App Academy Reviews
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MSong Verified via GitHub
Nice program, great people
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While having a structured learning environment, and a well-curated curriculum is essential for success in absorbing so much material in such a short time. I felt the most important yet unadvertised aspect of App Academy is the camaraderie and mutual support engendered by its people.
I learned so much from my classmates who were all diligent and brilliant . They inspired me to try harder and keep up. The TAs are knowledgable and supportive. My advice to any prospective student is to have faith in the program and also have blind faith in yourself.
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Broly Verified via LinkedIn
Software eng
Software eng -
Alex Ng-Yow Verified via LinkedIn
It's an amazing experience when everything comes together at the end
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App Academy was a challenging experience, but equally as rewarding. I was very nervous going into the bootcamp, and even even considered dropping out in the very beginning. With the help of my TA's, however, I was able to over come my anxiety and persevere. There will be times that you feel overwhelmed, but do your best to absorb what you can and by the end of the program you'll be amazed at what you can accomplish. Also, never sacrifice sleep for work. The curriculum goes at a steady pace, but will not wait for you to recover if you start to lag. Finally, make sure to talk with the TA's if you need assistance, they are all great people and more than willing to help with questions or other problems.
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Ivo Pavlov Verified via LinkedIn
In reality: 1500+ hours of rigorous curriculum
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I just finished the online curriculum that began May 27, 2019, and ended November 8, 2019. The curriculum is no easy task. It takes everything you have. I was only able go through the course because I had an amazingly supportive partner that did everything while I studied and coded. Seriously, you will have no time to do anything besides study, code, and sleep. If you do anything else your performance will suffer. Be prepared to give up everything else in your life for the duration of the curriculum. I was putting in 80 hours per week and more. You get very few reprieves during your time in App Academy; it's called a bootcamp for reason. Do the readings. Do the homework. I will repeat: DO THE READINGS, DO THE HOMEWORK. Pass the assessments. You won't have time for anything else. You will do fine.
That being said, the curriculum is fairly good/decent, and will tell you what you need. Some spots are a bit lacking. The real value, however, is in the instructors. Without their guidance this would have been a much more difficult mountain to climb. My cohort was incredibly fortunate to have a pair of amazing instructors who not only did what App Academy expected them to do, but went well above and beyond. They gave up weekend days to help us study for assessments, one of them helped us from the airport on their day off while traveling, stayed after class to answer any questions, recorded these after-hours sessions for those who were unable to attend due to various reasons. In addition to that, make friends! You will help them, then they will help you. You will understand something they don't; they will understand something you won't. I made a tight-knit group and we have been helping each other since. You will keep each other accountable. The full stacks might seem a little rushed, but you will come back to them later.
The job search is definitely another mad dash afterwards. Just because the curriculum is over, doesn't mean the bootcamp is; it's over when you get hired. You are give a lot of help and support to get you started; resume help, portfolio site help, how to deploy your full-stack sites, and more. Afterwards, once you are given the green light to start applying (they might keep you from it for a week so you can polish your full-stack projects and do a mock interview to make sure you are ready), you are required to do at least 25 job applications per week to hold to your end of the tuition contract, along with continual studying/improvement of your skills; all of this is logged in an online system.
If you can get through the next 6 months (less for in-person) and trudge through the rejections in the job hunt, you will be glad you went to App Academy. Make no mistake: it will be tough.
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Joanna Chen Verified via LinkedIn
My trust in the curriculum never ceased.
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If you're a hard worker, then App Academy is the place for you! From the very beginning of the application process, I was impressed with how much I learned from just following App Academy's free online Intro to Ruby coursework. My trust in the curriculum never ceased. The atmosphere is one of the best educational atmospheres I've experienced - I'm sure this is because of App Academy's amazing TAs. It might be intimidating to hit the ground running with tons of new material every week, especially with App Academy's test fail-out system.. But at App Academy, you will be a part of a great community of people who are as hardworking as they are talented and smart. You will all struggle together and learn SO much together - all the hard work will pay off!
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Jennifer Wong Verified via GitHub
Awesome!
The 12-week curriculum went through Ruby, Rails, React, Redux, JavaScript and much more. There will be pair programming almost everyday. Even if you are not used to meeting or speaking with new people, you will eventually get used to it and definitely will boost up your confidence.
