App Academy

I joined App Academy with little to none software experience. What I have come away with is a range of technical knowledge, a strong understanding of the social / collaborative aspects of web development, a work ethic I did not think I could achieve, and, maybe most importantly, a capacity to efficiently learn new technical material. 
The coding portion of the curriculum is difficult, but at the same time structured, well organized, and jam packed with interesting and relevant material. Some of the material is presented in a lecture format, but the bulk of the work is done pair-programming with fellow students. From day 1, this model fosters collaboration and encourages students to solve problems independently, instead of following along with examples. This being said, the instructors are encouraging, readily available, and all-in-all wonderful. Many of the instructors have gone through the bootcamp program as well, so they are knowledgeable in both the technical and social/stress-management aspects of the curriculum. 
While there are weekly assessments, the focus of the program is for you to learn as much as possible, not to transactionally complete assigned projects / homework assignments. In this way, students come away with not only the necessary skills, but also the drive, to start their own projects. Part of the coding curriculum involves completing three large projects, all of which you effectively design and plan yourself (with the support of instructors). These three projects become the focal point of your software portfolio, and are not something that other bootcamp grads can typically claim. Aside from portfolio building, the job-search part of the curriculum is packed with mock-interviews, networking workshops, and time with a personal career coach.  Even post-graduation, App Academy leaves you with technical and networking resources, not to mention close connections to all of the other members of your cohort. 
The bottom line is this: App Academy is a serious time and energy commitment, but leaves you with a range of technical knowledge, an industry ready portfolio, strong technical interviewing skills, and a serious sense of personal pride for having made it through all of that in 13 weeks.

App Academy has given me the foundation of thinking and coding as a software developer that I never thought would be possible. 

I had been trying to figure out how to get into tech without spending another 2 years getting a CS degree, and self-learning was not really going anywhere past simple games because I spent too long getting stuck, not knowing how and where to find help. After doing a little more research, I came across this bootcamp with its deferred tuition model which put me at ease in terms of getting students jobs. That and the stringent month-long admissions process which was already stretching me from a beginner-level (I had done a few projects in MATLAB and C++) and challenging my assumptions gave me an inkling that this might be the right place for me.

Thankfully I was not proven wrong. The pace of the program is extremely fast, but with the benefit of being surrounded by students who are just as motivated as you. And when you get stuck the TAs in the room more than willing to help, which cuts down the learning time significantly of some of the more frustrating concepts (recursion was an early example for me). I did think at times though that there just weren't enough TAs around to help all of us; on some of the more difficult days we were waiting 20 minutes or more.

Overall, I am confident that the fundamentals that App Academy taught me has prepared me well for the job search ahead.

Some advice: 

-Don't be afraid to ask for help! Time is of the essence in a fast-paced course like this and there's no way anyone can 'get' everything that is taught in the 9 weeks as quickly as they would like. Some of the brightest classmates I knew did not hesitate to ask a TA within 10 minutes of being stuck.

-Live as close as you can to a/A during the 12 weeks. I consider myself one of the slower classmates when it comes to studying (when I see 30min reading it really means 1hr) and living 10 minutes away has saved me so many times from chopping the resource most essential to a bootcamper: sleep.

-Find some way you can offer value and share it! I find that a large part of my motivation to learn about something really well is to be able to talk about it with someone later on. Our class has a Slack group where people would often share about cool things they implemented/learned and I always appreciated that.

If you are willing to learn from and help others and are determined to do everything you can do deeply understand concepts, you WILL succeed.

I took this course because I want to get accepted at App Academy Bootcamp and I had no background and/or knowledge in coding at all. Today is my last class at Bootcamp Prep and I am very confident in myself that I feel like I am ready to apply.

The curreiculum is very well organized in a way that you will retain what you learn in the class. Homeworks, assessments and notes are really helpful.

The instructor and TA are awesome! They do not just teach. They work hard for you, so you really learn what they teach.

Classmates were nice too.

