Flatiron School Reviews
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Anonymous
Not worth the money
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I basically taught myself everything. The only real positives were critique sessions where I got to see other students' work and get valuable feedback from them. I had some good instructors but halfway through my program, they were let go because they stopped running UX/UI. This was really disjointing and unfair to the students. So you have a pandemic going on and then you are having instructors being swapped out, let go, etc. The online curriculum was sad, I started reading everything during my first phase, and then by the second, I realized what a huge waste of time it was (basically a few paragraphs and a few youtube videos) with lots of grammatical errors, broken links, and poorly written assignments. It was not worth the price tag and I feel ripped off. The only real positive is I was able to put together a really good portfolio but I still don't have a job, which has been another uphill battle. Their career counseling and job assistance are pretty much a complete waste of time. -
Anonymous
Keep Grinding
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The course experience was great. They give you the tools needed to create and design websites in 15 weeks, which is really incredible. That said, because of the time constraint, major things aren't really addressed: JavaScript Classes, Data Structures, Algorithms - things needed to pass interviews and land jobs. Can't really be too upset, given what you have under your belt when finishing the course. But ,know you'll have to put in just as much work post cohort to land a gig. -
Anonymous
Great people and process
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Attending bootcamp gave me guidance and direction when I was trying to resume my career after a gap. Flatiron has great instructors and their lectures were awesome. Coding challenges and projects helped reinforce the concepts. Career services supported in building resume and tackling interviews. Within 90 days after starting job search , I could land a job as Software Development Engineer II Intern at Audible. i would highly recommend Flatiron to aspiring software engineers. -
Anonymous
They don't give you your money back
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The program was a total let down to be honest.. It was basically learning everything on our own with little to no teaching. For a couple weeks, we didn't even have a teacher. Also, the money back guarantee is a total lie. They will find anything in your "job tracker" to tell you that you don't qualify. I knew it would be hard getting the money back, but they got me on technicalities that were so granular. I highly recommend another program for getting your UX Design Certification. Possibly even an accredited University if you can afford it. -
Anonymous
UI DESIGN
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The program was very detailed and an amazing experience. The instructors were always ready and available to help and give constructive feedback. I also loved the phases where we were put into groups and could challenge each other. The curriculum was also very thorough and gave us experiences with what we needed to know as designers. I chose the UI track as I am more passionate about the visual aspect but we were still able to becomes well rounded designers because we still learned all things UX. -
Anonymous
🚩 ***SCAM ALERT*** : Read before enrolling
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Oh boy...where do I begin. My recruiter was Madison Delaney and I would sometimes go weeks without hearing back from her. You can't call Flatiron and get a single person on the phone...always goes to voicemail. I'd constantly have to follow up, and it was overall an unpleasant, unprofessional start from the get-go. That should have been the first red-flag. I payed for the in-person program and received the online program. Flatiron still refuses to refund the difference after months of going back and forth with them. No points awarded for ethically. Here's 600 other Flatiron students who are upset about the situtation that Flatiron still ignores and refuses to address publicly.
https://www.change.org/p/flatiron-school-in-person-students-flatiron-school-in-person-students-partial-tuition-refund-effort On another note, Flatiron's instructors always seemed busy. When in need of assistance, more often than not, you're told to google the problem instead. Why did you pay the tuition then...I don't know. Where is the money going towards...I don't know. Flatiron is quite big on asking for feedback, and I sure provided a lot of feedback during my time there. For the most part they don't seem to follow up on too many of them...or at least mine. The instructors are all very nice, many of them are hired right after graduating so they aren't as experienced as the lead instructors. You very rarely get any attention from the lead instructor and even other instructors, so you're on your own for the most part. The aloted rough schedule they advertise on their website is misleading and false. Your division of the day will mostly result with you being on your own googling answers and teaching yourself. There's a lot of BS in the schedule, like attendance for a half hour, surveys for an hour, "stand-downs" for an hour, "feelings" for an hour, etc... After doing the math, 16% of our day was actually entirely unaccounted for and pair programming was at a minimal percentage. I would have thought they'd be extra careful to not have any false advertising because they lost a lawsuit for $375,000 for having false salary and placement statistics advertised on there website. Upon finishing the program, I feel cheated out of $17,000. The money-back guarantee sounds nice, but in actuality most people are either ineligible or opt-out and I'm uncertain why. Flatiron even leaked everybody’s personal data in a mass email and it doesn't look like anybody has received the money-back guarantee. CSS is not taught - maybe it's just touched upon. They do a decent job with Ruby and React, but discourage you from learning Redux. You can graduate this program not knowing CSS, a single algorithm, or have a personal portfolio page. That's a big red flag. Career services will follow up with you often which is nice, no complaints about that. They do leave everything up to you and it's mostly hands off on their part. I do believe that at one point in time they used to be good. I came into this program looking to love it, but they definitely left a bad taste in my mouth and that's wildly unfortunate. There are way better alternatives from my understanding - even just teaching yourself is a better alternative...you can do it, don't be discouraged! Udemy looks like they have some great full stack courses for $20. I'd do that if I could go back in time. -