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Griffin Verified via LinkedIn
Would recommend to anyone serious about software development as a career path
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If you are willing to put in the work, this program will undoubtable prepare you for working as a software dev. Definitely not for everyone and would only consider if you are willing to make a/A your only focus for 4-6 months. Workload and pacing is extremely fast and many struggle to keep up (more like 90 to 100 hours a week), but extremely rewarding in the end. Due to the competitive tuition models, there is definitely a ton of filtering in the admissions process, as well as several systems/assessments in place throughout the course to make sure students are giving their full effort and not just along for the ride. Transition from 12 week to 16 week is apparent and still being worked out, but the sheer amount of material and resources available is truly incredible. This being said, this is a double edged sword in that there is always something to be working on and you will never really feel like you "completed" anything before moving on... but that's the point. Constant exposure to a wide range of material day in and day out. Pair programming daily; get ready to work with others and be able to explain your thoughts and programming decisions on the fly. Really forces you to do the daily homework and show up prepared each day, ready to learn even more in lecture. Job and career coaches are really dedicated to helping you get your materials together and seem to genuinely care about your success after the program ends. Course work is really relevant and tailored to languages and frameworks that are considered relevant/trendy in the industry, as well as plenty of attention given to theory/algorithms/more theoretical material that will help in interviews, as well as just general programming knowledge. Big focus on Ruby/Rails in the beginning, with a hard shift to JavaScript about halfway. Will feel very comfortable with both by the end. You are very on your own for the projects. Instructors will help with large bugs, but other than that, you pretty much utilize what you learned in the previous 12 weeks of the course. Speaking of instructors, they essentially hire the most well rounded ~2 students from every cohort, so they're an amazing resource for help and advice. Overall, amazing experience and would recommend to anyone who is looking to change their career/get their start in software development. I feel very prepared in regards to the languages /frameworks i've learned here, but also things like OOD, TTD, algorithm and database design, etc.
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Albert yee Verified via LinkedIn
Software Engineer
At App Academy, you'll be learning something new everyday throughout the course of the program. You'll be drinking out of a fire hose going full blast and trying not to drown but all the instructors at App Academy will be at your disposal keeping you afloat so utilize them and you'll learn a lot!
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Ricardo Verified via LinkedIn
AppAcademy BootCamp
I just graduate from App Academy, I was a great experience overall. My favorite part of the program was the group projects, I learn a lot on how to work in a team, code review and pull request, we used all our knowledge acquire during the past 12 week and built a great project. Great Program, recommended.
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Zak Verified via GitHub
for some there is no better
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App Academy has assuredly been the hardest thing that I have done but, it has also been the most rewarding. Going from no programming experience to a real full-stack developer who feels capable enough to interview at components like Google or Amazon is what App Academy promises and it delivers. IF you put in the work, and there is almost no time for breaks. It is not for everyone but for people who think that sounds like the right fit, there is no better
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Daniel Verified via GitHub
High School Dropout to Software Engineer
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App Academy was by far the most stressful time of my life and at times straight-up miserable... That being said I would not trade the experience for anything. Going through App Academy 24 week course is one of the things I am most proud of. Just for a bit of context I am a 21-year-old high school dropout that didn't finish the 10th grade and was in and out of homeless/domestic violence shelters with my mom and sisters. sufficient to say we missed a lot of school. My son was born when I was 16, married my high-school sweetheart at 17, and my daughter was born when I was 19. The point is that there was every reason for me to think that I wasn't good enough to have the title Software Engineer. However, 3 weeks ago I finished the 24-week online course and can say with a high degree of certainty that I will land a job in the next few months (Will update onChange). This is not to say that the course is not hard. It was the single hardest thing that I have ever done. When they say 100 hours a week they mean it. I personally did at least 16 hour days 7 days a week for 20 weeks( throughout the main part of the course). Did many all-nighters and even more 20 hour days to stay caught up. Basically, if I wasn't sleeping/eating I was studying. App Academy doesn't just teach you all of the skills to be a successful Software Engineer, as corny as it is to say they really do teach you how to learn. The very dedicated, patient and knowledgeable T.As brake very hard concepts down to the absolute base foundation, then start building on it at a pace that is continuously pushing you passed what you thought was your limit. I would like to take the chance to shine a light on a T.A named Trevor. He is a shining example of why App Academy is the best. aA hire's Caring, knowledgeable and relatable engineers to give you the best possible chance. I think I can speak for any/all of my fellow coroutines that regardless of the language/stack/problem, we have the skills to pick up whatever is put in front of us and quickly be able to perform the task at an industry-standard level. The Friendships and relationships that I made over the last 6 months will last a lifetime. In conclusion, the decision to commit to app academy should not be taken lightly, it definitely lives up to the name Bootcamp. I can admit that I was not smartest person in my class but what I lacked in natural intelligence was overwritten by a lot of hard work and a very well laid out plan. If you are truly committed to becoming a software engineer then app academy is for you.