I really recommend Bootcamp Prep if you are new to coding and if you do not feel confident or ready to apply for actual Bootcamp.

+'s

Prepares you for the technical interview with problem sets similar to the ones that will be used at major coding camps.

Alvin & Chase are knowledgable and organized instructors and there is a lot of support if you get stuck on a problem during class.

2 mock interviews offered and insider information on the structure of the App Academy interview.

Helps familiarize you with the structure of aA's coursework.

- 's

It would be nice if there was more practice pair programming and role play as interviewer and interviewee. Sometimes the lectures were a bit long and it does not always seem necessary to go through every individual problem in class.

This course helped reinforce material that I attempted to learn on my own through texts and online interactive platforms. I felt I was able to understand the concepts better having the instructor use them in class. I especially liked how the instructor taught methodically and in a  manner that helped the students understand where common errors in programming might occur. This allowed me to feel more confident in my abilities- especially my ability to debug my programs. The instructors created a positive learning environment by always being patient and willing to help the students. 

App Academy is great for those who aren't happy with their current job and are looking for a career change. Those with zero coding experience will really benefit from attending the bootcamp prep, especially if the idea of teaching yourself seems daunting or there is a time constraint. The material is challenging and fast paced but the instructors guide you every step of the way. The instructors are your best asset and are always willing to help you, should you ask. Be prepared to dedicate a portion of your hours outside of the class to studying, otherwise you are not taking full advantage of the course. People who attend the prep course come from all different walks of life, whether it's a career change or because they prefer the fast paced learning as opposed to attending college. It's a very welcoming environment that fosters a desire to grow together as a group.  

Time passes really quick when your having a good experience. I learned a lot through past month way more that I previously thought.Our instructors Alvin and Chase were amazing very helpful, they make sure that you understand every topic and if you having trouble with coding at home you always can email them. App academy is really good place to be.

I come from a background working as a QA Engineer in the kind of start-up I believe App Academy prepares you to develop for. The day-to-day curriculum is set up in such a way that students who are brand new to the material have a manageable and well thought out roadmap, and people who are familiar with the concepts can explore more in depth material after finishing their daily tasks. In this way I believe that the curriculum is beautifully geared towards giving students the full reward of their hard work and providing people who have a good work ethic and genuine interest in technology all of the tools they need to succeed.

The career counseling is also extremely valuable for prospective job seekers. The amount of emphasis put on knowing the material well enough to have conversations about it, as well as interviewing techniques to set you apart from other bootcampers, is critical to opening up opportunities for jobs that are denied graduates of other bootcamps. I have seen graduates from coder-mills come out of their bootcamps and spend 2-3x longer than the average App Academy graduate before finding employment, due to the fact that they were not set up for success.

In summary, I'd recommend App Academy for people who are not only capable of working hard, but are extremely passionate about software engineering/app development. It is an unbelievably intensive curriculum where doing the minimum should not be enough to satisfy you, because you don't attend this bootcamp with the expectation of getting a degree or good grades, you do it out of a love and passion for the trade you're training for.

Among the sea of bootcamps, most are coder mills that don't teach their students how to problem solve or think critically. App Academy is different and it provides a perfect platform for motivated, smart, and driven people who will take the intense program by the horns and get the most out of it.

I'm a little over a month out of the program and I received three job offers with salaries I never dreamed I'd be making, and I can confidently say that I put in the work to get these offers, with the great curriculum and instruction at App Academy.

While this bootcamp, like almost all others, focuses on a specific tech stack, they emphasize problem-solving and provide a platform for those who want a deeper dive into CS. Showing up, doing the projects and homework, and applying for jobs will help you get a job. But if you want to get a stellar job, you have to have the grit to get through the difficulty of the problem, often with a lot of self-motivation to learn more on the side.

I had some experience with coding (nothing professional), so it wasn't a steep learning curve, but I still felt challenged every day and it all fell into place during the job search when I started to do well at interviews.

This program is NOT for you if you're expecting a magic bullet or if you think just graduating will land you a job. It's hard work, but the rewards are there for those who will put in the time.

