Byte Academy

Byte Academy helped me transition from Video Producer to Software Developer in a matter of months. The coursework can be demanding (I spent a lot of time outside of school) but you get what you put in. The teaching staff is excellent, caring, and overall a great group of people that geniuinely care about your interests. 

Coming from a non-coding background, I was concerned about my abiltiy to pick up the coursework but Byte's circulum is well structured and the staff is so incredibly supportive. I truly felt like I was joining a family and not a bootcamp. 

There is only so much time I had during my time at Byte, but I am amazed at how much I was able to pick up. I would highly reccommend to anyone who is interested in learning python. 

 

 

I decided to make a career change and go from finance to tech, but I knew it was going to be a diffifult transition given my lack of programming experience. With the myriad of options in NYC, I am happy to say that I made the correct decision with Byte Academy. The fintech-focused curriculum complimented my finanical background and most importantly gave me the confidence and ability to go beyond just learning Python.

I started in the foundation class and continued through the full-stack curriculum. It was definitely difficult, but as long as you keep up with the work, you will be pleasantly surprised with all your progress and how much knowledge you amass in several months. I can now confidently say that I am full-stack developer who can create applications in Python, JavaScript, and React. 

I recommend this course to those who are willing to put in the work and are ready for a change in their career path. 

Two friends recommended I attend a bootcamp to learn to code, and so I knew what to expect in terms of work and time going in. Even then, the course was challenging enough that I spent pretty much all my time learning for 14 weeks.

If you stay on top of the work, the Fullstack Immersive will take up a lot of time but I'd expect most people to keep up. I learned a tremendous amount over the 14 weeks, enough to give me confidence in my abilities with Python specifically, but also in learning new languages and frameworks not covered in the course. I don't always use Python on a day-to-day basis, so the most important skill I learned was probably comfort jumping into entirely new languages or design patterns without feeling lost, and then learning them quickly.

I'd recommend Byte's Fullstack Immersive to anyone willing to put in the time, but know that it needs to be your priority the entire time or you might risk getting behind.

     If you want to learn how to learn how to be an efficient computer programmer this is the place for you.  If you put in work before and after school hours, and on weekends, you will learn what you came to learn as you get out of it what you put into it.  If you expect to come in here from 10-5, 5 days a week for 14 weeks and leave being proficient in Python / computer programming just because you walked in the door, you are highly mistaken.  

     I came into this course with absolutely zero computer programming knowledge.  Because of this I felt "behind" the rest of my cohort and even with working 24/7 7 days a week (with the exception of sleep) I just wish I could have taken what Byte Academy now offers, which is a pre-bootcamp course for those of you with zero experience like myself.  If you have taken a CS course, or have experience, you should be good to go.  

     The instructors are amazing. Kenso was my instructor and he is literally a genius.  Since my recent graduation they already added on a couple TA's and another full-time instructor I believe.  The school is growing and I think it is way overdue.  If fancy looking hallways and expensive expresso machines are important to you, I would look elsewhere.  If you want to learn and surround yourself with other likeminded people, make learning your number one priority for 14 weeks, trust the program, trust your instructors and believe in yourself, Byte Academy is a great place to do it.

     Jenna is great at the job hunt as there is an excellent but demanding set of guidelines to follow.  Honestly though, if you have been in the job searching market, you know looking for a job is a job in itself so I guess this is expected.  Emily and the rest of the staff have connections all over the country, even in some parts of the world.  They host meet-ups, promote others, and do specialize in FinTech.  In my cohort, half the class had no interest in finance and that didn't matter whatsoever...they are still employed now. I believe everyone in my cohort is employed now in one way or another.  I got an internship I wanted dirtectly through connections from the school.

     If you are wanting to change up your career, get a jumpstart, or even just enhance your skills, I would highly suggest sacrificing a few months and be dedicated to learn, study, and work hard to achieve your goals.

When I started looking for classes for data science, I could find many with varied syllabus, none to my satisfaction of what I wanted to learn as core. It was by pure chance I found Byte Academy as they don't have a strong online presence. Also when I started exploring, I couldn't find ANY reviews about Bangalore Centre. But since they had an impressive syllabus, I took a leap of faith.

Foundation - Beginner and Intermediate Python:
I joined Foundation Course as I am a total fresher to programming. It is a 4week programme with 2hrs of class 5days a week. The aim is to bring up to a level to cope up with the Full Time programme which we were told is going to be rigorous. Instructor Kapil was young but well experienced and himself a Data Science practitioner. He is very structured in the way he proceeded with each session. Though the instruction was for 2hrs, it kept us occupied for the entire day with assignments. Since the batch was small, the instructor could understand the strength and weakness of each student and guide us accordingly. Patience was his greatest asset and that’s what is most required in a beginner batch when people are fresh into programming.