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Anush Verified via LinkedIn
a/A requires dedication
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App Academy, for sure, was challenging. Even for someone with a CS background. Students do projects and pair programming daily. And it really prepares you for working in a professional environment. During the Bootcamp, you get to work on cool projects and develop a couple of full-stack applications for your portfolio. App Academy is really great. However, be prepared because it's gonna take all your time and energy.
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Carlos Verified via LinkedIn
If you want work then you gotta work
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I came to this program expecting to be handed a job right after the last day but it's not like that. You will have to pump out 25 job applications per week or risk getting charged 30 grand. You also can't fail more than two test or they charge you that 30 grand. Sounds bad but if you're someone that's shy or submissive then this bootcamp will shape you to be more assertive. You pretty much have to.
As for the actual content of the course they teach Ruby which I heard is soon getting replaced by Python. If you're considering this bootcamp then wait a bit for that change. The JavaScript part is solid. The instructors genuinely want to help you. I went from no experience to being able to make websites in less 6 months. The also have modules for Job Searching which really helps.
Getting a job after will depend on how much work you put it and where you are at. If you're in California or New York and willing to relocate you're for sure getting a job. The instructors could actually hook you up with some. Anywhere else I wouldn't know. Go google it.
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Michael Scheer Verified via LinkedIn
Excellent Bootcamp
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Attending App Academy was one of the most difficult, demanding, exhausting, but completely rewarding experiences I've ever had. The instructors are really great people and the course format is excellent. They demand that you pick up and master languages and frameworks extremely quickly. They are always available and willing to work with you to really understand the material. The projects, assignments, and assessments are really well designed and I loved working so intensely with the other students in my cohort. I made a lot of friends. Being forced to work really hard and meet very tight deadlines together (online video-chatting 10 hrs a day) makes you learn a lot about each other and how to communicate and collaborate effectively. I really admire the instructors for their patience tireless attempts to facilitate understanding. I would highly recommend attending App Academy if you are trying to break into the Software Development industry or improve your skills and experience.
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Jonathan Johnson Verified via LinkedIn
App Academy is life changing
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App Academy is all around outstanding, and I genuinely mean it when I say life-changing. I have met some exceptional individuals who I have the honor of calling friends. Because of App Academy, I have grown a community and network, went from knowing next to nothing to being a full-fledged software engineer, gained job search, interviewing, and negotiation knowledge that I will take to my grave, and that's just the beginning. I believe that App Academy provides a near flawless and perfect experience for anyone that has a passion for and a want to transition into Computer Science/Software Engineering.
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Annie Giang Verified via GitHub
Rewarding learning experience
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I've learned more through a/A than if I had continued to be self-taught. a/A laid a strong foundation on fundamental concepts that apply across various technologies. I've become a stronger debugger, problem solver, and engineer. Each night we had readings and homework to prepare for the next day's lecture and pair-programming project. The TA's are supportive and knowledgable about the curriculum, as they were students themselves prior to becoming a TA. They can be overstretched but they do their best to help.
The striking system for assessments kept me accountable to stay on track. We got one free fail and had to do a retake if we failed a second assessment - failing the retake meant dropping out. This can be daunting but there's a great amount of support and resources. Your chances of failing decreases immensely if you reach out to the people around for help when you're stuck and devote a strong amount of time into studying. a/A also provides practice assessments for test preparation and they will recommend you to do them many MANY times.
After the last assessment, you'll begin working on projects to apply what you've learned into building your portfolio. There will be less handholding and more independence, which more or less simulates what it's like to be a Software Engineer.
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Jordan Black Verified via LinkedIn
Recent App Academy grad
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I recently just finished up at App Academy and I want to say to anyone thinking about attending that the program is great, and that being said the people are even better. Whether it be the management staff, the instructors, or other students/graduates nearly everyone involved at App Academy was very welcoming, helpful and really strived to foster an inclusive learning environment. Really can't emphasize enough how much I've learned in the last few months, and not just about coding but about being successful in general.
