u/Inevitable-Care-2390

Student Spotlight is back for week two, the corner of r/maestro where we hand the mic to one of you.

This week it's David (u/DeadOfTheDave), from our June 2026 AAS in AI Software Engineering cohort. David is 38, and he'll tell you himself that some days he feels like he is 50. Before Maestro, his resume read like a list of jobs that never fit: landscaping, pool cleaning, whatever manual labor was in front of him. The one that did fit was programming welding robots on a factory floor, all XYZ axes and coordinate work. Within six months he was second lead, ahead of guys who'd been there ten years. He had the brain for it. He just didn't have a name for what "it" was yet.

Then AI stopped being the science fiction he grew up on, and everything changed. He taught himself to program, went looking for a school that would give an older guy a shot, and found exactly one that said yes.

Two years of self-teaching later, he hasn't stopped building. He runs his own software company on the side, raises four kids, works a 40-hour week, and still says he's enthralled the entire time.

His message for anyone older, and hauling around their own pile of doubt:

"It's easier than you think it is. Not easy. Easier than you think. You have tools nobody had. Most of the wall you're looking at isn't there anymore."

We loved hearing David's story, and we think you will too. Head over to the community for the full interview, including the moment his factory job clicked into a software career, and the mission he's chasing now. 💛

If you know David, drop him some love in the comments.

Want to be featured next week? Fill out this form.

Hi r/maestro,

We have good news.

Maestro College has signed an official credit transfer partnership with Columbia College, a regionally accredited, Title IV eligible institution. Under this agreement, 100% of the credits you've earned at Maestro College transfer to Columbia College and count toward your degree there.

If you've been in this sub at all these past months, you know the credits question is the one that keeps coming back. Threads about which schools take them, how many, what happens to the term you're in right now. This agreement settles that for one school completely.

What this means for you

This isn't a requirement, and it isn't us telling you to leave. It's an option, and it's yours to use starting today or later.

If you choose to stay at Maestro College, nothing changes. The college continues to operate as usual. We are appealing COE's accreditation decision through the standard process, and we have submitted a formal teach-out plan to COE that would allow current students to complete their degrees through August 2027. That plan is currently awaiting COE's approval. And as always, your tuition at Maestro is fully covered: you pay nothing out of pocket for your studies.

If you choose to transfer to Columbia College, your tuition there will be 15% below Columbia's standard rate as part of this agreement. We encourage you to review their tuition and financial aid options before deciding.

How to transfer

Everything you need is in the dedicated article in the Student Information Center, including the transfer request form. Once you submit it, Columbia College's admissions team reaches out directly to walk you through the next steps. We've also set up a dedicated team on our side, in a new section under Student Services, for anything transfer related.

One last thing

The way this community has shown up over the past months hasn't gone unnoticed. People answering each other's questions, sharing what they've found, keeping each other going through a stretch that's been genuinely hard. That matters, and we're grateful for it.

We'll keep you updated as things develop. Drop your questions here.

The past few weeks have been busy in here. A lot of questions, a lot of threads, a lot of people refreshing for news. It's an uncertain stretch and we're not going to pretend otherwise.

But the part that stuck with us wasn't the news cycle. It was you.

Students answering other students at 1am. Someone typing up what worked for them so the next person doesn't go in blind. Twenty replies under "I almost quit this week, but I didn’t."

So we want to make more room for that.

Starting next week, every Monday we'll share one student's story in the sub.

Could be your life story, or the thing you almost quit over and what got you back up. What a normal week looks like when you're studying around a job, or kids, or both.

You don't need a tidy ending. The middle-of-it ones tend to land hardest.

Want to be featured? Fill out this form.

Bonus: if someone here has helped you, tag them below. The ones doing the most usually won't raise their own hand.

We're genuinely looking forward to reading them.

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Abigail