App Academy

I actually got a job after completing App Academy's in-person full-time curriculum in NYC.  I wanted to wait until I actually got an offer, so here it is.

If you're looking at this review, you're probably looking to make a career-change or gain an edge in landing that first software development role after graduating University (or High School?).  For me, it was absolutely worth it.

1. This is one of the only coding bootcamps which hold you to a certain learning-pace with weekly assessments for the first 8-ish weeks.  If you fall behind and fail two of them, you're out of the program, and trust me this will take a lot of work to pass.  It ensures that you actually learned the material and can do the basics, but the pace of this program isn't for everyone.  You will wake up in the morning, get to the office, code all day, go home, work on HW assignments, code some more, sleep, then repeat for 3 months.  You will literally live/eat/breathe code for the duration and you'll learn so much, but this brings up my second point.

2. You will have no life during the program.  When people say this in the reviews, they're not being excessive.  I almost had a panic attack on the night before my first assessment (Sunday) because I was struggling with some concepts.  You will learn a new concept and then be expected to pass an assessment on it the following week, while already learning new material.  Tell your friends/girlfriend/family/dog that you'll pay attention to them after 3 months.  (For reference, my cohort had like 20% of the cohort drop out...  This isn't a joke)

3. You will meet some of the most brilliant people you've ever met in your cohort.  We've had Ivy-League grads, WallStreet guys, Entrepreneurs, Musicians, Basement gamers who want to finally get a job, etc...  They were from all different backgrounds, but almost every single one of them were brilliant in their own way.  I actually felt dumb for the first time in my life.  Being surrounded by these people and pair-programming with each of them every single day will help you learn and see code in a different way.  You'll also learn how to deal with not-so-favorable people, which will help you during your actual job (stubborn/argumentative people, keyboard hogs, etc), but these interactions are rare.

4. The Job-Search support is actually one of the best parts of this curriculum.  Technical and Non-Technical interviewing is a skill just like programming, and you'll gain a ton of practice white boarding and talking about yourself/background.  My career coach was the best hype-man I could've ever asked for, and I think he actually helped me ultimately land my first role.

If you put in the work, and you pass all the assessments, you'll land a job.  A vast majority of my cohort all landed jobs within the first 6-months after program completion.
The most important part is putting in the work after you actually finish the program (Job-Search is honestly the hardest part because there's minimal hand holding and you're actually competing for roles against other people who often have CS degrees).  There's no time for an extended break after completing the program.  Start working on more features on your fullstack project, start learning data structures / algorithms more in depth, white board at least once a week, etc...  It will take a lot of work.  The best part is that you have access to the office at all times, so you can go in to work while you look for a job even after you complete the program.

For me, this program changed my life and I'm thankful I went through it.

Lastly, I want to share one tip:  Before you start the program, you absolutely should complete a beginner's web-development "course" on freecodecamp or Udemy.  It goes a LONG way, trust me.

With graduation near, I can't wait for this program to be over, but I am confident that it has prepared me well to land a job as a software developer.

The good: 
App Academy is a high quality coding bootcamp, and if you make it through, you will be well prepared for a career in software development. The curriculum is clear and thorough. The program is continuously updated to reflect changes in the industry. The students and staff are passionate about learning and coding. The staff are very helpful, and due to the tuition agreement, they are very invested in the students' success. 

The bad: 
App Academy advertises that there is no coding background or experience required for their 12 week bootcamp. This technically is not wrong, but I would never recommend this program to someone with no coding experience. If I were to do this over, I would spend several months teaching myself to code and would take some free online classes before starting App Academy.  The stress and lack of sleep I'm experiencing during this program are affecting my physical and mental health, and it would be much more bearable if I had known a lot more coming in.

Overall, I’m very satisfied with the experience I had going through App Academy.

The strong reputation that App Academy has in the industry is well-deserved - the quality of education is excellent, and the instructors do a great job of presenting the material in a clear and concise manner. The curriculum designers are also constantly aware of current technology trends, and are unafraid of completely revamping their instructional materials to ensure that what they teach is relevant in industry.

However, while the program claims that no prior programming experience is necessary to get in, I found that the vast majority of people who completed the program and excelled in my cohort had some kind of technical background, ranging from CS/STEM majors, to some basic web design experience. This is not to say that those who came in with no experience did not finish the program, but rather that they had to be a lot more self-sufficient and proactive about learning the material in order to keep up.

The program is rigorous, but it forces you to push yourself to higher levels of productivity than you ever thought possible, and getting to work in an environment surrounded by people who are self-motivated and all working toward a similar goal is incredibly satisfying.

At a/A, there has been many challenges. You go through test assessments, 3 hours of homework, full stack projects...etc. 

For me, if you told me I'd be able to pass all this 3 months ago, I would have felt this was way over my head. In the last 10 weeks, I've learned about myself. I've learned to learn.  There has been a great amount of help from TAs and classmates. I've learned to take all their styles and watch how they work and just pick a part of it. One clear example was while working on my CSS for my project, I was going back and forth between my text editor and browser to see changes I've made. After having a TA to come help solve a bug, I got to see how they handled CSS and found a more efficient way to work by making changes in the browser that has a immediate change. That is just one of many example of how I've learn to work  through the techniques of others. 

There is a lot of content to learn, but with the well structured curriculum that a/A gives us, you're more than prepared to be successful. 

This is my honest review about app academy, this bootcamp is the most intense but also rewarding experience of my academic studies. Be prepared if you really want to succeed, I spent two month before this bootcamp just learning code, still feel overwhelmed during the program. You will need really good fundamentals and a modest talent at coding to get through the program.

