App Academy Reviews
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Anonymous
My Experience with a/A
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I had no coding experience or coding knowledge prior to attending and graduating from App Academy. App academy does a great job in creating a fundamental foundation for a software engineer. In terms of teaching, the teacher assistants and the instructors are mainly alumni who graduated recently from the program. The curriculum itself is great and helpful but there are moments when the instructor does a difficult time teaching the curriculum or it might be my learning style did not match with the instructor's teaching style. It's stressful in that you must pass each assessment in order to move on to the next topic and if you do not pass then you will be deferred and join the upcoming cohort. Deferring is not a bad thing, but knowing that there's a constant pressure to keep up with the material and keep an 80% or higher on the assessment is stressful. If you're not able to put in the time and effort after hours then I would suggest that this program is not for you. App academy really does emphasize the 80 hours per week in studies is necessary in order to graduate and be a well developed programmer. As someone who had no knowledge prior to joining, I would definitely recommend a/A's program to anyone who has an interest and passion about coding and who is willing to learn. -
Anonymous
Graduates
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I really enjoyed my experience at App Academy. I looked forward to attending class everyday and really enjoyed learning new material each day. It was a great experience and I valued my time in App Academy. The staff was always welcoming and understanding. I also made amazing friends during my time in the boot camp and consider them as close friends. I recommend this course to anyone who wants to learn how to code but it is a long commitment but definitely worth it. I really liked working with others and getting to know new people daily. -
Anonymous
Prepares you from start to finish; no experience needed
The program is fairly intensive, being a full-time commitment. That being said, the staff does a great job of walking you through the day to day and the ever-improving curriculum prepares you from any beginner level to being ready to apply for a full-time software engineering position. It's a little pricey, but a more than worthwhile investment. -
Anonymous
App Academy was one of the best experiences of my life
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I joined App Academy with no prior coding experience and I believe that I came out with a solid understanding of web development. The program was no small feat and you definitely need to put in the work, but for as little as just 4 months of your time, it was for sure worth it! Probably the biggest skill that I've learned early on in the program was how to use the debugger. This allowed me to debug my code as well as other people's code and figure out what every single line of code is doing. Definitely a great tool for beginners if they want strong fundamentals and just a better understanding of the code that they write. -
Anonymous
Good for those who need some structure
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App Academy has team of instructors who give lectures on SW topics and help with projects. These instructors and the job search coaches are recent graduates from AA who are also doing their own job search. The projects were fun to work on and helped me put into practice the knowledge and skills that I was gaining from the curriculum and from working with other peers. AA makes sure you adhere to deadlines and stay on top of your projects and job search. This bootcamp is useful if you need some extra encouragement and direction in software engineering.
On the curriculum:
You will learn Ruby, Ruby on Rails, SQL, Active Record, JavaScript, React and Redux. There is very little on CS topics and ultimately when you finish the curriculum, they tell you to go back and study data structures and algorithms on your own and via LeetCode because that is what companies will interview you on. There is an assessment almost every week for the first 2 months and will have very thorough practice tests and some will just be a simple practice test. Instructors will tell you to do each practice test at least 10x over the weekend and the assessments are mostly memorization of material. Every night there is homework to do each night to prep you for the project you will do pair programming with the next day. The quality of this material can vary greatly from topic to topic.
Post curriculum:
Once you finish the 16-week curriculum, you have to do 3 projects (JavaScript, Fullstack and MERN, with MERN being a group project) which will become your portfolio projects. Once these are done, their job search team will guide you through the process of making job search materials. This will includes resume, cover letter, portfolio website, creating GitHub, LinkedIn and AngelList profiles, and how to give a personal pitch. So far I have received wonderful feedback from coaches (also past graduates).
