App Academy Reviews
Page 15
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Emarson Serrano
Very Fast/Very Tough/ Probably Worth it
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This program is difficult. You have to set yourself up to succeed. You should have good work ethic, you basically have to clear your calendar for 3 months dedicated to it (including holidays).The tests are a mixed bag. They can be very hard and feel somewhat contrieved. But in all honesty if you study for them you can not help but learn the material.
I was doubtful at first about pair programming. It seemed to me just a way to offload the workload of teaching a student by having other students teach each other. I wondered how much can I learn off someone who doesn't know any more than me? Or how useful can I be to someone else when I have no idea what is going on? But what actually happens is both of you work through a problem together. There are times when know/understand something better and are forced to explain that. That process of having to explain your though process is invaluable. It cements your undersand and proves that you know what you are talking about.
All in all it was a good experience. For best results take it seriously and study before hand. Its insanely fast paced. I doubt how sucessful you can be if you come in to it blind.
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Jesus Montano
Not an easy program, but definitely worth it.
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App Academy is not an easy program. That being said, you will be able to learn an incredible amount in a limited amount of time. The program will definitely push you to your limits, so you have to be ready to put in the work. While challenging, App Academy has also been an incredibly fulfilling program. Although you will feel behind at times and like you have no clue what is going on, that is ultimately part of the process. Assuming that you put in the work that is required, there is no reason you can't be successful in completing the program.
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Phil
An incredibly rewarding experience with plenty of room for improvement
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PROS:
Exceptional classmates --> First and foremost, I have to recognize how lucky I was to have such an amazing cohort. The degree of talent in the room, the relentless work ethic, the shared positivity, and the fun! I'm very thankful for the lasting connections I've forged throughout the curriculum.Rewarding projects --> I dare say you'll work harder than you've ever worked in your life when approaching your solo / group full-stack projects in the back-half of the curriculum. If you take the projects seriously and approach them as learning experiences, you will 100% grow as a person and as a software developer.
Knowledgeable teaching assistants --> I was fortunate to have an extremely knowledgeable and passionate TA as my circle leader; he consistently did a terrific job of reinforcing the learnings from the curriculum and ensuring that we felt prepared heading into our assessments. The rest of the TAs, some more experienced than others, did a fine job of designing/delivering our daily lectures as well as helping us all out on the floor each afternoon while we tackled our pair-programming assignments.
CONS:
Absence of Feedback --> As a new student, you'll be required to provide daily feedback on a variety of topics: quality of the curriculum, how well your pair-programming experiences go, your satisfaction level related to the support of your TAs, etc... and yet (to my knowledge) none of us ever received a single piece of feedback in return. I was very vocal about my desire for someone with experience to review my code or even my progress at any point in the curriculum... sadly, this did not come to fruition. If I'm honest, App Academy did not faithfully deliver on the expectations it set regarding the amount of support we would receive throughout the program. There were times when I was either seriously concerned about my own performance or extremely frustrated with aspects of the curriculum, but no one representing the program ever extended an opportunity to have a conversation about this.
Excessive emphasis on passing assessments --> Expect to take tests constantly (at least 1x / week for the first six weeks, not including practice exams). As of this moment, if you fail more than 2 exams, you risk getting dismissed from the program. The pressure was extremely high for almost all of us leading up to the assessments; we were concerned for ourselves and the possibility of losing the friends that we became close with. While I don't have a problem with designing a system to ensure that students are keeping up with the course material, I do seriously question each test's ability to accurately (or even roughly) gauge a student's understanding of the material. In hindsight, it felt like a lot of success was derived from a combination of memorizing code and test-taking strategies that were aimed to prioritize passing unit tests (i.e. scoring points) over genuine understanding of the course material... this last point being especially frustrating because it lies in direct contrast to App Academy's emphasis on prioritizing understanding over finishing assignments / projects.Poorly designed online educational materials --> Over time, I found myself increasingly frustrated by the quality of App Academy's online educational materials. As a full-time in-person student, you will rely on this online program to supplement the daily lectures and help you complete the daily homework assignments. As a visual / tactile learner, I have no problem admitting that I regularly found myself completely discouraged by App Academy's approach to online learning: giant blocks of dense (often highly technical) text, static (non-interactive) code-snippets, poorly edited videos with outdated material, UI that lacks search functionality, etc... and you'll frequently find topics that App Academy decides to send you elsewhere on the Internet to learn about.
