App Academy Reviews
Page 19
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ben blue
App Academy is tough
I like App Academy and made a lot of great friends. It is hard unless you are fairly natural or have enough previous experience. You will struggle otherwise but it is doable. People will fail out. They will probably have tried their hardest as well. But even if you fail out it is free so worth the shot.
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Aarron
Extremely tough, but rewarding, experience
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Let me say in advance that I think the program itself is superb. The Teaching Assistants all know what they're talking about, and are very good at answering your questions and clarifying your understanding of things. The course material is all excellent, and by the end of the course, you'll have a strong understanding of vanilla javascript, ruby, rails, and using it all together to create an app or service from scratch. AA does a great job teaching ruby, rails, React + Redux, and putting it all together in a final package.
However, while the material is all superb, the downside is the extreme pacing and difficulty. You will easily do 12-14 hour days of non-stop coding, studying, etc (with the occasional breaks for sanity, of course). I would only recommend this program if you feel that you are completely prepared for the sheer intensity of the program. You learn a lot, and you have to learn it fast. If you fall behind, material quickly snowballs, and you'll be left behind. I cannot stress enough how important time management, and being prepared for the workload, is for to get the most out of this experience.
Having a very good grasp of ruby, javascript, and a basic understanding of how the internet works, will help a lot to prepare for what you'll encounter. Prior experience helps a lot. If you aren't good at typing at a decently fast pace, practice. Make sure you're fully prepared before coming in, or else you might be in for a rude awakening.
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Kelby
worth
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Ultimately, you get out what you put into it. There is not a lot of leeway for slacking off. You spend the time getting prepared and getting ahead. Every day builds on the last, and missing one or more days can easily snowball into a miserable weekend trying to catch up. You do not want to be playing catch-up. Having said that, everyone learns the material at a different pace. Get comfortable with the struggle, but don't get lazy about it.
Tips: Ask questions. Review the next day's material and get a good grasp of what's coming. Let lecture fill in those holes so you are prepared to tackle the day's projects.
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Steven
A mountain is climbable if you seriously want it
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I'll try to add something that may or may not have been told by some students. Now the question we all as prospect students are, are all these reviews true? well yes. You will get an outstanding education from a/A and I'm saying this as I have attended a bootcamp a few years ago and graduated without knowing much except building a quick website.
NOW I'm gonna say this hopefully clear, if you don't have that strive to want a job, come out being one of the top students in the industry and that includes putting nearly 15-18 hours a day, including weekends just to get there, then please do yourself a favor and most amazing teachers/possible colleagues a favor and do not apply. This isn't a kids program or for someone who says oh I just want to be able to build a website or two. There are many of those bootcamps that you can go to and have honestly a less stressful time.
BUT for those willing to succeed, put the grit and time to come out as one of the top programmers from a bootcamp, I'll say apply and get ready for a crazy ride called learning. It'll be intensive, you'll have sleepless nights and possibly have an unhealthy diet, but it'll be an amazing experience, one you'll never regret. Looking forward to meeting all of you hopefully one day who makes it till the end.
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I was previously a musician and writer.
My Time at a/A
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My experience at App Academy definitely lived up to the intensity that others had described. Be warned, it really is intense. It’s physically and mentally draining. If you have any kind of background related to computer programming you may have a better time. As someone without a background I had to work constantly just to hang in there. Nearly everyday I was confused by what I was learning and that was definitely something hard to get used to. I’d never felt so impotent in my life. I averaged 5-6 hours of sleep at night and was slowly enveloped by a thick fog. The longer I went without sleep the more confusing and difficult things became. It got to the point I could barely remember the conversations I’d just had with people. Luckily I was always able to catch up on some sleep during the weekend and get back to ‘reality’ for a couple of days. If you are planning to take the course you should know that if you want to succeed the course will have to be your life. This is difficult to maintain, but it is possible.
In hindsight I believe I may have taken somewhat of the wrong approach to the course (although I don’t regret the way I accomplished it). I did everything they told us to do. I did all the readings and all the homeworks every night. This is the reason for my lack of sleep. I tried to do everything, and many of my fellow classmates did not. I think I allowed myself to get so tired that the work I was doing wasn’t helping as much as it was hurting me.
If you’re looking just to pass the course, I believe it may be pretty easy. All the exams were very very closely related to the given practice exams. If you know how to memorize a practice exam and other topics that may appear on the exam, the exams are easy. You should be able to take the practice exam in half the expected time. If you can do that, I believe you will pass the real exam. There weren’t really any curveballs.
That said we did lose many classmates from the exams. A student was even sent home on the last exam. I believe we lost a total of 12 people, and started with 62. I believe that those students probably had tried to do too much and weren’t able to effectively learn the practice exams.
It’s a tough course and it’s important to make good friends throughout the program. Don’t count on being comforted by the staff. It’s required to fill out progress reports every night, but then you are given the impression that no one ever reads them. It’s like shouting into the wind. I was never once approached to discuss my ideas or encouraged to keep up the good work.
But the community is great and you feel an unspoken bond with everyone in the course. We’re all suffering together.
You will learn the curriculum that they advertise and you will become a fullstack developer.