For those who are good at self study, you probably won't need AA because their curriculum is the same as their free online curriculum, or other free resources online. Communication with their team can be disorganized as they don't have a consistent platform to share information (including what is expected of each student). There were a couple things that caught us off guard and was a bit frustrating:
* We were initially told passing scores for assessments are 50% but once you start, they tell you its 85%
* They do not use Slack Premium, so you will not be able to look at communication that is over 1 week old
* Deadlines for various tasks may be given in Zoom chats, Slack or verbally (inconsistent) - It would have been best if they used email
* They have a bot that emails nightly with information needed but they are not updated - often we received deadlines for previous cohorts
* All marketing says it's a 16-week program but after the 16-weeks, they begin the job search period which you are still required to attend for at least the first couple weeks after graduation, meaning you can't make vacation plans, this should have been better communicated prior to signing onto bootcamp
Ultimately, it depends on what you want to get out of a bootcamp. They provide a set curriculum and structure for those who need it, which I like to have. I really enjoyed meeting people from a very diverse collection of backgrounds and learning from each of them. I also had a lot of fun using the knowledge learned to do the final projects. Since instructors are past grads, there is quite a bit of turnover and I think each cohort's experience will vary greatly depending on the team of instructors. It's a very good start for anyone who doesn't have a technical background and doesn't know how to start, or what materials to study on their own. -
Anonymous
In-person Full Stack Review
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Pros:
- AppAcademy has a great network of alumni
- Course is well-designed and allows students to explore different technologies / APIs during their projects
- Career coaches are experienced professionals who teach the best methods in getting jobs
Cons:
- Curriculum is outdated (Bootcamp utilizes version 5.2.3 for Ruby on Rails and uses Heroku Stack-18 which will be deprecated soon)
- Not a course for individuals who prefer a slower pace or wants to laze about - tests will defer you! -
Anonymous
Software Engineer
It was alright. There were many things that were lacking but all in all not all bad. -
Anonymous
Great investment, but high risk
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I think App Academy is a great choice if you're interested in landing a job as a software engineer. The curriculum was solid, the pace was fast but not unreasonable, and the people I met in the program were amazing. However, I do think enrolling has a lot of risk associated with it. Joining the bootcamp is a serious investment of your time and money, so if you have any hesitations or doubts then I would recommend taking as much time as you need before you agree to enroll. -
Anonymous
Would Recommend
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App Academy was a great experience. I attended the 16-week program online due to the pandemic. The first 2 weeks of the course is independent self study of Ruby basics with the AA curriculum. TAs are available for questions if you ever encounter a concept you don't understand. After the first 2 weeks, a normal day starts with a lecture in the morning and pair boarding in the afternoon. The evenings will consist of homework assignments to prepare for the next day's material. While it isn't always mandatory to complete all the assignments, it does help you get ready for the next day. Be prepared to spend over 90-100 hours a week learning. Since the program is so fast paced, if you fall behind it's very difficult to catch up.
Some of the AA material online is out of date from what’s being currently used. For example the curriculum teaches how to use the old React Router syntax instead of the newest one. Overall it does teach you the core concepts of many different technologies in a short amount of time.
I think the experience does highly depend on what TAs you get and how much of a self learned you are. The TAs I had were great and really spent the time to go over the material and answer questions. After finishing the bootcamp, App Academy assigns you a coach to help you with your job search. There are also many workshops and resources they have that really do help with the job search. The support they give you after graduating is one of the reasons I chose to go to AA. The system that have keeps you accountable and motivated during your job search.
If you are someone who wants a more guided and structured approach to learning coding, AA is a great choice. -
Anonymous
Incredible opportunity -- but you need to be self-motivated
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I did App Academy's 16-week program and got a job that pays $110k within a few weeks of graduating. What more do you need to know?
In all seriousness, this program is legit. I consider myself a strong learner with a good work ethic, but a/A pushed me further than I would ever have been able to go on my own. Personally, I think the high pressure of App Academy alone is worth the price. Do some back-of-the-envelope math for yourself, but, for me, the opportunity to get a job as a software engineer 4-5 months faster than it would've taken me if I were self-teaching (just a guess; it might've taken much longer) was easily worth more money than the cost of tuition. But the bootcamp isn't just about "structure and accountability", which is what people usually talk about when they're explaining why they did a bootcamp. The team project was extremely helpful when I was interviewing, and the job search support is A+, too. (Again, they push you to do far more than you probably would do on your own, like applying to 40 jobs in your first week on the market. They can also connect you to "partner" employers, though YMMV.)
