App Academy

App Academy is a fast-paced program for getting you practical experience with many different relevant technologies in a very short amount of time. Right off the bat once the immersive portion kicked into high gear, we got exposure to Git, data structures, and we were pair programming daily through the day’s projects. The curriculum is well structured for layering in new technologies, and before you know it you’re familiar with relational databases and doing a deep dive into the inner workings of Rails. Things move at a bewildering pace, and it’s very easy to get caught off guard by this early on if you’re not careful.

The looming thought of getting kicked out over failing two assessments can be extremely unsettling, but this risk/reward setup also puts the entirety of the cohort into a hyper focused mindset. And it creates a unique environment for learning if you can sublimate the anxiety of it. Even through the online setup, it was surprising just how much there was a sense of community. You spend hours every day with your classmates, and even through a computer screen I felt like I got to know a lot of them really well. I don’t know how they’re able to isolate so many brilliant people into these cohorts, but they clearly have very efficient and calculated screening mechanisms in place to ensure they’re taking quality people into the program.

The TA’s are fantastic. The student to teacher ratio is very favorable for student teacher interactions, and they were consistently pivotal in getting me on track with the material on pace to get through the assessments. It’s a lot of information so be 100% prepared to have no life while you’re working through the curriculum. I thought 100 hours a week would be an exaggeration but I was consistently logging 95-100 hours each week studying the material straight through the weekend.

You get to build your own full stack project using the core stack of the curriculum, as well as other projects with additional technologies that you learn past the React portion of the course. They’re in a re-vamping phase with their curriculum with less of a focus on Ruby as far as I understand, so this is something to bear in mind moving forward. I’m confident that however they re-structure the curriculum will be just as effective as the current setup they have in place and I’m sure it’s necessary given the industry’s trending away from Rails, but any large scale overhaul of a curriculum carries with it at least some amount of risk.

I felt like the React portion was great. Past that things were still mostly well structured with minor hiccups. There were portions I felt were too rushed. For example, we had about a weekend to learn the MERN stack before we were working in a team to build an application in it that following week. Pieces of this curriculum might need some revision. Maybe something as simple as having at least one additional project with the MERN stack before having students code in a team environment in it. However I really enjoyed the Docker portion of the curriculum, and it was fun building an additional project with GraphQL / Apollo. I’ve heard this part of the curriculum is at the moment isolated to the online setups. You get to build a project in Vanilla JavaScript at the end of the course as well.

App Academy’s deferred payment plan was a strong draw for me personally. I felt that this established them as an institution willing to take on a lot of risk investing in the people they take into the program, and shows that they’re confident their curriculum will get people placed in well-paying positions upon finishing. I’d honestly like to see more institutions of higher education adopt a similar financing approach. There are pros and cons to deciding on doing the online setup instead of an in-person setup, and I do believe an in-person setup would have been very fulfilling. Some people would say the in person setup is vital to the whole App Academy experience. But I do like that the online setup at least had a longer space of time for absorbing the material. You get a month prior to the official immersive portion of the cohort to get solid with software engineering fundamentals. And the TA’s were always readily available to answer any questions I might have, so at least on the learning side there was nothing lost in translation going this route. An in person bootcamp really wasn’t feasible for me personally, and I would expect it’s not for many others planning on applying.

All things considered the past 24 weeks have been a grueling yet highly rewarding experience. You get out of it what you put into it, and you have to put a lot into it if you want to get through the totality of the curriculum.

I chose App Academy because it was one of the few bootcamps that still offered an in-person experience. I attended App Academy’s 16-week in person software engineering program in San Francisco. Being able to have your instructors there with you and pair program with your peers in-person was invaluable. If being in-person is something you can commit to, I highly recommend it! 
The coursework is rigorous (about 8 hrs of lectures/programming during the day and a few more hours of readings/homework at night) and the job search after is even more rigorous. But they do provide you with all the tools you need to succeed with experienced instructors, opportunities to build projects to showcase your skills, and career workshops and partnership jobs after. The in-person curriculum may be lacking Python, but App Academy prepares you to learn and implement new languages and frameworks on your own. 
I was previously a marketing manager with little coding experience. The job market was slow at the time I graduated App Academy and it took me 6 months to receive 2 software engineering offers. The program is tough, but definitely rewarding if you are dedicated to shifting your career into engineering. 