I am about to start the job search curriculum of the program and hope that I will be able to find a job. I do feel that I have learned a lot since I started and look forward to continuing my education.
The rating is hard for me to give because I am yet to know how effective I will be at securing a job.
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Chris Lee
So much learning in such a short time
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Before coming to app academy, I taught myself coding over a period of two years. In that time I used free resources such as Codecademy, FreeCodeCamp, and CS50 EDX. After joining App Academy, I can confidently say that I learned exponentially more in app academy than I did in the two years that I spent with those free resources. App academy provides a curriculum that keeps you engaged and challenges you to reach past what you thought you were capable of and bring more to the table than ever before. While the program is tough, if you stick with the work you will learn a lot and make it through.
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Benny
Most stressful time of my life
Gonig through app academy was definitely one of the most stressful time of my life. But it was also the best learning experience it my life. I would recommend a/A to anyone looking for a career change or looking to get into tech in general.
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Ken Z
Challenging but worth it
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Pros: Good TAs and fast paced curriculum. It's pretty unbelievable how much you'll learn in 9 weeks. If you're a self-starter and enjoy the fast-paced learning, you will get a lot out of the program.
Con: Unforgiving pace and schedule. It's easy to fall behind if you don't put in the time/work. The learning style might not be suited for everyone. The near weekly assessments can be stressful (around ~15% of each cohort ends up getting asked to leave for failing assessments).
General tips: Do the prepwork! You're not starting with the assumption that you don't know anything day1. You're expected to be able to do small object-oriented programs from the very beginning, and you definitely don't want to start off behind. It's a big commitment, so don't plan on doing anything except the program for the 3 months.
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Elliott
An excellent bootcamp, but stressful
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DISCLAIMER: I will be getting a hoodie from App Academy for writing this review, but the content of the review will not be influenced by this ‘reward’
I came to App Academy with a limited background in Computer Sciences and STEM fields and, 9 weeks into the program, have come out with a complete entry-level knowledge of full-stack development. The resources that have helped me from getting from point A to B in such a short amount of time was the rigor and depth of a/A’s curriculum. The most important reason is that the curriculum is so effective is that class-time enforces students to be immersed in programming and coding challenges for a maximum amount of time. The pair-programming aspect of the curriculum is a strong way to enforce communication skills and forces students to have a deeper understanding of new lessons when they are encouraged to explain their thought-process to their peers. The quality of said peers is also generally excellent in terms of character and ability. While pairing chemistry will never be perfect between every student, it was always evident to me that my peers took their time in the program very seriously and were always concerned with learning the material deeply, preparing for each class adequately, and producing high-quality work. The teaching staff is also generally excellent. I found that the quality of individual instructors would often correlate to their time in the program, but because the curriculum is so intense, the more junior instructors themselves also appear to improve quite rapidly. While there was sometimes a quality gap between new and veteran instructors, the actual time-difference between the former and the latter was usually only a cohort or two. And generally, I found that the entire package of TAs, who do all of the teaching at App Academy, was excellent and foundational to my own learning in the program.
As for the cons, the largest is definitely the intense and disheartening aspects of the assessment structure of the curriculum. Personally, the assessments were the most important reason that I spent so much time working and studying outside of class hours. This is because if you fail two assessments, plus a single retake opportunity, you are dismissed from the course. With a weekend full of intense studying, I personally found the assessments to be fair and the course will give preparation materials that strongly correspond to the actual assessment. On the other hand, sometimes peers cannot make it through the grind of assessments: I believe that these individuals that were dismissed from the program do have the potential to be good programmers in the working world, and it was likely the pace of the curriculum, more so than its sheer technical difficulty, that was the largest hump to get over. Overall, my advice to prospective future students is that if you are confident in your programming abilities coming into the first week of the program, expect to still spend a lot of time on assessments and digesting the enormous amount of material from the week prior. If you are coming in less-confident, or even worse, having rushed through the four weeks of prep work, then expect to spend an extraordinary amount of time (and lack of sleep) on keeping your head above water. While the assessment structure does force students to master the material, for the most part, the stressful atmosphere that it creates through the whole school is an unfortunate trade-off.
Finally, I wanted to comment on the quality of the facilities, which is important because students spend most of their hours here. During my cohort, the New York office got a significant upgrade in amenities and privacy. Before, both concurrent cohorts shared a single loft space with poor water pressure, mediocre bathrooms, and sometimes inconsistent internet. Now, each cohort gets their own floor to work on, and the office space includes a decent kitchen setup outfitted with utensils, plateware, drinking mugs/glasses, and a dishwasher. Most importantly, the coffee and teas offered by the building were significant upgrades over Folgers and Lipton. These small touches, for me, actually made a tremendous quality-of-life improvement; since most of our time will be in front of screens in the office, it’s good that the peripheral comforts are well-appointed.
All-in-all I would recommend App Academy to those who want to make a tremendous career shift to a good field in the least amount of time possible. My warnings are regarding its pace, difficulty, and the toll it can take on your personal well-being.
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David
Life Altering
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I will start out by saying that this coding bootcamp was the toughest program that I have been a part of.
