App Academy

Really challenging but rewarding program! The curriculum covered a surprisingly wide range of topics, so that even with a CS degree, I always felt like I was learning something new. The fast-paced environment gave me that push to actually learn the curriculum today instead of putting it off and learning it eventually. The instructors were great at helping answer any questions I had and always felt approachable. The best part of the program though was seeing the people I've been working with, some of whom with no prior coding experience, build these gorgeous websites from scratch, and then talk about the process like they'd been doing it forever. Whatever your background, if you have the time and dedication, App Academy's a worthwhile experience.

Having no background as a programmer, I found aA very difficult but also very rewarding. The TA's and other students were wonderful. I never thought I could learn so much in such a short period time.  I strongly recommend aA to anyone who wants to learn and is willing to put in the many hours of work required to get through the program. 

App Academy was an extremely challenging and rewarding bootcamp. The instructional staff was so helpful in explaining difficult concepts. Thinking back over the past three months I am blown away by how much I have learned. I came to App Academy knowing very little programming and now am a knowledgeable software engineer. I highly recommend App Academy for anyone who is looking to transition their career into software development because there is really no better place to do it!

I've recently completed the core curriculum portion of App Academy and I can honestly say I've loved my time here. I recently graduated with a BS in Computer Science from UCR but I quickly learned I lacked the technical skills to join the workforce. I found out about the top rated coding bootcamp in the US and applied to a/A. The application process and class in general is rigorous. But by being strict and demanding, a/A is able to produce high quality engineers and ensure a short job search. I believe the things I've learned at a/A in 9 weeks are more valuable than what I learned over four years at university. As long as you but in the effort, you can be successful here at a/A!

Aa's immersive full-stack curriculum was definitely one of the hardest challenges I have yet encountered but at the same time it has been one of the most rewarding. From knowing little next on nothing on how to code to building full-stack web applications deployed live to the internet. It is a very fast paced course with a lot of first time challenges but if you put in the work and the time you will get out of it what you put in. You have assessments almost every week to test your knowledge and ability to quickly learn and keep up with the material. There are times when you wish you had more time to better understand the material but it is the challenge of learning fast that makes it exciting and rewarding. 

Definitely my most sleep deprived stretch in my life, but for good reason.  The stress and pressure of weekly assessments is intense and only the truly committed will survive.  I have learned so much since graduating App Academy.  You get daily instruction and help from the TAs', but it is on you to learn all the material.  The path is laid out nice and clear, but it is you who must walk it.  You truly only get from the course as much as you put in.  The best learning experience in my life.  

I had a great experience at App Academy, however I'm just starting the job curriculum so I cannot speak to the job guarantee or the quality of the last portion of the curriculum. The course material is structured in a way that helps the students focus on learning instead of trying to discover what is worth learning. This is the main advantage of the bootcamp opposed to trying to learn the material on your own. The curriculum is good in this sense, but don't expect to learn everything or even cover everything that a junior developer should know. The curriculum is intensive, but introductory. Think of the curriculum as a spring-board for learning more on your own outside of working hours and after the conclusion of the program. 

The TAs / instructors are also what make the program worth it. They are invested in helping you and making sure that you understand the material. That being said, you must study, or you will fall behind and get kicked out. This means putting in a lot of hours and letting the curriculum consume you. Even then, you must study hard & study smart. Long hours of work doesn't guarantee mastery, so learn how to study before you show up.

The people you work with will be awesome. Your peers are usually quite driven and all on the same career path as you. This being said, you will have to learn how to work with different people with different personalities. Be the kind of person you would want to work with. Since the foundation of the first 7 weeks is pair-programming, this program is not for people that cannot interact well with others. 

The classroom environment is not the greatest. You sit on a crowded floor at long tables (full of mac minis) coding all day with a partner. The chairs are terrible and you will start to feel it if you don't get up often. The lecture hall consists of 50+ folding chairs that also feel terrible (especially after 3 hours of lecture). Don't fall for the nice looking banner pictures on the website that portray these hipsters drinking coffee in lounging couches while coding. That's not what this program is, that is just clever marketing. I highly suggest, that anyone interested in attending A/A come visit the work sites. It is not a deal breaker, but you should have an accurate view of the place you will be spending the next 3 months. 

Lastly, if your finances permit, don't take the deferred payment option. Be motivated, do well, and pay upfront. The huge caveat is that you need to do well and not get kicked out. If you have more questions about this, then just do the math between the two plans, and ask questions. Don't just blindly sign an agreement until you understand everything.

Overall, I have been enjoying the program, however, I don't think that this program is for everyone. Make sure you do your hw before committing. 