HTML / CSS education needs (a lot of ) love --> I would not recommend App Academy's HTML / CSS education above any of the most well-known and freely available resources on the internet. The curriculum peppers in bite-size doses of these topics with several half-hour projects & only 1 lecture entirely devoted to CSS. Almost all of us reached intermediate levels of competency in these topics exclusively through self-learning while working on our full-stack projects.
Insufficient guidance --> This criticism is specific to the back-half of the curriculum, when you'll transition to working on projects and preparing for your inevitable job search. Some examples come to mind: the shortage of TAs to support our cohort and the lack of organization / awareness / preparation regarding project-related lectures & availability of related online resources. I would also recommend regular check-ins between coaches and students in either a small group setting or 1 on 1 (if time permits); the program can often feel like such a whirlwind and the burden is so often laid on the backs of the students to figure things out themselves... I can't speak for everyone, but I would feel SO much better at least having the perception that there's someone here that is willing to actively guide me instead of just passively being available in the shadows.
Final Thoughts:
Though this opinion is subject to change once I leave the program and make my way through the job search... despite all my criticisms (no bootcamp is perfect), I have ZERO regrets about enrolling in this program. It challenged me to grow in ways I have never experienced in an academic or professional setting. It gifted me some amazing new friendships and connections that I'm extremely grateful to walk away with. It's worth noting that bootcamps are absolutely not made for everyone... the firehosing of information, the lack of sleep, the pressure, the impostor syndrome... this can often feel like an extremely stressful environment (on your body and your mind)... but if you're up for the challenge, this could very well change your life. -
Michelle
Be prepared
It's a very high-intensity course and it's important to know that you get what you put in. The program is meant to hose you with a lot of information and it's up to you to really put in the hours to learn the material or just skim by to pass the assessments. It'll be worthwhile if you're able to time manage and this is your only commitment.
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Marc Schlossberg
Worth It
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Simply put: App Academy was worth my time and effort (and it requires both in huge quantities). I do have specific issues with the program, but as you attempt to weigh those against the first sentence, remember that no bootcamp, no undergrad, no educational program will ever be perfect. You know the old adage 'you get out what you put in?' App Academy will absolutely convert your effort into the desired result.
One piece of advice that I don't think is specific to App Academy: only compare yourself to yourself. I guarantee there will plenty of people who seem smarter or better at everything. Ignore them. Only you know if you're putting in the time, if you're staying engaged throughout the day, if you're holding yourself accountable to be the best that you can be. Do your best and the rest will take care of itself.
PROS:
- The staff - the TAs (catchall term for instructors) are uniformly knowledgeable and excited to teach. Nearly every lecture was well presented, well communicated, and directly relevant to the material.
- The material - the curriculum is rigorous and challenging. Many of the projects that we struggled through in the first weeks will make valuable portfolio additions when we go back and attack them with everything we've learned.
The rhythm for most of the curriculum section is learn material - > assessment -> pivot to new material. This can give you a feeling of whiplash, but what remains constant is the idea that you 'always be learning.' I feel much better equipped to learn new things in a short period of time than I think I would have had the transitions been more gradual and forgiving.
- General culture - For 12 weeks the fellow students in your cohort will be your allies both in learning and life. Nobody else will really understand what it's like to go through the program. This might be specific to my cohort, but from what I've seen of other cohorts the sentiment holds true. Beyond that though, the general culture, the interaction between students and students, students and staff, and aA employee culture are all just really positive, really goal oriented and at the same time really forgiving.
- Project phase - After the curriculum, you'll work on projects. Working on full stack projects was just a fantastic way to tie together all the things we'd spent the last 8 weeks learning. There is, however, a somewhat stark drop off in how much help you'll get from staff from the course curriculum phase to the project phase.CONS:
Feedback void - Every day you'll be required to give feedback on your partner for the day, and several times throughout the course you'll be asked for feedback on the experience as a whole. At no point was I given any indication that my feedback was considered. Several times throughout the course I specifically asked to hear the general sentiment of feedback people were leaving about me, and I got no response (beyond 'yes we can do that' but then nothing). To be clear, I do believe that feedback I left was at least read by human eyes, but that's just a hunch because again, communication was an entirely one way street of me to anonymous form.
Further, beyond assessments testing basic functionality of your code, there is no feedback around code style, code smell, or overall code practices. The code we're exposed to in the project skeletons and demo is generally good and tightly written, but there's no checking to see if any of that has sunk in. I was particularly disappointed by this because on day 1 a TA made a point of saying that aA graduates write more readable, cleaner code than CS graduates, but then there was just no system in place to ensure that.