 
Data Science - Full Time:
Phase 1 - Advanced Python:
Since day 1, we started feeling the heat of boot camp. The learning curve was steep and directly entered into advanced python. Assignments were heavy and a lot of things need to be explored on your own. Though Instructor Uday is not from Computer Science background, that doesn't deter him from teaching what you required to succeed. At times, I even doubted his ability and the take-back of whole programme. It will all become clear only during the time of phase-1 end assessment. A fairly thorough (difficult) test of your knowledge and proof of how much the instructor has trained you for this very thing with practice problems every single day. That was the time my faith about him and my judgement to come here got restored completely.

Phase 2 - Core Data Science:
You will see a different side of Uday. By education and training he is a statistician and that’s what Data Science is all about and all you need. The amount of knowledge he has in the field just amazes me. He never gets tired of explaining the same concepts again and again until you get it right. Few times, which rarely came, if he didn't know the thing you asked him about, he will sit through it and come back with an answer rather than try to avoid the question entirely. He is very much approachable and friendly.

On the whole, I recommend Byte Academy and this boot-camp style programme to people who have time and rigor to put a little more effort to cope up with the instruction given.

Disclosure :- I'm a byte student attending Data Science with Python Bootcamp(as on April, 2018), here in Bangalore (India). I'm kind of at the half way stage. 

It's been a great experience for the past one month. My expectations were high when i joined Byte after reading through all the reviews about NY campus and i have to admit that i'm happy with my decision to partner with Byte academy (Bangalore) for assistance in my journey to become a data scientist. The teaching style, the pace set by the instructor, the modules that are being covered, the assignments that are being provided are upto my expectation. I've just completed the first phase evaluation and thanx to our amazing instructor, i'm now comfortable with Python. I had very limited knowledge in Python (or any programming language) as i was working with MS Excel as an account manager before.( a whole different area)

Its a bootcamp.! So the pace at which topics are being covered is fast and a lot of hardwork /homework is required to catch up. This was something i expected and i was not disappointed. I've just started with the second phase of bootcamp and as expected it is even more homework / hard work. So yes.. If anyone is looking for a learning experience with minimal distraction and willing to work hard, i would suggest Byte Academy. 

I shall definintely update this review once i complete the Bootcamp successfully (I've not looked into the job assistance part as of now, however i would definietly include something about it once i'm happy with the assitance i get)

Pros:

• Good Wifi,
• Free coffee,
• Good Learning Atmosphere,
• Great Instructor.

Cons / Areas where i felt Byte Academy could improve.

• Small Cohort Size (could be considered advantage),
• Saturdays or sundays academy could be kept open for students. 
• A small library with necessary books could be an investment for the future.

 

A childhood friend of mine told me that he was planning on attending Byte, in July (2016), and I decided to check the place out. I'll never forget how much Tom, an instructor at the time, and Kai, the head of admissions, didn't try to sell me on enrollment. It's kind of hard to explain, but it was like they were indifferent as to whether or not I ended up going, and that's -- perhaps counterintuitively-- what sold me.

I can't remember exactly when this was (it's mid-January, now), but I remember not doing much of the pre-course work. My friend was on top of it, from the start, but I thought that the bootcamp was going to be more or less of a cake-walk because I was developing websites with WordPress / managing my own servers, for a few years before I attended. I ended up paying for it the first month; if there's any advice I have to offer it's: 1) choose Byte and 2) do the pre-work.

I touched on Rak and Cody (my fin. and tech. instructors, respectively) in a review on Byte's website, but I'll mention them, here, too; if I had to choose one phrase to sum both of them up it'd be: "world class." I mean that from the bottom of my heart. I've been through a myriad of educational experiences (attending boarding school in South Korea, conducting research sponsored by General Electric, etc.) and this-- by far and away-- was the best educational experience of my life.

That's not to say that it isn't grueling. The first month can be a dog. I thought that I'd be the big-swinging-dick at Byte when I first signed up because of my experience developing WordPress themes and plugins, but I was leagues behind my peers for the entirety of the first month (en serio: do the pre-work). I think, in retrospect, that I thought that the rest of my cohort would be a bunch of chumps, but, as it turned out, every person in my cohort ended up having a work history that'd make your dick shrivel (investment banker at Credit Suisse, cryptolinguist at the National Security Agency, etc.) and, in my opinion, there's nothing better-- whether you're trying to become a better athlete or a better programmer-- than to be surrounded by your betters.