Anonymous
Web Engineering Bootcamp - Self-Paced
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I did the self-paced boot camp. I was initially required to complete it within 15 months, but Flatiron School offered a three-month extension due to COVID-19. I would've dropped out otherwise because I found a full-time job that consumed most of my time shortly after getting into the program. The technologies I learned are ruby, ruby on rails, Sinatra, HTML/CSS/Javascript, react, redux, and thunk. The structure of the program is articles consisting of paragraphs explaining concepts, code samples, and videos. It is written in the style of a blog, with many memes. (This boot camp is why I installed a meme blocker extension.) There are also many metaphors that explain difficult concepts. Overall, it's very accessible. Outside of written lessons, there are code-alongs (coding exercises that supply the answers) and labs (coding exercises that don't supply the answers). Labs generally supply tests that must be made to pass, but the code-alongs might not. There are also final projects. These are coding exercises that include a list of requirements that demonstrate knowledge of recently learned concepts. They are unstructured enough that Flatiron School doesn't supply tests, but the student can optionally write their own. The types of projects are: ruby command line interface, ruby with Sinatra web framework, ruby with rails framework, ruby with rails api and HTML/CSS/Javascript frontend, and ruby with rails api and react frontend. Students must submit a blog post and video explainer as part of the project. Along with completing these, a student must schedule time to explain their code to an instructor. First, they must explain what it is and why they made it. Then, the student explains how the project meets all requirements, and then do some live coding. There were really good options available for getting help. They included participating in chat or viewing a lab's repository. My experience of chatting to get help was that the person who responded (an instructor, I think) gave me hints about how to structure a method. I still didn't understand, so the instructor eventually gave me the answer. I preferred not to have to start a chat to get help, so I dug around a little. I found that Flatiron School's repositories often had multiple branches. The Solution branch of repositories associated with labs offered me quick help that didn't require reaching out. And, obviously, being able to read code is a very different experience than someone telling me to incorporate a certain data structure. I think it would be good if Flatiron School advertised that solutions are available in their repositories, but I can see why they might not want to. These help options aren't available for the final projects. After formally graduating, I found that there is actually more content for studying. There is a section that discusses launching final projects live on the web, and there are explainers on data structures and algorithms. Finally, there is a list of algorithm problems to help a new graduate get used to solving new and unusual problems. My critique would've been that devops/live environment setup, algorithms, and performance were completely neglected, but the post-work section makes a good save on that front. I found the self-paced program to be flexible. There is an unspoken, but unenforced expectation that students complete the material in order. For example, each final project is situated after material a student would've just learned. Instead of doing them in order, as full-time students are required to do to keep up with their group, I saved them all for the end. I also completed some final projects out of order. I even waited months to schedule an instructor review after indicating that I completed one of the projects. I also found a lab that could be done in a group. I was going to do it in a group, but after not visiting that page for a long time, I was somehow switched over to doing it on my own, so I just completed it alone. I started looking for a job before completing the boot camp. That wasn't necessary because Flatiron School brings very promising prospects to graduates. Relying on Flatiron School's career services was the difference between recruiters constantly telling me they wanted experience and recruiters sending code challenges to see what I could do (often before a phone screen). It was also the difference between having to figure out where are jobs in industries I wanted to work in, versus jobs I was really interested in reaching out to me after deciding I'm a good candidate. My career coach helped me create the job search I wanted. She had ideas that were very different from what I wanted to do, but she was willing to help me stay within certain requirements to qualify for Flatiron School's career services. I'm not a fan of LinkedIn or showing pictures of myself online as a way of pursuing a job, so I was glad the only change we settled on was me adding my last job. Ultimately, outside of relying on Flatiron School's pool of prospective employees, I did find a job without relying on any networking lead-generation practices. I also found Flatiron School's tools for finding a job to be very different from what I had used before. Although it was basically a spreadsheet and a word document, it allowed me to organize in a way that I didn't know the value of. -
Anonymous
UX/UI Student - No Longer Interested in Program/Feel Stuck
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I am currently in phase 2 of the program and I want out. I am in an income share agreement and I feel stuck because I would have to pay it back ASAP if I drop out and I don't make the minimum income requirement right now. I was torn between two fields, this one and data science, and against my better judgment, I chose UX because I didn't have to do any programming. I did some master's level work with data science, and have experience with Python and Pandas, but I had to discontinue because of my current job and relocating to that job. They said I was welcome to switch programs but I could not transfer my ISA over to the new program, so that is why I am still a slave to this program. It is not like I am wishy-washy, I just felt like the other program would be a better fit, especially after taking a career quiz during my first week in phase 2. Not being able to switch over to a new ISA program within 3 weeks of starting at a new school is not fair, and it is a tactic for this school to keep your money. I wish that they would show some grace to new people entering technology.