As far as I know no human ever evaluated the quality of my code. Maybe the lesson there is, 'if it works, it works' but that seems short sighted and not in keeping with the idea of producing quality software developers.I'm resisting leaving feedback on the job search section because I'm in the middle of it now. That said, thus far we've covered basic algorithms and data structure in greater depth than we did during the curriculum. We've worked on our resumes, our personal pitch, and what to expect from the whole process. I think I won't know the true value of the job search support until some time after the program.
PS I did a fair amount of research into various bootcamps before I decided on aA. Obviously my experience is limited to the one I choose, but investigated Hack Reactor, General Assembly, and Berkeley Boot camp in addition to aA. Of those, only Hack Reactor seemed up to the same level as aA.
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Nicolas Piper
The best bootcamp out there
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How does 4 stars in curriculum and 4 stars in job support get an overall 5 stars? Simply, you have to look at the whole package, my only critiques with the curriculum are the tech stack. I was looking for a course that offered python in its curriculum but had to compromise for what I felt was the best instruction and program. I don't want to gush or be over the top, but through people I know in industry and from reading on forums I came to the personal conclusion that App Academy was the best holistic package, setting me up for a career in Software Development. All I can do is point to their self proclaimed acceptance rate of 3% and their longstanding subscription to the pay-after-employment model they pioneered. It truly shows that they are invested in their students and have faith backed by dollars and success stories to show that this model works.
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Darian Baptiste
More then just a bootcamp
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I personally believe my experience at app academy was very unique, as I was the youngest of my cohort and I was 1 of 4 African American students, so on top of the stress of the curriculum and assessments I had a series of other problems. But, the first sign of distress the staff picked up and wouldn't let that effect my performance through out the course. This open line of communication between the director and my circle TA allowed me to be prosperous through out the course and grow not only as a developer but as a person.
-Darian P.
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Jon B
Grueling but absolutely worth it!
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I feel like I could write a novel on my time at App Academy, but I'll try to be brief. Without question, a/A was the most intellectually stimulating, intense, and overwhelming experience I've ever been a part of. If you're only reading this review because you heard elsewhere that the curriculum requires about 90+ hours of work per week and you're just trying to ascertain whether it's even possible to work that much, you can stop reading here. It is absolutely in that ballpark. Of course, it's different for everyone and some topics will come easier to some folks. I didn't find that I was spending 90 hours every single week, but the time really begins to add up quickly between the 45-minute commute there, morning lecture time from 9 AM - 12:15 PM, afternoon pair programming from 1:30 PM to 6 PM, another 45-minute commute home, and then any required readings, videos, and homework for the following day's material which could often take up to 3 or 4 hours. All of that happens 5 days a week, with no holidays or time off. It also wasn't completely unheard of for members of my cohort to be in about an hour early or to work through lunch in order to solidify some of the concepts.
I can say that I WAS able to carve out a little time on the weekends to maintain my sanity, but for at least the first half of the curriculum (when assessments are on Mondays) every minute you spend on the weekend not studying is just going to fill you with a combination of guilt and dread on top of the stress already placed on you by the rigor of the course. As other reviews have mentioned, the assessments are not easy but they are always very fair. It is definitely not subjective in any way and assessments are graded solely based on how many test specs you can get to pass before time runs out. The quantity of material you need to know for any individual test is large and studying will sometimes feel insurmountable. However, it is absolutely possible for every person in the cohort to get a perfect score since the tests are not designed to trick you or test you on something you weren't explicitly told to study for.
Anyone who isn't scared off by the absolutely massive scale of the curriculum and the short timeframe you're afforded to cram it all into your brain in a useable way will be rewarded with an incredible toolkit and the confidence to apply for any software developer job. I'm in the middle of my job search currently and I'm applying to tons of stuff, including and especially jobs that work on a different stack than App Academy teaches, strictly because I am now confident that there is nothing I can't teach myself using the skills I gained at a/A.
Lastly, I can't say enough good things about the Teaching Assistants at a/A. They are super knowledgeable, great at debugging (as they likely see similar issues from cohort to cohort), and are genuinely invested in your success. I asked for help often and was never made to feel inferior or bad about it in any way. I expect that the curriculum may change as long as new languages, frameworks, and technologies are always popping up in the tech world. However, a/A will remain one of the elite coding bootcamps as long as they continue to train their staff the way they obviously have been.