Let me start by saying that my experience at App Academy was overall positive. I think the curriculum and the pace at which it's taught is fantastic. If I could go back and make the decision whether to go or not knowing what I know now, I would still choose to go. You need to be willing to spend the time though; you should not have a terribly active social life or spend much time goofing off outside of class. The main goal of the bootcamp is to teach you what you need to know to get a job in the shortest time possible, and you need to be serious about that if you are signing up.

That being said, there are a few areas where I was highly disappointed. First, they say that they care about your ergonomic health, but this is not true in the slightest. They have no options for better keyboards or mice, no monitors at eye level, horrible chairs. This may get better in the future based on some of the conversations I had, but I wouldn't count on it. Cohorts are in and out of there in 9 weeks so there is little incentive to actually make the working conditions better. The other area of disappointment was the availability of the instructors. There is this "question button" you can hit to have an instructor come over to you, but I waited upwards of 45 minutes in some situations.On the other side of that though, you do need to be self-sufficient and be able to find the answer on your own sometimes. You'll need to do that in real life anyways.

So, besides some major drawbacks, I think App Academy is worth it if you know what you're getting into.

Originally I thought App Academy was going to be a medium intensity coding bootcamp where at the end of the day I'd still have enough time to have personal time. I was wrong, oh so very wrong. Even after the day ended at 6pm, in order to keep up and retain the day's materials, I had to study until 11pm every day. Weekends are no exceptions because of the incredibly face-paced nature of this program. However, despite not having a life and the stresses attached to this program, I regret nothing. I have learned so much in such a short period of time it's actually amazing. I went from knowing nothing about code to building a websites and programs. If I had the option of joining this program again, I'd do it again.

App Academy is an intense program.  The learning environment is rigorous.  The culture changes from cohort to cohort, but in my experience, people have been eager to collaborate, learn, and help each other succeed.  Felt like I was back in college (a faster paced and more intense version)

Everyday, you spend time pair programming, which means that you are coding with a partner.  One person explains the code, the other person types, and you switch off every 15 minutes.  As a verbal processor, I found this very helpful in my understanding of different concepts.

I would estimate that in addition to the 9-6 5 days/ week that you are at App Academy, you have about 2 hours/ night of homework.  That nets out to about 60 hours/ week for the first 2/3rd and this ramps up significantly when the portfolio projects start.

The projects are pretty brutal and require a lot of work.

I would recommend this program if you are serious about becoming a software developer.  A good litmus test is to try out App Academy's Bootcamp Prep course or some free/ inexpensive resources on CodeAcademy, Udemy, etc.  App Academy's entire curriculum is also available for free online.

Timeline: It took me about 2 months to go from 0 coding knowledge to being ready to take App Academy's technical interview.  After that, there was a mandatory prep course that was fully online for 1 month.  The actual program is 13 weeks.  I'm currently job searching, and the average time it takes someone to find a job after graduation is between 3-6 months.

The three questions I would ask myself before doing App Academy are:

Am I serious about wanting to learn coding/ would I actually enjoy working in this field?
Do I have what it takes to learn and master the material?
Am I financially able and willing to devote the above mentioned timeline to learning to code and developing projects without pay full time?

I know this was long, hope it was helpful!!

Great bootcamp. Although super intensive, I can definitely say I learned a lot. What's great about the program is not only the instruction, but the daily pair programming. Being able to pair with fellow students and work through difficult daily assignments allows one to find different learning styles and implementation processes. On top of all the daily assignments and assessments, what is very rewarding is going through the numerous projects, (both solo and group), reinforcing my understanding of the materials, as well as shedding light on what I need to work on moving forward.

I went through the May 21st 2018 cohort of a/A. It was one of the most intimidating, challenging, and rewarding experiences of my life. I will separate the pros and cons out and then give additional thoughts.

Pros:

- I made some amazing friends that I will try to stay in contact with, we bonded deeply through the trials that we went through. This was one of the best benefits of the program
- I am now employed as a software engineer and I am making double what I was earning before, living where I want to live, working for a cause I care about
- I feel like I have a skill that makes me marketable and valuable, that gives me a greater sense of independence from the employer I will work for
- I gained confidence in my ability to learn a complex skill fast
- I can type 75 wpm, despite starting the cohort at 35ish 
- My interview skills were far better than I expected after the program, I think the pressure of the assessments makes technical interview pressure pale in comparison
- I built a full-stack web app, mostly on my own that looked awesome on my portfolio
- I was able to get a job after only two months of applying after the cohort ended
- Lot's of people in my cohort got jobs at a/A after which helped them
- Strong emphasis on CSS which is boring at first but ends up being very important

Cons: 

