The rooms, the program, and the 2027 waitlist
It is an apprenticeship-style program in Saint Paul, MN, for budding college students who attend school in Saint Paul and Minneapolis. It is supplemental to your studies, and it involves the rental of a room at 1597 Hartford Ave in the Highland Park neighborhood. Four rooms, one cohort, roughly ten hours a week on founding and superintelligence.
No. The Academy is a residence that offers room rentals alongside a supplemental program. It is not an accredited educational institution, it does not grant degrees or academic credit, it is not a registered apprenticeship, and it is not affiliated with or endorsed by any college or university. Your degree comes from the school you enrolled in; what you get here is a room, the mentorship, and the people.
Roughly ten hours each week, dedicated to the principles of both founding and superintelligence. Founding: finding a problem somebody will pay to solve, interviewing customers before you build, pricing, keeping a simple set of books, and selling. Superintelligence: what today’s frontier AI models do well and badly, writing context that holds up, building with agents and tools, checking output you cannot verify at a glance, and the economic and safety questions that come with systems that keep improving. All of it is supplemental to your studies at your own school.
About ten hours a week. Mentorship and teaching are individualized based on your school and work schedule, so there is no fixed lecture night to plan around. Your coursework at your own school comes first; tell us when finals land and we will work around it.
No. Bring an idea if you have one; borrow one of ours if you don’t. The AI side starts from what the tools can do today rather than from a programming background, though if you can already write code you will go further faster. Curiosity and the willingness to show unfinished work matter more than either.
Our pricing is set up to keep things simple, so we charge one flat rate with all utilities included, averaging about $1,800 per month. The exact amount is based on the size of your room, and there are four rooms to start with. Call Matt at 651-797-6900 or email [email protected] for the figure on a specific room. The amount you owe is always the amount written in the agreement you sign.
Everything but groceries. The flat rate covers your private furnished bedroom, use of the kitchen and bathroom on your side of the duplex, the laundry, and all standard utilities — electricity, water, sewer, trash, and 1 Gbps internet. Bed linens, towels, and kitchen equipment are provided, and the ten hours a week of teaching and mentorship are included at no extra charge. Residents buy their own groceries and their own toilet paper and paper towels.
Yes. The amount is stated in your room agreement, which is the controlling document. It is returned after you move out once the room has been looked over, with interest and within the timeline Minnesota law requires, less any charges for damage beyond normal wear and tear.
The first cohort stays the entire school year — approximately nine months — and moves in together at the start of it. This is not a short-term rental; the City of Saint Paul sets a 30-day minimum in any case, and the cohort is built around everyone being there from the first week to the last.
Yes — a bed, a desk, and closet space, plus the furnished common area and fully equipped kitchen on your side. Bring your own computer, your own lamp if you are particular about light, and whatever makes the room feel like yours.
Any post-secondary school, though we recommend one in the area. The University of St. Thomas, Macalester College, and the University of Minnesota are the ones nearest to us, with St. Catherine University and Saint Paul College also close by. The Academy is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, any of them.
You must be at least 18 years old, and enrolled at a post-secondary school. High school students are not eligible.
No, we do not run background or credit checks. We do talk with every applicant first, because the house only works if the people in it want to be there for the same reason.
The rooms are built around post-secondary students, and that is who we fill them with. If you are not enrolled but the program is why you are writing, say so and tell us what you are building — we would rather hear the whole story than guess. Rooms are offered on an equal opportunity basis to all qualified applicants.
Your room is private; the kitchen is shared. The building is a duplex, and the starting cohort of four is split two and two across its two sides. Each side has its own kitchen and its own bathroom, shared only with the one other resident on that side.
Four in the starting cohort — two rooms on each side of the duplex. It is a small house by design, not a dorm floor.
Quiet hours run from 9:00 PM to 7:00 AM each day, which doubles as study time. No smoking or vaping inside the building. The lease also rules out pets and subletting. Clean up after yourself in the shared kitchen. The rest is in the resident handbook.
There is a combo washer/dryer unit, included in your flat rate. Internet is 1 Gbps fiber — one of the fastest connections available in town, which matters when the whole house is working with large models at once.
Yes, within reason — this is your home, not a dorm with a sign-in desk. Give your housemate a heads-up before an overnight guest, keep quiet hours, and remember that the person on the other side of the wall may have an exam in the morning. A guest who is effectively moving in is a different conversation, and needs to be had with Matt first.
Not required, but strongly encouraged. It is inexpensive, and it covers your own laptop and belongings — which the house does not.
It varies depending on the college you are going to, but there are many, many transportation options in this part of town. Metro Transit routes run along Ford Parkway, Cleveland Avenue, and Snelling Avenue, the nearest stop is about a five-minute walk, and the A Line gives direct service north. St. Catherine University is close enough to bike to in decent weather; St. Thomas, Macalester, and the University of Minnesota are a bus ride or a short drive.
Free on-street parking in front of the house, and the block is generally uncrowded. No permit is needed.
The City of Saint Paul declares a snow emergency after significant snowfall, and the entire street has to be cleared on the posted schedule. Move your car when it is announced — the alternative is a tow and a ticket. Details at stpaul.gov/snow.
Highland Park is a settled southwest Saint Paul neighborhood — tree-lined streets, Tudor and Colonial homes, and a walkable commercial core at Ford Parkway and Cleveland Avenue with groceries, pharmacies, coffee shops, restaurants, banks, and the public library. The Mississippi River corridor is minutes away: Hidden Falls, Crosby Farm, and the trails along Mississippi River Boulevard. It is quiet, outdoorsy, and already full of students.
Our waitlist will be opening in early 2027 — please check back here. If you would rather not keep checking, join the interest list on the homepage and we will write to you the day it opens. Questions before then go to Matt at 651-797-6900 or [email protected].
A signed room agreement and the deposit. Proof that you are enrolled at or admitted to your school is helpful, and if a parent or guardian is signing with you, they will need to sign too. Sample lease terms are posted on the agreement page for review.
The cohort moves in together at the start of the school year. You get your key, a walk-through, the WiFi password, and an introduction to the three people you are spending the next nine months with. Trash and recycling bins are along the side of the house — black for garbage, blue for recycling, and recycling cannot be in bags. Everything else is in the resident handbook.
Matt, directly, at 651-797-6900. Tell him early rather than late — a small leak on Monday is cheaper than a ceiling on Friday.
The school year ends and the cohort moves out together. Take the trash to the bins, leave the room clean, hand back your key, and give a forwarding address so the deposit can be returned on the timeline Minnesota law sets. Residents who build something worth continuing do not stop being part of this when the lease ends.