Are there downsides? You bet! The time commitment is extreme. I gave up my social life for 4 months (plus a month of job-hunting). By the end, I was pretty ragged and feeling overworked. Also, the lectures in the morning were sometimes pretty awful, since many of the instructors are not great teachers and are reading from someone else's lecture notes. In their defense, most university-level teaching is awful, too, so it's not like you're going to find a better alternative. The upshot is that you need to be extremely self-motivated: Hit every target they give you, and compensate for any weaknesses in the curriculum/teaching by doing your own research. Is the lecture confusing or the assignment vague? Ask for help, scour the internet for other resources, and don't settle for being confused.
One more thing: Make sure you're ready. A number of students in my cohort didn't finish the program. As part of applying to a/A you need to complete their introductory curriculum, but I would recommend doing additional work (e.g. at least half of CS50x) just to make sure you really love this stuff enough to do it even when it's exhausting/difficult. Don't quit your job until you're sure you can take whatever a/A throws at you (and more)!
In sum, though, I loved App Academy, and there's no way I would be where I am today without their guidance and support! If you're serious about switching careers and becoming a software engineer, I strongly recommend App Academy. -
Anonymous
Amazing bootcamp
The curriculum was very thorough. I feel as though I learned a lot and I feel confident. I met great people ans have made some life long friends. Really happy that I chose App Academy. I highly recommend it to anyone pursuing a career in software engineering! -
Anonymous
Graduate
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I graduated last year with a CS degree, but knew absolutely nothing about actual engineering work. The first 3 weeks at a/A gave me more practical skills than my entire degree, and within a few months of graduation I was getting contacted by companies that I had never even applied to, including at least one FAANG company. What made the difference on my resume is not that I had a/A listed, but that I had actual projects with links to live websites and bullets talking about the technical details of what I worked on.
That's honestly the biggest strength in this (or any) coding bootcamp. Yes, I learned a ton from the instructors, the lectures, the curriculum, and even from my classmates. But what I needed to land a job was real experience working on real projects using the technologies that companies are looking for. Whether or not you have any prior coding experience, you WILL come out of this bootcamp with at least 3 projects that you can call your own and discuss in-depth with potential employees. There's nothing more exciting than reading at a job description a week after graduation and realizing, "Wow, I know how to do all of that."
My perspective is definitely skewed by the fact that I had a CS degree coming in. However, I can assure you that by the time we got to week 3, we were learning things way beyond what I was taught in college. And yet there were plenty of students around me with no coding background at all who were doing as good or better than I was.
It's a very tough course. Expect that you will have to pour every ounce of yourself into it for 4 months straight, with the constant fear of failure hanging over your head. Make sure you are mentally (and physically) ready to handle that. But if you are, then you will do fine, and you will get a job afterwards. -
Anonymous
You get what you put in
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The most important aspect of the bootcamp is the ISA (income share agreement) model, which aligns their financial interest with yours--you only pay tuition after you get a job (while acting in good faith). The bootcamp is designed to teach you from the ground up, so prior coding experience is not needed. However, this also means that the bootcamp will focus on breadth instead of depth of material and topics covered. The goal is to provide you with the bare minimum required to qualify for entry level positions. Actual job search success depends on individual effort, but there is continued support until you do so. For many, acquiring a job post-bootcamp will simply be a numbers game. -
Anonymous
Learned a lot!
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Before App Academy, I didn't know how to use a terminal. But after graduating from the 16-week online program, I learned how to build full-stack projects and debug codes to make the app live. You get what you put in so make sure you allocate at least 100 hours per week to study and work on projects. What I like most about App Academy though is how supportive the staff and TAs are. If you have any questions or you don't understand something, they would try their best to help you. The only downside about the curriculum is that it's outdated. If you want to learn the updated technologies, you would have to read the documentations on your own. Even then, you can't use it on your full-stack project so that's a bummer. -
Anonymous
Graduated August 2021
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Pros
- Being surrounded by like-minded people going through the same struggles was a great experience.
-Plenty of support getting to the interview phase for the Bootcamp compared to other places
- Overwhelming amount of knowledge
- Incredibly supportive
Cons
- The curriculum and the versions of the technologies that we were using were slightly outdated.
- Unlike other boot camps, you can get kicked out of the Bootcamp for failing multiple tests or getting 10 strikes (but I believe this pressure makes for better coders) -
Anonymous
App Academy is the way to go
I went into App Academy knowing just a bit of HTML and CSS and graduated as a Full-Stack Developer. You must go into this program with the mentality of wanting a challenge and wanting to push your limits. App Academy is a demanding program, but it is so rewarding once you graduate. Good luck programmers! -
Anonymous
Rigorous but effective!
