Hello folks, My name is Anshuman and I am the co-founder of Scaler Academy and InterviewBit. I am a competitive coder myself, since 2006, been a part of Codeforces since 2009, when Beta rounds were happening. Been to ACM ICPC World Finals twice. Ex-Facebook where I was one of tech leads on the messages and messenger team.
I believe every company/program gets criticism and it should only be taken constructively. While most of the blogs here on Scaler Academy have been very far from truth, I never came to respond here because it’s hard to reason with anonymous fake accounts.
However, the past few days, these folks have started harassing and abusing current Scaler Academy students and mentors. They created a phishing website clone of ours to steal student credentials. They have bullied anyone who has tried to express their opinion if it was positive towards scaler. That, in my dictionary, is online bullying and very unethical. Attaching images of students and mentors who have come forward:
Students on Scaler have however focussed on positivity and I am really proud of that fact. https://i.imgur.com/2AtKGUX.png https://i.imgur.com/i38IANd.png
To everyone who is a neutral party here, I want to do an AMA to answer all questions you have. Hear the other side of the story. That being said, I will only respond to accounts that don’t appear to be trolls. For those of you who claim that they post anonymously, as they fear action against them, tell me one instance of action being taken. Striver has been speaking very openly against us. Ask him if he ever got a negative message from our end.
Background: Scaler Academy is a 6-9 month India-centric online tech accelerator program built out as a parallel university. Our first batch of students from April 2019 has graduated and a lot of them have benefitted from the course and had great outcomes (**2.2x bump in their previous and new salaries**__). Detailed report at https://www.scaler.com/blog/scaler-academy-first-batch-outcome/. [ This includes 3 selections at Google, 24 at Amazon with 4 students as interns, 12 at Samsung].
For those questioning referrals, while I still maintain that learning is super important and no one should join Academy for referrals alone, following are referral stats for April batch alone (April batch had 180 odd students):
- 35 referrals to Google post mock interviews.
- 101 referrals to Amazon for dev roles.
- 42 referrals to Directi group of companies
- 98 referrals to DE Shaw (Direct messages with DE Shaw recruiters)
- 10 referrals to a major investment bank listed on the website [Can't name here for legal reasons]
- 20 referrals to Codenation and no they weren’t sending them links of the test. This was pre-test, directly to interviews.
In addition to this, >250 referrals to premium startups in India including but not limited to CureFit, Udaan, Mindtickle, Razorpay, Dream11, etc. For those interested, please drop by our office in Bengaluru and we can confirm each number one by one to you. The only reason we haven’t posted these stats before is that we don’t want to be perceived as a referral course.
For those of you who believe any student was duped, following are real facts:
- Everyone was given one week of free trial classes before even asking to sign the ISA.
- Following are screenshots of polls which were sent to each student along with correct answers for the poll:
(We actually correct the answers if you choose the wrong answer). - Following is what their agreement stated:
and was made very clear in week Everyone had the option to pay 1.5L upfront.
The course has 3 payment options [ 1.5L (2000$ prepaid) / 3L (4000$ prepaid with guaranteed return if job outcomes are not met) / 15% of salary for 2 years else. The real cost of the course if 1L (1500$)+. There are high paid teachers (full time, not paid per hour), TAs, personal mentors, student success managers, career coaches, curriculum creators, tech platforms, tech teams, support teams, etc. Come to our office and check our books if you really need to see the breakdown. For those who are interested in learning, everyone is connected on Flock, and we welcome everyone to come and ask doubts and learn. The postpaid option is only a way for students who can’t afford education to take the course. Most edtech businesses charge money upfront, don’t they? I was not rich by any standards as a student and would never have been able to afford any prepaid course.
People who don’t attend classes and solve assignments are not referred. Suppose 2 students are studying our course, and 1 is fully dedicated, solving everything and being at top of the leaderboard, even if the other is a great person somewhere else, for us, who deserves better? And how can we ensure authenticity over other platforms? You can’t go to a university and say I will never attend your classes, but want to be a part of your placement season only. We don’t consider the course to be a referral course, and I’d advise every future student to come to Scaler to learn and build capabilities. If you already know everything, great. The course is not for you.
Open to take any questions here. All previous blogs are mostly either factually incorrect or have hidden facts knowingly.
If you really want to know about Scaler Academy, find a student on LinkedIn and message them. I am taking questions for the next 48 hours. Happy to answer any questions here. Some of the April students here: ankitp544,vivek0509, swapnil159, priyatam_sai, rushitjasani, Naman_Bhalla, cenation092
