App Academy

Currently almost done with the program. Didn't really hava a technical background before doing this. Yes, its possible to make web apps within three months, technically even shorter than that. However, I wouldn't recommend it if you aren't dedicated to it. Your days will consist a lot of going in, coding, going home and doing a bit more. You really need to give it your all for these 12 weeks. The end result is definitely worth it though. I'm amazed at what I am capable of creating after only a few months. The projects I'm working on now, is mostly soley my own work. No more TA's needed to help me through everything, which speaks volumes about the curriculum if you have the right mindset.

I've found that App Academy lives up to the hype, both in terms of hard work and how fast paced it is. The course really pushes students to achieve and learn as much as possible. It is pretty stressful at times, but very rewarding. Fortunately, the coursework is excellently organized - the coursework lists daily homework/readings/videos - which helps keep students on top of their studies. There are plenty of extra resources, including the superb TA's themselves. Every TA at App Academy is knowledgable, patient, and willing to help.

App Academy focuses on pair programming every day, which is a great way to learn what your weaknesses are, to learn through teaching, and sharpen your interpersonal skills (what future employers care about!). The course also slowly progresses from from holding your hand to a hands off approach so that you learn to teach yourself anything you want or need to know, another necessary skill in the workplace. Speaking of the workplace, App Academy's job search curriculum is incredibly involved. They really help you polish your resume, cover letter, and interviewing skills. I don't know of other coding bootcamps with this much post-curriculum support.

If you are passionate about programming (and you have to be to make it through the program) and want to change your life, App Academy can help you do it!

App Academy is amazing! I had less than 6 months experience in coding before coming to a/A and I learned so much over the course of the curriculum! All the staff is so great and goes above and beyond to help you succeed! It's a insanely intense 3 months, but it's so worth it! App Academy has given me the tools to be the best developer I can be and I can't thank them enough for that!

Everyone is very supportive and helpful. The curriculum itself is definitely not easy but it's a lot of fun and it's definitely worth it! Alongside teaching how to make sublime apps and best programming practices, they also teach how to collaborate efficiently with your colleagues in a professional working environment. Overall they forge you to be a rock solid, ready to hit the ground on day 1 of your job developer!

I'm currently in Week 10 of the 12 week program and so far I have few complaints. The curriculum is jam-packed with useful material that is identical to the kind of work that real software developers do; you will learn Rails authentication, React and Redux cycles, and much more. On top of that, the staff is incredibly friendly and if one thing, a/A can guarantee that you won't be bored for a single second for at least 12 weeks.

If it sounds too good to be true it probably is. App academy is no exception. 

Getting into app academy is not as hard as they make it seem. A few basic ruby programming problems and you are in.

Their curriculum is nothing special. It's all open source which you can find online for free or low cost. 

After quitting my job and investing a ton of time and energy, I was "asked" to leave after 9 days into the program. 

App academy's PC culture of diversity, inclusiveness, ass kissing, and bureaucracy did not click with me. They are big on pair programming which is a complete waste of time and a hindrance to learning. Facilities are filthy and men can't even get their own restroom. Every day there was some diversity, women in tech, gay pride, sensitive training type thing going on. That crap doesn't belong in the workplace. 

App academy's claim to fame is "no tuition until hired". This is complete bullshit. I paid a $5000 deposit which was inconvenient but I didn't think too hard about. I thought it would be similar to a security deposit on rent. When I was asked to leave they only gave me back $2300 when I expected my full refund. 

Based on their model, they are incentivized to take as many students as they can, cull the ones that don't work and make a ton of money. I like most people would think "no tuition until hired" means they do everything they can to get you hirable. Turns out they don't give a shit because they keep your money.

I don't mind being "asked" to leave. What I have an issue with is claiming "no tuition until hired" and then turning around and keeping my money. 

If they had refunded my amount completely they would have kept their promise and I would have been fine with that.

This is false and deceptive adverting. This is fraud. This is coercion.

The reason why they have perfect reviews on yelp is because they stick a non-disbarment clause to students who are asked to leave. 

This is illegal in California. Shows the length of what these scam artists do for money. Suppression of free speech. This review will probably get down voted until no one sees it.