I am sure that the other reviews all say very similar things and that you don't have to know that much about programming to be able to finish this course. I agree though I would add an asterisk. There are 3 ways to successfully complete this course: 1. You can be an insanely fast learner, 2. you can already have experience in the field of software development, or 3. you have to be almost bulldogged in your persistence. Everyone in my cohort was a joy to work with and they were all super smart and super helpful. The test structure forces you to learn the test more that learn the fundamentals. While this causes stress, and the experience of losing classmates to the rigid testing system was awful I feel like it is in place to maximize the schools success rate. If you are smart you can make it, if you are a coding enthusiast already you can make it and if you are super persistent, you can make it. Those are the people that are most likely to get jobs and be successful. Overall I feel like I have learned a lot and that I have at least the ability to continue learning and improving.I would like to leave you with 2 main take aways. 1. if you are ready to change your life and are committed to taking advantage of every resource you can then prepare and be committed, otherwise go to a different program. 2. the program was super stressful but also the most enjoyable learning experience that I have ever had. I feel that this has everything to do with the selection process, the other students and the TA's.
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Patrick Fulghum
A transformative experience
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The past 9 weeks I've eaten slept and dreamt code at NYC @ppAccademy. I have taken 2 CS classes in college, and come from a statistics background but my experience in web development itself was minimal upon entering @ppAcademy. The last 9 weeks have been a new topic every day, and now that the 9 week guided curriculum is over, I have made a website and have all the tools to make another. In just about 2 months I've gone from zero to hero.
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Patrick Fulghum
Meditation, Cleanliness and Coffee
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The atmosphere of App Academy is, you get out what you put in. If you want to slack off or work until your fingers bleed, App Academy will let you do that. There is no authority figure who is going to get upset or disappointed if you don't do the work. There is so much work every step of the way that you can commit 90 hours a week and not finish everything you are assigned. At the same time however, you can get by on 60 hours a week, like I did, and not get as much out of it.
Your mindset is the best indicator of your success at the program. Self-discipline is a must, and if you remain diligent, you come out the other side as a software engineer.
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Zachary Gardner
Best use of 3 months you will ever have.
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I'm currently 2 months into the App Academy program, and it is just as tough as they say. I feel like I've grown a lot since I first got here. I never knew I could learn so much so fast. It has proven to be a very beneficial and formative experience. Although it is hard, the staff and everyone else involved are very supportive. The atmosphere is very open and welcoming and I never once felt like an outsider. The work load is extremely tough, during my time here I rarely left before the 12 hour mark. Needless to stay my work ethic has never been better. Anyone with the right aptitude can get in. My whole life changed when I got accepted into the program and every day I'm just happy to be here.
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Artem Ipatev
Prep course App Academy
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I graduated Prep Course at App Academy and don't regret it AT ALL! I tried studying by myself before and couldn't do it properly because you are new and you don't understand what to learn and what to skip. You spend days to understand the piece of new information which you even don't need. Sometimes people saying "It is so a lot of info on the internet, why you pay extra money for studying in-person?". So I can say, it is not just info, it is the new conception of thinking, and sometimes it is hard to get this new conception. That's why you pay money to get it faster, to spare time. Nobody saying you MUST go to the Prep or Bootcamp, you can study everything by yourself but you will spend 1-2 years to get a point where you will be ready to show your skills and knowledge to be hired and to be paid. What if you will put exactly the same effort and Prep and Bootcamp? You spare time! You will find a job already in 6 months after you start. Here is the difference in one and half of the year if you would do it by yourself. It is tens of dollars...
So for me, it was hard to decide for Prep... now I don't have any doubts about spending this money for Prep and especially for Bootcamp.
Anyway, at the Prep App Academy, Alvin and David will prepare you for Bootcamp, they will tell you what to do and how to do, and you won't waste time for trying to pass a technical interview. Especially because you can't try every week.
And the last thing was very important to me - I stopped frustrating! That's it!!!! I started coding with confident and solid understanding what I am doing.
Highly recommended, especially if you just started your way to the programming!
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Sangwoo Lee
App Academy Grad
Would take it again.
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Thomas
Just the Facts
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A/a prep course is great exp. Alvin is awesome...but they fall short on alot of things
1) They are the most expensive prep course-$2,999.00 …….(hack reactor’s prep by the way does the pre-course work with u so u can just join after is $250….FullStack is $650)
A/a has great teaching the they take the time to go thru everything with u but u learn a lot less topics..2) $2,999 roll over to the immersive course is pretty much a loss as well...They never tell u the fact that it doesnt roll over unless u do the deferred payment plan which is $28,000, the $2,999 doesnt roll over if you do the upfront playment plan which is $17,000. So you the roll over is only valid if your willing to pay $11,000 more.
3)They are very limited they skips concepts like testing recursion things which are need to get into hack reactor and full stack.
4)The guarantee to get into the top coding bootcamp always includes a a bootcamp that is very easy to get into and sometimes may not even require a technical interview.
