[gravypod]

Why did they move to such an expensive area? If their goal is to provide services and help everyone why not build your university in an area like Detroit?

No one who is really interested won't go because of the location and it makes rent really cheap.

Hell, you could also have the Detroit government chip in and give you a great deal on land. What is bad for an economy about bringing some of our nations smartest programmers to a single location?

I'd love this if I could afford to go to it.

[stillworks]

So...start a coding school in a place in the world where you are likely to find a very dense population of people who already know how to write code ?

[gravypod]

If you want to go to teach people how to program, then going some place where most people already know how to program lowers your prospective client base.

If you go to some place that is currently economically unstable, you can have a huge client base as many people there will want to improve themselves.

[pierre]

If you can't afford to live there they have a free dorm. There is only 164 rooms, don't know how they will distribute them.

[gravypod]

That is something very much worth noting. But there is another problem. How restrictive are the dorms?

In my school's I can't conduct most of my hobbies. They go so far as to ban soldering irons and toaster ovens (what I use for reflow) as they are a source of fires.

[nappybrainiac]

San Francisco is unmatched when it comes to accessing mentors who have been entrenched in technology.

I'm a student at Holberton School, which is project based (like Ecole 42) and community driven. For example, one of our mentors in the Deep Learning track is none other than Louis Monier who founded Alta Vista.

[schmoll]

I hear they're not in San Francisco, but in Fremont, CA, which is somewhere around the Bay, but not technically in the Silicon Valley (it's about an hour away of public transportation from the interesting places), which explains why it's probably more affordable over there.

[j_h_s]

To be honest most of the bay area is at best only slightly more affordable than San Francisco. According to trulia, median rent in Fremont is about $3200 (http://www.trulia.com/real_estate/Fremont-California/market-...), compared to $4500 in San Francisco (http://www.trulia.com/real_estate/San_Francisco-California/). Factor in the expense of a car, which is necessary in Fremont but not San Francisco, and the prices look significantly more balanced.

In this case, it seems like it would have been a better choice to build the school in San Francisco proper, than its outskirts. The marginal gains in affordability aren't worth sacrificing proximity to the tech industry.

[schmoll]

Hm, fair point. So, basically same insane budget, but very much away from all of the interesting tech scene; what's not to like? ;)

[fbucher]

If you have no money and from far away you can apply and ask for the dorm. They are Free also. Only expense will be the food and what you do outside the School.