App Academy

Pros:- Great TAs to help you along the way
- Daily projects to practice the concepts you learn
- Three major projects for your portfolio towards the end of the course
- They are honest when they say 'expect to work 80-90+ hours a week'.

Cons:
- They move through the material really fast and it always feels like you never completely learn everything
- There are weekly assessments - two fails result in a dismissal, which adds a lot of stress in addition to the course load


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

In theory, app Academy doesn't provide you with anything you can't otherwise get for free to land a job as a software engineer. They do provide things that make it a lot easier. They provide job support: coaches that will meet with you to debug your projects, slack channels with people who will help you debug, connections to partnership companies, but most importantly: motivation and direction. It's possible that you are perfectly motivated all by yourself, in which case skip a coding bootcamp such as aA. If you're anything like me though, app Academy gives you all of the directions, you follow them, and eventually you have a job in software engineering. They give you deadlines during the curriculum and are always over your shoulder making sure you apply to jobs during the job search. You are with a cohort, who is both your emotional support system and competition, the perfect recipe for motivation. Feel free to skip app Acedemy if you can cultivate these qualities yourself. If not, it's worth joining.

App Academy is hard. It's stressful. There's long hours, longer days, and longer weeks. But what do you expect? Do you think that a course that can change your life, put you on a path for a real high paying, rewarding career would be easy? I didn't know if I could do it. Somehow when the course started, I just never backed down. I put in the effort and came out the other side a full fledged Software Engineer. I couldn't recommend this more to anyone who wants a fresh start. To anyone who wants to put their life on track. App Academy changed my life and with some effort, it could change yours.

App Academy is no joke when it comes to how hard the program is. I've seen reviews before I joined that mentioned how your life during the program will basically only consist of eat, breathe, and sleep coding. And honestly it pretty much did feel like that. However, if you've got the drive and will to pick up coding skills in a short amount of time, you're not going to really mind it too much. All this to say, that I feel the reward was certainly worth the challenge. Nothing felt more rewarding than finally understanding a concept, passing a test, or getting over an insurmountable blocker during a project. For the short time that you spend here, you definitely pick up a whole lot of knowledge. For me personally, I never would have gotten this far on my own within 6 months time and I have App Academy to thank for that. Everyone from the staff to the cohort-mates were amazing and supportive. If you're hesitant on joining but you know you've been wanting to get into coding for a while, I'd say just do it. I haven't regretted my decision ever since. 

App Academy was great. I graduated with a CS degree, but in App Academy I learnt a lot of new programming languages and I built three different web-application which also helped me developed my resume. I spent a lot of extra hours for me to feel comfortable and finish up the projects. I would definitely recommend the program, just make sure you make friends and get a group of supporters together during the bootcamp.

I have attended 16weeks program and recently graduated. It is fast-paced study environment, you need to spend at least 70-80 hours per week to avoid failing from the courses. Even though, TAs help you really well with keeping up your environment, and gives you motivations too. I definitely recommend it for your good future career, because they even helping you out during job search. You can get good advices not even just for your documentation but also for your upcoming interview until you get a job. 

I attended the 16-week program. It was a fast-paced environment and pretty easy to fall behind if you weren't committed to around 60-80 hours a week. It starts off pretty easy, but there are measurable increases in the pace and difficulty every two-three weeks. If you're thinking about doing this Bootcamp, I'd recommend finding a group as early as possible. It's easy to feel behind if you isolate yourself, but in a group, you realize most people are at or around the same level. Additionally, my peers helped make up the knowledge gap.

Even if you're just slightly interested in getting into coding, App Academy does a great job of really introducing you to everything you need to be a full-stack developer. Not only that but their deferred payment model helps alleviate a lot of the financial burden that you would experience with other bootcamps, where you only start paying after you land your first job. There are some pros and cons here and there though:

Pros-

- Super supportive staff who really just want to see you succeed and make the bootcamp feel less pressuring

- You get to meet a ton of new people here who are relatively in the same position as you or have the same interest

- Instructors are also super lenient as long as you're forthcoming with your circumstances. While there are specific check-in times, if you've experienced an accident and don't have the time to, as long as you let them know ASAP they're really understanding about your situations.