A/a Immersive Review
1.) Even though they claim to update their CURRICULUM according to industry trends it hasn’t really change much. After speaking with alumni from A/a they themselves have told me they would have rather learned full stack javascript…and that it is easier to find a job with full javascript rather than ruby….
heres are two link on industry trends….
https://stackify.com/trendiest-programming-languages-hottest-sought-programming-languages-2017/http://www.codingdojo.com/blog/9-most-in-demand-programming-languages-of-2017/
2.) Their CLASS SIZE is one the largest of the coding bootcamps in NYC…this is what I saw when I was there and what their instructor and students told me when I asked…Now does it matter YES absolutely now they will say we have a good teacher to student ratio but that only because they hire their own grads to as TA which isn’t really the same as instructor….second on hiring day you have a 60 -80 of your peers in competition with u to get into a company….. Hack Reactor has less 30 students per cohort and they do this on purpose to bring out great quality grads…full stack is less as well I’m not sure on the exact number..3.) CLASS HOURS App Academy is open 24/7 BUT their daily schedule is Mon to Fri 9a.m. to 5p.m……Hack Reactor and full stack is Mon to Fri 9 a.m. -8 p.m. and Sat 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
4.)TUTION …App Academy had recently switch from 22% first years salary to a flat 28,000 on the deferred payment model…which is ludicrous…they they say its because of state regulations... but 22% of 100k salary job is not $28,000 even if u have a 100k job u really only bring home about 70K…this ridiculous that they would charge such a high amount.
Most of my friends from the prep after learning all these thing would not attend App Academy. I also spoke with the prep cohort after ours almost all of them after going through the prep and finding out all these details decieded not to go. we all felt A/a was shady for leaving out the detail about the 2,999 not rolling over on the upfront payment plan.
if u have any question u can email me at theonetwothreefive123@gmail.com -
Moktar
An amazing opportunity if you put in the work
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For a long time, I liked the idea of working in tech, but thought it was nearly impossible without a CS degree. However, when a friend told me about App Academy, I thought it was an interesting opportunity, although I was skeptical at the time.
The program itself is very intense, and will definitely consume your life for the 12 week duration. In the beginning, you'll learn about various CS fundamentals and the inner workings of several languages and frameworks, so just when you finally become comfortable with one thing, something new comes up. I think this is good preparation though, because working as an engineer requires one to constantly learn and adapt, so it's a good habit to develop. Towards the end of the curriculum, everyone makes their own projects, which is a great culmination of the skills you learned. Overall, I enjoyed my time at a/A, and I thought that the program was taught well and that the instructors were great.
The job search is definitely the roughest part of the journey, but a/A is there to help, and it does require a serious amount of discipline and patience. In the end, almost everyone I was in the program with has jobs that they enjoy, and I'll be starting mine in a bit. I think attending a/A was one of the best decisions I've ever made, and I'd do it again.
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Menachem
App Academy Review
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I was part of the May 2017 NYC cohort and had an amazing experience. I put in a lot of hard work, often not getting home until after midnight but It was so rewarding that It felt like I was just having fun.
Cons:
1. The rigors of the job search. For me, the most difficult part of the entire process was the job search. I enjoy coding and solving problems but I absolutely hate sending emails and writing cover letters to try and 'sell' myself. This is not something specific to App Academy, but it is something to be prepared for. It took me over two months until I got an offer that I was happy with. About half of my cohort had to wait even longer. I know that doesn't sound like a long time but it IS when you're going through it. There were times that I didn't get any responses for weeks at a time and felt like I would never find a job.
Pros:
1. The tuition model. I applied when the tuition was 20% of the starting annual salary of the job I accepted. (They actually proactively lowered it to 18% because some students in my cohort had applied at that rate). For me, the low-risk payment model removed one of the greatest barriers to entry. It also gave me confidence that our goals were aligned and that success rates advertised were accurate (I too was skeptical before I experienced the outcomes first hand).
2. The students. Once I got in, I began to appreciate that App Academy sets a high bar and selects only the top 3% of applicants. Learning with a group of talented and intelligent students becomes a real advantage when you get stuck, don't understand something, or just need to discuss a concept.
3. The curriculum. The learning at App Academy follows a pattern of learning new material for homework, clarifying the details in the morning lecture, and hands-on experience in the afternoon projects. The curriculum is kept up to date with the latest stable technologies and focuses on applying the knowledge. For me, this helped in retaining what I had learned and cumulatively building upon it.
4. The career coaching. My App Academy career coach was AWESOME! The career coaches help students polish their resumes, online profiles, and cover letter templates. They also help to find and fix the bottlenecks in the job search. (For me it was the online profiles and resume. For others, it was practicing technical interviewing or adding features to their showcase projects). They give personalized advice and help keep graduates motivated when they're going through a rough patch.
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Brian
Learn loads, awesome support
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App Academy is terrific. I almost failed out of App Academy due to failing assessments, and spent more time job searching than most of my classmates. But because I had a really solid support system, from the friends I made to the job placements team, I finally secured a job that I'm excited about.
Back when I started in September 2016, if you failed two assessments, you were kicked out of the program. I was a pretty poor test taker due to high anxiety. When I failed my second assessment, I prepared my things and said my goodbyes. Thankfully, App Academy scheduled a retake, and I aced it. Now, I hear the retake policy is more lenient. My advice: take the practice assessments as many times as you can, and the chances of failing are much lower.