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Jeffrey Bui Verified via LinkedIn
How I Got Through App Academy While Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle
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My experience at App Academy was great! I had so much fun learning how to code and am grateful for this life-changing experience! Like many of the online sources say, it IS really challenging. In the 3 months that you dedicate to App Academy, it is essentially the only thing that you can focus on. However, it is very rewarding in the end and you gain so much knowledge in such a short amount of time. Here are some personal tips and key points that I picked up from my experience at App Academy (Please note that this is from MY experience, and people accomplish/approach things in different ways):
1. App Academy is challenging, but not INSANELY challenging. In my experience, I was able to keep up with App Academy's curriculum while maintaining some social/personal life. Other people say that they dedicate every day, every hour, every minute to App Academy (which is fine), but I felt that there was more free time than initially expected. I would be able to spend my Saturdays and sometimes Sundays doing social/personal stuff, and I honestly felt that this was needed.
2. SLEEP is important. The instructors at App Academy can't stress this enough either. I think the thing that kept my stress level low and made my experience enjoyable was the fact that I forced myself to sleep with my regular schedule (I slept at 10:30pm and woke up at 7:30am everyday). I never felt tired during the working hours and I was still able to keep up with the curriculum.
3. You have to put in the effort to maintain this healthy lifestyle. The only reason why I was able to have fun on the weekends and get 8-9 hours of sleep everyday was the fact that I worked hard during the working hours. It's just as they say - work hard, play hard. If you actually pay attention during the lectures and actually put in your effort during the projects, you'll be able to absorb the information better, especially if you're not tired or stressed. My previous advice isn't to show that App Academy is easy, it's to show that there is a way to maintain good health and a happy lifestyle while going through the rigorous curriculum.
Closing thoughts:
I definitely don't know as much as those who dedicated every minute of their lives studying and working on App Academy, but I can confidently say that I was one of the happiest people there and truly enjoyed everyday of my experience with low stress. My approach was all about balance in my life, and I succeeded and made it to the end! Obviously, people work differently. If you need to lose some sleep to catch up on studying, that's fine. If you need even less days to study and can spend all weekend relaxing, that's fine too. I think the main thing is to not worry about what/how others are doing, and only focus on yourself and what YOU need to be successful and healthy. -
Lam Verified via LinkedIn
Difficult but rewarding
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App Academy was a difficult program but rewarding when you get through it. This is a bootcamp and it was meant to be gruesome. At times certain days would be a slow grind to do the projects but these are part of the learning process. The instructors will do their best to prepare you for the materials taught. You need to believe in their system and do your best. App Academy's curriculum will prepare you to be a developer in the current job market. At the end of the day the work and time you put in this program will determine your success.
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Ale Castillo Verified via GitHub
App Academy Grad 2019
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Things you should know before attending App Academy. 1. It is as demanding as people claim. 2. It is not as hard as it sounds if you do 100% of the work and devote all of your remaining time to filling in the gaps in your understanding of key concepts. You go through a lot of material very fast: keep in mind that your learning style will need to adjust to the demands of the environment.
Personally, a/A changed my life! I met great people, and had interesting conversations. I look forward to landing my fetal SWE job soon.
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Jason Liao Verified via GitHub
Learned so much
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I'm decided to give coding a try after realizing that I did not want to pursue a career as a Physician Assistant. At first, I was really skeptical about joining a bootcamp. Questions like "Am i smart enough to code?", "Can I really learn all that in three months?", and "Will I get a job?" were always in my head before I decided to do this. Currently, I'm a few days from graduation from a/A and I think it was the right choice. I am smart enough to code, I did learn a lot in the three months, and I believe I will get a job because most graduates on average find one within 1 - 6 months. The process of the bootcamp though was really time consuming and you are literally coding every single day for basically the whole day. However, it is only in this type of environment where you can learn so much in three/four months, where you can really get grasp whether you would like a job in this industry or not. A lot of the reviews I've read before a/A said that it was really stressful, but I personally did not feel that way. I feel like if you do what you're supposed to do, and follow the curriculum, you can go through it not be stress. Plus, you also get to meet a lot of cool and smart people along the way. Shoutout to BCho and Sam.
