Who comes to RC

Who comes to RC? People who like programming and who want to spend a few months building things with other curious programmers. Participants commonly include:

• Seasoned programmers ready for a sabbatical
• EMs returning to writing code
• Big Tech workers excited to build things from scratch again
• Ex-founders who aren't sure what exactly they want to do next
• Recent grads hungry to keep growing
• Hobbyists who want more exposure to folks in industry
• Mid-career programmers looking to accelerate their careers
• Career switchers transitioning into tech from other fields
• Academics on leave (or fleeing the academy)

Recursers are a diverse group united only by our admissions criteria—they are smart, friendly, intellectually curious, self-directed, enjoy programming, and ready to work at the edges of their abilities.

At RC, you’ll get to work with and learn from kind and curious programmers of all ages and skill levels. RC is more diverse than most other tech spaces, and batches are generally between 30-45% women. You’ll meet people interested in functional programming, web development, programming languages, algorithmic art, operating systems, graphics, machine learning, scientific programming, and just about anything else you can do with a computer.

Testimonials

Many alums have written reflections on their time at RC: their goals, their projects, what they learned, the relationships they formed, and how attending a batch impacted their lives. Below, you’ll find a selection of those posts, linked in reverse chronological order.

Jake Feintzeig (SP1'24) — A Recurse Center Return Statement

Nic Crane (SP1'24) — Recurse Center Return Statement

Teresa Ibarra (SP1'24) — What I did in 12 weeks of Recurse Center

Jake Low (SP1'24) — Reflecting on my time at Recurse Center

Wil Chung (SP1'24) — Recurse Center Return Statement

Isak Falk (W1'23) — RC Retrospect

Jacob Vosmaer (W1'23) — My time at the Recurse Center

Reuben Son (W1'23) — Reflections on my time at Recurse Center

Stacey Tay (F2'23) — RC06: return "reflections on a batch";

Piya Gehi (F1'23) — RC07: return statement;

Henderson Reed Hummel (F1'23) — RC: in-person and remote

Sam Eisenhandler (W2'23) — Return Statement

Andrew Healey (W2'23) — My Time At The Recurse Center

Matt Ambrogi (W2'22) — Recurse Center Final Reflection

Maggie Zhou (W1'21, S'13) — Why return to RC?

Jake Donham (SP1'21) — Recurse Center Retro

Amanda Pettenati (S2'21, W2'21) — Recurse Center: Part 1 of 2 and Part 2 of 2

Fabrizzio Gonzales Zurita (W2'21) — Programming in community

Patrick Weaver (F1'20) — Participating in a Remote Batch at RC

Sara Farquharson (S1'21, m6'20) — Lessons learned from an RC mini-batch

Serena Peruzzo (SP2'20, SP1'15) — Reflections on Spring 2 '20 and beyond

Bryan Braun (m2'20, m5'19) — The best conference I ever attended

Jennifer Wang (m4'18) — My week as a hardware-leaning programmer at RC

Wylie Conlon (F2'18) — Reflecting on time at the Recurse Center

nico leffel (SP1'18, W1'17) — transitions & transformations

Julia Evans (W1'20, F'13) — How I spent my time at the Recurse Center

Alicja Raszkowska (W2'18, F1'16) — return programmer;

Rudi Chen (S1'17) — Never graduate! Reflections on Recurse Center

Lindsey Jacks (F1'15) — Reflections on Recurse Center

Pam Selle (m1'19, SP1'15) — Recurse Center: The return statement