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My friends recommended App Academy to me because they have met several aA alumni in their workplaces and thought them to be great engineers. I have an engineering background so am used to rigorous academics, but aA still definitely required a lot of hard work and many hours of studying. I think it is a great place to quickly learn essential SWE skills, but a lot of the CS fundamentals, algorithms, data structures, etc. are not a big part of the course so we will have to study that on our own time for job search. It would also be great if they can update the curriculum to include more in-demand technologies (React hooks, for example). The instructors/TAs and cohort mates are awesome, but the career coaches really don't provide much help and it's mostly on us to gather as much resources as possible after graduation. -
Anonymous
interesting
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There are definite ups and down. The curriculum is ever changing and evolving. I do not believe the iteration I went through was the best, but the main points and flow are there. They definitely teach you most of the foundation you will need to go forward. There is some consistency issues throughout the program. However, is patch by very passionate instructors. I do wish that we have more software engineer veterans and experience leaders. This program is not easy, if you looking to give you basics and foundation to go forward as a software engineer and full stack dev this is worth it. If you really want to be software engineer this is almost required experience especially starting from ground zero. Just be aware it is a bootcamp still so 60+ hours of work is expected, as for me who is a slower learner I easily did 80+ hours and barely scarped survived the program. -
Anonymous
Good ideas poor execution.
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App Academy (aA) should really be considered a program under development. They pass this off as a feature rather than a bug and in theory it is but not they way that they do it. The company is overly compartmentalized which seems to be intentional to give any department the ability to pass the proverbial buck onto another department. Often you find that the materials lack in the way of pedagogy. In addition many of the instructors early in the program have not been given much in the way of training to educate students. The TA's have had less training in that regard from the start of the program to the end. An additional note on the TA's in some cases the TA's you will have will have graduated only days previous. I am not saying they are not capable software developers but there is a difference between being able to write code and being able to teach a person how to write code. aA will constantly try tweaking things to create "improvements" these improvements are often in good spirit but poorly thought out. Changes are not relayed from department to department, Instructors and TA's have not familiarized themselves with the new curriculum or the implementation of the improvement is just for lack of a way of saying it bad. This is normal when changes happen in a company, growing pains will happen of course. The problem with that is you as a student are only going to go through a portion of the program once or face deferral. If the portion of the program you are going through has had changes made to it for your iteration the mistakes made by the program are blamed on you and you face the consequences. Now those are the negative portions of aA.
These are the positives, The staff in most cases care greatly for the students there are some exceptions to that through. The program will teach you how to write code. I started with absolutely no coding experience and made it through the program and feel comfortable calling myself a software developer. The program is great for a person who may not have the discipline to teach themselves. You will make deep and real friendships in the program.
Words of advice to students considering aA. Don't expect aA to read your mind, you have to communicate with the staff. Get to know your PTM and Assistant PTM. They will be your rock through the program. Do not be afraid to give them real feedback on the program or things going on. They really do take it with grace and do care how you are doing. It is a Marathon and not a sprint. Take care of yourself and your mental health. Take the breaks when you have them (and there are not many.). Deferral is not the end of the world, you can and will survive it. -
Anonymous
It was worth it!
I had a great time studying at App Academy. It was not easy but with the help of the amazing instructors and all the friends I met along the way I was able to make it through. I would definitely recommend this course to anyone who is looking to make a switch to the computer engineering field! -
Anonymous
Life-changing Rollercoaser
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I attended a/A due to all of the great reviews and recommendations on different sites. After attending and graduating, I can tell you they were spot on. I never expected to feel so comfortable with applying for tech roles. Drinking from a fire hose is an understatement. You will repeatedly feel behind, but do not worry. You are not the only one. I would attend a/A again if I could go back. The cohort you join is a giant group of friends that are all wishing for your success. I did my best learning and networking during the mandatory pair-boarding sessions each day.
My only issues with a/A would be maybe adding more leet code questions or more information on UI/UX. Overall, I would recommend a/A to anyone who has a support network and a strong desire for a career change. It will be tough, but worth it in the end. -
Anonymous
High Cost, Poor Value
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There's a lot of Hype for App Academy; their enrollment specialists promise big ($100k/yr job, ready for software development in ~6 months, you can do it you just have to work hard) but their delivery on that promise is extremely shaky.