I am now celebrating my one year anniversary as a software developer and this would not have been possible without App Academy.  After four years in a field that was not everything I expected it to be, I decided that I wanted to make a change; and I assume since you are reading this review, you are thinking the same thing.  Once I decided that I was invested in making this transition, and a bootcamp was the best way for me to make the change, I began to compare various programs and the main thing that differed App Academy from the others was their payment plan.   Due to the time requirements for all these programs (80+ hours a week) it is pretty unrealistic to expect to keep any resemblance of a job/income and living in NYC without one is pretty tough to do.  App Academy helps remedy this by not requiring any payment (other than a security deposit) until you land that first job.  Not only did this make living in an expensive city with no job more do-able but also gives them a "horse in the race” when you start your job hunt.  This includes continuous interview prep of white boarding, alumni Q&A, review/critique of your portfolio (resume, cover letter, GitHub/coding projects, personal website, and LinkedIn profile) as well as an in-house job fair at the end of your cohort.

Regarding the curriculum I found that while interviewing, most companies are not looking for you to know a certain stack but have the ability to learn a new stack (if needed) based on what you already know.  Most bootcamps offer a full stack curriculum in order to give you the needed marketable skills to prove you confidently know what you should and that you can learn something new if needed, and App Academy is no different. When I attended, the stack was Ruby, Ruby on Rails, SQL, Javascript, Backbone.js, jQuery, HTML, and CSS and since then they have updated to React.js instead of Backbone.js, but don’t worry, all new material is available to you as alumni so that you can use it if you would like to learn a new framework.  Like anything you do, you will get what you put in and App Academy gives you everything you need in order to succeed and become qualified in all the topics you cover.  From day one you will need to properly prepare for the interview process where you will complete online exams, a live coding challenge, and a live interview; and the testing doesn't end there.  To make sure that everyone is where they need to be so that no student is disadvantaged while pair programming there are (bi)-weekly exams that you must pass in order to continue with the program.  Preparing for this will include hours of studying and practice on the weekends and after class… this will definitely be 80+ hours a week.  All of this is not to discourage you because if you really expect to become proficient in so many languages in such a short amount of time, this is the only way to do it.  If you are ready to put in the time for 4 months and 100% sold on becoming a developer I think that App Academy will be perfect for you.

TL:DR - App Academy offers a comparable stack/curriculum to other bootcamps with everything you need to succeed if you are really 100% committed to the program.  It WILL be 80+ hours a week to get by and pass their weekly progress exams and 100+ if you want to really excel at everything.  That being said, I would not be at my current company without it and the payment plan they offer allowed me to even think this transition would be possible.

App Academy is highly recommended! They provided me with the tools I needed to build full-stack web applications that are on par with the industry standard. I learned what it's like to work alongside people of varying skillsets and alone, which further prepared me for a job. I feel fully confident that App Academy will result in landing me a quality job with a great tech company. 

App Academy is difficult. Extremely difficult. You will be challenged quite possibly more than you ever have been before. You will fail, often. All of that being said, it is one of the best educations in the field given the timeframe you go through it and if you have the discipline and gumption to see it through. I went from someone with no prior coding experience to one of the top students in my class, able to make a fully functional (and if I say so myself, pretty damn cool) web app in the span of two weeks: from initial conceptualization to adding in final easter eggs. App Academy gave me the tools to accomplish this through both it's curriculum and it's great support network of both instructors and fellow students. We're all in the same boat and eager to help each other out where we can. If you can put three months of your life aside for App Academy, and only App Academy, you will succeed.

I thought that program was great overall. It provides directed learning, and many examples to draw from for understanding and study purposes. Much of the learning is done during paired programming and on your own in homework or your own projects. Be prepared to study a lot and focus intensely. I would have liked to have seen more use of popular libraries into the curriculum, but I suppose it makes sense to cover the fundamentals that would prepare one to learn any libraries on the job. I would highly recommend the program; it more than satisfactorily gives you the skills you need to get a job.