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Alex Seant
The Hardest Thing You Will Do
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At no point will you feel like what you have to do is humanly possible, like learning javascript in a week, react in a weekend, redux in a day. but at the same time you will never feel like you are alone and have no help. It is easily both the hardest and most rewarding thing Ive ever had to do in my life. IF you can actually get in then you have to just suck it up and put in that 100+ hours week because If you can get in then you can finish the program.. it all depends on your dedication.
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Ben Gao
worthwhile but tons of work
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A little about me, I came from the civil engineering field with no experience with coding except one or two courses in college. I went to App Academy looking to learn a new skill and shift my career towards software engineering. Below is my experience of the course.
Pros:
- Large amount of materials, everyday is a new topic. They make you learn continuously with time practice and put concepts into use.
- Staffs are supportive and helpful. Staffs are always there to answer a technical question or to talk about other issues like handling stress. Most staffs have gone through the course and have great ways/tips to help jiggle all the different tasks.
- Lots of pair programming. Gives the opportunity to work with different people and to practice talking about programming and explaining things in easy to understand ways.Cons:
- Tons of work. In addition to lecture/pair programming during the day, there are hours of work on most nights like readings, homework and reviewing the day's solutions. There is really no time to do anything besides learning.
- Stressful, physically and mentally. It can be difficult to get enough sleep trying to keep up with the program. Also, it's rare to completely finish a day's problems during the day, so there's always the pressure of falling behind.Even with all the work and stress I had to deal with, I think attending App Academy was the right choice. It has taught me a lot and I feel like I have a better chance to change my career afterwards.
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Eric Piñero
Intense and Rewarding
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A bit about me, I came to App Academy from 6 years in a non-software engineering career, with a bit of HTML, JavaScript, and CSS experience.
Pros:
- You will learn a lot and very quickly. The schedule of lectures and projects means you will be learning new things and practicing them constantly
- Excellent staff. Supportive, knowledgable and fun
- Tons of additional resources for you to go back to when you complete the course
Cons:
- It is stressful, the volume of work combined with the pressure of testing will make you stressed.
- A lot of outside work is necessary. You will need to be able to self-motivate to get through the hours of homework each night
I found App Academy incredibly rewarding. I learned more than I thought was possible and collaborated with a passionate and intelligent group of people. If you're prepared to put in 100+ hours a week, they'll prepare you to change your life.
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Nicky Li
It was tough
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I already knew App Academy would be tough before I applied, but I never would've thought it was the most difficult experience I had ever imagine. As someone with no prior coding experience, I would say the first few weeks were really hard on me and it doesn't get easier. Eventually, it's something that everyone gets accustomed to. Before I knew it, it was 3 months already and I can finally tell people that I'm a software developer.
To sum things up, App Academy is harder than anything you imagined, but it will also be the most rewarding experience in your life. -
Daniel Ball
The Experience
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"App Academy - The Experience"
Scroll through the other reviews, but stop Here.
App Academy is hard, they tell you about not knowing the difficulty and it’s kind of true, the problem is the exams get longer and your more at risk of being behind so probably on average it does get harder. I don’t know why they say that but it’s probably rooted at the top level. This is what you need to know.
To get into App Academy it will be pretty hard to just apply and pray...you need to Study. If you do study than look for the app academy problems online or go on GitHub(entry level) and search for them. Jumpstart can help if your background is weak(only couple months), but I certainly noticed an edge for those who did Boot Camp Prep(I didn’t and I was a little envious).
So who Am I ? Well I just graduated Today...take my review with respect to that aspect of App Academy’s curriculum. Reviewing them is a little tough because everyone is different, some people pick it up faster(I’m diligent so it’s at what I call a normal pace) and others pick it up faster, but those people which will be in Your cohort have some type of strong technical background most likely. The tests are hard and it is true you can’t tell which one is the hardest normally due to the differences in people. They will overwork you on purpose and try to see if you can pass because if you can’t they want you to fail out. Part of the reason is the last ten days of the main part of the curriculum they let you work on the full stack, but it’s an extremely expensive operation and probably not profitable for them if you can’t do the basics of coding. Not to mention once you start the Full Stack project you need to be able to do it mostly on your own so you can put it on your Resume and say “I did that.”
The best part? The Teacher assistants without a doubt. I was actually surprised at home many there are(around six plus the main instructor). The teacher assistants are highly skilled and during the course you will likely learn the most from them more than anything else.