I wasn't on the struggle bus forever, either. I ended up getting an open-source project off the ground and speaking to a bunch of people about it at DigitalOcean's headquarters. It's still pretty small, but I feel like it's one of happening things at the crossroads of financial technology and we've even had the C.E.O. of Investopedia come by Byte, as part of the project's speaker series, to talk about his experiences in the industry. The project actually shares the name of a WordPress-based project that I demo-ed at DisruptNY's hackathon in 2015, and in a strange way, I feel like something about this anecdote sums up my opinion of Byte; it's something like a bridge: between what was and what could be.

It's a weird thing, to look back, you know? I mean, I read every single review on Course Report, and every other website that I could find, before I took the leap. I was hungry, man. I was fucking rabid. I don't even know what this means, but I wanted "to know."

I took a moment to re-read what I'd written and the album "Is This It" came to mind. I was about to plug my headphones into my laptop and pull it up on Spotify, but I started to think about why the album came to mind in the first place as I reflected on what I meant when I wrote "I wanted 'to know'" I realized that that's exactly what I was asking myself right around the time in my life when my friend told me that he was going to go to Byte. You've really got to look inward before you take the leap. Three months can seem like a long time if you aren't ready for a lot of change, but if you're right head-space: it'll go by in the blink of an eye.

In my time at Byte I got to be taught by all the instructors, and they were all SO friendly and knowledgable about everything they were teaching, and always willing to answer questions and help with homework or debugging code (everything was remote, but I had so much support from the instructors and Byte Fellows that my experience was probably as good as it would have been been in-person!). You can message an instructor with a question anytime and they almost always answer it immediately.
The lectures are about 1.5-2 hours a day and there’s about an hour of “code review” (going over lecture questions and getting help on homework if needed). My biggest advice is definitely to GO TO CODE REVIEW AND DO THE HOMEWORK EVERY DAY!!! I was learning so much new information each day in the lectures, and code review was a great time to talk more about what I learned in lecture and ask all my questions, so that I could make sure I had a solid understanding of everything before we moved onto the next topic in the next day’s lecture. The tests and quizzes are totally manageable IF you keep up with the homework and go to code review- like in any class, you can’t expect to hear something once in lecture and be  an expert at it without doing practice. The difficulty of the homework directly lined up with the difficulty of the tests/quizzes so DO THE HOMEWORK and get help on it if you need to!! There’s also tuesday night algorithms/interview coding prep workshops which are SO HELPFUL for practicing and getting better at coding. 
The final project was my favorite part!! You can pretty much pick whatever topic/project you want and the instructors help you come up with a manageable project and if you get stuck they’re there to help, but you’re the one deciding what to do (it’s insane to realize how many new skills you’ve picked up when you’re in the final project phase- I could code and understand so many Data Science models/algorithms that I never even had heard of before the course). All in all I learned so much and am so happy i did this!!

I took the intro to Python course and it was fantastic. It gives you the basics to pick up the hard skills that are required in the python language. Greg (lead instructor for full-stack dev) was a fantastic instructor who is very passionate about showing multiple sides of the concepts and problems. He also helped throughout the course on the challenge problems which was FANTASTIC despite the class being a free intro course. Also, Kai (head of admissions) was very helpful in providing the information you need and she is very passionate about helping potential students on the python journey.  Although everything was solid, I would be more interested in seeing more challenging problems that are generally harder for concept learning. But again, this might be overkill for many people since many of the students are generally new to coding and this was an intro course. I will recommend to anyone interested in stepping onto the python language to take this class. This was awesome learning immersive with a $0 price tag. You MUST take this class if you are willing to LEARN in the changing industry environment where python language is becoming a MINIMUM (on top of your excel jockey skills)!

I did not graduate from this bootcamp since I got (and accepted) a great job offer about 3 weeks before my course ended. However, I did complete phases 1 and 2, the bulk of the curriculum, so I can speak (only) to that. Phase 3 is mostly independent work, working on your solo and group projects.

The best thing about this bootcamp is the size of the cohorts. It's very small, it feels like a family and you get to know everyone really well. not only the students in your cohort but also the other students, the alumni, the instructors, and all the people in the office. you become each other's family for those months and people genuinely care about each other's successes and challenges. The curriculum is hard, especially if you (like me) have zero experience in coding. They tell you to "trust the process" and you should, but it's not enough. you have to put in a lot of hours to make sure you get what was presented in class. I would have liked more instruction time and more one on one time with my instructors especially during phase 1, when everything was new and overwhelming. everyday there's new materials with very little time to practice, to absorb, to let things sink in, but that's the nature of these bootcamps. and the schedule did get better in phase 2, partially because of byte's ability to be flexible and attentive to student's feedback.