I enjoyed my time at App Academy and would recommend it to anyone considering a career in software development. As long as you are willing to put in the hours & effort, the outcome will be worth the stress. It sets you up with the skills to get a job as a developer, and since you don't pay until you're employed, the job assistance they offer at the end of the program is pretty good. I finished the course in the fall of 2015 and got a job within a few weeks, so it definitely works!

My cohort finished about a year ago, and everyone I've spoken with is super happy with the jobs they got afterward. I would recommend this bootcamp to anyone who is a self-starter. I was self-taught for over a year before the course started and that helped me out a lot. Even though we covered nearly everything I'd taught myself in the first 3 weeks, I came in with the confidence that this was something I would want to do as a career. At a/A there are no grades, nobody holding your hand or giving you constant praise. The staff is supportive of course, but they are there to teach you the skills and traits to become great at this trade, and that includes self-sufficiency.

I was planning to go to grad school for comp sci before my friend introduced me to App Academy. I was skeptical at first of programming bootcamps, but App Academy seemed really legit so I gave it a shot. Coming from a programming background, I was surprised by how challenging and how much I learned in just the first week. The curriculum is very challenging and keeps you on your toes the whole way through. By pairing with a new student every day, you tend to pick up in each other's good programming practices. At the end of the program you know how to create a website from the ground up and build it well. The curriculum is constantly evolving as new web frameworks and best practices emerge, and as an alumni I still have access to all the materials. App Academy turbo charged my career in the best and most competitive city in the world. App Academy was the best decision of my life.

App Academy is definitely not for the faint of heart- from the application process, to the prep work, to the course itself and ultimately the job search, you will be challenged and pushed to your limit. That being said, I met some of the most intelligent people I've ever known here (my classmates) who were supportive and helpful, and the curriculum is top-notch. In the end, it took me exactly one month after graduation to find a job, and I am loving my new career. If you want to make a change, a/A is the place to do it. 

This program will become your life for 3 months. It's really immersive. But it does it right. The instructors are enthusiastic and intelligent, the curriculum is amazing, and the community is an ideal catalyst. You not only learn today's top tech, but you learn how to keep up with the times so that you can learn tomorrow's tech. Everyone looks back and is in awe of how much he/she has learned in just one season.

App Academy is super tough -- but also super effective. I graduated in April 2016 and landed my first dev job in under a month. 

The pros: This course really goes in-depth. I had taken a lot of classes before (introductory classes to one language or another, some online tutorials to front-end, etc) but anything that dove into the real nuts and bolts of how websites and apps go together left me with more questions than answers. App Academy forces you to dig into the subject matter and come out with the tools to move forward. You'll be surrounded by people as passionate about learning as you are, and the TAs are always on-hand to get you past whatever is blocking your understanding. If you can graduate from a/A, you can get a job in development (and succeed in it!)

The cons:  This course is not a fun time. App Academy is grueling and, frankly, pretty miserable most of the time. If doing all code every day sounds like a negative, this might not be the course for you. If you aren't excited enough about code to put your life on hold for 12 weeks, you should probably look for a different bootcamp. Most people have to put in a lot of hours to keep up with the curriculum, and if you fall behind -- you're out. 

That being said: if you aren't discouraged by the workload -- go for it. The curriculum is rock-solid, the instructors are committed to helping you succeed, and the statistics are there to prove it. The fact that I only had to pay after getting hired made this bootcamp affordable for me when others weren't, and the job-hunting portion of the curriculum is thorough and effective. If you're looking to change your career path and can take 12 weeks to do nothing but write code (and I do mean nothing), this is a sure bet.

I immigrated from China to US recently and I was thinking make a choice between a regular CS degree and App academy from one of my friends' suggestion. App academy gives me an opportunity that I never could have in China to pursue my passion in programming and now I am working in the field I love. 
It is best learning experience I have ever had. The TAs are very helpful and knowledgable and the students are very smart that I learned a lot from the people I worked with.