App Academy tries to get around this by putting the responsibility for learning solely on their students instead of admitting their program is badly formulated and leaves students behind -- but poor test design, subpar teaching, and a high degree of students having to teach themselves and fill in glaring knowledge gaps leads to App Academy feeling like a ripoff rather than a school.
My experience was not great at this online bootcamp. While the instructors are highly knowledgeable about code they do not know how to *teach* the concepts effectively -- which when combined with the pace of the bootcamp results in instructors pelting the class with information and then getting salty when the cohort can't keep up.
Half of class time is spent in pairs working off of pre-recorded material and problems to solve -- the equivalent of which could easily be found on YouTube and coding sites like leetcode for free. To be blunt, there is no possible way that this instruction could be worth $20-$30k.
If you choose to waste your money on App Academy, know that you are paying the equivalent of a nice new car for the App Academy name on your resume -- and pretty much nothing else. Everything I learned at App Academy I could have learned for FREE elsewhere online -- this bootcamp is not quite a scam but it's a near-miss.
This bootcamp relies on its price point to trick prospective programmers into believing it is good -- it is not. If you choose to leave mid-bootcamp, App Academy will charge you $160 PER DAY for their poor-quality instruction... even though their instruction is only 3 hours per day in the class. That means they are charging students $55 an hour for subpar instruction that is equal in quality to free youtube videos.
App Academy tries to say that your fellow students are some kind of amazing resource -- this is a stretch of the truth at best. You could just as easily find beginner programmers on reddit or StackExchange and work together from there, saving yourself thousands in the process.
App Academy is 80% hype. All you are really paying for is the name on your resume -- you will not learn ANYTHING in this course that a reasonably intelligent student could not learn on their own using the internet as a resource. Sign up for the bootcamp if you want, but be prepared to feel cheated when you realize how little you get for your money. -
Anonymous
Grueling but worth it
The curiculum was super intense but totally paid off. You really learn the skills you need and how to apply them effectively. You'll also meet a ton of great people. Online attendance was incredibly helpful. -
Anonymous
Great Experience
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Pros
- Great community of people and great alumni
- Great instructional team
Cons
- Curriculum could be updated
Overall, I really loved my experience at App Academy. There were times I wish it was in person because it would have been nice to have a full immersive experience, but I think they still did a great job in handling everything remote. It really is about the work you put in because they can teach you everything, but it's all about the effort you put in to try and understand the material. I wish they could have updated the curriculum a little bit, but I still came out feeling confident in my skills to code. You also meet a lot of great people there! -
Anonymous
Amazing Experience!
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I loved my experience at App Academy! I highly recommend it to anyone looking to join a software development bootcamp. I came into it with no prior coding experience and by the end of the 16 weeks I had completed 3 projects that I am incredibly proud of. They are not lying when they say it is an INTENSIVE bootcamp. It is extremely rigorous and you have to spend your entire energy on this program but it definitely pays off! I learned so much and all the TAs are so incredibly helpful! They are all excellent teachers and you can really tell they love teaching and care about your success. It was a great experience and I would recommend it to everyone :) -
Anonymous
In-person SF Fullstack
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Pros
-meet great friends / establish good network
-great instructors
-a lot of resources after program is over to help with job search
Cons
-curriculum can be updated
Overall
It's a fast paced tough program. It covers the basics and fundamentals to get you a job. If you want a job quickly after the program, onus is on you to study data structures and algorithms and to take advantage of aA resources to prep for interview -
Anonymous
Software Engineer
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I started the program in July 2020, while the pandemic was in full swing, and finished it in October 2020. I felt like App Academy did a good job organizing the switch to a virtual cohort and while I still wish I had that immersive in-person experience, I think I had a good and rewarding experience overall.
Pros: - The curriculum is well assembled and the projects do a great job of teaching the intended materials. I enjoyed working on daily projects a lot. - Almost every day, you pair-program with a new partner to work on a project. I liked this because it lets us practice our soft-skills which are very important in the real world. I worked with some amazing partners and we ended up having fun the majority of the time. - The instructors and TAs were helpful and were always available to point you in the right direction but never explicitly give you the answers.