I recently completed App Academy's bootcamp and I can say without hesitation that it was one of the best decisions I've ever made. The curriculum was challenging but comprehensive, and the instructors were top-notch. They provided great support and guidance throughout the program, and their industry experience really shone through in their instruction.What really sets App Academy apart, however, is their job search support. They provide excellent resources and personalized guidance to help you land a job after graduation. Thanks to their help, I was able to secure a great position shortly after completing the program.

Be prepared to spend many hours because App Academy is a very rigorous course because if you don't, you will struggle a lot.

You expected to read/learn material ahead of the next day, so that you are able to do the projects. They also have assessments that test your skills, be ready for those tests.

Once all of the assessments all done, you get to make your own websites using what you have learn over the course. The course does a good job teaching you how to apply these skills on your own project, so the course does pay off once you reach to this part of the course.

Although App Academy is a pretty great course, I feel like some parts of course should be expanded upon as I felt like they were just barely a footnote.

And once you finish your sites, they will provide you a lot of support to get your next job. In fact, I was able to land my job thanks to their support. If you don't get a job within a year, they will refund your money back.

Overall, as you long as you are willing to commit your time to start a career on software engineering, I would recommend you join App Academy.

I did the online bootcamp during the pandemic, while abroad. App Academy is legit. It is rigorous, and you must know your stuff to move on to the next week, every week. Everyone who makes it through is well prepared for a modern software engineering role with the latest frameworks etc. The curriculum is up-to-date, so that is an advantage for bootcamp grads.
But I was most impressed with the support after graduation.  They keep students on track and guide you in the job search process with workshops, projects, strategies, and partnerships. Post-grad is just as rigorous as the bootcamp itself.  They are motivated to support you post-graduation, unlike any other academic institution I've been involved with.I got a software engineering job within 3 months of graduating.

The most important thing I’ll say after participating in App Academy’s 6-month online intensive boot camp is that I should have done it sooner! I’m not going to lie…it was a lot of really, really hard work. Probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But, what’s great about a/A besides the up-to-date curriculum and technical resources at your disposal is the support system that is in place to help you succeed. It’s a win win, and their career coaches are truly top notch. Based on where I am now, I'd say App Academy Open is definitely a real success for me. It's by far the best resource out there for learning to code, and it's entirely free. If you want to land a tech career without breaking the bank, App Academy Open might just be for you 

I did the 16 week program. It was truly one of the most intense courses I've ever taken, you've been warned. They guide you with lessons to help you develop the skills necessary to become an excellent engineer. You get to do 3 portfolio projects with light guidance, and after graduating, they have career search support which I attribute to the success of me quickly finding a job. And it doesn't stop there, there's continued support for alumni with mid to senior level job searching too. The tuition payment plans are very flexible too.

A little about me, my previous career I was a Registered Nurse, but wish I had always gone into software and eventually landed on coding bootcamps as my attempt to become a software developer. I found it incredibly difficult to decide on which bootcamp to attend given the rising number of bootcamps out there and the high risk of many being non-legitimate. Eventually I found a few that seemed to be solid bootcamps and ultimately chose to go with App Academy based out of San Francisco/New York. If you are in the same position as I was, then you probably have researched many reviews as well and come to find that it really goes 50-50 on whether to do a coding bootcamp or not to do one. So many people say its worthless and a waste of money and how you can learn it all on your own or to pursue a computer science degree instead. Me personally? learning on my own was not going to work. Having the structure and discipline a bootcamp provides was exceedingly beneficial, especially in how they slowly advance you in learning topics. When learning on your own you get very lost in where to start and what frameworks to pick up, you end up in a constant limbo of learning small things here and there but never really gaining true knowledge of how things work. 