Phase 1 is very short and very demanding. It is an introduction to the UX/UI fields, and you have to create a travel app. I hate graphic design and knew that I was interested in research, but building the app, doing the creative design and navigation was a PITA. I kept failing at my assignments and had to resubmit the assignments over and over until I got a passing grade, on top of doing my assignments for the week and turning those in on time. I felt like I never caught up and just turned in assignments when I felt like it. I lost a lot of sleep doing the UI stuff and cried many nights. This ISA is holding me hostage in the Flatiron program. I barely passed and was relieved to go on to phase 2. They say that some people repeat Phase 1, but I would have rather dropped out than go through that torture again.
In Phase 2, they will put you in teams. What did they not tell you is that you have to make presentations at the end of the each lecture. Phase 2 for me as a part time student is 12 weeks long, so I have to do 11 presentations. Had I known this in the program, I would have never signed up. I will say that phase 2 of the UX program is much better than phase 1, and the assignments are more spread out. I also do not have to do any graphic design. I hated using Sketch so much in phase 1, that I did my assignments using InVision and Adobe XD software instead. They require you to have a Mac/Apple computer because Sketch is only available on the Apple software. You would also have to pay for Sketch out of pocket before Phase 1 begins. There are no times for breaks to my knowledge, even for holidays such as Easter.
My favorite part of the program are the instructors and the 1:1 meetings. I feel a little better after them, but I still have this nudge to drop out and pursue my first tech love, data science. Hopefully, a rep from this school reaches out to me about this concern and comes up with an amicable solution.
I signed up for this program to do something that I would love everyday, and to eventually get out of my dead end job, but this my gut is telling me to not move forward, and it has been gnawing at me for weeks. The only thing that I could picture myself doing that is UX related is being a User Researcher, but most of the jobs in my area want someone that does both UX/UI, and I want nothing to do with UI. That is another sign that this program is not right for me.
Note: If you do not like giving presentations, graphic design, working in groups, or take in lots of constructive criticism, this program is not for you. You also have to be comfortable with being wrong, and that is something I am not used to. I am a "What do I have to do to make it right" or "What do I need to do to pass" type of person.
Even though the presentations are not graded, I dread them and cannot picture myself doing this all of the time.
This is a BOOTCAMP, so it is very demanding and you need to be diligent and organized. It will eat up your life outside of your job and family as well. -
Anonymous
Flatiron was the best decision of my adult life
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If you have no prior tech experience and are looking to make a jump in your professional life, Flatiron is the place to start. It was stressful and a lot of work, but if you have the time and resources to commit for 15 weeks I am confident that you will come out an incredibly desirable job candidate for a variety of positions across the tech industry. I was able to land a job on a government contract with a starting salary of $90K in less than two months of graduating, more money than I had ever envisioned making coming from my previous industry and employer. The people at Flatiron are incredibly positive, helpful, and most importantly, knowledgable. I cannot say enough good things about Flatiron and would highly recommend to anyone looking to work in the tech field. -
Anonymous
It Works But It's Not Easy...
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This bootcamp can change your life, but be ready devote your entire life to it for 15 weeks (and more). Having done my research, I believe this to be one of the more well-rounded, comprehensive DS curriculums out there. As great as this sounds, more learning material = more hours. Period. Be ready to spend well beyond 40 hours per week learning concepts, practicing code, completing projects, and blogging. Be aware that the bootcamp's standards for passing each module and graduating are low - you really need to set your own standards and stick to them to be successful. Completion of the program on paper doesn't matter. Performance in an interview (and of course the job) is what ultimately matters, and this bootcamp can prepare you well for both if you set the bar high for yourself.