I will say that the instructors seem to be very busy doing many many other things in the organization and didn't always have the time to walk through a solution, or go over a new concept one more time. At some point I just accepted that I don't always understand everything and I just have to follow the procedures to get things to work. Huge shoutout to Greg and Gabby - their official title may have been TA's but they were both such an incredible source of knowledge, expertise, and comfort. They (but really, every single person, students included) were always willing to give more of their time and energy to explain things or answer my endless questions.

In addition to the coding curriculum there's also a job placement/ career services curriculum which I can't stress enough how important it is to follow - I was skeptic about it and tried (!) to procrastinate but fortunately Jenna wouldn't let me and this is how I ended up getting a job. 

Overall, this was a good experience for me. It took me way out of my comfort zone and I feel very privileged to have met those people at the beginning of my new journey.

If you understand that this is a big commitment and that in the end you're the one that has to do the hard work (the instructors won't do it for you) - then this is the place to go. Good luck!

 

I was a somewhat non-traditional student at Byte in that I had a fairly extensive professional background in software development (PHP web applications & iOS) and I was looking to modernize & expand my skillset rather than learn development from scratch.

The small class size, personal attention, and focus on student-designed projects meant that they were able to tailor my experience to my needs. It is a very challenging introduction to Python, but the support is there for the students who need extra help while the space is there for students working at a higher level.

The knowledgeable instructional staff were a wealth of resources not just for daily lectures and exercise materials, but also with a deep library of knowledge for suggestions for readings and materials outside of class.

There is career counseling that is incorporated into the curriculum starting week one. I was hired by a blockchain startup almost immediately upon graduation.

The structure of the curriculum is two four week phases followed by a final six week phase. The first two phases present a large array of subject matter in daily lectures with a heavy load of exercises. Feedback is provided on exercises in regular code reviews where students put their work up on a project for group critique and improvement. There are weekly quizzes and assessments at the end of phase one and two that are quite challenging, but I didn't hear of anyone failing out of mine or the cohorts I overlapped with. The final phase is dedicated to two deployed projects focused on practical solutions to real world problems. I hear they have since incorporated a competitive challenge hosted by an algotrading hedge fund into the phase 3 work.

Byte hosts meetups and works with the organizers of hackathons. They do a good job of encouraging
Python is a great first language to learn. I'd suggest this program to anyone who is willing to work hard.

Coming from Banking & Finance background my objective of joining the course was to understand the tech side & develop holistic perspective of Fintech sector. 

Attending class & assignments after a long gap was not an easy task, but was made easy due to the program structure of foundation followed by full stack. 

The course content is industry aligned, faculties knowledgable & helpful. The greater emphasis on hands on assignment has helped me learn the nuances faced during application development.

Lastly, the peer learning was also of great help as whenever I got stuck during practise sessions, they were first point of call followed by instructors. 

 

 

I am part of the Python Full stack Bootcamp. It's been an intensive couple of weeks since I started it off. The first phase covers a lot of basics in Python such as data models, data structures, modules, file operations etc. These foundation concepts have helped me understand the language from a better standpoint. 

The Byte academy has developed a highly effective curriculum. The assignments and hands-on sessions during the class help a lot in understanding how to write effective codes. These further in aid in solving a lot of challenges on Hackerank and similar website. 

Our instructor has been very patient in breaking up every concept into its simplest form and explaining it in a detailed manner, with a lot of real-world examples for better understanding. It also acts as a great source to learn about the current industry trends and learn the skills expected of us.

The classroom sessions are highly interactive. The place as a whole has a very conducive environment to study, with a number of T.A's always around to help. 

Overall it has been an amazing experience and definitely a steep learning curve in such a small duration.  

I'm yet to get to the job assistance process and would love to rate it after that.

 

Really good cohorts and instructors and staffs.
It is in the heart of Manhattan but very quiet. It's so good place to concentrate to the programing because is in an beautiful office building.

Selected and small cohort sizes was great for me. I could ask instructors and cohorts whenever I wanted to ask questions.They told me fun and importance of data science and are now my best friends.

I really appriciate byte family. 

I think contents is not so different wherever you learn, what is importance is its enviroment and cohorts to learn with.So the byte will be one of the best place.