When you put it all together App Academy’s program is very good and costs quite a bit of capital to run, remember these teacher assistants are paid well.
A couple of last notes. They are now like a well oiled machine. They hire in advance, train the next leaders before they leave, prep the next cohort as soon as you start yours, and they do not stop for whatever reason.....in App academy there are no days off and they work through almost all holidays.
If you want to go to App Academy I recommend it. Better if you can pair it with a degree, but standalone it’s good too. If I was you and you were accepted I would not hangout on the weekends. I went to a wedding one day and felt behind the entire course because of it. There’s so much homework that catching up is really hard and the weekends are for studying the tests since it’s pointless to do the homework if you can’t pass the test. Overall four stars because of the lack of support for stressed out individuals. They say talk to us, but it’s not very inviting and I took it as a clue for an opportunity for them to say to you “this course is not for everyone.”
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Ajay Seemar
An amazing institution with wonderful people dedicated to changing lives through code
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Students attending App Academy come from all over the world with drastically varying backgrounds, however everyone just loves to code or is passionate about technology. From the moment you walk through the doors you'll start engaging with people that'll make you feel right at home. The curriculum starts off with Ruby and Rails in order to ease students into a programming mindset and learning the MVC architecture widely accepted in web development. It late transitions to pure JavaScript through the MERN stack. Throughout the course you will build projects, utilities, games, things you never thought were possible just through typing a few lines of code. Overall this was an amazing experience, and if you are passionate about coding and don't know what to do about it, App Academy is definitely the right choice.
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Ajay Vishwanath
Work hard
App Academy is a well-structured program that will give you a breadth of knowledge in full-stack web developement technologies and concepts. The harder you work and the more you put your life towards the bootcamp while it's happening, the more you will get out of the program and the more prepred you will be for the job-search.
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Aidan
App Academy Full Stack In Person
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Full disclosure: AppAcademy promised my a hoodie for this review.
As we took the program, every week aA has asked from 1-10 how likely we would be to recommend it to a friend. Every week I have answered 10/10, and I still would.
I came to aA after having studied CS formally, as well as having a lot of experience working as a developer in the past, just looking to reskill to keep up with the industry. This is not the story for most students, and you certainly don't need prior experience to succeed, although you will probably have to put in more effort before-hand to ensure you understand the basics.
AA is as difficult as everyone says. I have probably spent 100-120 hours working on material every week since the program started to keep up with the readings. Expect to spend every waking minute once you start doing nothing but studying or coding. Your life will be AA; it is a bootcamp after all. No nights, no weekends, no holidays (we were expected to come in Memorial day).
You will come out of this knowing how to develop a full stack application, as well as have a portfolio of several projects to show an employer. You will learn a few basic CS concepts (a very small introduction to DS/A), but without college experience you will probably need to spend a bit of time doing additional independent study after the cohort, during interview prep. Compared to a college degree where you will learn more of the academic CS concepts, but have a lot less to actually show.
You will also get through this much faster, and cheaper, than going for a four year degree. I personally feel that actually being able to build a real app, something a lot of college curricula spend too little time focusing on, is a huge advantage over traditional study.
There are a few negatives. Most of the project work you complete before your fullstack project will not actually be usable for portfolios, although it will teach you a lot. You will not always get a good pair, although almost everyone you work with will become your closest friends for the next 12 weeks. There are also some policies that could use some reworking. Prior to my application, it was not clear that the program also had a
preliminary "foundations" course, four weeks of self directed study to prep for the program (which you absolutely need to do if you don't have experience!! make sure you are comfortable with this material on day 1 of in person), and this could have been made more transparent prior to applying. Some of the material is a bit outdated, which is expected given how fast technologies evolve and new versions come out. The curricula is constantly under development, but some aspects may lag slightly behind.I still say, given the choice between this and a CS degree, this will be more useful to you practically, as you will actually be building real applications in what is equivalent to less than a semester of college. AA is extremely prestigious, and I would not have decided to come here if I wasn't going to be proud to include it on my Resume.
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Elrashid E Elzein
Do It!
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App Academy was an awesome experience. I think a lot of students (including myself) went in worried about assessments and potentially being dismissed. Although the threat is definitely real, the staff is incredibly supportive both academically and emotionally. Most, if not all of the instructors you will work with on a daily basis are former aA graduates who empathize with struggling students. It's a demanding three months, but your hard work pays off. Best of all, you'll get to work with some really amazing people and make lifelong connections.