Cons: - Ruby was the first language taught to us in the curriculum, but they are switching to Python instead. While Ruby is a great language, I would have preferred to learn Python instead as it seems to be widely used in the industry. Alumni do have access to the Python module. - The last couple of weeks of the curriculum that lead up to the job-search part of the program felt rushed. We were introduced to an entirely new placements team but I found it difficult to reach them much less connect with them. -
Anonymous
I tripled my salary
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This review is a bit about App Academy, but it is also about my personal experience there. There are plenty of reviews talking about App Academy specifically and all the different things that make it great, but I think getting another data point on what my experience was can hopefully give you some sense on how you will be able to handle a bootcamp. (For the record, App Academy is amazing, the teachers are awesome, the documentation is 'mostly' great, and I tripled my salary after a month of job seeking)
Prior to joining App Academy, I was about a year out of college and was working as a software engineer recruiter. In college I graduated with a degree in Economics and took several computer science classes out of genuine interest. I soon began to realize that several months into my recruiting job that I did not like the work, but was still interested in software engineering. I did a lot of research and decided App Academy was the best bootcamp and I would strive to get in. I completed a web development udemy course as prep and a refresher, then applied, interviewed, and was accepted.
The class was technically the in-person New York software engineer track but it was online due to Covid.
I had some experience with software engineering and it's principals prior to App Academy, so the first few weeks of the course were nothing more than further review of things I had learned, but in a different language, Ruby (I believe courses now will use Python instead). Every day you have a lecture in the morning followed by projects to complete with a partner by pair programming. This is a good way to learn if you are both on the same level of understanding about the current subject, but can be frustrating when that is not the case.
In the first two weeks of the course you have two exams, if you fail one of them you are suspended until the next cohort to study up and get a better understanding of the basics. If you cannot pass these exams or struggle to, you will not make it to the end.
After those two weeks, you are allowed to fail two assignments. The first one you fail you do not have to retake, however, the second one you fail you must retake it later than day. If you fail it once again, you will be asked to leave the cohort, and you are not able to join another.
I thought it is important to include that to know what you are getting into, it can be very stressful for some people, so please to your own studying and prep before you decide to do this course because it is extremely fast paced. Fully understanding all the material if you are learning it for the first time is unlikely.
By the end of the course we had about 40 of our original clas size of 60 that graduated. After you graduate you are pretty much on your own, they give you a career coach but they are dealing with so many job seekers that they have minimal time for you per week (maybe 1-2 hours).
I graduated on October 23rd and instantly began polishing up my final projects, resume, linkedin and other job seeking sites. After I was happy with how I was presenting myself, I went hard at Leetcode and did a dozen or two problems a day, making sure I was understanding them, and hitting a variety of subjects. By the end of my search I was capable of doing all easy problems and most medium level problems.
While doing leetcode problems I would apply to jobs mostly on linkedin and google jobs. Technically, you are supposed to wait to apply to jobs until your career coach gives you the OK, but i went ahead and started applying anyways because it takes so long to get feedback from them. About 2 weeks into my job search I hadn't received anything back from any companies until I got a take home interview question from Draftkings. I was able to complete that (it was about OOP and building a companies organizational chart, so DFS was involved). I had a HR call the week after, and the week after than I had a virtual onsite (more OOP questions, working with json-like objects, talking about my projects, and whiteboarding (design a messaging app). I thought it all went really well, and a week later I was given an offer, which I accepted since I had NOTHING else in my pipeline.
I felt I was pretty lucky to get a job only a month out of graduation, as the first interview i landed was the job I got (i had nothing else in my pipeline), and that will certainly not happen to everyone. However, it happened to me and I pretty much tripled my salary from my last job. Bootcamps are worth it if you are able to handle the amount of information being thrown at you and you are ready to work non-stop for about 6 months with no pay (3 months at bootcamp, 3 months avg job search). Hope this helped. -
Anonymous
Awesome Instructors
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App Academy was a great experience overall. You really have to be committed 100% to get through it. I thought I was in over my head the first week or 2 but the instructors were the reason I stuck it out. They were not only great teachers but also excellent motivators. Once I got to the first project week I really started enjoying every day and was able to see the results of all of our hard work. I think a/A does a great job of picking out the best candidates for the program as everyone, staff, and students, were awesome to work with. I thought about self-learning programming early on, and after going through the 24-week online program, I know it wouldn't be possible to be where I'm at now had I tried. A word of advice to those who are already decided to go through the program: Don't cheat yourself, treat yourself. It is so much better to struggle early on and figure it out on your own or with a partner/instructor than to look at any answers. Mistakes will teach you so much more than getting it right the first time. You will make a lot of mistakes and that is a good thing. -
Anonymous
School
School is very good, very supportive faculty over all good expirence. -
Anonymous
You get what you put in!