I talked to a lawyer and he said since I signed the termination contract I have accepted their "refund" and there's nothing I can do. I was coerced into signing it because I would get nothing if I didn't.

App Academy has got to be the best coding bootcamp around, and I would say the best coding education period.

First of all, the TAs are some of the smartest people I've ever met and they go the extra mile to make sure you understand the material.

Second of all, the course goes at lightning speed. You're always motivated to work as hard as humanly possible because the material is fun, the supplementary videos and homework are awesome, and because of the pair programming aspect.

Third, by the end of the course you not only know how to create web apps, you know how to teach yourself practically anything. A big part of the time spent at App Academy is spent figuring out how to accomplish things, and that's one of the most important skills as a programmer.

Thanks to App Academy, I'm now doing what I love to do!

For anyone determined to make a career change to software development, I cannot recommend App Academy enough. It was incredibly strenuous, but it was totally worth the effort. You will legitimately spend about 70-80 hours a week working for three months, but you learn so much. I had around two years of intermittent experience in software development prior to the course. Most of what I learned was through Ruby on Rails tutorials and some personal Rails applications, all self-taught. App Academy had a perfect mix of CS theory and practical development to enrich my understanding of building software. This mix also provided an excellent foundation for branching-out and learning other tools than what are taught in the curriculum. I still look back at the curriculum material for reference because it is so good. My classmates were some of the smartest and nicest people that I have ever met, and the staff were extremely professional and seemed to genuinely care about our progress. 

I can't recommend this program enough to anyone considering it! I went from knowing next to nothing about programming and barely making money to having a full time job as a software engineer making six figures and building cool stuff. Honestly, attending App Academy was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

Excellent program.

I feel like I put myself through hell to get into the program and to get through the program, but it was absolutely worth it.  I work at one of the best companies in the world and have an amazing salary.

They basically have all the resources you need to learn web development from scratch and find a great job.  The biggest variable is not the school itself but how hard you work to take advantage of those resources and make the best of it.

I went to App Academy in the Cohort that graduated in March 2015. Overall, I think they did a really solid job covering the fundementals of each technology such as Ruby, Rails, SQL, JavaScript & Backbone. When I began interviewing, I did have to spend more time to learn each of these topics in greater depth, because some of the interview questions were specific to HTML, CSS, JavaScript and you just had to memorize that trivia. 

One things that is great about AA that a lot of other bootcamps do not cover is their Algorithm and Data Structures carriculum during the job search. It was super useful to learn about performance, time and space complexity. 

I ended up finding a software engineering job after gradaution so I definitely think their formula works. 

I attended App Academy back in the Spring of 2014 in New York with Jonathan Tamboer as my instructor and about 20 - 25 other student in my cohort. I attended with the hopes of just learning more about software development and become proficient in a web language, such as Ruby. App Academy delivered all that and more.

Both our instructor and TA were very helpful and attentive. Jonathan was very aware of how everyone was receiving the material and focused his attention where appropriate to ensure everyone was on the same page. I will say that the pace of course is not for everyone. It is intense and you can easily fall too far behind if you are not careful.

I ended up deciding to immediately pursue a job as a software engineer and it didn't take long to find the perfect fit. I felt App Academy prepared me well as a junior developer and also prepared me well for the job search process. I'd recommend this course to anyone looking to learn web development.

TL;DR: No exaggeration, App Academy was a life changing experience for me, and if you are willing to work hard it can be life changing for you as well.

I started out with a little experience programming and the idea that I might like to do it professionally and app academy tough me the skills I needed to do just that. The application process requires you to work hard but is also highly rewarding. The prep materials they provide give you a clear path toward what you will need to learn to get accepted. I became a better programmer just by learning the material required to get accepted. 

The program its self is nothing short of amazing, in my opinion its the ideal model for education. Expert teachers, helpful TAs, and a well rounded and diverse group of smart and enthusiastic peers who are just as eager to learn as you are. The peer interaction is one of the best parts of the program, you can easily learn as much if not more from your peers as you will from the lectures and reading. 