I spent 10 months searching for a job. When I started my job search, my soft skills were weak, and my technical skills needed a lot of improvement. I practiced around 3 times a week doing practice interviews and white-boarding with my friends using Skype. My coach taught me how to sound prepared and confident on the phone, and checked on me weekly to see how I was doing with my job applications.
The job search team also schedules mandatory workshops for job-seeking graduates to learn new skills and review concepts. They provide a really comprehensive list of networking events and meetups in the Bay Area where you can meet potential recruiters and other engineers. They're also some of the nicest people I've met; sometimes they'll just chat with you in the hallway and ask how you're doing. They always make sure they're available if you ever have any questions. -
Adam
Worked hard. Learned a lot. Got a job
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Full disclosure, I'm not the typical bootcamp student because I had lots of previous coding experience and even some development work. Went to a/A because I was doing QA and hated it. My previous experience undoubtedly helped me land a job after the curriculum was completed but a/A helped me gain a lot of skills and knowledge that I was lacking before.
App Academy was the hardest I've ever worked in my life but in a good way. I really felt like I was learning and retaining what we were being taught. Be prepared to work you a$$ off! It's 9-6 every day for 13 weeks and you will spend every moment outside of class studying. Get a haircut before the course starts because you won't have a free minute!
Also be warned that your continued enrollment in the course is subject to a strike system and doing well on coding assessments. The assessments are no joke and we lost about 8 people because of them. I studied every weekend for the assessments and had no regrets on that front. Strikes are for absences and lateness so be on time! People have been dismissed from the course this way.
The curriculum was interesting and my new job has even drawn on what I have learned there so it has definitely been valuable. I really like that they are constantly revising the course to ensure it is up to date and relevant. Almost every day was pair programming on projects which I think is a great way to learn since you don't have to struggle by yourself. One downside to the constant updating is that some of the curriculum is rough around the edges and it often seems like we were only working on a given topic for 2 days at most before we moved on. It's easy to feel overwhelmed but your fellow students and teachers are always there to help you. They have office hours everyday and people often stay late to do homework together if you need it.
It's also great that part of the course is focused on job search and interviewing skills because I never felt like I knew anything about this. It was very helpful to learn about writing resumes and cover letters. The job coach I had was really insightful and I owe him a lot. You'll get lots of whiteboarding practice too which is great because it's so awkward the first time you do it.
I met a lot of nice and interesting people and there's great diversity in the student body. The instructors are really dedicated and a/A recruits TA's from previous cohorts so they are on the same level.
In summary, I really liked the course and I think if you are serious about becoming a developer it's a great choice. Some of the curriculum needed refining but they are constantly improving everything. Lots of support and teachers are great! Be warned that it is INTENSE in every sense of the word.
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Jess
a/A's prep program is worth the time and money!
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App Academy’s prep program is exactly as advertised - a comprehensive, well thought out program devised to get you accepted into the top bootcamps. Through refined lectures and problem sets, Alvin and David made sure that I was on track to succeed in my interviews, and understood the content. Not only that, but they were very accessible should I have questions before class, and I would recieve nearly instantaneous responses to my questions through Slack. Following prep, I was accepted to every bootcamp I applied for, most notably App Academy, Hack Reactor, and Fullstack/Grace Hopper, thanks to the amazing support and instruction I received through App Academy’s prep program!
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Robert
Great Program for the Commitment
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App Academy has really made me appreciate my decision to commit to web development. If you are considering applying here, you really need to understand where you are and why you are making this commitment. If you don't fully commit, the program is not going to wait for you. If you understand this going in, then App Academy can help you go over the hurdles to become a full-fledged web developer.
My favorite aspect about this program is that every lesson builds on itself. There will be times that you feel like your behind, but that should motivate you to keep up. Eventually when you reach the end, you will realize how much you really know and how ready you are to move forward with your new career path.
I would highly recommend this program to anyone.
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Musa Raza
Awesome Experience
App Academy was the hardest challenge I have ever faced and it not only improved my skills as a software developer (I had none to begin with!) but also helped a lot to enhance my communication skills.
The course is incredibly challenging but your peers and TA's really want you to do well so be prepared to put in the work, and you will succeed.
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Karolis
Tough but rewarding
You wil work 100x harder and faster than you ever thought possible.
Overall an amazing learning experience.
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Abbas
Best Academy
It was an amazing experience and it was difficult. The amount of work is tremendous. However, the results are amazing! If amazing results are what you are looking for, look no furthur!!!
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Kyle
Great Experience
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I attended App Academy in July 2017. Overall, my experience was positive and I think the course gave me the tools I need to get a job as a web developer.
Pros:
- Great curriculum: The pace is extremely fast and it constantly feels like you're barely keeping up but the structure of the course with the weekly assessments keeps you on track and at the end, you realize you know more that you think you do.
- Great staff: The Instructors / TAs are available to answer questions throughout the day and they're good at helping you arrive at the right solution to the problem instead of feeding you the answers.
- Projects: You leave the program with 3 projects on your resume which you've built on your own.Cons:
- As the other reviews mention, expect to spend 90+ hours a week doing this. You will have very little time to do anything else.
- With the speed of the course and the weekly assessments, it can be very easy to fall behind and there's little to no time to catch up.
