Make School
Winter 2012InactiveMake School is redesigning college for the 21st century. Students…
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Explore the risks and possibilities with a prompt for ChatGPT, Claude, or your agent.
Make School is redesigning college for the 21st century. Students…
Explore the risks and possibilities with a prompt for ChatGPT, Claude, or your agent.
Make School combined practical software training, a bachelor's degree, and tuition paid from future earnings. In 2021, Dominican University took over its degree program. A continuation path remained, but some students did not finish. [1]
The useful lesson is about dependencies. Teaching someone to build software, financing their education, and granting a recognized degree are separate promises. Make School packaged all three together. A disruption in the institution threatened more than the next coding lesson.
Jeremy Rossmann and Ashutosh Desai started MakeGamesWithUs, a Winter 2012 YC company. The first product helped young developers turn programming knowledge into shipped iOS games. Students retained their code; the company supplied professional art, published games, and took a share of sales. Elemental Fury was an early example. This was a concrete bridge from tutorials to a finished product. [2]
By April 2014, the founders were adding a Summer Academy in Palo Alto, San Francisco, and New York. Teaching together offered something their online tutorials could not: peers and instructors who helped learners keep going. Desai explained the role of that community: “The main thing is the people.” [3]
The company's ambition then moved beyond a short course. Its December 2014 announcement described an alternative computer science degree. That change also changed the product's obligations: learners would need a durable institution and a credible credential, alongside useful projects.
The degree program combined intensive, project-based computer science instruction with Dominican's liberal arts coursework. In his 2019 YC interview, Rossmann described full-time faculty, coaching, a campus, and a workweek built around projects. Students assembled portfolios that recruiters could inspect. His product explanation was direct: “the curriculum is entirely project-based.” [11]
That portfolio was the visible output. Dominican's incubation partnership supported the degree while Make School sought independent accreditation. That destination remained unfinished. [1]
Rossmann described college-age learners and their parents choosing among universities and community colleges. They wanted a credential and a career path. A portfolio alone could not resolve concerns about qualification or financial exposure. [11]
The reviewed sources establish a small operating program and substantial growth ambitions, rather than a measured addressable market. Make School's 2019 funding announcement proposed serving thousands of students and preparing a New York campus. Those plans show intended scale; they do not establish enrollment, demand, or profitable expansion. [7]
Rossmann named Georgia Tech, Stanford, and community colleges as alternatives, alongside a discussion of Lambda School. Make School tried to combine a degree with focused career training. [11]
The financing category also carried independent risks. In 2024, the CFPB took action against BloomTech, formerly Lambda School, finding that its income-share agreements were loans and that it misrepresented costs and outcomes. That order concerns BloomTech; it does not decide the Make School case. It does undermine the idea that renaming tuition debt or adding a cap creates a simple compliance shortcut. [12]
Students could pay tuition upfront or through an income-share agreement. EdSurge reported $70,000 upfront tuition in April 2019, alongside an option requiring 20% of salary for 60 months after obtaining a job paying at least $60,000 annually. Terms changed across contracts and years; that example is not every student's agreement. [13]
Instruction had to be funded before those future payments arrived. Rossmann said the school borrowed to cover education costs. That created a financing dependency alongside the teaching operation. The public sources do not supply a complete balance sheet or enough evidence to allocate the eventual loss among campus costs, instruction, financing, and expansion. [11]
Funding and completed projects showed real activity, but student outcomes require careful denominators. In April 2019, Desai told EdSurge that three of 202 students enrolled since 2014 had completed both years. About half were still enrolled. Some had left for jobs. Dividing three by 202 therefore does not produce a completed-cohort graduation rate. The figure raised a legitimate retention question without establishing a 1.5% graduation rate. [13]
After closure, outcomes were less reassuring. Hechinger reported university figures showing that 57% of 167 students continued at Dominican and 40% earned its degree. The transfer helped some students finish; it did not fulfill that outcome for the whole group. This later measure describes a specific disrupted cohort, not every Make School alumnus. [10]
The institution stopped before its independent path was complete. Dominican cited startup-university costs and pandemic challenges. WSCUC scheduled another accreditation visit in June 2021. The independent transition remained unfinished; a verified denial is not established as the cause. A promised degree required continuity across organizations as well as functioning courses. [1] [8]
The financing promise became a dispute over obligations. The 2021 plaintiffs alleged concealed costs, unenforceable agreements, and collection despite a refund order. They said combined tuition and living-expense contracts could exceed $250,000. Those are allegations, not a verified typical bill or a court judgment. BPPE's separate 2018 closure letter records compliance and expressly says paying the fine was not an admission. The records describe different proceedings; neither should be used to erase the other. [9] [5]
A continuation plan did not guarantee completion. Dominican's initial announcement offered courses for 150 currently enrolled students. Later reporting used a 167-student summer cohort. Those counts should retain their dates and definitions. The subsequent degree outcomes show why a transfer announcement is only the start of evaluating a teach-out. [1] [10]
WSCUC's current directory lists Dominican's Applied Computer Science bachelor's programs as in teach-out. It does not establish a newly operating independent Make School. The surviving educational path and the closed startup should be evaluated separately. [14]