After, graduating from college, I felt that I didn’t have the hands on experience that a lot of companies are seeking. Byte Academy not only gave me the full stack development skills; they also gave me the finance education that allowed me to find and thrive in the FinTech industry. Upon leaving the bootcamp I found a position as an python developer in a startup company, called Enso Financial in the fintech industry. After, the company saw a successful acquisition, I left the company to work at one of the world's leading investing banks JPMorgan Chase & Co. For anyone thinking about learning to code, they should learn the basic and see if they truly enjoy it. And know that programming isn’t a solo act, it takes a team. Thats why learning programming in a group setting works the best. While attending byte I did not only learn to program but also build friendships that followed me through out my career dis far. 

Course: Summer Full Time - Python Full Stack - Phase 1

As coding becomes ever more important of a skill to learn, the options of places to learn them have also expanded. Searching for a course which focuses on Python and exciting applications, Byte Academy's Curriculum stood out to me by far as the most exciting, beneficial and lucrative. 

I'm sure that many Bootcamps have a more textbook and Lecture style way of teaching. Where they teach their students the theory and after the course let them apply what they learnt. The issue with this is that it doesn't propel you for any of the real world issues that you will face through your career and not to forget can be extremely boring. Byte provides you with an extremely hands-on course which keeps you stimulated from beginning to end. The project-based learning means you will come up the course with a full portfolio and give you a real feel for what a programming role will be like. This balance between learning and application, I feel will trump any other coding course, in regards to teaching style. No day was dull and everyone has constant optimism and ambition to learn a lot.

Thom and Billy, my intructors where fantastic and really added to the great experience. The small cohorts really allowed you to have alot of facetime and make sure that you are never stuck for too long. You work in small teams and have the real flexibility to work on what you want. My course was Pure Python and I think that's their flagship course.I can't speak for any of the specialisation courses.

The admissions and Career team really helped to make sure that you feel comfortable throught the programmme. Byte really understand what is needed to a get a great job. I'm currently interning as a Data Scientist at Facebook. I can genuinely say that the learning which Byte Academy provided me with, was pinnacle to receiving an offer.

The location was great and put you in the centre of Manhattan, I enjoyed trying a new restaurant every day and exploring what New York has to offer.

Thank you Byte Academy for providing me with one the best summers I have ever had!

 

 

I attended byte academy over the summer of 2017 as part of the summer bootcamp and i have to say Im glad i did!
Located in the heart of Manhattan in an amazing office building , byte academy from the get-go  gave off a real professional and academic feel to it, which i felt added hugely to the whole experience, as it gave me a true kick of inspiration and drive to hopefully turn the skills learnt from the course, into a job which would place me in a location very similar.

One of the biggest selling points for me of the course was the small cohort sizes, which was filled with very bright, like minded individuals  that came from a wide variety of different backgrounds, which in turn meant that due to the small number of us we all got to know each other really well . Consequently this made collaborating on different problems and projects very enjoyable,  and everyone was happy to bounce ideas off one another and constantly challenge each other to come up with more efficient, or drastically different methods of  tackling diffrent problems. Furthermore, as the cohort sizes were small it also meant that we had more personal contact time with the instructors and they were almost always available for help.

This brings me onto THE selling point of the program, the instructors.  Byte academy is lucky to have one of the nicest collection of employee's i have ever come across, all which are very happy to take out time out their day to help you with whatever you need. The attitudes and energy of the entire team at byte is one of the key reasons which i think differentiates byte academy from all other programs. A special mention has to go out to the main teacher of our Cohort, Tom, who went above and beyond of what was required of him, staying after hours to help explain or debug things we were having issues with, and to top it all off doing all of it with a smile. 

All in all i think that byte has constructed an amazing course, which is structured in a way which constantly pushes and challenges you, yet leaves room for you to to shape it into what you want out of it. If your thinking about enrolling, i personally cant recommend enough that you do,  as you will get out of it what byte promised and more.

*After reading what some of the other reviewers have had to say i feel like some of the negative points mentioned should be taken with a pinch of salt. While i cant comment for what byte was like in the past, i can say that i got the feeling that byte is a company which is constantly striving to improve, and i know that lots of the shortfalls mentioned have now been properly revised and addressed.

Overall a very positive experience. I came in with next-to-nothing prior knowledge of coding and development. The course seemed to move extremely fast and I questioned whether I was retaining much. But once the project phase began and the education was put to developing applications I was amazed at how much I had learned in a short period of time. The instructors do a great job the curriculum by covering as much as possible in the limited time while still giving you time to understand it. 

As with most startup style institutions they are constantly trying to improve and iterate the program based on student feedback. So while the changes may appear constant and excessive, I would claim that it extremely important in a quickly changing technology field. 

At Byte Academy you will receive the equivalent experience to the amount of work and time you put into the course. They provide you with virtually everything you would need to succeed, but your success will be solely based on your own effort.