Cons-

- There is a lot of content on the platform that needs to be updated/changed. Some of the modules we skipped over projects because they didn't want us doing them or typos in the curriculum

My only tip for anyone interested in this program is, don't half-ass the program. You're going to end up paying for it both financially and academically if you don't give the program your all. It's an intense program and rightfully so because of the amount of content you need to fit into your brain to compete with recent 4-year college graduates. But again, there is so much support from the staff that if you don't get something, never be afraid to ask for another explanation, maybe from another instructor. 

App Academy was quite the experience. It was a lot to take on, and at times didn't feel manageable. It took a lot of extra time for me to feel comfortable with everything. I put in a lot of extra hours and a lot of effort to keep up with everything. If you learn quickly and do well teaching yourself then this is the course for you. There were times later in the program where help from instructors was a little lacking, not only did it seem that they didn't have all the answers but that they didn't have the time to help either. It is a fast paced program so I think the problem lies in the fact that we are hungry and plentiful and there just isn't enough time for it all to be possible. I would definitely recommend the program, just make sure you make friends and get a group of supporters together during the bootcamp.

My App Academy experience has been fantastic. It's true what they say, you get out what you put in. You will absolutely succeed and learn a TON if you apply yourself. You learn more than just how to code, you learn how to manage challenges, manage your time, your emotions, how to work hard and learn new things. Graduating App Academy is real testament to your strength. A roller coaster of an experience and I don't regret a thing.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I enrolled in App Academy, but it ended up being one of the most difficult and rewarding experiences in my life. The instructional staff for the most part was top-notch, though near the end of the course a few instructors gave the impression they would rather be anywhere but there. By and large, though, the staff were always friendly and helpful and would usually go out of their way to find resources to further explain some of the harder concepts. The curriculum itself is intense and does not stop.  There were little if any opportunities to not give it 100% throughout the 24-week online course. The use of spaced repetition throughout the course would often give glimmers of hope as I would somehow be able to recall and apply a concept that absolutely baffled me a few weeks earlier. Coming out of the course I am quite confident in my abilities as a software developer.  If you're looking to kickstart your career and are driven to succeed I would consider this program.  The pros far outweigh the cons and if you're willing to put in the work, you walk away with the potential of earning 6 figures right out the gate. 

I can't say enough about this program. I went in confident in myself, but not confident in what I could offer a future employer. I was always nervous about what to say during an interview and what would impress the interviewers. Now I have viable skills that are in demand and that pays well. I would first say, that anyone thinking about attending this boot camp should enjoy solving problems, and shouldn't get so frustrated that you stop trying to solve them. This program takes perseverance and a strong will and the ability to work well with others, because I promise you, getting through the program with cohort mates is what makes it all possible in my opinion. Being able to talk about the topics we learned and hear them repeated back to us through study groups helped me feel really confident in the material right away. If you've thought about a coding boot camp or have a knack for solving problems and are dedicated to honing that skill, trust that App Academy will give teach you how to become a full stack engineer and break into the competitive job market.

I was here 7 months ago, in a very similar situation and you probably are. I looked up the best Online Bootcamps and the name App Academy kept coming up. I decided to look for into it, into reviews people had left, and did general research on it for weeks. After speaking with a few alumni, I decided to take the plunge! I absolutely loved it! It was a very fun and intense course! I know so much more than I did 6 months ago, I cant even describe it. If you are on the edge, I 100% recommend App Academy! If you have any burning questions feel free to look me up on LinkedIn and I will do my best to answer any questions, pay it forward and what not!

I recently graduated from App Academy’s 24 week online program, and it was fantastic! The curriculum was informative, the instructors and TAs were knowledgeable and friendly, and the culture of my cohort was great!! I now understand so much more about web applications and how the internet works, and I have gained experience working on full-stack projects. I’m currently in the process of working with the career services / post-graduation side of App Academy, and I appreciate that their instruction and provided materials continue on past the technical learning portion of the program - they don’t just throw you out after graduation! My experience with App Academy has been amazing, and I highly recommend them!

