but this time with a salary lower than $100,000 (we'll keep Core at 8 months, like Example 1). Remember that we have a minimum Capstone fee of $18,000.

In this example, you could pay off the total with a monthly fee of $837/mo for 24 months. We're confident that given our Capstone averages, you will be able to cover this amount with comfort. Unlike other ISA programs, we aren't hoping that you hit our minimum threshold by way of other income or bonuses. One reason we aim high at Launch School is that if we don't hit our target, our back-up option is still pretty good.

Example 3

Finally, let's suppose you land a job before you start Capstone. You are free to leave Core at any time and all you have to do is pay us back the accrued fees. Suppose you leave the Core Curriculum after 8.3 months. We'd round up, but the first month is free, so we'd consider it 8 months.

We'd come up with a payment plan upon departure, so we could do something like $200/month for 12 months.

Note that of all the examples, the most damaging for the student is the last scenario, where it's possible that you incur accrued fees and yet not make much progress in the Core Curriculum. This is a real risk and it's why we will meet with you frequently to check-in. If we notice that you're not making expected progress, we will stop or pause your participation in DPP so you don't waste money. In the case where we have to pause or stop, we will work with you on a reasonable payment plan for the accrued fees. (This doesn't count special situations like pregnancy or bereavement, etc; we will work with you through those types of issues).

We’ve been at the intersection of education and software engineering since 2012. We’ve spent a lot of time thinking about an effective learning curriculum that puts students first, and that gets students results. At each turn, we’ve taken great care to think through the edge cases and conflicts of interest, of which there are a lot. There are a lot of good people doing their best and operating in good faith.

But there are also a few operators who are not and who are causing tremendous harm to individuals. We work a lot with students, and one thing we’re struck by is what sacrifice they — you — make. People have to sacrifice time with their toddlers, or quit their jobs, or ask their spouse to support them, or work double shifts, etc. Most people looking to transition to programming are vulnerable in some way.

We believe we can build a learning institution that is student-centered, as opposed to investor-centered. If we can’t help you, we will let you know at the beginning. If we aren’t a good fit, we want you to leave asap, so you don’t waste any more time or money here. We are not going to tell you there’s no risk because there’s absolutely no such thing as no risk. We do not want to trick you into our program by saying there’s “no risk”. Nor will our ISA trap you for, say, 5 years. Our business model relies on your success, not on misdirection and entrapment.

Launch School may not be helpful to your exact situation.

We want you to fully understand all the pros and cons of what Launch School is about and come with your eyes wide open. And we want to be clear: we know for a fact that we aren’t for everyone. Take the prep course to find out if our program is a fit for you.

The DPP implies admissions into Capstone, but DPP participants must still earn their place in Capstone per the normal standards by performing satisfactorily throughout the Core Curriculum. As a DPP participant, you are required to schedule check-ins with Launch School staff every 3 months. During these check-ins, we will review your progress and status for Capstone. You will not be unpleasantly surprised at the very end; we will communicate your Capstone status throughout Core.

You can work full-time or part-time through the Core Curriculum, however, you must be willing to work on Capstone and a career search full-time until you secure a technical position with a salary greater than or equal to $60,000.

You must commit to a full-time career search following the completion of Capstone for up to 12 months; full-time means 40 hours per week. To date, 100% of Capstone graduates secure software engineering jobs within 180 days.

The idea is that we truly believe our Core Curriculum + Capstone can get you to an amazing salary at a much lower cost than alternative programs, so we’re willing to take a gamble. Please do not try to game the system or do anything odd. We are trying hard to build something of value at a price point that's fair without being predatory or misleading. Help us with that goal.

Yes, absolutely. We will work with you to come up with a payment schedule that works for you. For example, if it took you 9 months to finish Core and you received a $100,000 job offer after Capstone, your fee to us would be 8 x $299 = $2,392 + $18,000 = $20,392. We could do a payment schedule of $850/month for 24 months (no interest). This is regardless if you get a year-end bonus or a second-year raise or make side income; we don't care about any of that -- only your first year base salary.