Also, be ready to keep learning long after the 15 weeks are up. Toward the end of the curriculum, some of the major concepts are glossed over. To be clear, I don't think this is a fault of the program, as the final module before the capstone project is regarded as a "bonus module" consisting of several concepts that aren't necessarily covered in many other DS programs (NLP, Spark, AWS, Deep Learning, etc.). Many students choose 1 or 2 of these concepts to study in depth and utilize in the final project at the expense of learning the others in the final weeks. The good news is that you still have access to all of the learning material after graduating, so you have the freedom to go back and review material at any time. Aside from continued learning, be ready for weeks, if not months, of "prettifying" code for your Github portfolio, studying for technical interviews, and networking! The Career Services post-graduation curriculum is no joke either.
All-in-all, my review of this program is very positive. Looking back, I had a wonderful experience, albeit mentally and emotionally trying at times. I was surrounded by incredibly supportive instructors, coaches, and classmates. I have secured a great job, and in hindsight, any doubts I might have had about the curriculum or my own abilities during the program have largely been invalidated.
Stick to the program, set the bar high, give it your all, and trust the process (to use all the cliches). It will pay off! -
Anonymous
NOT FOR BEGINNERS
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If you are looking to start a career in Software Development do not start here! Look into other programs that teach the basics. I was informaed that Flatiron would be able to go from where I was (beginner) to being "job ready" by the end of the course... for me this was not accurate. Majority of my time was spent on Google/ Youtube trying to find tutorials or additional information to grasp a basic understanding on what they were teaching me. I asked for additional support such as a tutor/ mentor with only my confused peers to help. They do have a 'Ask a Question' ability but I question what training they have gone through becuase they were not willing/ able to explain things in a way that I understood; so why pay them? This bootcamp is for intermediate to advanced coders probably looking for the Job Assistance / wanting a cert to further the carrer that they are already in.
Rebekah Rombom of Flatiron School
GM, Online Programs
Jan 03, 2020
Hello - Thank you for taking the time to share your experience. We take this feedback incredibly seriously, and we're sorry your experience was not what you expected. We work closely with our online and on-campus students to ensure they have the support they need from instructors, coaches, and community. Your experience is not what we want for any student.
We're incredibly proud of our graduates, our community, and our jobs placements, but are always striving to make Flatiron School even better. As we do, we'll be referring to this feedback. If you'd like to speak directly or in any more detail, please always feel free to e-mail me directly at rebekah@flatironschool.com. -
Anonymous
Tough Prep Work and Application Process, but excellent staff
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I recently got into Flatiron's Engineering Immersive course. I had researched other courses and found Flatiron to be the best fit. Beware the prep work before the interview is about 100 hours. Once you pass your technical interview, which is where you show the code that you used to solve one of their labs in the interview prep work. You explain how you got that answer, and then pair code with your interviewer. They got back to me promptly that I got in. Once you get in there is another 100 hours of prep work. They said that there would be 75 hours and another 75, it took me about 50 hours more. So give yourself ample time to work through it, plus they have you figure a lot of it out to prepare you for what it is like to be a developer. They do have tutors available 10 hours a day to help you through problems so make sure that you use them! My course starts on December 9 and I am very excited. I will update this review once I complete the course.
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Anonymous
50/50 Good and Bad Experiance
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The Data Science In-Person was really helpful. Basic to intermediate skills/knowledge are broken down chronologically and people with no background are really set up to be entry level data scientists. The career coaching, AKA job placement, looks promising with detailed support and steps to secure a job. However, for people looking to hone their skills and already at beginner to intermediate level, this is not the place to go to. You are generally looked down upon, verbatim 'None of you are marketable as data scientists' despite knowing that the cohort has 2 people with MS in Data Science, 1 graduating with MS in Data Science, and several people who have self-studied Data Science as well.
The organization's interest is not the students' best professional interest with, the exception of the instructors and coaches. The admin people are centered at making money out of you instead of ensuring quality education/learning and professional growth. Seeking Jobs while unemployed for 15 weeks is discouraged. And if you do secure a job without their assistance, they will try and get credits for it and try to make money out of it.
