App Academy

I was part of one of the very first online cohorts 2 years ago. The class was difficult, which was expected. I passed all 6 exams and the course itself.

Most days were an hour or two lecture, then you typically are put in a zoom with one other student, who you then work with for 6 hours. This can be hit or miss, one of the classes for example, I had a fellow student present for the first 5 mins, and asked me to cover for them every time a teacher checked in. This no longer felt like adults learning a career, this felt like high school kids ditching class.

Overall, I was able to learn the material, but with more credit to the hours I did on my own after the class, rather than working with another student who also didn't know what they were doing for 6 hours a day. I was somewhat aware of this stuff already going in.

What I did not expect, was how little they help you get a job after the class. They advertise the heck out of it, but they did nothing.

-I had multiple staff quit throughout my time there, so I was constantly needing to reintroduce myself and explain things to new staff, at times basically restarting my job search.

-They advertise connections they have with other companies for employment, but they were all near their campuses in CA and NY. Like I said, I was in the online class, and they had 0 recommendations for Florida. Their advice would be to 'find networking events', this was during lockdown.

-The job search program as a whole, just came off as a way for them to drop you from the program and bill you the full tuition. You need to do 25-40 applications a week depending on your 'job coach' and 40 hours of job search. If you don't, you get a strike for each of those offenses. 10 strikes and you are dropped and are liable for the tuition. This did not happen to me, but it was what you were subtly threatened with, every week. It took two weeks for it to feel like I was doing job applications for app academy, rather than myself. I was stressed trying to hit a certain number or apps, rather than find a job.

-Their job coaches at the time, we're not job coaches. They were more like a/A police, doing their best to get their company money. This job search did not help me at all, and in fact, hurt me. I had to keep applying at these companies in Florida, who barley knew what a coding bootcamp was. I was broke, taking loans, and couldn't go back to my previous job field, because that would break contract and I'd again be liable for 30k.

I was very excited getting accepted into App Academy, at a time I needed some help in my life. The whole experience ended setting me back 3 years. I am worse off, from attending App Academy.

***************UPDATE 11/28/22****************
It has been 8 months since I posted this review. This post is quite long, but I assume if you are still reading, you may be a former student in a similar situation, or simply curious about the program.

This month (November 2022) I began receiving emails from App Academy, requesting help as a program graduate, to help test their current students. Not a job offer, just asking me to help. I replied asking to be removed from that email list. App Academy's response just a few days later was a demand for my financial documents. This email came on a Thursday, requesting my financial documents by Monday, or else I would owe the full $30k immediately from 2019.

The request to be removed from emails and demand for my financial documents may be coincidence, but prior to this exchange, I had not heard from them in a year.

Feeling as I had no other option, I sent them my documents. Turns out I qualify for my $500 to be refunded. App Academy agrees and creates an invoice stating I would be refunded that week. I am here now 8 days later, with no responses to phone calls. Read less

During the pandemic, I was looking for different boot camps to get into IT as an app developer. I stumbled upon an App Academy boot camp, got tested, and signed up for a 16-week course. Great instructors who explained the material in simple and accessible language. The best job coaches were very supportive, gave us 1:1 sessions to analyze and improve soft skills, and shared their experiences and tips on interviewing. A lot of different workshops that help you stay on track Read less

App Academy ramps you up quickly to cover the core skills needed on the job. You'll be in an environment that encourages and supports your growth as an engineer so motivation is easy to come by.  Your cohort will have a mix of people from all different backgrounds so your starting point in terms of coding is not important at all. The most important part of the course is the job search itself. What's great about App Academy is that there are coaches there to hold you accountable and help keep you on track. There will be lots of workshops to help you improve your white boarding skills, interviewing skills, and more. Overall, I'm really glad that I went to App Academy. Be warned the job search can be very tough and even if you have the coding chops/interviewing skills you still might have a hard time. A little bit of luck and playing the numbers game goes a long way. Read less

App Academy helped changed my life. Lost my job in Education due to the pandemic and I wanted a new career. App Academy was an intense 16 week course which helped prepare me for my first role. As a jr developer you have a lot to learn and sometimes in short period. The intense and quick learning format of AA helped me with that as my job required me to learn C#, something AA doesn’t teach. My first role was an internship that paid a salary of $80k, double what I made in education. After 6 months I was hired on as full time from an intern and my salary was $125k and I was fully remote. So AA was intense but definitely life changing for me. Read less

TLDR: App Academy changed my life and allowed me to join a great new career, 5/5 would recommend (to those determined)

I started App Academy in June of 2021 after about a year of considering a career change into coding. One of the main reasons I chose it was because I couldn't afford to pay tuition outright, and they offered an ISA (Incoming Share Agreement), which means tuition was free and you don't have to pay them back until you get a job at $50,000/year or higher.