The experience was great, I'm already getting bites for multiple interviews a week after graduation.

It would be unfit for me to say that this wasn't in part due to my previous engineering experience in the Mechanical Engineer field.
The average span from graduation to a job offer is 6 months and many of my fellow graduates with no prior work experience are still struggling to get interviews.

Nevertheless, App Academy does a great job of guiding their graduates with the best job search practices, and even finds internal referrals with partnering companies a couple of times per week.

With the ISA Plan, they dony get their money until you do, that is what ultimately convinced me to choose them as my coding camp and it haws not failed me to this day.

I know there are a lot of reviews here that speak to the curriculum, work, hours needed, and tools used by App Academy to teach their curriculum. In a nutshell... The program is amazing. The work is hard. There is never enough time. You’ll meet amazing people and build an awesome network.  The TAs are what you are really paying for and are great. The intent behind their propriety tools (that are a WIP) can be clearly seen and it’s got a bright future. The online course is best for individuals that have other responsibilities and being in person has the added value of others being in the room to help motivate you to get the work done.

The only thing I will harp on is that their current communication tools used for peer and TA chats are in rough shape. The folks who started the program didn’t know how big it would get and initially invested in Slack… which if you ask any current employee at a/A is the bane of their App Academy existence. Because a/A leaves their Slack channel open to Alumni (great intent!), the amount of users has grown to a point where it wouldn’t make financial sense to pay monthly per user (didn’t think about scale from the get go). From a business perspective, I agree that it would be a poor decision to pay monthly and it’s a band aid solution for now… but from a student perspective this was one of the biggest resource failures in the course as I have no history of chats from TAs or colleagues from as little as just 3 days ago. I understand the current situation and I also implore App Academy to find a more permanent solution ASAP. Having gone through the course and used many different comm tools in my career… I can’t tell you  how many question threads were posted in Slack… and if it’s one thing slack is terrible at it’s threading conversations. 

All that being said… I’ll focus on the Parent perspective below. 

Firstly… parents take the one online course. It the only option that gives you the flexibility to be with your family if an emergency arises.  I’ll also say that if you are a single parent with 100% physical custody and don’t have support to help watch your children… this program is probably not for you. Emphasis on ‘single parent’ and the requirements needed to be the superhuman you already are. There is a high probability that you will fail out of the program or stretch yourself too thin to be able to take care of, let alone spend time with your kid(s).  

IMO you will NEED support from your partner/support network for childcare. In fact, I’d start budgeting for the best “Thank You” gift you can think of before you even start the program. The balance is critical and allows for you to complete the program and spend quality time with your kids.

If you have a partner in house to help… I’d be very clear about setting the expectation that they will become the primary caregiver, with you seeing your kids for meals and weekends. Did I mention you’re going to have to REALLY say thank you to your partner for helping out as much as he/she will? 

If you have a joint custody agreement… I advise trying to switch to a schedule where you get your kids on Friday and Saturday only. Saturday is the only day of the week where NOTHING is App Academy related. On Sundays you’ll be studying for your assessments. 

To end on a brighter note… I’m proof that it could be done. I had my kiddo on Thursday Night, Friday Morning and Night, and Saturday Morning… and it was doable. Barely… but doable. In fact, I had to project defer over Spring Break (which happens to coincidentally have been my project week) so that I would be able to show up for my family. Parenting and doing this program definitely tops the list of one of the hardest things that I’ve ever had to do.

There’s also a great a/A Parent group that’s really helpful for support. They meet every two weeks or so. I highly suggest joining and even more so, suggest practicing to reach out to these peers because they are the only ones who can truly understand what it means to be a parent. 

Hope all that helps! In the end, I DO recommend App Academy. My gut says that it will only get better as they learn and time goes on. Good luck!

The education you'll receive at App Academy is good. Assuming you can keep the 100 hour/week pace up and retain any information. I was able to secure a job a little faster than my cohort mates mostly based on my previous job experience outside of Software Development.