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Sean Kennealy
Great Way to Learn
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I attended the program in spring of 2019 and loved it. You need to prepare for a few months before by studying javascript and ruby basics, but if you prepare enough, you'll do fine. Be ready for an intense 12 weeks. If you put in the work required, you will be successful.
I appreciated the structure of learning each subject. You will read and watch videos the night before, then lecture on the topic the next morning, and a project tailored to that topic in the afternoon.
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Nhat Do
Student
App Academy creates a fun and friendly environment to immerse yourself in learning web development. The work itself is far from easy and manageable in the allotted time, but the instructors emphasize self-edification over completion.
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Karen
Great Instructors
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- The curriculum moves fast, but there's great, knowledgeable staff who will make themselves available to help you learn.
- You pair program for the first 7 weeks, everyday, until you reach your full stack project where you'll get to create your own apps.
- You'll spend all your waking hours dedicated to the curriculum, don't expect to have a life.
- You'll learn through repetition - read the material, watch the material, sit in the lecture to clarify the material, and hands-on practicing the material. -
Johnson Phan
great experience working with wonderful people, but curriculum can be updated
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Pros:
- Fellow classmates are all amazing people (in my case), the time spent day by day is made easier when everyone is working towards the same goal
- Curriculum is in depth, but what you get out of it is dependent on how much you are willing to work
- Amazing instructors and teaching assistants, all of the staff here are knowledgable and overall just amazing people
Cons:
- A lot of material is thrown at you fast, along with assessments, homework, and projects the amount of work can lead to burn out if you don't take care of yourself
- Material is a bit outdated, ruby is on its way out and it would've been more beneficial if they utilized a more modern language to start learning with -
David
App Academy Review
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App Academy was without a doubt one of the hardest challenges i've faced in my life. Throughout the week, there is literally no free time, and your life is coding. It's amazing how much you can learn if you follow the prescribed hours. I went from knowing nothing about coding to being able to make my own fullstack site and a javascript game. My tip for prospective students is that they prepare themselves for this rigorous course by making sure that they will have no distractions throughout the 12 weeks. Also, going through their foundations course multiple times will ensure that you have the best possible start to the bootcamp. Deciding to join App Academy was a great decision!
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Carlos Arias-Miranda
Life Changing
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Attending App Academy was one of the best choices I have ever made. I have my doubts before applying because I thought that I could self teach on how to become a software developer, but it does in no way compare to the amount of material gets covered during the curriculum and the amount of help and answered questions you get from aA's staff. The culture at app academy was very inclusive and it made me feel very comfortable the entire time. Overall, it was a great experience and now I can say I am truly a software engineer.
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Rayyan Mahar
Great Experience
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This was definitely one of the most intense experiences of my life, but it was definitely worth it, in terms of teaching me everything about web development. Although it is quite difficult, it is very rewarding if you put in the time to study. After going through the curriculum and studying for at least 60 hours a week, I have learned the tools and gained the skills to build a website from scratch. The instructors are great at teaching the material, and they are always more than willing to help.
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Young Chul Lim
Jan 2019
A great experience. Learned a lot and the staff is very friendly and here to help! A very intense 3 month program where you will need to put all of your focus on studying and learning. You will get burnt out so make sure to take care of yourself and get as much sleep when you can.
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Aram
App Academy is the best!!!!!
One of the best experiences in my life. An inclusive, friendly environment.
A very hard bootcamp, but it's worth it. I went in without any coding background, in only three months they turned me into a software engineer ready to hit the ground.
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David
Tough but rewarding
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Overall great experience -- intense, thorough, and at times exhausting, but extremely rewarding. I tried coding myself for a while but lacked the direction and drive. App Academy did that for me. The best part of the whole process though is the people you meet. The drive and intelligence of the people are positive influences to the grind. The coursework is effective and extensive. They also have a job search part of the curriculum which is quite informative. The material and tools are good but it's what you put into it, especially after graduation.
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Danny
Very intensive, will push you to your limits.
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Great TAs and curriculum, don't think you'll be able to understand everything every week with only 40-60 hours of work. As it gets busier, some weeks will be up to 80-100 hours. Just a warning, after the 12 weeks, you'll start your job search, which will take some up to a year, but probably 1/2 of applicants will be done in around 3 months or less. There is a job search curriculum that will go over the skills you need, but there's a lot of work to be done in that department.