- The end of the course can seem a bit rushed as you rush to complete your resume and portfolio and start applying to jobs. -
Michael Johnson
Worth The Challenge
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The past few months have been some of the most intense in my entire life. It really is surprising how much material they were able to pack into three months. In a way it's almost too much to tackle at once; it takes a lot of mental and emotional fortitude to get through and really pushed me to my limits. I've made it through, but I came close many times to crashing and burning. Iif I had more time to prep myself mentally I would have waited a few months, but circumstance dictated that I get started as soon as possible. It was worth it in the end, but really difficult.
The upside of being at App Academy is that you know they have your back. The students and TAs are very supportive of one another and will help see you through a multitude of challenges, technical or otherwise. The best part is that this support continues until you've accepted a job offer! Don't be afraid to open up to the TAs; they really are there for you.
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Albert
Great!
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- 55 reviews
Great way to learn something new while paying a deferred cost. As with what everyone said, the program gives you the tools to acquire new skills at a blistering pace. The TAs know their stuff, and while you may not realize it as you're going through the program, everything falls into place at the end of it all, when you realize you're able to make things you never thought you could make, while learning the skillset to be able to learn new things on your own.
It's very enjoyable to be able to build applications that we use in our every day lives. You understand the process in how popular websites are made, and you start to respect the amount of work and detail that went into popular websites such as Facebook, YouTube, and Yelp. Now you can create your own if you like! -
Anthony R
What a great experience
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App Academy was one of the hardest yet most rewarding thing I've ever been through. I can't say enough about the people who are apart of this bootcamp. All of the TAs are incredible programmers, who can articulate complex algorithms, theories and concepts in a very understandable way.
The course is fast paced, but laid out in a way that keeps building on what you've learned the days before. I can't believe it was only 3 months long and now I can build websites, games and understand complex programming and engineering concepts.
It's amazing that after going through this bootcamp, I can switch careers and grow in an industry I love. -
Nate
Challenging But Worth It
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I came in with a little bit of programming experience - enough to know a few basic data structures and the difference between HTML and Ruby, but as I soon learned, not very much at all. The amount of information I learned in the first few days combined to be more knowledge than I had about programming previously. The course has a ton of great TA's, so even if you are feeling overwhelmed, there's always someone to talk to for help. Classmates come from all backgrounds and walks of life, but pretty much everyone was the same beginner when sitting down at the computer to pair. Because everyone is there for the same reason (to learn and become developers) everyone is willing to help out each other.
One warning: the course isn't lying when they say you will spend upwards of 90 hours a week programming. There is plenty of work to do outside of the classroom, and you'll want to do all of it to make sure you don't fall behind. The information is actually quite interesting and the lecture videos are well done, but it will be in your favor to keep on top of the work.
There's also a great alumni network to help find jobs after the course is officially finished. Because App Academy is one of the few long-lasting coding bootcamps, companies have learned that their graduates are different than other bootcamp graduates and are more willing to give potential employees the time of day.
Overall, I had a great experience at App Academy. It nurtures a collaborative atmosphere unlike many other places of learning. Come prepared to class each day, get plenty of rest, and there's no reason you too can't succeed at App Academy. -
Luis Espinola
Intense but well worth it.
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If you are interested in pursuing software development as a career App Academy will definitely get you there. When other reviews point out that it is really hard and intense they are not lying, but they payoff is more than enough to justify it. You get out of it as much as you put into it. There methodology and curriculum is excellent. Everything is finely crafted so students can get as much as possible from every day at App Academy. Each day you'll leave knowing some new tool or skill you did not know that same morning. The immersive nature of the program really goes a long way.
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Kenneth
Difficult, but worth it
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Pros: App Academy teaches you more information than you'd be able to pick up on your own. They consolidate the most important things in the industry, and package them for you to learn within a span of 8 weeks. However, even taking that into consideration, App Academy's greatest asset is the people. By that I mean, the instructors are extremely helpful and knowledgeable, and your fellow cohort members will be extremely hard working which will push you to work hard as well.
Cons: This will take over your life for 2 - 3 months. There are some outliers where some students get through just fine without spending 90+hrs a week, however for the vast majority, I'd say 90+hrs is the norm. Granted, you're learning so much in within that 2-3 month span, it shouldn't be too surprising how much time you're putting in.
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Patric
I learned a lot at App Academy
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I have a tech background including a good deal of time teaching myself programming and I still learned a ton at App Academy. I had no luck at all trying to apply to jobs when teaching myself. I feel that App Academy gave me the discipline to put together a portfolio I can feel proud of. It also filled in the gaps I had in my knowledge.
I suggest anyone applying to learn a bit on their own beforehand. Even with my self taught knowledge the course was very intense. Some people were able to go from a completely unrelated field and thrive but I feel like it is better to get some practice in first.
Overall App Academy was a great experience and I highly recommend them.
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Nicholas Gentile
Top Drawer
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When I was applying to boot camps, I did so simultaneously, to about 4 different boot camps. One of them accepted me right off the bat and I knew they were the wrong choiced. Others asked me to accomplish things in coding challenges that were far beyond my skill level without offering any instruction or legitimate curriculum.