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jimmy Verified via GitHub
Learned a lot in a short amount of time
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As a new developer, you will learn a lot from App Academy and they will teach u everything you need to know to start building full fledge web apps. After spending 3 months of learning the full stack, it was satisfying to finally make websites that I could be proud to show off to employers. Expect App Academy to challenge you, it is called a boot camp for a reason. If you are completely new to programming, the beginning will be tough since you will have to reprogram your mind to think like a computer. If you put in the hours and commitment, software development can be the most rewarding discipline where you can build anything into reality.
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Eric Amrhein Verified via LinkedIn
Grueling, but you learn
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App Academy is an incredibly fast-paced and time-intensive program. The way their course system is set up, once the immersive starts, you are pushed into the deep end and must devote 100% of your time to learning to succeed. They do a very good job of integrating solo work, pair programming, and whiteboarding to truly learn how to work with other people. The curriculum gives just enough of technology to truly understand it, then moves on to a new subject right away. Things move at a very fast pace, and it's very easy to get behind early if you take it too easy, and if you do this at the begining it snowballs.
The main draw of App Academy over other programs is that they are invested in your success. They make the curriculum hard on purpose because they only want people with the drive to succeed. There is more curriculum than anyone could reasonably get through in a normal day, so be 100% prepared to have no life while you're working through it. The 80-100 hours per week that people talk about is not an exaggeration.
All Things considered, the past 24 weeks have been a grueling but very rewarding experience.
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Stan Verified via GitHub
Intense, Challenging, and Rewarding
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App Academy was probably the most challenging and most rewarding experience of my life. In the 4 months that I was in the course, I learned all the tools necessary in order to call myself a software engineer. I went from knowing absolutely nothing about coding to creating my own Instagram app clone.
My favorite part of App Academy at was the networking and the amount of friends I was able to make in such a short span of time. By the end of my cohort, I was acquainted with most of the students and had developed meaningful relationships with them. In addition, my cohort mates were an excellent asset when it came to asking for help when the TAs were busy helping other students.
App Academy's deferred tuition model was the reason I chose to attend. As a risk-averse individual, I was instantly drawn to this business model because I knew this meant that they truly believe in their program. If I was ever stuck on a project, the TAs, who are very knowledgeable of the material and super friendly, would help me within a moment's notice. While they do not guarantee you a job after graduation, this is probably the closest thing to a guarantee that you can get. All of the career coaches are invested in your success and will give you all the tools and resources you'll need to succeed.
This program was very rigorous and time-consuming, but I am proud of myself for having made it through to the end. I now have a great foundation coming out of it and can't wait to showcase my skills during the job search.
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Owen Haupt Verified via GitHub
Best thing I could have dedicated 4 months to
App Academy has been amazing. It is hard, rigorous, and oh-so rewarding. The curriculum is focused but not to focused. All of your learning prepares you not only for the job search, but for continuing your curiosity on your time by giving you so many many jumping-off points to explore on your own. Working on the portfolio projects at the end is even a good example of this.
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Robert Yeakel Verified via LinkedIn
My App Academy experience
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In this review, I'm going to cover some general questions based on my experience with the App Academy online cohort.
- Should you apply for a coding boot camp? I can't give you a straight answer for this because it depends on your situation. But in my case, it was worth it for me, since my goal was to learn about full-stack web development and software engineering to be as fast as possible. I think App Academy does a great job at that, and you will be surprised at how quickly you can learn here. It would have taken me far longer of self-studying to be where I'm at today. Not to mention, I've also made some great friends along the way that I talk to every day.
- How should one prepare before applying to App Academy? I did the intro-to-programming section offered on https://www.aaonline.io and felt that I was ready to schedule a technical interview with AA. I was not, I failed my first interview and was lucky enough to get invited back for another. After failing, I realized that I needed much more practice. I practiced on https://www.codewars.com every day up until my next interview. You need to time yourself and talk out loud through the problem-solving process, preferably to a friend or family member. You should also be very comfortable working with arrays and hashes in Ruby and solving problems that may require nested loops. Sidenote: https://www.leetcode.com is another excellent place to practice.
- How many hours per week to get through the program? Like many have said before me, this boot camp is no joke. Even if you put in 80+ hours per week, you will only be scratching the surface of the topics covered. But this is the tradeoff of getting yourself job-ready as fast as possible.