- Serious lack of CS teaching
- I was horrified and unsure of whether or not I would make it through the program until I passed assessment 5
- I had to live in a place I hate to attend the program
- The assessments are scary and sometimes are significantly harder than the practice assessments, so you don't know what to expect
- Most TA's solidly taught and understood the material for our cohort, but often times the TA's are teaching you the just after completing a cohort, so they don't have mastery over it. I wish they had more experienced TA's with CS backgrounds who deeply understood the material
- Some people were far worse than others in the cohort an they sucked up lots of the instruction time, I felt TA's could have done a better job of prioritizing assistance
- They teach Ruby (which is a dying language) and JS, when they really should be teaching Python and JS
- Career coaches can come off as job application enforcers, and mine didn't help me get my foot in any door, he just tried to give me advice which was occasionally helpful
- 5/10k is a lot of money to lose if you fail the cohort, that's takes a real mental toll to try to study when you have that much money on the line
- Working 90-100 hours a week for 2.5 months was emotionally draining and I usually could only take 2 hours or so off per week

Additional Thoughts:

After searching for jobs for 2 months, I realized that Python would have been far better to learn than Ruby. Everyone uses it basically. Other bootcamps probably teach Python and JS and that might make the job search easier. I like Ruby, but I find it hard to recommend the program because of the decision to teach Ruby and not Python. 

The cost is fairly high, and so it is hard to enroll in a/A without some money in the bank. It ends up being a sort of accelerator for already privileged people, which is not what they necessarily advertise. This is just how it is unfortunately. Also the advertisements are inaccurate because most people don't get jobs at Google unless they were TA's at a/A for some time. 

Another thing is that a/A is somewhat of a revolving door, I am noticing that the best instructors leave almost as soon as they become fully capable instructors. This might lead to lower quality instruction. a/A doesn't have good organization as a company and people working for them complain about things like not getting paid and constant misunderstandings. 

I would never go through something like this again, but I can't deny that it worked for me and most of my cohort. About 50% of us landed jobs, and fast. However, a few of the other 50% of students were able to get through but some of them mysteriously seem like they still don't understand coding, and were able to get through by just memorizing practice assessments. I think this set of people is might struggle for a long time and maybe give up. The weeding out is not as intense as it should be. 

a/A was scary and intense but it imposes immense focus on you that allows you to surpass your previous ignorance and gain serious skills that make you employable, and eventually well paid. I turned my whole life around in just 9 months (I studied a lot before the program). I have a love hate relationship with it but more love than hate overall. My life has become drastically better and I feel empowered now in a way I never felt before. 

I would say that this is a very fast paced program and there is no time for you to take a break once the program starts.

Once you fall behind its tough to catch up.

There are Assessments every week to test your knowledge on what you have learnt last week.

They are very important and have  a say on your standing in this program.

I would say that come to this program prepared to put in all your time and effort into it for the next 3 months of your life.

Its all worth it and you will learn a lot of stuff in 3 months.

I am now in the job search after App Academy's curriculum.  The claim is that you'll work 80+ hours a week.  This is 100% accurate.  Everyone here is brilliant, and everyone works their absolute butt off.  I have a background in elite international sports, and this is by far the hardest I've ever worked for an extended period of time.

You will learn a HUGE amount of web development in a hilariously short amount of time, and by the end of it, you'll be building a clone of a full scale web app in 10 days.  I did spotify, and it is a project I am tremendously proud of, and had a great time doing it.

That said, it is hard.  App Academy will challenge every part of you.  It straings you mentally, emotionally, and physically, and puts a tremendous strain on any relationships you have during the program.  Talk with your significant other about it before attending, because you will barely see them during the 12 week program, and when you do, your mind will be on code.

Its tough.  I'm happy I did it, but there are few words to describe how challenging of a program it is.  If you fail 2 tests you get kicked out. My cohort started at 72 people, and ended as 55 people, so over 20% of people failed out.  These people were good, smart, hard working people who just couldn't quite do it.  Its.  Tough.

App Academy has been an intense ride. There were many highs and lows throughput the process but I do feel like I've learned so much in such a short span.  a/A teaches you how to learn quick. Although recently they have published the course online, the support system here is the real value. The instructors/TAs here are super supportive and patient. The pair programming experience was both amazing and dreadful pending on the people. Everyone who was enrolled definitely have the potential but quite a few folks have been dismissed from the assessments...but doesn't mean they won't become a developer one day. This program definitely isn't for everyone because it's both fast pace and stressful. My real grip with the program is that I wish they did deep dive a bit more on topics but at the same time, you can only fit so much in a 12/13 week program. 

 My biggest advice for anyone who's aspiring to take this journey:
- make sure you understand the concepts well. Don't just be "oh I get it". You should be able to explain it to anyone. The material does build on top each week and some topics will be reintroduced a week or two later.
-get some sleep. to be honest, the homework does HELP you but don't lose sleep over it. they do go over the topic/concepts the next morning but I would advise not completely ditching it