It was a great experience. You have to be ready to study and work a lot. It is really what you put in what you get from the program. Byte is rapidly growing and expanding. Their instructors are very good and smart. 

My only criticisms are:
    - I believe it is more of a full stack program than a fintech program. They have finance lectures and they are good but I did not see a connection between the coding and the finance. 
   - More emphasis on the prep work (I understand they are coming up with a new platform). The pace of a bootcamp is hard to follow and I would have liked to have more to study before starting to avoid getting lost throughout the program, hence focusing on more advanced topics.
    - I would incorporate more discipline and structure.
 
Overall a very good experience, they still need to work on things but I believe they are heading in the right direction. The people are great, it really felt like a family and they are all willing to help you. I was happy to come every day and learn something new.
 

TIP: Expect to stay at least 1-2 months after graduation, it it necessary to learn more specific things, line up interviews and getting further assistance.

My experience at Byte Academy was intense. I had to work hard, and probably learned the most in the short duration that I was there. It all paid off though. I was quite happy with the final project that we completed in my cohort and was able to get a great job within a month of graduating. Thanks Tom, for all your help with my final project and with preparing me for job interviews.

I guess it is quite true that what you'll get out of Byte is what you put in. If you're ready to work hard and spend the time in learning the material, this is a great bootcamp. If you want to just sit back and listen to lectures, this is not for you.

I loved the small cohorts at Byte Academy. Our cohort had access to a few different technology instructors as well as a finance instructor. Also, we had teaching assistants available to help. I entered without much of a background in coding and was able to learn a lot in the 3 months that I was there. The small cohorts and the many different instructors had a lot to do with my learning. 

The focus is on learning by doing. I think this is very useful since I needed the encouragement and hands-on environment for learning. We had lectures everyday, but most of the learning is through projects and coding.

The mentorship during the job search helps a lot. I was able to get a lot of good ideas for companies to target as well as help on my resumes. In addition, the interview prep was very useful. 

Summary: Great for beginners. Do the prework. The smallness is both a positive (hands on instruction) and a slight negative (small network of fellow students and alumni through whom to find jobs). Great at teaching you the basics and how to learn. The phase 3 project is an awesome opportunity to build skills and build a portfolio showpiece. Python is great for the finance industry, academia, and data heavy projects. The career services aspect is a little lacking, and needs more structure.

Attended: February-May 2016

Background: One quantitative methods in Mathematica course in college, one week of Coursera R programming, and some very limited self taught VBA skills.

This course is great for those looking to get into full stack web development, especially those with a limited background in programming. In the first two phases you will learn the basics of object oriented programming and web development. The plentiful coursework and hands on instruction mean that, if the student puts in the time and energy, they will be able to build some pretty cool projects in phase 3.

The course will give you a foundation in data structures, algorithms, database design, API's, and MVC architecture in phase 1. In phase 2 you will put these concepts into practice with the Django framework for the back end and JavaScript for the front end. You will also learn AJAX, so that by the end of phase 2 you can make a single page application.

Phase 3, when you build your own project, is when you "take the training wheels off" and start figuring out frameworks or technologies yourself, and how to incorporate them into your project. Instructors will help point you in the right direction, while giving you the space to do your own work. Many students collaborate on their final project, which is not only an opportunity to build a better project than you could have on your own, but also gives you the opportunity to learn and use a version control system (in my case Git). 

Pros: hands on instruction, great curriculum, and a balance between instilling best practices and learning how to learn. That is, instructors will emphasize doing things the "right way" while also preparing you to figure out how to build projects yourself and learn yourself. Also learning Python and Django are great if you want to go into a more data heavy engineering role. Another advantage of Python is that it has many packages and libraries, so once you get the hang of it you can quickly use those packages and libraries to do some really cool things.

Cons: If you're a complete beginner and don't do the pre-work it's very likely you will need to re-do phase one. The pre-work is essential for the student to hit the ground running. That's not really a con but just a note that it is really more like a four month commitment than a three month commitment. Also finding a job can take some time, but I think that's true for other bootcamps as well. 

 

I am happy to say that joining Byte Academy is one of the best decisions I have made. I am a current student, not graduated yet. The program consists of 3 phases and by the end of the course every student will become a fully qualfied web developer. After completing 2 of 3 phases successfully, I can say that the curriculum is well designed to transform highly motivated individuals with or without prior programming experience into full stack developers. 

Instructors are not only highly knowledgable but also skilled and enthusiastic teachers who genuinely care about the success of their students. Even though each instructor is assigned to a specific phase, they are always availble to answer/help students from any phase. These instructors have great sensitivity and give their full support to make sure each and every student is comfortable with the fast-paced environment.