- How stressful is the program? If you have no programming experience, you will need to study hard to pass the six assessments. They cover Ruby algorithms, Ruby Object-Oriented Programming, SQL, Ruby on Rails, React, and JavaScript. If you fail two of the assessment tests, you must retake one of their choosing. If you fail the retake test, you will be booted out. Yes, it's stressful, but keep your focus on the material and the great job that you're going to get out of it, and you'll be fine.
- How is the curriculum? I think that some of the newer content at the end of the curriculum could use some improvement. But for the most part, it's fantastic. I know some people may be turned off by Ruby and Ruby on Rails, but don't worry about it, you will also build full-stack applications with the MERN stack.
- How are the instructors? From my experience, they were knowledgable and friendly. Leave the ego at the door and pick their brains as much as possible. They are a valuable resource.
- What is a day like at App Academy? At 8 AM we would meet on Zoom, the instructors would cover the daily material before splitting us up into random pairs to work on the day's projects. Throughout the day, we had access to the instructors to ask them questions. About an hour before the end of the day, we would all meet to cover the material in the day's project. Before the next day, we would then complete the assigned homework.
Great experience and I would do it again.
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Arshia Verified via LinkedIn
The best investment I ever made!
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Saying that App Academy is a full time commitment is the understatement of the year. This was an incredibly fast paced program with a focus on learning how to code featuring patient instructors and competent classmates.
It is amazing how much I have learned at App Academy and what's even better is that I now know I have the skills needed in order to learn quicker than ever before.
Highly Recommended. -
Ken Verified via LinkedIn
Just Graduated
App Academy is the best decision I have ever made. It is a very grueling experience, you need to be fully committed when you decide to take on this endeavor. If software engineering is your passion then this will be worth the time and effort. I don't want to get into the technical details of the program, there are plenty of resources available for that.
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Cameron Farina Verified via LinkedIn
Joining App Academy was a life changing decision
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Coming from someone with zero experience, I was legitimately scared to even apply to App Academy. I came from a startup and knew what it was like to work nights and weekends so the hours that I was seeing (90-100 / week) in order to excel at aA wasn't too worrisome, but with no coding experience I thought there was a chance I'd fail out.
There's no sugarcoating it, if you apply to aA say goodbye to your social life, let your family know you won't see them for a couple months, and you probably have to cancel whatever plans you have lined up in the coming months. But it's worth it. I started in April, and my end date (when the job search STARTS) is October 4th. It's September 30th today and I'm enjoying my week off because I accepted an offer last week. I worked incredibly hard to be where I am right now, I began interviewing early after being reached out to by numerous companies and received an offer before the job search actually began. I'm INCREDIBLY confident had I not applied early I would be in the same position, as the career coaches and material were SPOT ON from what I saw in my interviews. I would have actually had more success had I waited to apply -- I was under-prepared for numerous roles, which would have been taken care of if I had waited -- so I have nothing but positive things to say about Eli and the entire job search portion.
There is no way of knowing whether or not you're made for this unless you go and do it, so give it a try. The only thing you have to lose is some time and maybe some sleep -- but you have an entire new life to gain. Financial independence, work / life balance, a fulfilling job and endless connections. If you're even remotely on the fence about applying to aA, I hope you take the chance.
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Michael Warner Verified via LinkedIn
Intense but rewarding experience
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App Academy is a fast-paced program for getting you practical experience with many different relevant technologies in a very short amount of time. Right off the bat once the immersive portion kicked into high gear, we got exposure to Git, data structures, and we were pair programming daily through the day’s projects. The curriculum is well structured for layering in new technologies, and before you know it you’re familiar with relational databases and doing a deep dive into the inner workings of Rails. Things move at a bewildering pace, and it’s very easy to get caught off guard by this early on if you’re not careful.
The looming thought of getting kicked out over failing two assessments can be extremely unsettling, but this risk/reward setup also puts the entirety of the cohort into a hyper focused mindset. And it creates a unique environment for learning if you can sublimate the anxiety of it. Even through the online setup, it was surprising just how much there was a sense of community. You spend hours every day with your classmates, and even through a computer screen I felt like I got to know a lot of them really well. I don’t know how they’re able to isolate so many brilliant people into these cohorts, but they clearly have very efficient and calculated screening mechanisms in place to ensure they’re taking quality people into the program.
