Summer and fall 2014 applications are open

Applications for both the summer 2014 and fall 2014 batches of Hacker School are now open. Batches are filled on a rolling basis and applications close either two weeks before the batch begins or when the batch fills up,¹ whichever happens first, so the earlier you apply, the better. If we admit you to Hacker School but the batch you apply to is already full, you’ll have the option of deferring to a later batch. Before applying, we strongly encourage you to read our about page, FAQ and User’s Manual.

This is the first time we’ve opened applications for multiple batches at once. Traditionally, we’ve opened applications two to three months before each batch starts. Opening applications for the fall 2014 batch (and every subsequent batch) at least six months ahead of time and doing interviews on a rolling basis will give people who need more than a few months of heads-up the chance to do Hacker School. Knowing the size of future batches further in advance gives us more certainty and allows us to plan for upcoming batches more effectively.

Because we’ve changed to rolling admissions, we no longer have fixed application deadlines. While it’s better to apply earlier, don’t stress too much about delaying for a few days, especially if we’ve recently opened applications for the batch you’re applying to. We don’t believe the application should take long to finish, but it’s better to submit a good quality application than a rushed one.

Good Hacker School applications are well written. Being able to write well isn’t an official qualification for Hacker School, but reality has made it a de facto one. As we get more applications, we have less time to read each one. This means that if you’d make an awesome Hacker Schooler but it doesn’t come across in your application, there’s a good chance that we’ll miss you. Writing clearly will help us see that you’re a friendly, self-directed, intellectually curious and rigorous person. You can find out more about what we look for in Hacker Schoolers in an older blog post.

Hacker School is a place to become a dramatically better programmer, whether you’ve been programming for 20 years or just for a few months. If the idea of spending three months with like minded people building an OS kernel, a pattern matching library, a BitTorrent client, a game engine, or anything else that strikes your fancy sounds exciting, Hacker School is for you. If you don’t know what any of those things are, don’t worry. Hacker School is for you too.

At Hacker School, we value intrinsic motivation and self-direction. Hacker School is free for everyone. The environment is supportive, gender-balanced, and intellectual. If hearing this gets you excited, we’d love to have you apply.

1. Our main constraint is physical space. If we accept enough people into a future batch, we will move to a larger location.↩