The problems start before and after you begin your study. You're going to be told about a 90+% graduation and job placement rate. However I haven't spoken to anyone who didn't have the same experience as me of losing about 30% of their classmates during the cohort. Your going to be told about starting salaries of $100+k/year. That's absolutely crazy. I know of one of my classmates who started around that figure and this person was already a very advanced coder. Your going to be told about a 30% of your 1st year salary as tuition. This is also false. You'll need to sign an Alumni Engagement form and still have to pay back possibly up to $25k in closer to 9 months. I'm not sure how anyone who takes a job at the more likely figure of >= $70K/year is supposed to make these kind of payments. You're going to be told about graduating in 4 months. This is only if you finish your projects that you're most likely not ready for. Be prepared to have to attend a "Study Hall" until your projects are finished to the school's satisfaction and/or you get a job. 

And you better graduate. If you don't, be prepared for an invoice of $250/day of study. Couple all of this with the high turnover of staff and you may be better off looking at another school or educating yourself. The feedback I've gotten from recruiters is they tend to shy away from bootcamp graduates. 

App Academy is a great bootcamp. I started App Academy at the beginning of 2021 as a student. Before this, I also passed the Hack Reactor interview. I chose a/A because the friendliness and responsiveness of the staff. After the start of the program, I have never regretted about my decision. The course design motivates the students to learn as much as they can during the 16 week period. The TAs and career coaches are very responsible and truly wish you to succeed in software engineering. 

 I started App Academy in January 2021, after I had decided to quit my sales job in the medical manufacturing industry to get into tech.  It was a challenging course, and you definitely have to be ready to put your life on hold and dedicate 16 weeks to immerse yourself in the material and keep up with the workload they expect of you (at least 70-80 hours a week).  I think it was a great time to get into this bootcamp since with COVID I wasn't tempted to leave the house much anyway.

You will make many great friends in the cohort along the way that will help you have a good initial base network that you will carry with you into your career, and the career coaches and an abundance of additional resources will be there for you in the job search(which I am in right now).

Keep in mind the onus will mostly be on you throughout the program to pass the assessments, get your projects done, and get the new career you are dreaming of.  The instructors and coaches will help you, but you will also need to help yourself to be in the top applicants in a competitive market.

I would say the main con is there is a lot of information thrown at you and a lot of times it can be disorganized, so you need to ask lots of questions and figure out what is important either for your short term understanding of the technologies or what companies are expecting you to know in the real world.

Overall highly recommend App Academy, if you are looking to make a life change and get into the tech industry! 

 My experience at App Academy went above and beyond my expectations for a coding bootcamp. When COVID hit, I was torn between going back to college or joining an online bootcamp. After researching many bootcamps, App Academy stood out to me because it was one of the few places that offered a shared income agreement. The quality of the curriculum was excellent, and the instructors are very qualified. I felt that all the staff and my classmates were invested in my success, and this kept me motivated through the 24 weeks online program. Each week, we covered a new topic through lectures as well as built projects to reinforce our skills through pair programming. If it any point, I had questions or needed a concept further explained, the TAs immediately offered assistance. Overall, I really recommend App Academy to anybody who wants to enter the tech industry. 

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

These guys will tell so many lies that you may accidentally convince yourself that they are an upstanding institution with a moral compass. If you've uncovered this review, consider its points, as it will be drowned out by shill marketing.

you are forced to compliment a staff member every day in a daily form you MUST fill out, this is a requirement to graduate. 
 
The entire course is based around misinformation, and withholding relevant information from their hostages(students, woops). You will get lied to so much but you'll have no choice but to ignore it, as you've already dedicated so much time to a class. 

Their salesmen claim 95% graduation rate in an effort to get you to sign on the dotted line, but in a couple weeks the class size will drop by from 90 students to 50. Maybe 30% of your starting class will graduate within the 24 week period. This was verified in classes prior to mine.

They'll force a more intrusive ISA down your throat after you've fully committed to the course, and should you have the audacity to refuse to sign away your first born son; they'll accuse you of wrongdoing.