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Jason F
Solid Program for Full Stack Development
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App Academy is a great program for those who haven't had too much experience in software development. The whole course goes through Ruby, Rails, JS, React, then a full stack project and a MERN stack project. There's also a vanilla JS project at the end. You'll learn a ton from the projects and TAs are always around to help you if you have any questions.
Some warnings though, the program is no joke. You'll be spending around 100 hours a week sometimes just working on your projects, and projects are expected to be completed over weekends as well. In addition, the last couple weeks which are dedicated to projects are not as structured as the first 9 or so weeks. This means that you'll have to make sure you're organized enough to keep yourself on schedule since there's always a new topic every day.
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Kevin Bai
You will get out what you put in
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App Academy is great, but the results depend on the amount of work you are willing to put in. The pace is rigorous, and it gets more rigorous from day one. Do not expect to get through a/A without significant effort.
If you have a habit of procrastination, don’t worry. You won’t have enough time to procrastinate at App Academy.
Your instructors are, friendly, knowledgeable, and fantastic at explaining the material. Your peers are some of the most talented and hard-working people you will ever meet. And if you’ve done the work, by the end of the program you will be a software developer.
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Gabriel Lujan
It's madness, but eventually there's a method
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Let me first start with this... this boot camp IS NOT for everyone. What I mean by that is that IT IS intense. You will be stressed out by the amount of work you have to do, the lack of time (or at least the feeling of it) and ultimately the strictness that is enforced.
There is a device & attendance strike system (that could lead to dismissal) to make sure people aren't being distracted by their phones, laptops, whatever instead of doing their work. This can be a pro or a con depending on your perspective. They WILL dismiss you if you fail 2 of the 6 assessments that happen within the first 5-1/2 weeks. Curriculum topics change every 1 to 1.5 weeks. If you're completely new to programming, there isn't much time to deeply absorb the topics before moving on to another one.
From a materials standpoint, some of the videos, articles, and information that they use is between 3-5 years old. That's ancient in the world of tech. At times, the instructions used in pair programming or for the projects (or the homework) can be vague & unintentionally (or intentionally?) misleading. Often times I was frustrated by how little focus the work presented seemed to have.
There were a few times where it felt less like inspiration/motivation and more like scare-tactics were used to get people to do their work. The assessments carry so much weight that a few of my classmates failed because they freaked out during the test and couldn't recover. The instructors tell you to "make sure you sleep", "take care of yourself", etc. But then there's a timed assessment that basically dictates your future looming over your head. And every day is regimented, scheduled, lectured and pre-determined for you, that there isn't time to catch up from anything in the previous days.
This all may sound scary, and intimidating or more like a military boot camp, than a coding one (I sometimes wonder if that's really what they're going for), but after the assessments are done, and the weight of dismissal has been lifted, things start to make sense. Around Week 7/8 is when you start to build your fullstack project. For me at least, this is where all the pieces began to come together. Each of the topics that we learned finally had a place, and while you still don't know everything about any of it all, you have at least a base understanding that you can build from. You can start to ask questions about where to begin, where to go, what you want to do, etc.
To be clear, the level of knowledge that you gain once the first 9 weeks are done WILL allow you to build a fullstack, fully working app. Will it be the next Facebook, Google, Instagram or Snapchat? Highly unlikely, but you now have a solid foundation that could possibly get you there.
All in all, my outlook on the program is that I didn't much care for certain portions of it while going through it, but I am thankful for being shown the frustrations, intricacies and the BS that comes with web development. As they say, "what doesn't dismiss you from bootcamp, only makes you a stronger software dev" (or something like that ;-) ).
So to conclude, this school isn't for everyone, it doesn't need to be. If you thrive in pressure or at least know yourself well enough to be able to work through intense situations, then this may be for you. Just know that it's not going to be pretty. It's not going to be easy. But if you make it through, you should feel rewarded.
DISCLAIMER: I'm currently in the job search portion of the curriculum, so I cannot fully give an opinion on this piece yet. I will update this review (if I can) once I've had some exposure to that side of things.
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James
Great experience!
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App Academy has been a great experience! It's a tough, fast Bootcamp and it's extremely rewarding. The instructors are awesome and the curriculum moves at a rapid pace. After a few months, you'll be surprised at how much you've learned. I tried tesching myself (to no avail) and had already surpassed my prior knowledge within the first week in class.
On top of that, they dedicate a good portion of your time in class to building up your portfolio and skills for the job search.
worth it if you're interested in web development. Although it is quite difficult, it is very rewarding if you put in the time to study. I came in with little to no experience in coding. But after going through the curriculum and studying for at least 80 hours a week, I have learned the tools and gained the skills to build a webpage. The instructors are great at teaching the material, and they are always more than willing to help. Overall, I am very glad I decided to attend App Academy.