The TA’s are fantastic. The student to teacher ratio is very favorable for student teacher interactions, and they were consistently pivotal in getting me on track with the material on pace to get through the assessments. It’s a lot of information so be 100% prepared to have no life while you’re working through the curriculum. I thought 100 hours a week would be an exaggeration but I was consistently logging 95-100 hours each week studying the material straight through the weekend.
You get to build your own full stack project using the core stack of the curriculum, as well as other projects with additional technologies that you learn past the React portion of the course. They’re in a re-vamping phase with their curriculum with less of a focus on Ruby as far as I understand, so this is something to bear in mind moving forward. I’m confident that however they re-structure the curriculum will be just as effective as the current setup they have in place and I’m sure it’s necessary given the industry’s trending away from Rails, but any large scale overhaul of a curriculum carries with it at least some amount of risk.
I felt like the React portion was great. Past that things were still mostly well structured with minor hiccups. There were portions I felt were too rushed. For example, we had about a weekend to learn the MERN stack before we were working in a team to build an application in it that following week. Pieces of this curriculum might need some revision. Maybe something as simple as having at least one additional project with the MERN stack before having students code in a team environment in it. However I really enjoyed the Docker portion of the curriculum, and it was fun building an additional project with GraphQL / Apollo. I’ve heard this part of the curriculum is at the moment isolated to the online setups. You get to build a project in Vanilla JavaScript at the end of the course as well.
App Academy’s deferred payment plan was a strong draw for me personally. I felt that this established them as an institution willing to take on a lot of risk investing in the people they take into the program, and shows that they’re confident their curriculum will get people placed in well-paying positions upon finishing. I’d honestly like to see more institutions of higher education adopt a similar financing approach. There are pros and cons to deciding on doing the online setup instead of an in-person setup, and I do believe an in-person setup would have been very fulfilling. Some people would say the in person setup is vital to the whole App Academy experience. But I do like that the online setup at least had a longer space of time for absorbing the material. You get a month prior to the official immersive portion of the cohort to get solid with software engineering fundamentals. And the TA’s were always readily available to answer any questions I might have, so at least on the learning side there was nothing lost in translation going this route. An in person bootcamp really wasn’t feasible for me personally, and I would expect it’s not for many others planning on applying.
All things considered the past 24 weeks have been a grueling yet highly rewarding experience. You get out of it what you put into it, and you have to put a lot into it if you want to get through the totality of the curriculum.
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Bryce Morgan Verified via LinkedIn
Challenging, Accessible, and Extremely Rewarding
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App Academy was an amazing experience for me. The main factor that drew me to the program originally was the fact that it had an online option that still included the rigor and attention of a classroom atmosphere. I knew that I wanted to have a structured experience that would push me to continue learning the material at a regular pace. App Academy is definitely a challenging experience. There are a lot of concepts that are covered, but it is all presented in a way that allows you to absorb the material through application. The emphasis on pair-programming reinforces your understanding of the material by both constantly having someone else to bounce ideas off of as well as providing an opportunity to explain your thought process and code to another person. Participating in the program takes your full dedication, but is extremely rewarding in the amount of knowledge gained and the new doors that open up for a career in web development.
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Oliver Almalel Verified via LinkedIn
Great Experience, Great Program
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Aside from having material current to the day (e.g. Apollo), the staff and assistance was the best part. Our lecturers and assistants were extremely sharp and super patient. They were personable and kind and did whatever they could to help us understand.
If you get in, work hard, harder, your hardest. Learn to work with others. Learn to have self discipline. This program will help you to become your best.
The content was practical, guided, and cathartic. I cannot recommend this program enough. Thank you to Kush and Ned for creating such an awesome program.
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Valery Nguyen Verified via GitHub
Fantastic program to learn the latest tech wherever you are!
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After working 7 years as a Mechanical Engineer/Controls Engineer, I decided to take 24-weeks to study Web Development at AA. I joined the program last January (2019) and was part of the App Academy's first Online Cohort. We were a group of 8, spread across the US and even had a classmate living abroad, eating and sleeping on US Eastern time.
The program is very intense in terms of time commitment, where I spent every hour of the day and night studying (100hrs+ /week). But the more time I committed to study, the more I understood about each topic and learned. Each hour spent was worth it.
If you really enjoy programming, you will love this program! You will have access to great TA/instructors, well-thought and detailed ressources. And learned all the skills you will need on the job.