 Their instruction staff has such heavy turnover they don't even know right from wrong, expect to get reliable information from them, think again. These guys are drunk on greed, and they can no longer see straight

Hello all future software engineer and developers,
If you're looking for a Bootcamp that offers problem solving, structure, and excitement; You're reading the right review!
The last 6 months at App Academy have been amazing. I went from knowing nothing about coding (complete beginner) to an accomplished full stack graduate. I have made a dozen friends and of those dozen, 3- 4 will be permanent friends that I will continue to support throughout my career. The staff at App Academy is top tier, they're personable, smart, and accurate. The camp really helped me overcome my struggles with problem solving. I feel much more comfortable and can easily pair with anyone to complete a task. I recommend eating well, studying daily, and taking time to rest. I wouldn't give up my experiences at App Academy for the world. 

Once I decided to take the leap into a bootcamp, after many recommendations by current software engineers, and also, not having the funds to go back to school for another Bachelor's and having twin toddlers to take care of, I found App Academy my very first day of searching. With every step of the enrollment process, every person that I interacted with was genuinely excited for me and offering words of encouragement. Fast-forward to the last few weeks of my program, in the midst of designing and building a solo capstone project, that encouragement and support never faltered. I was fortunate enough to have an amazing cohort of peers that helped each other learn through pair programming and extra study sessions, incredibly talented staff of TA's, Module Instructors, and outstanding APTM and PTM. This was by far the most challenging thing I've every completed, but it was the most rewarding.

If you are looking for a career change or to get into coding in general, I would highly recommend App Academy. App Academy lives up to its name. It is a highly selective bootcamp, that is also very intensive. But once you complete it, the reward is amazing. My journey at App Academy was 16 weeks long. I took the In-Person Full Stack Web Development course, you can also take the online 24 weeks long course I believe. My in-person course was remote, due to COVID. To be honest, I was not expecting to learn a lot online, as I learn better in person, or so I thought. But during the course, I really appreciated it being online as it saved me from having to move to NY and the commute time it would have taken to get back and forth every day. Since the course is very intense, the saved time was a blessing. The TA's and my cohort-mates were really amazing, helpful, and fun to work with. Since it's a rigorous program, all of your cohort-mates are going through the same thing, and are truly willing to help you out even if you are not in class. After the 16 or 24 weeks end, depending on what you choose, they help you land a high-paying job. That way you have a good job, and App Academy also gets paid if you took the deferred payment plan, which I did. 

Overall, it was an amazing experience. If you have no prior coding experience like myself, I would recommend App Academy. It is a great way to get into coding and land a good job. Hope this helps.

This program is great! It has a modern curriculum that teaches everything from programming basics to full stack web development. If you have programming experience, the start of the program is an opportunity to freshen up some basic skills and get some reps in before things pick up. If you don't, the start of the program could be overwhelming, but with the deferral system, you should have an opportunity to nail down any concepts that you are struggling with. 

I would recommend going on a site like Codecademy and completing some basic Javascript and potentially Python courses before spending $$$ on this program. If you are confident in those lessons and your ability to continue growing in the field, I would definitely attend this bootcamp.

I am switching from a 17-year career in woodworking and carpentry to software engineering so big switch! I am very impressed with the course so far, it is hard enough that I am learning a lot, but not so hard that it is discouraging. The folks at the academy have done a really good job choosing their teacher for the course, Alvin is very talented as explaining and demonstrating the different concepts that the course covers. Overall, I am very impressed with everything

My experience at App Academy has been nothing but excellent. Learning a new skill is not easy, it never is. Especially when you are learning it at breakneck speeds that is the intense 6-month program at App Academy.  But the process was that much easier because of the people at App Academy, both the instructors and the fellow students. This program is not for the faint of heart. It will be hard. You will cry. You will want to quit. But know that aA will always be there to have your back. 

I was a little apprehensive about joining an online program, but as COVID lingered on, I didn't want to delay my education anymore and wait for an in-person cohort. After lots of research and applying to ~10 programs, I decided on App Academy because it seemed like the best fit for me. 

