Throughout my time at Code Fellows, I learned more than I would have thought possible in a short period of time. My instructors were extremely effective and enthusiastic and provided valuable feedback. The environment at Code Fellows is welcoming and feels like a close, albeit diverse, community. The staff and peers would go out of their way to help whenever a student needed clarification, support, or someone to bounce ideas off of. The curriculum felt generally well-curated and in keeping with current market trends. The only thing that I felt was a bit lacking was my education in data structures and algorithms, which was reserved for lectures once a week in the advanced 401 course. I don't feel like I came away from Code Fellows with a solid grasp on these topics, which makes me a bit worried about interviews. I know that I won't be utilizing these concepts much if at all once I get a job, but they are important topics for white boarding and technical interviews. However, I also understand that we had a lot of material to cover in a short period of time and the instructional staff at Code Fellows simply prioritized what they felt was most valuable for getting students jobs.

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Everything is awesome.

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If you are willing to put in the work, you will get something out of it.  I went through the entire program, TA'ed for a class, and am now gainfully employed.  Through the entire process, the classes were hard but not impossible, and by the end I had a new in demand skill set.  The instructors were great, and the climate was totally conducive to learning.  There was a great community at the school.  Alumni were always around working on their own projects or their job hunt, and there was always someone available to help, be it a teacher, TA, alumni or another student.  The job hunt was mostly a numbers game.  You still come out with no industry experience, but there are more jobs than applicants in the current climate so it was just a matter of working at it until I found opportunities that fit my experience level and skill set.  So, if you are willing to put in the work at all levels, you can leverage this experience into a real job.  As long as you don't expect to have everything handed to you, you will be fine.

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I'll keep it simple, I signed up for an evening course to span four weeks, 2 nights/week - it was to be Intro to Programming. Here were my issues with the program:

1. Seemed it was a new teacher and the course work was not prepraed in advance of students arriving, it felt like each week the course work was created on the run.

2. Feedback cycle for students' work was practically non-existent, there was not structure for students to know if they were learning or not.

3. Work was assigned ad-hoc (or so it seemed).

4. They asked for feedback on the course, I shared it with them, not even a "thanks, we received your feedback"

5. There was a student there taking the course a second time, he said "it was a different teacher the first time, and the curriculum was different, but still very confusing and unstructured" (and he had to pay twice for the same course, not even a discount for repeating)

6. They ended up dumping that evening course because it was such a mess, didn't even bother extending something to all the students whose money they took...didn't even check in with the former students for feedback...didn't even check to see how things are going, but definitely kept sending me marketing emails.

They are a mess, completely unorganized, a clear reason they are the only school in Portland who has less than four stars.

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I thought the school would have been the school for me after being referred here. I was initially excited and was told that I would qualify for a 70% scholarship for each course 201 to 401 and to seek funds from the state for training for the remaining. Well, after attending the Code 101 class, those promises changed. Apparently, I was "confused" about the process and "was not doing the application process correctly" and I was told I was not getting the 70% scholarship but it was up to 70%, after going to the state to get funding and realized I wasted time and energy after Code Fellows-Portland put me through the runaround.

Plus, I was told they had funds from PDC that needed to be used and could not get many minorities to apply, so the scholarship would not be an issue. Anyway, after reading between the lines, it was apparent I was not wanted there, though Code Fellows-Portland gets major funding from the public sector and private sector places. For minorities seeking to code, you want to make sure that you are not just looking at the marketing or getting a runaround. It is not as diverse as the marketing images show. I felt like I was a part of an old boys club.

Note to Code Fellows: Please do not contact me about attending, or about changing my review, or about a scholarship to any course or a job. Nothing will change my mind about Code Fellows. If you did not want me then, you do not want me now.

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To learn coding, you need someone with years of actual coding experience at a software company so they can grade your code, and some experience presenting technical content.   I was told I would have an instructor with years of coding experience.  I got someone who not only didn’t have coding experience, but had never worked in the industry.  Homework was not truly reviewed nor were answer keys ever provided.  Due to that the TA’s had no idea what was going on.  Plus he was arrogant, foul-mouthed, rude, and defensive.  He wrote his demos and plans day by day, wouldn’t provide answer keys, and generally blamed students for any problems.  When an instructor for an advanced program came to talk about his class, he also became defensive about questions surrounding his experience from several students.  Questions about the software industry were never answered.  Don’t waste your money.