Borrowing to attend college is far more expensive. If you attend college even for a few months and quit, you’ll still be on the hook for the full tuition for the entire semester. At Launch School, if you leave after a few months, the cost is very minimal if you find that this isn’t a good fit.

Loans that you take out for college are extremely bank-friendly in that they can never be dealt with through bankruptcy or other means. This makes lenders very willing to lend out lots of money to students who need to pay higher and higher tuition fees. Student loan lenders don’t care at what institutions student-borrowers are spending their tuition dollars and also don’t care for what results. In contrast, our loans are subject to normal bankruptcy regulations, and so we must be far more scrupulous about how much we lend and to what end. We are lending you money because we can see that you can easily pay us back, not because there is some government regulation protecting the loan.

The reason we are confident in your ability to pay us back is our belief in the opportunities that will result when we combine your work ethic with our curriculum and pedagogy.

You can read more about both, and many other interesting facts about our school, on the rest of this website.

• Core Curriculum
• Capstone

Unfortunately, at this time, we can only take US Citizens or Permanent Residents.
We don’t currently accept non-US students because:

• It’s difficult for us to legally enforce the contract outside of the US. This would expose us to tremendous risk.
• We’re uncertain if you can get a $60k job outside of the United States, which would prevent us from making any guarantees about potential results you could expect.

Yes! Current paying Launch School students are welcome to apply for the DPP program. All DPP qualifying criteria still need to be fulfilled. The only difference is that we will use any assessments you've already taken as consideration for Step 3 of the DPP application process (the technical assessment step). If you are a current Launch School student who hasn't yet taken any assessments, we will consider you the same as a brand new DPP applicant and you'll have to undergo the normal DPP admissions process. One difference to note, however, is that for current students to participate in DPP, there will be no free month (since you wouldn't need to try out Launch School).

Once admitted, your monthly payments will start to defer and accrue at $299/month immediately (there's no free month). You do not have to start over and can continue from where you left off (DPP doesn't affect the curriculum at all).

Yes! The DPP is an opportunity for us to expand those who we can serve, specially those who normally wouldn't be able to pay $199/mo for our Core Curriculum. If you are in DPP but change your mind and want to move over to the standard pre-paying $199/mo plan to go through Core Curriculum, you can definitely do that. There are a couple of stipulations:

• We will need to come up with a payment plan for the amount that has accrued from DPP. For example, suppose you decide to switch out of DPP after 2.5 months. We would round up to 3 months in DPP, but your first month is free, so we'd count it as 2 months total. This means that we'd have to start collecting some amount of $598 immediately, though we could work out a reasonable plan.
• If you wanted to switch back into DPP, you would have to apply again per the normal DPP application process.

Yes! Because our standard program asks that students pre-pay, we do not have strict admissions criteria. Of course, we still want participants to know the material, but the risk to Launch School is much lower because students are pre-paying. Students are welcome to take our standard program by pre-paying $199/mo even if they're not accepted into DPP.

We've been teaching people to code since 2012 and we are one of the oldest "learn to code" training programs around. Read more about our story here: From Bootcamp to Mastery: A Five Year Journey

On top of that, we have had many successful graduate stories and our salaries are the highest in the industry. See our Results & Outcomes page for more information.

We're also very transparent about how we achieve these results -- check out our Medium Publication as well as our Podcast.

Finally, if you have any more doubts or questions, you can always reach out to us at hello@launchschool.com.

If you're interested in DPP, scroll up to fill out the interest form (or click the Next Steps button on the right). If you're ready to apply, you can fill out the Initial Application (scroll up again). But whether you participate in DPP or the standard Launch School program, our free Prep courses are required. They are also a good testing ground for you to see if we're even a fit at all, without paying anything. The Prep courses are available for free once you sign up and log in.

If you have any further questions or comments, please email hello@launchschool.com. We are happy to keep the conversation going and to answer any other questions or concerns you may have.