I worried that I would be working alone with lectures and projects to work on for 24 weeks, but I was completely wrong. The staff is absolutely the best part about App Academy. Everyone is so knowledgeable and supportive that I never felt like I was falling behind- I was always able to get the help that I needed. Additionally, my cohort was filled with extremely smart and motivated students that created an inclusive community online. Within the first week, I knew I had made the right choice. 

The content of the program is very aligned with the job market today and everything is structured to give you the foundational knowledge you need to become a software engineer. As App Academy will tell you, they are not creating React or Python developers, they are creating software engineers that can learn any new language or framework. On top of all that, they end the program with an amazing "career quest" that gives you more job search support than you could ever ask for. Highly, highly recommend! 

If you invest in yourself, App Academy will invest in you! App Academy delivers on all of their promises and I couldn't have been more pleased with my decision to place my education in their hands. The company culture makes for a great learning environment and I was able to make strong connections with instructors and fellow students. Most importantly, App Academy gave me the confidence to tackle the job search head on!

 This review is for the Fully Online course.  Depending on how quickly you learn and your background, the pace of the 6-month course is totally manageable, and at times felt a little too slow or padded out.  If you don't do your homework readings for the night, you'll inevitably frustrate the class or your pair for the next day.  There are always a dozen people in the class who didn't do the readings or homework, and will take up class time essentially asking the instructor repetitive questions.  This was tough, because it took time away from other students who were asking valuable follow-ups or clarifications.  Additionally, your experience day-to-day varies wildly depending on your pair programming partner.  As the course moves along, folks who get negative feedback or who are not keeping up with the material get deferred, so this becomes less of a problem moving forward.  But at the beginning this can be frustrating if you are working with someone who is not a team player, or who is not performing their due diligence as a student.
The real merit to this program is that it is structured so you have accountability to show up every day and achieve some level of mastery of each week's material. Additionally, the accountability you have during the job search is valuable as well.
If you're thinking of joining this bootcamp, it'll be a great fit for you if you don't know where to start, or get overwhelmed trying to self-learn.  If you are a fast learner, and enjoy complex thinking and problem solving, you might benefit more from App Academy's 16-week course. The full online might still be a good fit for you if you want a little breather room to gain more depth of knowledge on each week's material. 

 App Academy came at a point that I decided to change my life and try to pursue something that I really cared about but didn't necessarily have the means to do so.  a/A provided me the support and tools I needed to achieve that which I didn't think I could.  I went through the 24 week online course and I have to say that it is an intense process that challenges you week in and week out. Some say it's the hardest thing that they have ever done and I can't say that I disagree. I can say that the grueling nature of it has a purpose and you emerge all the better for it. It is not for everyone, some find the steep learning curve too hard but if you are committed and you put in the necessary time, it is very doable and worthwhile. The overall highlight is definitely the staff, who mostly support you throughout the whole course and continue the support into your job search. The curriculum material can be a little erratic in its teaching format and does occasionally need some updating, but you do learn the most current and up to date coding styles. 

    I originally thought I could teach myself the material and skills on my own, but I could never have done it as comprehensively or as quickly. App Academy is a lot of work (the 90 hours a week is accurate for some heavier weeks), but it totally pays off. You not only learn how to create the larger portfolio projects that you complete at the end of the course, but if you really devote yourself to the curriculum, you will learn how to troubleshoot, debug, and most importantly be able to pick up new languages/frameworks easily. This will put you in a great position when it comes to applying for jobs. Throughout most of the course the TA's were easily accessible and were vital for providing the best information to help pass the assessments. My cohort was also a great support group and we were constantly rooting for one another during the process. 
    One thing I disliked was that the HTML/CSS curriculum is mostly self-study. If you don't have a solid understanding, it can make the beginning of your projects a bit overwhelming. Also, help from the TA's starts to get phased out when your projects begin, which can be stressful. The staff and resources during the job search curriculum are fantastic if and only if you proactively take advantage of them and communicate your needs. If you don't, you may feel a bit on your own. 
     Since graduating (< 3 months ago!), I've been impressed with my cohort-mates as several of them have already received job offers or are in final interviews. I'd say if you are willing to study very hard and take advantage of all that a/A has to offer, it is entirely possible to become a full-fledged software engineer in a short time.