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I really enjoyed my time at CF. I took the Web Dev Bootcamp (now the 201), Python F2 and Python 401 (which is now a combination of what was the DA and F2).

My favorite class by far was the Python 401. Cris Ewing is a master educator. He's one of the best teachers I've ever had. He knows when to push students and when to lay back, and he really knows how to break down concepts into small digestable pieces. The 401 was the most intense ten weeks I've ever experienced. I was at CF an average of 10 hours a day during the week, and 5-8 hours every Sunday for all ten weeks, but I loved every minute of it. For me, I learn best in an intense environment like that, mostly because I don't have a choice but to learn quickly. Cris even told us that the point of the class was not to learn Python, but to learn how to learn. It's the "Figure Stuff Out Class". Because of this class, I feel totally prepared to learn whatever technology I need to in a job.

I graduated in May and just got a job as a Software Dev Intern. Woot! And, I felt totally prepared for my interview because of the daily data structure assignemnts and weekly code challenges and whiteboard challenges.

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I had an incredible experience taking 201 and 301 beginner and intermediate software development at Code Fellow's Portland campus. Our instructor was extremely helpful, knowledgeable, and cognizant of our level of understanding. Our TAs went above and beyond to stay late with us and explain difficult concepts. And the administrative staff provided incredible support and made themselves available for one on one time whenever we needed it. My fellow students were wonderful as well; I learned so much from each and every one of them and they helped create a great community. I have spent years trying to teach myself programming on my own and now I finally feel like I can get a good job as a developer. I would recommend Code Fellows to anyone looking to enter the field.

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I originally posted this review on yelp since I felt like CF's current yelp score was heavily negative, but yelp's automatic algorithm did not recommend it. So reposting here.

I was a student in the Ruby on Rails Accelerator back when the course was offered (Sept 2014). Since they've made so many changes to their program structure, this review may not be as applicable, but figured I'd leave my two cents.

The application process was what you would expect out of an actual interview. I was presented with several assignments that I had to complete within a given amount of time. Afterwards, I went through a phone/skype screening. This heavily mirrors my experiences with job interviews so far.

This actual program was only 8 weeks at the time. The first half was spent discussing the ends and outs of Ruby/Rails, and of those four weeks, each day was divided into lecture and co-working where we'd work on projects/discuss new topics among the other devs. As you can imagine given the time, there's only so much you can learn from lectures. Most of the education is actually done by yourself during co-working time. This makes it feel like you can just go to Khan Academy or any other free service, but Code Fellows provides soft skills like teamwork, public speaking, marketing, resume review and more that you can't learn by following online tutorials.

The last half of the program was spent going over more in-depth data structures and algorithms. Sure, you probably won't be using them at work, but I feel like learning how to implement these gives you a better understanding of how a certain problem can be solved and what is the best way to accomplish a solution through code.

Throughout the last half was job prep, which includes whiteboard challenges, common interview questions, how to follow up an interview, and the like. This is where I feel like Code Fellows really shined. If I went in blind to interviews, I feel like I would have blown a lot more than I would have going to CF. They prepare you with not only how to solve typical Fizzbuzz questions, but how to communicate with your interviewer, talk out your problems, ask for more information, body language, and more. This I found extremely valuable.

But what I found lacking, which isn't necessarily their fault, is how far having Code Fellows on your resume will take you. In my experience, it's normally been just a side conversation piece more than something that truly made my resume stand out. As many have pointed out, Code Fellows is (or was at the time) relatively new and doesn't have the network that other boot camps like The Iron Yard or Hack Reactor may have. I have looked for work outside of Seattle and Portland, and it's been harder than I'd imagine to get responses just based on my education. But as I have more experience since my initial job search years ago, it has been easier to net interviews.

I did manage to land a job within two months of graduating from Code Fellows though. Although technically I didn't receive a salary of $60k, cost of living is much cheaper where I am, so it balances out.

TL;DR, I feel like the soft skills were more valuable than the programming, which could honestly be learned online. But learning how to communicate during an interview and how to work well on a team aren't so easy to learn that way. If you need a place to do that plus more, Code Fellows may be right for you. As long as you're willing to take not only a time investment, but a monetary one.

UPDATE: I started a new position making at least $60k, so that's not too bad.