After 6 months, I graduated the program, and 3 months later, landed a job as a software developer at a startup working full time remotely at $85,000/year. App Academy helped immensely in both the 6 month full time bootcamp, learning programming and building website projects, and the job search period after graduation. For some context, I barely knew what a "for loop" was prior to starting the program, and graduated with 4 website projects as a portfolio, and with frontend and backend development experience.

For the main curriculum (I can only speak to the 6 month online full time course, the part time course I hear is spread out more), they really take you through the basics, from declaring a variable all the way to practically using the coding languages you learn to make some fun projects. I was in the JavaScript/Python course, but we also learned HTML/CSS, Express, React, SQL, Postgres database stuff, etc. Be ready for an intense program; on average I spent about 60-70 hours a week attending class studying in the evenings, and working on projects. But if you enjoy logical thinking, building cool things, and don't mind a fast paced environment, you'll do well in this program, you just have to trust the process.

For the post-main curriculum, after graduating, I entered the "job search" period, where I got assigned a job coach with other graduates. The job search for new developers trying to get their first job is intense, and it takes a lot of perseverance to get through, so having a job coach and other students to go through it with really helped me keep at it, and everyone in my job coach group eventually went on to get jobs too. My job search period took 3 months to land a job, I think on average it took us ~3-6 months to get an offer, but it really varies with some only taking a few weeks and others taking 6+ months. Job coaches helped with networking too, and put me in touch with connections they knew who were hiring bootcamp graduates. It was a very helpful to know not only the job coaches, but to have a network of other students who got jobs as well. Read less

I did App Academy back in sept 2021 and graduated in dec 2021. I honestly felt like I did during the right timing because I started job search in Jan and there were so much opportunities. I signed my first offer in April. My overall experience is great. I really like the staff and student ratios. There are a lot of support that I could get from the TAs. I learned a good amount of stuffs that prepare me enough for interviews and breaking into tech. I would highly recommend this to anyone who wants to make a career transition into software engineer.  Read less

I had a great time here making friends and learning software development. The program gave me all the tools necessary to dive right in to my first job. I recommend it!
I experienced TONS of stress because of the tests and threat of dismissal. The instructors and friends I made there were always fun to be around and supportive. Everyone was experiencing the same thing. I just got hired as a software developer. My tech stack is c# dotnet backend with react frontend. Even though I didn't learn C# while at App Academy, I was able to quickly adapt thanks to the solid foundation they provided me.  Read less

Two words: life changing. Literally. And I don't write that to be cliché. I can honestly say that App Academy (a/A) is responsible for giving me the tools to successfully start a brand new career, a career I knew very little about before attending. The thing that I love the most about a/A is that you don't leave there with a very specific knowledge in one area of programming. They teach you the most important part of being a software engineer – they teach you how to learn. Because of that I was able to get a great job working with a programming language that we didn't even cover in our studies, Elixir. Not only is it a language we didn't study, it's also a completely different programming paradigm, functional programming vs. object-oriented programming. I think that right there is a testament to the skill set they equip you with.

In order to get that job I had to go through the job search phase, and a/A was right there behind me the entire way by providing me with an absolutely amazing career coach, Allie Villarreal. She was there to guide me through the roller coaster of a wild ride in finding the job, providing me with helpful advice and encouragement along the way (thank you, Allie!). In addition to this, I was able to apply at, and interview with,  some truly great companies through App Academy's partnership program. Being backed by a/A can open many doors that previously may not have been available.

If you're looking to gain an education in programming while being able to completely change your life within a 6 month timeline, I highly recommend considering App Academy. You'll be amazed at the amount of content and skills that you can learn and progress through in such a short amount of time. It's worth every minute if it means you can achieve your goals.

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I only have good things to say about AppAcademy. I graduated with a BS in Wildlife Conservation in college, but I needed something better than what jobs were available to me (better pay, better growth, and remote opportunities). I had no family or friends with any experiences with bootcamps, so I did my own research and went for it. I chose AppAcademy because it has a true 'pay after you land your first job' model (didn't pay a penny until I landed my first job. No security deposit) AND because it ranked high on all bootcamp charts, AND because I knew it would be very difficult (better quality education).

