Ruby Mendicant University is now accepting open submissions for the 2011/T1 Entrance Exam, which covers placement for the January, February and March core courses, as well as some waitlist positions that guarantee placement in the 2011/T2 sessions if a spot doesn't open up earlier.

Why Join RMU?

If you join RMU, you'll go through an intense three week online training course with me, in which you work on real problems and contribute to open source.  I maintain extensive office hours three days a week and will discuss pretty much anything related to software development during those times.  While RMU is a demanding, participants-only program, the general student body is now up to around 100 people, all of which are dedicated to improving their craft and helping their fellow students do the same.

The sessions themselves are deliberately kept very small.  We don't expect to run with more than 15 students per course throughout 2011.  Those who successfully complete the course gain alumni status, which opens up the doors to taking a number of additional courses we're putting together, and also gives them access to an alumni network which will become a great resource over time.

If you are able to commit to spending at least 10-15 hours a week working through problems for your 3 week core course, and want to be part of a new and exciting grassroots movement to improve technical education, you should definitely take the RMU exam.

The Entrance Exam

RMU is 100% based on problem solving, and that's shown by the way we do entrance exams.  You can download the exam package to get a feel for what is required.  In it, you'll find a PDF with instructions and a CSV data file you'll need to work with.  The PDF should explain everything you need to know about the problem, but feel free to ask questions as they come up, either here in the comments or in the #rmu-public channel on irc.freenode.net.

Submission Instructions

When you have completed your exam, you should create a private gist and add to it any Ruby code you wrote for the exam, and the output
text files you generated.

Once you have created your gist, you can submit your exam by filling out this form in the RMU web application:

http://university.rubymendicant.com/exams/9bb368b7c9d7cfd440170fbd0cceeab4a0bc699a

You can use the account you create to monitor your submission status. If accepted, it will become your permanent RMU account.  Please be sure to use an email address that you wish to use with google groups and applications in the future.

IMPORTANT NOTE: DO NOT CREATE A PUBLIC GIST.  YOU WILL BE DISQUALIFIED IF YOU DO THAT!

Deadlines

Seats in RMU are provided on a first-come first-serve basis to those who pass their exam, so there is an incentive to submitting early.
The exams may be submitted any time between now and the end of 10/19 by UTC time.  I will close submissions at that time, or when all positions are filled, whichever comes first.  At the time of writing, we still have roughly 27 slots available, but over 80 people received the exam early because they pre-registed, so act fast!