ncurry18

So let me get this straight: you don't have "student loans" per say, but you charge the student 15% of their annual gross income for three years if their income is above 50k. If you earn the average amount for the program you offer, that would be 80k. So lets run those numbers.

Assuming 50k annually, that would be an annual payment of 7.5k and a total payout of 22.5k over the three years. For 80k, that would be 12k per year at 36k total. This is all for a one year, unaccredited certification (I assume it's not even a degree) that might get you an analytics job, although any analytics job posting I can find requires a bachelors degree.

Now, let's just compare this to an associates degree from a community college in NYC, where one of your schools is based. For The City University of New York, tuition for community college is 4.8k annually for in state, and 9.6k for out of state with two year totals of 9.6k and 19.2k respectively.

Now, let's look at interest rates for those community college tuitions. The current rate is 3.76%. Paid over your three year period, the respective in-state and out-of-state tuitions for a two year degree at CUNY would be $10.166.63 and $20,333.27 with monthly payments of $282.41 and $564.8. This is all regardless of total annual income after graduation. Realistically though, people are going to stretch that out longer, to probably 10 or so years. For ten years the respective totals and payments would be $11,532.60 @ $96.10/mo and $23,064.94 @ $192.21/mo.

Now, in this situation, it is clear that your school's option for someone who makes 50k annually is slightly cheaper, but for repective 50k and 80k earners, the monthly payments are $625 and $1,000. In NYC, income after tax for both 50k and 80k earners is roughly 37k and 54k for single 40k and 60k for married respectively, not counting for any contributions or deductions. In that case, the monthly take-home after paying your tuition would be 2,458.33 and 3,500 for single and 2,708.33 and 4,000 for married respectively. This may seem like a lot until you consider monthly bills, savings contributions, and other expenses.

Now for average cost of living per month in the USA, not including taxes. For this, I'm going to do single and married with no children and with 2 children. COL for a single, childless adult is $1,999/mo, COL of a single parent of two is $4,158/mo, COL for a married couple with no children is $2,870/mo, and COL for a married couple with 2 children is $4,866. In this scenario, both single and married people with two children or married people with no children would not have enough money after paying your high tuition costs to survive based on average cost of living in the United States.

All of those examples also don't account for the fact that pursuing an education through your organization does not guarantee getting a job in the first place. It also doesn't account for the fact that people who attend unaccredited and/or for-profit schools (like DeVry or ITT Tech) are much less likely to get a job than someone who attends an accredited school such as a major university, established community college, or vocational training center. In my opinion, it seems like the only thing you are doing here is robbing desperate people.

With all of this said, my question for you is this: Why should anyone with a brain between their ears even remotely consider attending your program?

EDIT: I did not account for deductions based on children, so the results for the single and married people with children may be slightly different. I did previously address this, and I would still hazard to guess that even if the people could afford to live after making these payments, there would not be much of a buffer that could be put toward savings, vacation, and other things.

EDIT 2: I know I was a little late to the party posting this, but I really wish I would get a response from the founder. I'd be very happy to be proven wrong, but the sad thing is that I know I'm not.

I do not lol

Exactly. I wouldn’t invest a dime in something without some idea of risk/reward. It’s not a terrible idea at its core, but a one page website and a pinky promise of returns some day is not good enough for an investment product. These folks are getting waaaaay ahead of themselves on this one.

Your “startup” sounds like a Ponzi scheme. Is this a Ponzi scheme?

The independent contractor part is for tax purposes. It is so the strippers themselves are responsible for their taxes rather than the club having to withhold and report for them.