I wasn't disappointed. Within a month of graduation I was hired as a Senior Software Engineer at an international company that has over 5,000 employees. Definitely one of the best investments of my life. I have recommended this bootcamp to so my people - friends, family, and strangers. I love what I do. My pay, social status, and quality of life and all significantly improved. Read less

App Academy was more than just an academic institution to me. It taught me many life lesson that I will carry with me throughout my entire life. I was part of the 24-week online curriculum, and not only did I learn the full stack of software development, I sharpened a lot of soft skills that will benefit me in and out of the office, such as communication,  collaboration, and most importantly the ability to teach myself complicated material.

To be completely honest, App Academy is vigorous, and not for everyone. But if you’re serious about changing your career path, be ready to put in the work and constantly be pushed out of your comfort zone. 

I wish you all good luck on your endeavors. Read less

Overall a really good experience and helped me land an amazing job. I would suggest getting some coding experience before applying or attending or it will be much more difficult. If you don't have a mac I would highly suggest getting or borrowing one as it will make your life easier with their specific program. Read less

Overall I had a good experience. Learned a lot about programming and developing web applications. Instructors and TAs are great, they are very supportive and passionate for what they do. Technologies covered include JS, Python, React, Express, and Flask just to name a few. Learning these builds a foundation for you to learn other technologies once you finish. However, there weren't any CSS frameworks that they covered which was a little disappointing. Also I feel more emphasis could be put into learning DS&A which I feel is a big part of the interview process. With that said this is a rigorous and stressful curriculum itself and there is a strike system implemented that just adds unnecessary stress in my opinion. But if you take the time to prepare before the bootcamp starts and actually study you will make it to the end.  Read less

App Academy's free resources were one of the first resources I found that actually began to speed up my learning process when I was learning code by myself, and it hooked me so well that I knew I had to take the full time course to speed things up. I can easily say it was one of the best decisions I ever made. Every experience I had in the program was a good one. I had the pleasure of having AMAZING coaches throughout, the coursework was concise, efficient, and PACKED full of real-world, applicable knowledge that I use everyday now. I can't imagine breaking into the industry any other way having done App Academy now. I am a week out of graduation with people already reaching out to me thanks to the incredible networking setup they had us do. I'm hoping to use my momentum now to break into big tech, and I know that even if I can't do it right away, App Academy has given me the tools and skills I need to get there soon. Can't recommend them enough! Read less

This Bootcamp experience was intense, time consuming, and intense. However, throughout all the struggling, it was worth it in the end. I learned many technologies that will be useful in the future, whether it is in a software engineering career or building websites for fun. Read less

App Academy was very rigorous but very rewarding. My favorite part of AA was the project weeks- this is where the core of the skills you'll need in the field are picked up. The curriculum is always changing and updating to what the current job market desires out of its software engineers. AA is well worth it for those willing to put in the time (and alot of it) and effort. Read less

This program is great for people who are looking to do a career switch into tech with no prior professional tech experience. However, I highly recommend those who are interested to self-study Javascript/HTML/CSS prior to applying, as they have a rigorous curriculum and application process. The learning curve may be difficult for many (trust me, a lot of people do not come in as prepared as they should be) but as long as you come prepared and do your homework, you'll find yourself in a much rewarding place at the end of the experience! Read less

Prior to applying to App Academy, I actually went on this exact website to read reviews of App Academy. Now that I have graduated and having been through the entire curriculum, this is honestly THE boot camp to go to. The pros definitely outweigh the cons, but it all depends on the amount of effort and energy you put in. I did have any prior coding experience other than freeCodeCamp, some online resources, and eBooks. The curriculum is fast-paced, but doable. I found myself clocking in over 80 hours of work per week. It would be less if you're just trying to pass the weekly assessments. All instructional staff were a pleasure to learn from and work with, as they are all there to help you grow, so definitely take advantage of them and ask for help whenever you get stuck! App Academy definitely prepares you well for jobs and I always felt like I was in good hands. The downsides to App Academy would be the number of typos in their curriculum, but it's not that big of a deal. Another downside would be the transition between each module. When you get near the end of a module, you start to get used to your instructor, and right when you get comfortable, you move on to a new module with a brand new instructor, and you get right into work. Nonetheless, I would most definitely recommend a/A to anyone reading this, as I have been in your shoes! APPLY!!!!!! Read less

App Academy has great curriculum rigor and structure if you are looking for the all-round bootcamp to build your skillsets. The instructional team is knowledgable, helpful, and is a good resource if you have any questions. These aspects made the journey enjoyable and motivating. The material was taught at a good pace even though you might feel overwhelmed at first, but it slowly sinks in; just gotta trust the process. All in all, App Academy is a great kick-start if you want to emerge into the tech industry! Read less