Ms. Ittycheria and Mr. Sarhan.

Want to spend two years working full-time at Thrillist, Learnvest or Birchbox for free? If Enstitute's campaign on Indiegogo is successful, a group of 18- to 24-year-olds will be heading to New York City for a two-year unpaid apprenticeship at a startup, with living costs covered.

Higher education is a ripoff that leaves graduates indebted and often jobless, Enstitute says, in contrast to its planned "two-year, full time experiential learning program," which places students at startups in New York where they shadow a founder for a year and then specialize in one area such as sales or product design for the second year.

Two years with no pay? Sounded fishy to us, especially in the startup scene where companies fail fast, fail hard, and are always trying to save money. The list of startups participating is.... well, okay, it's solid, although no Foursquare, Tumblr or Etsy. There are a few founders from young TechStars companies as well as some names we'd never run into before, like Jason Beckerman of Unified, a social advertising startup.

The U.S. Department of Labor runs a Registered Apprenticeship program, but those gigs must pay a "competitive wage." By contrast, internships may be unpaid, but they must meet all of six federal criteria, including that "the training is for the benefit of the intern" and "employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern; and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded." The internship must also comply with five additional criteria under New York state labor laws, including that "the training is general, and qualifies trainees or students to work in any similar business."

"Our students don't work for free," cofounder Kane Sarhan wrote in an email to Betabeat. "We cover [their] housing, food, and transportation costs for the entire 2 years of the program and provide a stipend to them to spend of personal costs. Our model is very similar to what happens through Americorps programs across the country already and our legal team has worked hard to make sure we comply with all labor laws."

The stipend, he said, will depend on how much funding is raised. Enstitute is in its final rounds of interviews now, with 100 applicants left in the pool.

Mr. Sarhan was in Americorps himself, and found himself apprenticed to LocalResponse's Nihal Mehta. His cofounder, Shaila Ittycheria, is a former Microsoft employee who helped her friends launch Birchbox for free (what, no equity?) and met Mr. Sarhan while working at LocalResponse.

Enstitute has raised $12,250 of its $50,000 funding goal, and has signed up 31 founders including Wiley Cerilli of SinglePlatform, which was just acquired by Constant Contact; Philip James of Lot18, which recently had to cut 11 employees and two verticals after overexpanding; and Matt Shampine, who is referred to by Enstitute as the founder of Onepager, although he transitioned out of Onepager a few months ago. Life as a startup sure moves fast.

There's a lot to learn (San Diego Air and Space Museum archive photo | flickr.com)

MEET. Ten dollars gets you into the NY Tech Meetup at NYU this evening. The meetup will take place at the Skirball Center For The Performing Arts at 566 LaGuardia Place where NYC startups will demo all the cool things they're doing.

BestVendor, CartoDB, Everything Butt Art,Lenddo, MVF, MyMatchmaker, Scroll Kit, Paperlex and Umami will all be showing off their startup skills.

GIRL POWER. DailyWorth, an online resource for women in business with backing from the likes of Joanne Wilson is launching a new financial newsletter devoted to female entrepreneurs: CreateWorth. Lady entrepreneurs who sign up will recieve a "bi-weekly forum" detailing personal experiences from DailyWorth founder Amanda Steinberg, and encouragement and tips to "master business-building fundamentals."

TECH RUSH. Reuters TV hits up ZocDoc, HiiDef and LivePerson in a new video for their tech show, Tech Tonic.

GET EDUCATED. Startups Unplugged, a multi-part course taught by Paul Orlando begins in the Lower East Side this evening. The course will focus on "customer development methodology" and is best suited for both business and technical "early startup people." The first part of the $95 four-part course will run from 7-8:30 p.m. at Skillshare HQ, 407 Broome St, 5A. Only a handful of spots are left so hurry!

SHOWOFF. Tomorrow is the NJIT Startupalooza and this year the event is free to attend and only $20 to exhibit. The event touts itself as an excellent opportunity to pitch to investors. Six selected startups will have the opportunity to present to the entire investment panel and one winner will be chosen. The event begins at 3 p.m. on Thursday at 154 Summit St. Newark, NJ 07102.

PRE-GAME. #Techdrinkup is hosting a massive pre-party for Social Media Week at venues all over the city. Only tech's "brightest and savviest people" will be allowed. If this applies to you, RSVP here.

DRINK AT YOUR NEW JOB. SEO giant Conductor is hiring. And not just for tech positions. And they have a kegerator?