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Rodolfo Rodriguez
Super Fun
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The most intensive coding experience you can have, even for someone with previous coding experience!
A lot to learn, ruby rails javascript react and a lot of pair programming.
In addition to learning to code you will learn how to communicate your ideas, how to study for a do or die test under a lot of pressure, and how to survive and thrive with a 100+ hours a week workload.
Pros:
* A lot of pair programming with awesome people
* Top notch training for algorithms and user authentication
* Rewarding and expansive final projects
* Any other challenge will pale in comparison
* You will be pushed to become amazing
* Bonding with classmatesCons:
* Some people don't make it! (Don't pass the assessments)
* Its TOO intense maybe. You will suffer! (but worth it) -
Brent
Intense but extremely rewarding
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This bootcamp starts you off right out of the gate sprinting. It can be really intense especially in the first few weeks. However there is a fantastic staff set in place to help you out with everything. You can really tell the TA's truly care about your development and as long as you're putting in the work they're willing to help you. It can be hard in the beginning and you'll start each week learning something new and feel a little lost but usually by the end of the week you'll pick it up. The most rewarding part about the program are the projects at the end. While you're going through the program it can be hard to see how all of the material you're learning comes together but when you finally implement them all into a functional web app, it truly is an incredible experience and as long as you follow the program and do the things they tell you to do, you'll do well. They spend a ton of time and effort into creating the best program possible and I wouldn't trade my time here for anything else. Overall an amazing program run by fantastic people that truly care about your development and you can't really ask for much more than that
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Abhi G.
Intense, but worth it.
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Intense, but worth it.
If you want to build a solid foundation in software development, App Academy has a great curriculum for you. It's called a bootcamp for a reason - it is extremely fast-paced and challenging. They have set up a great environment for learning (with staff that really cares about our development). The culture here is great too - open, fun, and hard-working. Each cohort is filled with people from all walks of life, and you will make some great connections.
If you are serious about becoming a full-stack developer, go to App Academy. -
Darren Yong
Amazing bootcamp
The best thing that I liked about App Academy were the instructors. The material is taught at an extremely fast pace but if you put in the work, it is manageable. I liked that the instructor to student ratio was fairly high so it didn't feel like everyone was fighting to get their questions answered.
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Jeff
Great Place
App Academy was an extremely challenging and rewarding bootcamp. The instructional staff was so helpful in explaining difficult concepts. It is crazy how much you learn in 3 months. I highly recommend App Academy for anyone who is looking to transition their career into software development.
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Derek
app academy is pretty good
when I was searching around for a bootcamp, a/A stood out because of their high job placement stats. Upon getting accepted and attending, I found the staff were amazing, and will answer every question you have. The coursework can have some polishing, but I definitely feel I have a strong foundation for any junior level position upon graduating.
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Mike
Challenging and Rewarding!
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Those with zero coding experience will really benefit from attending the bootcamp prep, especially if the idea of teaching yourself seems daunting or there is a time constraint. The material is challenging and fast paced but the instructors guide you every step of the way. The instructors are your best asset and are always willing to help you, should you ask. Be prepared to dedicate a portion of your hours outside of the class to studying, otherwise you are not taking full advantage of the course. People who attend the prep course come from all different walks of life, whether it's a career change or because they prefer the fast paced learning as opposed to attending college. It's a very welcoming environment that fosters a desire to grow together as a group.
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Jack W
"Toughest thing you'll ever do. But worth it."
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The review will be split in two parts
Part 1: Curriculum
- Rapid fire pace. The sheer amount of material you're expected to cover on a daily basis is overwhelming.
My suggestion for the daily homeworks. At least take a quick look at the material before you pass out for the night, simply having exposure to the material will help you reinforce it in the morning lecture .Part 2: Job Search
If you were thought completing the main curriculum would led to a job right away. I have some bad news..
Job search is a whole different challenge in itself. Simply knowing the technical material and having projects on your resume isn't enough.
- You have to be able to play the social game (build rapport with recruiters/managers/engs), and be able to explain complex concepts in a simple way.
- You have to be able to code, think, and sometimes speak at the same time during phone screensOf course, some people got jobs quickly, and others would job search for 9+ months before landing a position.
Everybody's path is going to be different!
Keep pushing forward and things will work out