Pre-course work is designed well and it is very important to complete the requirements before starting the boot camp in order to succeed. A good place for networking as many representatives from various companies attend the weekly meet-ups and coder reviews. Great student community, where evryone is passionate about coding. Diverse group of students with amazing backgrounds and goals. You could be working with someone who used to be an Investment Banker, Trader or a Statup founder. You will make great friends and will be surrounded by people who all work together and help each other succeed.  

Reality is, this is a boot camp so one should not assume that everything will be handed out or someone will be holding hand all the time. Students have to think, exercise their reasoning abilities and put a lot of effort in learning the course. I highly recommend Byte Academy to anyone who is serious about becoming a full stack developer. 

I come from a computer science background. I graduated college in December 2015 and joined Byte in January 2016. I wanted to be a stronger developer so i wanted to join a boot camp. I was pretty skeptical of where I wanted to go, and I remember reading the reviews on this site, and becoming more skeptical, not knowing if Byte would be a great experience. However, because I wanted to learn python/django I went with it and joined byte.  Jeff was my instructor for the three phases; he was a very helpful and great person along with all the other instructors at Byte.  Byte is probably the best choice I’ve made in my life so far. It was much better than just having a degree in computer science.

If you are thinking of join Byte I suggest you come in and just talk to some of the students that are in the later phases. Don’t even bother with speaking to the heads of Byte. Speak to the students and find out for yourself. I graduated Byte in April 2016, and I am so glad I chose byte and worked with a language like Python. 

Facts: 

• The curriculum is pretty hard but manageable, also there are ways to catch up if you slack off.
• The space is not the biggest
• They do have lots of monitors and tables
•  Instructors are very helpful. They all are willing to help you with a problem until you understand completely
• They are open 24/7 so you are able to come in and code weekends or late night ( I really love that about them)
• There are many other small features, like presentations, which help you prepare for the job world. 
• You will be in mid down, lots of food places, great view.
• They have big name companies (Bloomberg, Ibm...) that actively take resumes of graduates from Byte.
• very helpful with resumes, cover letters, and preparing for interviews.

After attending four different boot camp meetups in NYC, I decided to attend Byte Academy for one reason: Billy (lead instructor) was the most intelligent person I met at any of the schools. I also met a former student (Adam) who seemed very bright and passionate about programming, who sold me on the culture: enthusiastic, kind, and driven. I'm glad I attended the meetup and met Billy, because at the time, Byte Academy was *not* at the top of my list -- their website lacked polish, their space was cramped, and they were barely on the radar of review sites like this one.

As an aside: at a Rails bootcamp meetup, I swear the presenter said, "There hasn't been a web framework invented since Ruby on Rails." She didn't seem stupid, so she had to know she was lying... this disrespect for the audience only reinforced my intuition that Ruby is a cult for impressionable children. (Although I have two friends who enjoyed their experiences at App Academy and General Assembly.)

The pace of learning here is *hard* and *fast*. I came in to refresh my skills after not using my undergraduate CS degree for ten years. Although I came in with a decent amount of experience, I was blown away by the second day. I don't know how anyone without my level of experience was able to keep up -- some of them didn't. I've never been to a different boot camp, but if they're graduating all of their students in just 12 weeks, they're not teaching nearly as much as Byte. The good news is that Byte students can repeat a four-week phase if they're not prepared to advance.

I am a *much* better developer now than before I came to Byte.

My cohort's instructor, Tom, was knowledgeable and passionate. He knew just the right balance of what to explain to us and what to let us figure out ourselves. Every instructor has their own interesting side projects they're happy to talk about.

Once per week, all students and instructors who wish can give a five minute presentation about anything they like. A lot of people sign up and it's really cool what people are working on and getting excited about.

Cohorts are small at Byte -- mine only had five students.

During my twelve weeks, I had a concern that Byte didn't seem to offer *any* job placement assistance, but the Monday after I graduated, Billy and Richard helped me immensely with my resume, and by the end of the week I was confident to start applying for jobs. They've also started bi-weekly meetings with Rak and Richard to check in with and help every graduate who is still looking for work (but it seems like basically everyone has already found it).

(They *do* help with job placement, but to be honest, it seems like this industry is so desperate for talent that all it takes to find a job is to sort of know what you're doing and start sending resumes.)

