Income Share Agreements for IT Bootcamps

What is this page about?

An explanation of how income share agreements (ISAs) work for IT bootcamps: no upfront tuition in exchange for paying a percentage of income (typically 10-17%) for 24-48 months once earning above a threshold, with total repayment usually capped at 1.5x-2x tuition. It works through the ISA math at different salary levels, the red flags to watch, how ISAs compare with a personal loan, the questions to ask before signing, and alternatives, stressing the total cost depends entirely on your post-graduation salary and the specific terms.

What has been corrected on this page?

Every accepted correction to this page is recorded with the exact change, so readers can see how the page improved over time.

1. 11 July 2026 · corrected by Emir Baycan

   2 flagged claims verified: quotes attributed to Robert Farrington (The College Investor) and Preston Cooper (education finance researcher) had no locatable source for these specific statements and were de-attributed to plain prose.

   Before

   "ISAs look very different to a student imagining a $55,000 starting salary versus one who lands a $95,000 cloud engineering role. Run the math at multiple salary scenarios before signing. The cap is your ceiling; make sure it is a number you can live with as your worst case." -- Robert Farrington, founder of The College Investor and personal finance educator "The single most important question for any ISA is: if I am very successful and earn $100,000 within two years of graduation, how much will I have paid? If that number is significantly more than the sticker tuition, you are being charged a success tax that you may not be comfortable with." -- Preston Cooper, education finance researcher

   After

   ISAs look very different to a student imagining a $55,000 starting salary versus one who lands a $95,000 cloud engineering role. Run the math at multiple salary scenarios before signing. The cap is your ceiling; make sure it is a number you can live with as your worst case. (de-attributed to plain prose) The single most important question for any ISA is: if you are very successful and earn $100,000 within two years of graduation, how much will you have paid? If that number is significantly more than the sticker tuition, you are being charged a success tax that you may not be comfortable with. (de-attributed to plain prose)

   Why: De-attributed 2 quotes credited to Robert Farrington (The College Investor) and Preston Cooper (education finance researcher) to plain prose, since no locatable source exists for either specific statement. Note: legitimate reference-list citations to both authors' actual published work elsewhere in the article were left untouched.

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