Our initial cohort had Live Lectures from our instructor, where I was able to ask tons of questions to really understand very deeply each lecture. A minus point for future Online Cohorts, is that it may no longer be true as more recorded lectures started to get used right after our cohort. Even though, AA breaks it down so you can still ask questions every 45mins or hour. Staying engaged and awake while watching video lectures was never my strongest point.
I have no regret though, the education was fantastic! Please give it a try and see whether it's for you!
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David Suon Verified via GitHub
Pretty Good
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App Academy is a 3 months (5 if you're taking the online portion) web development boot camp with a very low acceptance rate. The program is 8 hours of new materials everyday with 6 assessments sprinkled in to test you. The curriculum is pretty good for the most part and the projects you do a good job of testing what you learned for the day's material. The peers you work with from the Teacher Aids to your peers are all great people to work with.
Some of the curriculum material could use an update/ be fleshed out better.
Be prepare to work your butt offs when you do get in.
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Richard Verified via GitHub
Software Engineer
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I'd been programming for several years and decided to do App Academy more as a "formalization" of my knowledge than as a way to "learn to code". After all, I knew how to code. Well, I was wrong. I learned so much. For example, a) The "why" behind many things I already knew how to do, thereby allowing for better decisions. b) The practical value of data structures and algorithms I had previously written off as "computer science stuff", c) Effective pair programming - started out hating it, grew to love it. d) A major raising of the bar in terms of what's possible - how about learning a new technology and using it to create something significant in 10 days? If you have the tenacity to go after what you want, it's for you. If you give up quickly when things get tough (long hours ahead), stay away!
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Sam Walker Verified via GitHub
Extremely Positive Experience
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Overall, this was definitely one of the most rewarding experiences I have had. I learned an incredible amount of information and feel confident in my skills as a software developer. You can tell that a lot of time and effort is put into the curriculum and that they are always striving to improve upon it. I believe that everyone on the teaching staff really cares about their students' success and are constantly going out of their way to make sure everyone is getting the help they need to succeed. I would recommend this course to anyone who is looking to transition careers into software development.
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Onyi Cho Verified via GitHub
Great Experience
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I enrolled the last 12 weeks intensive bootcamp program at App Academy. Apparently they are changing the cohort to 16 weeks from now on.
Overall, App Academy is not the place where you just sit there and hoping someone would hold your hand to review through programming related materials. Sure, there is help provided if you request so, but it definitely takes effort and dedication to be successful at App Academy, and more importantly, to be successful at your future job after graduation. Self-motivation is the key to success here.
Even though I came from software developer background, the topics that App Academy taught us are pretty challenging, that I constantly find myself running out of time to study ahead of next day's material. Though, I did feel fulfilled and satisfied by the overwhelming topics that we have to read and understand because it is also probably one of the few way we could improve ourselves rapidly.
My only suggestion to future students are: do not slack off during the weekend. I learned that the hard way...` -
Michael Du Verified via LinkedIn
Super positive and friendly learning environment
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Overall, I had a great time during the 12-week in-person curriculum. While I did come in with an undergraduate CS degree, I feel that the material supplemented what I learned in college quite well (although a bit slow the first few weeks). But given my background, I did not find the pacing of the course to be all that intensive until the projects hit. There is definitely plenty to learn. They go in-depth enough on topics necessary to be considered a web developer but there are a lot of topics only briefly touched on to explore further on your own.
Pros:
- TAs are extremely friendly and willing to help
- Plenty of interesting projects to work on throughout the course
- Pretty much everybody was fun and easy to work withCons:
- Trying to get help during projects can lead to a lot of waiting for TAs
- Homework could be more meaningful rather than a bunch of small segmented assignments
- Be prepared to keep working hard over the weekends, especially for the full-scale projects toward the end of the course -
Jimmy Nguyen Verified via LinkedIn
App Academy is great
aA is great. You get what you put in. Anyone can achieve it, you just need to manage your time correctly. Would recommend 10/10
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Vu Tran Verified via LinkedIn
The best bootcamp you can attend
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I'm not gonna sugar coated this. People get kicked out for failing 2 assessments. This was the single most difficult, stressful, mentally taxing, emotionally challenging, and wonderful experiences in my life. This is the best decision I've ever made. Expect the workloads of 100 hours a week, especially if you want to get good. I came in with a lof of imposter-syndrome, and at the end of it, I can build full-stack applications from scratch. I've become a lot more confident in my skills and how I communicate to potential employers, as I type this I have a few on sites scheduled next week.