The BEST and most unique part of app academy is the tuition model (no tuition until you find a job,  at which you pay a % of your first year salary over time) . This is crucial and something you can not find in any other boot camp that I have ever come across. The fact that they do not get paid until you find a job means that your incentives are aligned with theirs. They have every reason to make the curriculum the best that it can be, and they will support and advise you until you find a job. This also means that you dont have to shell up $10K or more up front like you would with other boot camps  and there is no risk if thing don't work out.

I learned a tremendous amount and made a lot of friends during the program, many of which I am still in touch with today. I attended app academy in October of 2013 and I now work for groupon making 2.5x as much as I made before I was a software dev. Fellow graduates of my cohort are have jobs ranging from big name companies like Tumblr to cool start ups and all to my knowledge found jobs after finishing the program.

App Academy is a sure path to a software dev job for those who enjoy programming and are willing to work hard at it.

I took the A/a 4-week bootcamp prep course at their SF location. You can get a weekly rundown via my blog posts from that experience on my blog. If you're a woman, I suggest you take that jump and get in the reads about my experiences from that position.

As an aside: I've gone on to Hackbright Academy and am beyond thrilled with my experiences. My foray into A/a was supportive in some unusual ways. One of those ways was to highlight many of the masculinist and patriarchical cultural values in which the tech community and the App Academy bootcamp are rooted. I was genuinely sad to see so much sexism present in their cohort. I would often arrive early and be in earshot of the full-stack bootcampers and instructors for hours. There were some dicey moments, and a few that made me want to throw my computer out of the window.

Considering the prep course OR bootcamp?
Here are a few highlights from my experience:

• It's worth taking the time and spending the money to take a prep course if you are on the fence about diving into a coding camp, or you simply want to get some support jump starting into one. I am not entirely sure I would suggest paying the A/a price if it gives you pause, but if it’s totally manageable and the support will be of assistance: go for it! In many ways I’m thankful for spending my time there.
• I spent time with one of their tutors: that was extremely helpful, reviewing the problems that I struggled to break down into bite sized chunks. I recommend their services if you have the expendable cash, though it would be a LOT cheaper to find 
• The instructors were supportive but I think it was painfully obvious they were coders teaching, and not teachers coding. I have mostly great things to say about their individual styles to teaching. However, their structure seems a bit hap-hazard and thrown together. I would venture a guess that they have filled in most of the curriculum on the fly — and if not, I suggest they take a step back and get organized.
• I know pair programming is a large part of the coding puzzle, yet this program is extremely individualized in a polarizing way. I had expected to be encouraged to work alongside one another, review code together, etc.  Nada. If anything, I feel we were discouraged from doing so. I’m unsure whether this is indicative of the A/a culture, the bootcamp culture, or this particular instructor & student environment…

I would highly recommend App Academy. If you're interested in becoming a software developer and are willing to work hard, this is the best way to do it. In just three months, I went from knowing only a little about coding to being employed as a full-time software engineer at a major Bay Area tech company. The results from App Academy wildly exceeded my expectations, and I can't wait to pursue a career in software. None of it would have been possible without App Academy. 

Without going into too much detail, I'd say "believe the hype." Right now there is a huge imbalance in the software market -- demand for software developers is massively outstripping supply, and App Academy's training will put you in position to get one of those highly coveted software jobs. 

If you'd like to learn more about App Academy, check out the other reviews and navigate to the App Academy website to see some of the existing students' blogs. Learning how to program at App Academy is an incredible experience, and if you're on the fence about, remember this... leaving your current career may feel risky, but if you think you'd love programming then App Academy is totally worth it.

I attended App Academy in the beginning of 2016. I came into the program with a hobbyist amount of knowledge of Ruby and Javascript. I knew that I needed an extra push to make the career change, and App Academy seemed like the perfect option. 

The reason I chose App Academy was that they were the only bootcamp that relied on YOUR success as a business model. With the deferred payment model you don't pay until you are employed. This gave me all of the faith that I needed in the program to start my journey!

The coursework is very well put together, and covers an ever-changing array of technologies. They stay up to date, and are always trying to produce the most employable junior developers in the country. If you are thinking about it, just do it. You won't be disappointed.