Another aside: A recruiter told me she was having difficulty placing graduates of a particular Ruby bootcamp because of their cookie cutter portfolios. Having attended two Ruby bootcamp graduations, it does seem like their universal formula is to just clone an existing website by gluing an API into React and Rails. The Byte cohort before me built a tool for risk analysis of mortgage portfolios. I built a JavaScript touch event library. The cohort after me built an AI bot to do sentiment analysis on Slack messages (an extension of the project they won the Stamford Hackathon with).

Oh -- and finance! Richard is an incredible finance instructor who spent a lot of time with us in phase two. I didn't find myself becoming interested in finance, but about a third of my fellow students came to Byte specifically because they were interested in finance; Richard knows enough about finance *and* software to advise finance-related final projects in a way the technical instructors can't.

One negative: The daily exercises are intentionally an unfinishable amount of work. I strongly disagree with this philosophy of teaching and I hope that it changes.

All of that said, I believe both Rails *and* Django are archaic. The problem they were built to solve -- templating -- no longer exists, and using them just to implement a JSON API introduces tremendous overhead for no discernable benefit. I think the future -- heck, the present -- is about pulling JSON data into a single page application. Or a multi-page application, but certainly not generating server-side templates for every single page.

Come to Byte; you'll love it.

I am glad I signed up for Byte Academy. My cohort was small, so I was able to get a lot of attention from the instructors and teaching assistants. Quite amazed with the great student-teacher ratio. I really needed the individualized attention, so thanks to everyone who helped me along the way!

The program was tough. I had no programming experience before joining. I found myself spending extra time trying to keep up with the rest of the class. However, the late nights definitely paid off at the end. My advice for people joining - if you work hard, you will learn a lot. If you're not willing to put in the time, don't waste your money.

I read the past reviews on this site, prior to writing my review. It seems a couple of people submitted negative reviews. I can't relate to their problems, since my experience was quite positive. I do know that some of the past instructors have left, the current instructors definitely seem capable and eager to teach.

I initially chose Byte Academy because of the unique technology stack that it teaches. Most bootcamps are more front-end oriented and my intention was to learn a language that will be powerful on the back end. Byte Academy teaches full-stack web development around Django framework. We have been writing Python code every single day. I really like the structure of the program. Every assignment was challenging and fun. We covered a lot of various concepts such as recursion, b-search, objects during the first month. The second phase was concentrated on the Django framework as well as some front-end basics(HTML, CSS, client side Javascript). The last phase is a final project that you have to build front to back with your group members. I had to go back to school after the bootcamp but was able to get a programming internship. Before Byte, I tried to learn programming on my own but I realized that it is important to have structure and ability to ask questions when you are just starting to code. I am very satisfied with Byte Academy and recommend this program who wants to start their programming career.

I came to Byte Academy from an accounting background with some casual programming experience. I was challenged in the areas where I thought I was ahead of the curve and I was guided by the teaching staff when I came upon more difficult material. The pace is fast and everyday they challenge you to stretch past what you thought you could do.

I am not going to claim it is perfect, but Byte Academy staff work closely with students on a daily basis to improve personal and overal experience. During my three months I saw several changes in curriculum and teaching methods that improved my experience.

This program is not for you if you:

• Have difficulty following instructions or being taught.
• Expect a collegiate experience.
• Are not willing to spend extra time to give yourself the best opportunity to learn.

In my opinion, Byte Academy is a worthwhile investment if your goal is to take three months to change how you work, how you think and are fully invested in the process. Byte Academy has every resource that you could think of to make you a great full stack Python developer. You just have to show up and take full advantage.

This is a fantastic bootcamp.  At the moment it is still small which means personalized attention from an extremely competent and passionate instructor staff.  The environment is collaborative - students in more senior cohorts jump at the chance to help those who are new to the bootcamp.  There is a lot to learn in a short amount of time, so best to come in having completed the prework so that you can hit the ground running.  Be ready to put in the hours! Curriculum is rigorous, but if you're serious about this then that's exactly what you should want.

Byte academy does a great job at pretending they are a full service academy and having amazing job placement after. The truth is, they hardly have any graduates and have had more people drop out than graduate with jobs. All of the reviews on this site are written by the people who work there or by current teachers. The teachers care more about their side projects than they do their students. They force multiple people to repeat so most cohorts are made up of 3-4 students. When I first started, I was the only one I my group. They do a great job of just handing you work and never reviewing it unless you ask. The curriculum is decent but the amount of work per day is just insane. My favorite quote from the instructor is "I'm sorry I haven't been helping you today but it's kind of your fault". People have to repeat the first 4 weeks twice?? That's not their fault but the instructors. The instructors act like they're above you but behave like children. The whole school needs a serious redo and structure change. Do not waste your money here but go to a proven school like General Assembly or flatiron.