With App Academy, the application process was very challenging, but you are given every opportunity to succeed via their resources. Also, the actual challenges they give you are algorithm challenges, very similar to whiteboarding questions you may get when you interview for a Developer position. This is in contrast to other challenges that ask you to build a Rails Twilio application or some other project that is very practical in nature.
Yes, building an application is a great way of finding out whether someone is a good programmer, but it tells you nothing of their potential. However, if you teach someone some basic programming principles and data structures: what is a string? an array? etc. and then ask them to solve a question that uses those data structures, it is a much better way to guage someones potential by seeing if they are capable of applying what they are learning. Building a full application is much too difficult a task to ask of a newbie without spelling out every step and at that point, you may as well just write the code for them.
So aside from the deffered tuition (which is nice), the application process is what got me hooked on App Academy.
Once you get in, first the first few weeks all you want to do is survive. You will be kicked out if you fail two exams. The first people to go are people who can't type (it's painful to watch them type with only their index fingers) and people who don't speak English as their first language. That's not to say that everyone who doesn't speak English as their first language will fail, not what I am saying. However, the sheer amount of information that will be thrown at you is mind numbing and every lick of it is in English. If there is no language barrier, you still only absorb ~75-85% of what you are taught. If there is a language barrier, that percentage drops. This makes it difficult to keep up in a very fast paced environment. I noticed the people who spoke English as a second language and did well in the class either had prior coding experience or were just insanely sedulous and dedicated to the craft. It can be done, but it is certainly harder.
Once you make it past the survival phase, which is after the fourth assessment (say week 4), then you start to think, "Ok, I don't want to just survive anymore, I want to excel." This is where the course gets really exciting because you begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. You start to think about things like a programmer. You get re-programmed. That's what this program does to you, it programs you to be a programmer (you like what I did there?).
If you're smart, you may be wondering, "Well what are some flaws, some bad things about App Academy". The one thing I can point to, which I got over once I bought into the program is this: you are not attending a/A to create a startup when you graduate. I have a ton of ideas for startups, yes, but if it's one thing I learned during my time at a/A, it's that programming is very hard and it will take time (and more importantly, work experience) for you to be good. The goal of an a/A graduate is to get a job, not to start a company with a cool new application that revolutionizes an industry. Get a job, pay us back, get some experience, and then go start a company. That is the message and to be honest, I agree with it. Now some other bootcamps, like Full Stack Academy, have avenues for students to pursue their startup aspirations. This is a luxury that only a school who is already paid can afford. At a/A, they don't make money unless you do and most startups don't make money, they cost money (trust me, I know firsthand).
Now, if they don't get paid unless you do, that means they have a vested interest in your getting paid. This system of deffered tuition is one that Milton Friedman espoused in his book Free To Choose. He devised this as a way to pay for education without the government paying for it, but admitted it would be very difficult to implement. Well, App Academy implemented and guess what, it works! The curriculum kicks ass. It is laid out in such a way that each topic builds on the next and moves very quickly so that every week your knowledge grows exponentially. I'm not going to go into specifics on the curriculum, the website does that. But I will say that I remember thinking often, "Wow, this curriculum is so good." Thank Ned Ruggeri et al!
In summary, and this has been a long review, I highly recommend App Academy.
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Brendan
Worth it
Overall happy with what I learned at a/A. There's a lot to take in, and it is a stressful period of time, but for many like me who have little to no coding experience, I'm amazed with the amount I learned in such a brief period of time. If you have the opportunity to join this bootcamp and are ready to commit, I would recommend App Academy. -
Brian
Tough as nails
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I was in the NYC May 2017 cohort, and was lucky enough to make it through to the end. I came in with a bit of development experience, but App Academy helped me take it to the next level. To simplify things, I'll boil it down to a few pros/cons that I felt to be true after my three month adventure.
Pros:
- you will be surrounded by very smart people with impressive and diverse backgrounds
- lots of pair programming (something you can't do alone in the basement)
- a/A wants you to succeed since they're making an investment in you from day one
- streamlined yet intense curriculum that will set you up for a job afterwards
- tuition model means you don't have to pay upfrontCons:
- As mentioned by many others, your social life will be nonexistent during the course
- You don't get much freedom in terms of what you do/learn in the main course
- If you're not meeting bare expectations, you'll be asked to leave
- Stress. Lots of stress. -
Vivi
Biologist turned Software Engineer - Best decision of my life!
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App Academy was the best decision I made and it was such an amazing experience. I graduated college with a Biology degree and was planning to go to physical therapy school, but my grades and GRE scores were not competitive enough, so I felt stuck. I was looking for a career change and that's how I found App Academy.
I strongly suggest learning how to code a bit to see if you like it! I ended up finding it more enjoyable to learn than studying for my GREs. I've never coded before and I had no CS or SWE friends, but I followed my instincts and decided to apply to App Academy.
For the interview process, I checked out the resources provided by App Academy to prepare for the coding challenges and found them helpful for getting a good start. I went through every possible interview round there was.. first it was a timed coding challenge which I passed, but decided to attend their Jumpstart program where you have the chance to be accepted straight into the program if you pass their assessments (Which I highly encourage if you can make it out to SF for two weeks - just email them for more information about it). Unfortunately, I didn't pass Jumpstart, so I returned to SoCal and continued with my interview process. I went through a live coding test, a homework assignment, a timed test, another live coding test, and then finally making it to the behavioral interview before receiving the acceptance email.
