An additional $6 million from the state, effectively from taxpayers, helped cover the cost of living checks. The agreement between Apple and Michigan State requires the university to offer stipends “to ensure equal opportunities.”
Several graduates say they received about $800 to $1,500 a month, and while Fernandez found it insufficient, some viewed the money as transformative. “It helped me get out of debt, get my first car, and move out of my parents’,” says Tyson Walker II, who acknowledges that making coding “his main thing” remains a distant dream.
Some current students are receiving less financial support than they expected, which Shukwit attributed to an unspecified new Michigan rule that he claims restricted access to state funding.
A current second-year student in their twenties, who declined to be named out of fear of retaliation, says the stipend for second-year students was cut to $800 from $1,500, amounting to about $9 an hour and forcing them to hold three side jobs. In addition, they say free parking passes, sick days, remote working, and collaboration spaces were also limited. “It makes it hard to just focus on school,” they say.
But they allege the biggest challenge is that many current second-year projects are for small businesses that are unclear about their goals for an app and seem unlikely to hire the students when they finish. “I was feeling hopeful about moving into the tech world, and it just feels like that isn’t really going to be possible because I am not getting the experience,” the student says. “It creates a big uncertainty for us.”
By the time Fernandez graduated, she had been inspired: Coding was no longer “rocket science” to her. The politics undergrad was eager to break into software development, but she recognized that she wasn’t the best coder.
Her team’s final project, which was a drawing app, wasn’t functional and never made it onto the App Store. Upon leaving, Fernandez wanted to develop a diet tracking app. She also hoped to take on freelance projects. None of it materialized. She never felt equipped and secure enough to fully abandon her dream of going to law school.
Fernandez wishes everyone could attend for two years, which is the case at some academies. “It was only halfway through that I started understanding concepts,” she says.
Apple’s Shukwit says he loves that students want more, and adjustments are possible. The academy reworks its curriculum every few weeks. For example, when students wanted to develop apps for Apple Vision Pro headsets and Apple TV boxes, the academy added relevant workshops.
More recently, students have been using AI to auto-generate code, but they must be able to explain it all. AI can’t be a shortcut to avoid learning, Shukwit says. Alumni can also access virtual lessons on generative AI.
Four years in, the academy has made a small dent in a big problem. The tech industry still has a massive lack of diversity and, in some cases, it has become less transparent about it. Apple’s own data shows that its US tech workforce went from 6 percent Black before the Detroit academy opened to about 3 percent this year.
For some alums, their experiences at the academy and their unfulfilled dreams are constantly at their fingertips. “I use the MacBook all the time,” Fernandez says.