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I graduated from Code Fellows' iOS Development Accelerator in September, 2015. I did all coursework and attended all lectures. The way they graded us was a mess, and it was really not clear the "weight balance" between homeworks, projects and whiteboard tests.

I submitted all homeworks and projects, and did not pass the whiteboard exam. Our instructor mentioned to us, that you would get the certificate if you passed the whiteboard exam. Great, so, he gave us a couple of minutes and a quick look on binary trees, linked lists and queues and told us to read Cracking the Coding Interview Book!

OH GREAT, right, so I read cracking the coding interview in one week and I am expected to know everything about data structures. This is ridiculous. I can proove that I am right, because after my complaint to the COO, they clearly created a weight balance for approving you at the end of the course for the next class, which came in October.

I came from overseas, to CF, delivered all homeworks and projects with excelent marks, and because of 5% of the course, the lecturer did not want to issue me the certificate. In every course in the world you have a minimum grade to pass. This was clearly a way to disqualify me off their old "Job-offer guarantee". And also, I spoke to all my classmates and they told me that my test was much harder than their tests.

I was asked to write exact Swift code for my whiteboard test, while they were only told to speak through their solutions and passed. My advice, clearly check if they have a solid way to grade you, and if you know data structures, I have applied for more than a hundred job opportunities after graduation, and have been studying data structures a lot.

I can see that I am nowhere near employable for the companies I applied for, as what we are asked during coding interviews are Computer Science standards. You will be able to code at the end of Code Fellows' course, but you can be nothing more than an intern, if you do not have any previous coding experience. Do a Computer Science degree instead.

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Before you pay any money to attend any of Code Fellow's advanced courses in hopes of getting a programming job, do yourself a favor and have a look at this book first:

http://www.amazon.com/Cracking-Coding-Interview-6th-Programming/dp/0984782850/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464054008&sr=8-1&keywords=cracking+the+coding+interview

Are you able to work through the coding challenges competently already? Great! Then you don't need Code Fellows. Now go and start applying for jobs.

If you can't already work through the code challenges in this book, don't expect Code Fellows to get you much closer to being able to work through those problems.

Save yourself the trouble. If you're not already an experienced developer, your Code Fellows training isn't going to prepare you for a job. Go and get a CS degree instead. Or go ahead and take the Code Fellows courses and then plan to spend another 1 or 2 years after that not working a job and training yourself for 8 hours a day.

Code schools are bullshit. Sure, you might have a good time and make some friends, but will you get a job when it's all said and done? Based on our experience, not likely.

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Attended Code Fellows starting from their 201 class, all the way up to 401. I came into the courses with little to no prior experience to coding. However, I didn't find that many difficulties completing through the curriculum, mainly thanks to the wonderful staff. Everyone who works there were nice, open, and very easy to talk to. They all seemed to genuinely care for your success in coding.
The curriculum is good. It's hard to judge how good it is as I have not experienced anything besides CF, however, I heard good things from people around me. As for ASP.NET Core, we were working with the newest technology. This is probably the strongest point for CF, as you are learning the new industry standards.
Job Support that CF offered was helpful for someone like me changing careers. Having dedicated time to learn how the tech industry works was nice. 

For someone like me, who was hesitant to make the shift into tech, Code Fellows was a nice introductory. Plenty of fabulous instructors and staff, that provide good education. The course is intensive but as someone who found passion in doing it, it was a great experience. 

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I started my journey at Code Fellows back in August 2017.
I decided to enroll in the nights and weekends track and see how I liked it, I fell in love!
The environment at Code Fellows is great, everywhere you look you see passionate developers, instructors, TA's. Everyone there has a simple goal to help you become the best developer that you can be.
Now it's not easy, there are times where I felt like I was just not getting things and I would struggle to grasp things and the structure of the classes move fast. But if you put in the work and the time you will get it, I was fortunate to go through 201, 301, and 401 with the same core group of classmates people who were integral in my learning as much as the instructors and TA's if it was asking a classmate how they solved a bug or helping another get their testing going its all beneficial. I loved my time at Code Fellows and if anyone had questions about it I would be happy to answer them you can message me here https://www.linkedin.com/in/cody-green/

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Code Fellows is really a great place to begin to launch your tech career. The staff and instructors work to provide you with the most up-to-date technologies and best practices. The course is rigorous but also accesible to anyone from any background. The staff works hard to ensure that you can enter the job market with skill and confidence. Also the instructors are just awesome!

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