The coding curriculum is two month, so you have to learn very fast and be willing to work very hard. The materials provided by the curriculum is valuable and can be best used going through them thoroughly. They also structure the program in a very competitive way to weed out the weaker students who failed multiple tests, which forces you to learn and give your best shot.

My overall experience there is positive, if you are a person enjoys challenges then this is for you.

App academy has a curriculum that can be challenging for people with no prior experience, but it isn't impossible.  The curriculum is slightly dated, but there are several people working to update it daily.  To succeed in the course isn't hard if you are a diligent student, but you will get back how much you put in.  

There are several students have had to leave due to failing multiple tests, which is fair, and lets them know that the pace is too fast for them, or this style of learning is not appropriate for them.  a/A has been nice in terms of paying back the students. 

Pros:
- Decent curriculum that covers basic knowledge, create full stack applications, and learning the skills to learn on your own.
- Community of learners with the same goal
- Nice TAs.
- structured learning for those who need it.
- deferred payment plan.

Cons:
- Some projects are poorly written, and require more effort to understand than is necessary.
- short time to work on projects toward the end, but you can improve on them later.

Being at App Academy has been one of the most intense and rewarding experiences I've ever had. At times, I was completely confused and wondered if I would make it through the program in one piece, but the TAs were always extremely helpful and willing to sit down and walk us through our mistakes and logic. Almost weekly assessments may be a constant source of stress, but are totally doable if you put in the time.  If you're willing to study hard and put programming as your first priority for a few months, App Academy is your best choice.

App Academy has been an incredible experience.  Just a handful of weeks ago, I had little to no knowledge of coding but now am proficient in Rails, CSS, HTML, and multiple JavaScript frameworks.  However, to succeed in this program, it is imperative that you commit yourself 100% to it.  That can mean giving up a lot, but as long as you are willing and able to put in the work, App Academy will give you the resources to learn more than you would think possible.  A lot of that is in part due to how they structure the course.  Most days, you will be pair programming with a partner, which creates a much more collaborative environment, in which people learn to help one another through problems.  I feel as though this was the best way possible for my own learning, as it teaches you both how to listen and interpret other's ideas and express your own clearly.  

The best advice I can give is stay on top of your work.  There is no time to catch up if you fall behind because the course moves so quickly.  The assessments are stressful, but as long as you keep up with the workload, they aren't impossible.  

App Academy is an incredibly rewarding experience — I've been attending the program in SF for 9 weeks, and just finished the first section of the course, and I can't even describe how much I've enjoyed it. We've learned Ruby, SQL, Javascript, React, Redux, Rails, and completed a full-stack clone of an existing application. There are people of all ages and backgrounds here. The youngest being 17 (by a pretty wide margin), and the oldest 40+. There are quite a few CS majors, but also people with engineering, accounting, sales, etc. backgrounds. However, the gender ratio for this cohort was pretty bad: about 1/12 are female. There are definitely people who are a lot better at coding from the start than others, which may change over the course of the program, so be prepared for that.

In my opinion, these are the two most incredible parts of a/A:

1. How much you learn, and how fast you learn it. The workload is intense (see below), but you'll amaze yourself with how capable you are of absorbing it!

2. The people. The TA's are very intelligent and genuinely want to help you succeed. The culture is not competitive at all. Everyone supports each other. We help one another with bugs, explain concepts to those who are struggling, get lunch together, and generally have a good time while coding. This community is actually very important, especially considering that we spend at least 45 hours together/week.

When you apply and pass the interviewing process, you must complete an Alpha Course — essentially a pretty packed curriculum on the basics of Ruby and Object Oriented Programming. a/A recommends that you spend 4 weeks on this, which is definitely a good idea. However, completely it in less than that time is doable if you can fully commit all your time to doing it. I finished in less than 2 weeks, although I had some prior programming experience in Java. I also spent nearly the entirety of every day working on it.

Each day during the first section of the actual course looked pretty much the same, save the material we learned that day: 9am start, lecture for around 2 hours, then pair program for the rest of the day to practice the material taught in lecture, with a break for lunch and a brief one in the afternoon. After the school day is over, we do 1-3 hours of homework. The homework consists of readings/videos and a small assignment that cover the material for the next day, which will be reviewed during the lecture. This is why a/A is definitely a full-time commitment — really try to keep up, and this is totally doable if you are sufficiently motivated and allocate your time wisely. At first, it was pretty difficult to adjust to this schedule: my eyes would be really sore by Thursday of each week for the first 3 weeks, and there are no windows so it's a little stifling. However, by the end of that, I was fully adapted.

There are a total of 6 assessments spread across the first 8 weeks, and if you fail twice, and then fail a retake, you are kicked out, no exceptions. This is a really strict policy, and it's definitely a lot of pressure. About 25% of the people in my cohort were kicked out, so please consider this carefully. I failed the third assessment, and was really stressed for the rest, but passed them without a problem. These assessments really are not designed to get you or anything like that. They provide practice assessments, and as long as you do those until you can finish it in about half the time you get for the real assessment, you will be totally fine. Just make sure you understand the material — don't simply memorize!

Overall, an amazing experience, and I would definitely do it again given the choice.

Attending App Academy has been one of the most rewarding experiences I've had. There were many times where I felt completely lost, but the TA staff at App Academy was always super accommodating and willing to patiently teach any of us that needed the help. I can't thank them enough for the help they gave me every time I felt ready to give up. If you are willing to drop everything and commit 9 weeks to see if coding is for you, there isn't a program out there I'd recommend more so than App Academy.