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I made the push to join App Academy after feeling lost and overwhelmed with all the free programs online. The "online" course is very current with the technologies they teach, and curriculum is always taking feedback from students and staff to find ways to improve. Since the start COVID-19 there's been a huge influx of new students, so I can't speak on the way things will progress... what I can say is that my instructional staff was clearly very passionate about the material and did everything they could to see students succeed. Be prepared to really commit the full 40+ hours a week for classes and self-study. I do wish more time was spent on learning data structures and algorithms, but what you do learn is very job-oriented. There is also a dedicated team of staff that will coach you through your job search! -
Anonymous
software engineering
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I enrolled in a in person cohort but due to pandemic it was switched to zoom. The bootcamp was intense but everyday you are learning something new and practicing that in the pair-programming. TAs were great and really helpful. Many of them had gone thru the course themself so they knew the sort of problems and understanding that is required to be successful. Everyday seemed really long but at the end of the week friday seemed to come by really quickly as you are coding every hour. I feel like I am very confident in my ability to code and I have also discovered tons of resources which I will look into to further my coding skills. -
Anonymous
Software Engineer
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App Academy did a great job giving us all the skills we need to become a good software engineer. The program is fast paced and students will only get out what they put into it. The high frequency of tests helped ensure that concepts were nailed down quickly but could also change some student's priorities to test taking rather than learning the actual concepts. The TAs were very supportive and helpful and there was a tight nit culture despite our cohort being switched to online only due to COVID. Overall would recommend. -
Anonymous
A good way to get started!
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As someone who was debating between attending App Academy or another bootcamp, I ultimately do not regret my decision to enroll with App Academy. There were several unknown factors at the time of my decision making (such as not knowing if in-person learning would become available at any point during the cohort), and I think I made the best decision I could with the knowledge I had at that point in time. With that said, there are several factors that I'd like to stress for others who may be making similar considerations:
PROS:
- This program will, at the end of the day, accomplish its goal of teaching you how to code. Or at the very least, will help equip you to continue learning more on your own after the bootcamp is over
- It's recognized as one of the top bootcamps, which is significant since bootcamps can have a stigma associated with them in the actual workplace
- The TAs seem to genuinely want everyone to succeed, and the fact that they are all former students makes them more empathetic to the pressure on current students
CONS:
- Curriculum or general operating procedures don't seem as polished as they could be. Several of the recorded video lectures towards the middle of the curriculum seem more dated, which didn't instill the highest sense of confidence in the product that App Academy provides
- Intense focus on passing assessments. As other reviews mention, the foundation of the curriculum is based on weekly (and towards the end, bi-weekly) assessments. Failing any of the fundamentals assessments (weeks 1 and 2) results in being deferred to another cohort, and failing any 2 of the 6 remaining assessments results in dismissal. While this certainly keeps students on their toes, it also results in prioritizing just passing the assessment over understanding the concepts, especially if you don't have any prior CS knowledge
- Pair-programming for hours every day, especially over Zoom, is taxing. Pair programming is clearly a huge part of the App Academy experience, but as one of the first cohorts that was taught the in-person curriculum entirely over Zoom, it would have been preferable to see App Academy try to be more creative in addressing specific needs of an online experience
All in all, if you're looking for a way to accelerate your journey into becoming a software engineer, feel that you have a good support system, and are ready to work really hard, a bootcamp might be the right choice for you. -
Anonymous
Awesome start for your coding carrier!