I recently completed the 6-month online software engineer track with App Academy in April of 2022. Before I started this program I spent about a month with on and off learning through websites such as Free Code Camp, Codecademy, and youtube videos. Essentially, I came in with next to know knowledge of coding. Most bootcamps are designed for people with very little coding knowledge, and build them up to speed as fast as possible. As most reviews say, attending a coding bootcamp can be very difficult and will take up most of your time. I can attest to this, It will definitely take up almost all of your time for the time you are enrolled, but I promise you it is not as hard as they say it is, it is very doable. For the 6-month online program, it was mon-fri 8am-5pm and had tests on every monday in which you need to pass to advance to the next week. You can only fail the tests or the projects (there were 4 projects total) combined of 3 times. But don't let that scare you, so many people have done this and have been successful, and App Academy does a really good job of preparing you with practice tests and office hours. They have various payment methods, which usually comes out to be around 20-22k depending on how you choose to pay. They are on the higher end of the spectrum of bootcamp affordability, but in my personal opinion, well worth it.

With that said I had a great experience with App Academy and highly recommend them if you are searching for a well established bootcamp. One of the best features is that they have a career team that continues to do work shops and hiring events after you complete the program help you in your job search. I am not sure if other bootcamps do this, but this is a must, they help to keep you focused after you finish to keep learning and applying so that you will obtain that job. Don't be afraid if you do decide to choose App Academy and see that there are 100 people in your online cohort, within the first 3 weeks that number can drop in half with people deciding they don't like coding and people failing because they are not truly dedicated to learning. It is also true that most of the teachers/aides are previous students, do not be alarmed by this either, every single bootcamp does this. But do know that they have real experienced software engineers above them that also provide lectures and guide the curriculum to ensure that the correct things are being taught and that we are progressively learning. At the end of completing any bootcamp, don't expect to land a job within a few months, while it certainly does happen, it is definitely not the norm. You have to continuously work on projects/learn new concepts/study DSA/obtain certificates/ and most importantly do not stop applying to jobs. Completing the bootcamp is one part, the job search is a whole different monster, but I promise this bootcamp offers enormous help once you finish to land that job.

Sorry if some of my thoughts are random through this, I am trying to put down every thing I found to be important and what I wish I had knew before I started lol. All in all if you decide on App Academy it is absolutely legit, you will learn enormous amounts, and it will be incredibly fun if you love coding. As stated above I finished in April of 2022, I just now landed a remote software engineer job this month of November 2022, it took me 6 months to land my first job and around 1000-1200 job applications. Sounds like a lot right? Many people including Computer Science graduates have this same issue in the job search. It takes a while to land that first job because everyone wants experienced engineers. Its a crappy situation, but once your in, your in. Right now the average to land that job is 6 months, sometimes sooner, and sometimes later. But it is very cool to say that I made it, from Registered Nurse to Software Engineer. I'm sure you want to hear the salary as well, it was always annoying to see people who got jobs but never listed their salary, it would be incredibly helpful if they did. For me, I am starting out at around 70k. If your in a big tech city such as San Francisco you will easily be over 100k but remember cost of living there is insane. For an entry level position I am pretty happy with that salary, within a couple years it could easily jump to 150+, but ultimately I just want to learn and grow more with a great work-life balance, so money is secondary to me. 

Final words, in case you were wondering if these reviews are fake or App Academy paid me to do this, they did not. That was another fear I had when searching, was that so many bootcamps had such great reviews lol. But this is absolutely my honest review, bootcamps are not for everyone, but if you truly do want to make the switch, be prepared with enough money to last you for a year, 6 months to do the program and 6 months to find a job. I hope this aides you in your search, and absolutely keep App Academy as one of your top choices if it is not already. 

Let me start by saying that, enrolling in App Academy has been one of the most rewarding experiences in recent memory. It helped me land my first role in tech, and with that role came freedom and financial security. I was enrolled in their 24-week full-time software engineering program. Though it was tough, having now made it through and finally landing that first role is amazing experience. 

The curriculum is well thought out, and the instructors are good at explaining all of the programming concepts that are foreign or difficult to comprehend. In my case, everything was new to me, as I didn't have any sort of background in information technology whatsoever. Those 6 months of constant study were quite difficult, but as long as you can stay determined, you'll definitely make it through.