Program:
- If you are thinking about doing a career shift and have zero coding experience, know that it's possible but you will have to put in a lot of work to learn the material and not fall behind. App Academy will be difficult. They move at a really fast pace and it will be hard to keep up if you fall behind.
- Be prepared to have no life outside of coding for 3 months. Because they're also open on the weekends, I went to a/A every single day during the program. Take advantage of the study area since they have computers, a restroom, and a kitchen! Why go to a coffee shop and struggle to find open seats :) There were nights where I dreamt about code, went to sleep thinking about code, and woke up thinking about code.
- Don't feel down if you see that those around you are doing a lot better than you, a lot of times I realized that those around me have either coded before, taken CS classes, or have prior experience.
- Make sure to study well for the assessments, they are timed so make sure to practice taking them over and over and over again if you don't do well under pressure.
- Staff/TA was great! They split everyone into smaller groups, so there's a good amount of TAs per group. We had weekly circle time where we went around in a circle and talked about our week which I really liked.Job Search:
- My biggest challenge was to study algorithms, data structures, and mostly CS concepts since I did not have that background, but just study consistently the areas you feel you're weak at and practice. Set up a good routine and schedule for yourself. Resources provided by a/A
- Constantly check in with your coach! Meet up with your cohort mates to study and keep up the momentum to applying for jobs. Support each other.
- Buy yourself a whiteboard to practice writing out problems. Be comfortable talking about yourself and your projects (it's going to get repetitive)
- I wanted to wait until I received a job offer to leave a review... so I am happy to say that after 4 months of job searching, I received an offer from a company I am super excited to work for! Thank you App Academy! -
Ian O'Keeffe
Useful, structured program
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I attended App Academy this past winter, and it was a great program start to finish. Some background on me - I was coming from a software background building ads in Flash. I never had any organized instruction in software, so I pretty much only learned what I dealt with on a day to day basis. After a few years, Flash was almost dead, and I knew I had to get my skillset more in line with the current tech ecosystem.
I enrolled in App Academy, and start to finish it was an awesome experience. They had the right mix of lectures, well-written readings, and actual coding. Every day you'd be paired with a new partner, and then at night you'd have readings and homework to buff up your skills. It was a TON of work, but it was so busy and interesting that it never felt frustrating or overwhelming. It was just a matter of telling all your friends "I can't hang out for a couple months," and then putting the time in. That's a tall order I'm sure, but I think it was worth it. I swear at one point during a break, I felt my brain tingling from all the thinking I had been doing.
Anyway, they taught a wonderful full stack curriculum that left me well prepared for coding challenges and interviews. It took me a while, but my new job is paying me 30,000 more than my previous software job. App Academy is an intense program, but for me it was one of the most personally rewarding decisions I ever made.
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Hui
Great Choice
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I am currently studying at App Academy. I think I have made a great choice.
Curriculum:
The Curriculum is great and intense. Every night you will have homework and readings. Each morning you will have lectures and each afternoon you will do pair coding. Most of the time you won't complete the daily project
There will be 6 assessments and at least three large projects during the cohort.
It's not a joke of drinking from the fire hydrant. There is more and more stress every day.
No one is super confident through the whole cohort. or understand everything App Academy teaches you. At some point, you will feel behind. The TAs will tell you it's normal. You should believe it. At least I do.
Do your best to learn everything. Use all your time to work hard on it and believe you could make it through. -
Zuhair
Trial by fire
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By now there are tonnes of reviews for a/A and they are all true. The problem lies in who exactly they are true for. We all come from so many different backgrounds and lifestyles that our experiences can vastly differ from the reviews we read. However, there is one constant among us, the will to learn software development and the hope to get a great job in the industry. While I can't really comment on the second aspect (haven't actually begun job hunting yet), at the end of the day if you want to learn how to quickly and effectively develop software AND have a great time with your cohort mates and TAs, a/A is undoubtedly one of the best places you can choose to attend.
A few caveats that you should pay attention to. You have to eat, sleep and breath code. You have to constantly give more and more of your time and effort as the course progresses. As soon as you think things might start slowing down and you might have room to breath, the course will get more intense. So one of the best advice I can give to any one who gets accepted into a/A: KEEP UP WITH THE WORKLOAD, regardless of your daily schedule. The curriculum is one of the best, believe in it to teach you the skills you need as long as you can do what it tells you to do. On top of that the TAs (atleast in my "pod") are some of the nicest, smartest and the most knowledgeable people I have ever met. Use them.
The job search curriculum seems to slightly drop in quality (Not the lectures on actual job search, those are great, but the organization and content of that part of the overall course). The intensity never drops and you are forced to be more independent in your work, though do note that this is by design. You still learn buttloads of good stuff, especially on how to actually get a job which is what everything led up to. Despite that it feels a bit lacking coming from the main curriculum.
On a final note. There will always be times when you feel in over your head. There will always be times when you doubt your own ability. But if you are willing to ignore those thoughts and keep pushing through with the right mindset, trust me, you will become a software developer. Hopefully I'll remember to update the review once I get a job. Until then, good luck.