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I was hesitating in the beginning if I should join or not because of the COVID situation. I wanted to join an in-person course and I knew it was not going to happen for a while. I was not sure if the school was fully prepared to change the course to fully online. Well, they made an amazing job with that! This was my first online school experience and I have to admit that everything was well managed. The only frustrating thing is that we paid the same amount even though we did not use any equipment from the school and the online courses are usually less expensive. When they say you gonna be studying 80-100 hours a week they are right! After a day full of lectures and pair programming you will need to work on your homework, which takes between 1 and 4 hours to complete. Don’t except anybody to do the hard work instead of you. The instructors are amazing and are always ready to help! Many times they answered our questions late night or during the weekend as well which is really cool. The strike system is extremely annoying! You need to press buttons on an online surface indicating that you are working. If you get enough strikes, you are out! Many times I missed the 5-10 minutes “button pressing window” because I was working on a project and I forgot. For me this is complete nonsense. Overall it was a great experience! I did not have any previous coding experience when I applied to the course. Now, I am about to graduate and I am satisfied with the progress I have made thanks to aA! I don’t think it is extremely hard to get accepted and to graduate but it is almost impossible to get all the knowledge they are trying to provide. You are going to get a lot of material in a short amount of time and it is going to feel like drinking from the fire hose. It only depends on you how much you get from it! -
Anonymous
Covid Coder
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Once covid-19 hit I was very unsure about a lot of things, I was unsure if this program would even continue but I can truly say I'm very happy it did. My time at App Academy couldn't have come at a better time. I have one week left in the bootcamp and can proudly say that I'm a software developer. This bootcamp is difficult, you will struggle, you willl be stressed, you will be exhausted physically and mentally... but you will be a much better developer because of it. -
Anonymous
Got money to burn?!
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I fell for this bs. My fault. But they lay a very attractive trap. Would like to watch pre-recorded videos and then have some non-pro just repeat it the next day at you? Would like to learn on your own, be given the false idea that you have TA's available at the for an average of a minute-per-day, and then pay us $28,000.00 for it? Be very WARY of the 'do not pay until hired'; they will harass you day in, day out, if you are not 'making good progress' towards getting that impossible rookie job, and then give you claims for money you have not earned under the guise of 'well, you didn't make enough effort!'...
Be smart. Save your hard-earned money and learn on your own. If you are truly motivated you can find great free help online!
Stay away from these thieves! -
Anonymous
Solid-enough curriculum, good job support, and fantastic TAs
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I’ll start by saying how much the instructors clearly care about the process. Every instructor has been through a/A themselves and it clearly shows in their passion and ability to teach the material. The instructors were hands down the best part about App Academy.
The curriculum could use some updating to more in-demand technologies (I know they’re working on incorporating Python), but for the most part it was good, and you retain access to it indefinitely. It does drop off in quality towards the end of the instructional period and in the JavaScript portion specifically, but probably only drops as far as a ⅗ star score in some places in my opinion.
The job search curriculum is pretty good. If you’ve been through anything like it before, it’s an above average placement program. If it’s your first exposure to legit job-coaching, it would be very valuable. -
Anonymous
Great program!
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Before signing up for App Academy, I did a good amount of research among all different coding bootcamps and everyone seemed to agree App Academy was one of the best. They were not wrong.
If you're considering applying for this program, you will need to give up most of your time and prioritize this program before anything else. You will spend at least 80 hours per week studying and working on projects. It is all worth it at the end but can also very overwhelming if you don't know what you're getting into.
You don't need any prior experience to enter App Academy but def previous knowledge will help you onboard faster. My advice is to spend as much time as possible before the bootcamp starts reinforcing some of the key concepts. You will not have a lot of free time once the bootcamp begins!
The first few weeks are really intensive and you will have to digest a lot of new information. I believe the key is to always keep an eye in the big picture. You don't need to fully understand every single algorithm and detail. This will come later.
I also strongly recommend you don't fall behind the program. Do your homework and assignments every day (catching up is extremely hard).
Now that the bootcamp is almost over I am looking forward to my next step in the process: finding a job! App Academy provides numerous resources to help you achieve this. -
Anonymous
Great bootcamp, if you put in the work
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App Academy definitely is not for the lazy or unmotivated individual. The rigorous 1000-hour course demands attention, focus, and dedication. However, if you put in the work and time, this bootcamp is completely doable and gives you all the materials you need to succeed. The pace is slower during the first ten or so weeks, but really ramps up afterwards. The latter half of the bootcamp really requires you to buckle up and self-teach a lot more, as the curriculum is not as polished as the first half.