To Summarize, if you really are a beginner with low confidence on finding a job or networking, this school will be a good start and boost for your career. Otherwise, look somewhere else and maybe stick to self study and free online courses.
P.S. I got the boot camp for "free".
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Anonymous
Amazing program, amazing people
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I took the online full stack web development program and had a great experience. I was brand new to coding when I enrolled and the program and now I can say that I am a full stack web developer! In addition to a great curriculum, the people at Flatiron are absolutely amazing. I never felt alone and was always able to find the support I needed to get through the program. From the education coaches to the technical coaches to the career coaches, everyone was friendly, encouraging and knowledgable. I will forever be grateful to Flatiron!
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Anonymous
Online Flatiron Experience
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Like many others, I was very captivated by the heavy marketing campaign Flatiron school brought to the British shores. I was also tempted by their offer of 50% off for women taking the course and the fact that I could do the course online while I kept working. I was chuffed to be accepted and felt very positive after completing the bootcamp prep.
However, after two months of the course I dropped out. These are my reasons.
The "Learn" IDE platform is simply not up to scratch. The teaching is essentially, read this, then do this exercise. Looking for pre-recorded lectures on the platform was not straightforward. In addition, the lectures that do exist often have poor audio, are waffling and in desperate need of editing. The main lecturer often talks in metaphors and figurative language which is just not at all helpful for beginners who need concrete examples.
Yes there are live lectures and workshops and other things you can join but if you don't live in America this is often impossible as they happen at 1, 2 or 3 am British time. These are often not recorded or are difficult to find.
When I questioned the quality of some of the teaching materials on the slack channels some of the responses I had included 'we are a startup' and other excuses like 'oh I just read the docs'. I'm sorry but even with 50% off tuition, the online course came to just under £600 quid a month. These excuses just simply aren't good enough. For this much money, students should expect real teaching and not be guided towards youtube and things that they can find themselves for free or cheap online.
The thing that I was grateful for from my experience was the fact that every exercise I did ended up on my person github and made me look extremely studious and productive. Also, I met some nice TAs online who were helpful and encouraging. However, getting to speak to one during acceptable British hours often took a long time.
I imagine that the Flatiron in-person course is what it says on the tin, but the equally expensive online course has a long way to go. If I could do it again, I wish someone had written this review for me to read and that I could have saved my hard earned money on other much better, much cheaper teaching materials.
Rebekah Rombom of Flatiron School
GM of Online Programs
Apr 16, 2019
Thank you for taking the time to share your experience. We're incredibly disappointed that your experience has been different than what you expected — — that is absolutely not what we want for any student. We take this feedback very seriously, and will be referring to it as we strive to make Flatiron School even better.
If you'd like to speak directly or in any more detail, please always feel free to e-mail me directly at rebekah@flatironschool.com. -
Anonymous
Disappointing Data Science Immersive - Poor Instructors and Incomplete Curriculum
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Participated in the first Data Science cohort. It started off strong, but quickly fell apart after the first module, when the material shifted from standard coding techniques that were adapted from the webdev course to more data/math focused topics. Our teacher was underqualified to be teaching us Data Science, and we received essentially zero feedback on our coursework throughout the 15 week program. I honestly do not believe the cirriculum was ready for launch, it felt way too rushed. Numerous topics advertised as part of the course were skipped or rushed through. Some of the labs and lectures were riddled with errors, and often we were not provided lecture notes or videos as promised. The 3rd module consisted of watching youtube videos 50% of the time - didn't really need to pay $15k for that.
The career guidance was misleading, we were told our guidance counselor would be randomly selected, yet 10 of 12 students received the same coach. The career team always seemed like they placed their personal interests ahead of mine.
I enjoyed the culture of Flatiron School, and have nothing but the best to say about my classmates. I feel like the program was rushed, misadvertised, and did not really prepare me for a job in Data Science.
As an aside, I recommend actually sifting through these reviews before signing up - many of them are from people who have only completed the free bootcamp prep. I was asked to write a review before starting the class but refused because I thought that was misleading.
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Anonymous
Solid support from 'Hello, world' to 'Hello, new job'
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I am a CS grad who enrolled in Flatiron School’s Online Web Development Program. If your goal is to get an overview of Computer Science topics through this program, you’ll get that. But you will need to supplement your learning with material from elsewhere to really get grounded.
That said, the team at Flatiron School has done a really good job of building a web development program that can take a student from no programming at all to building real web applications. You will Always Be Coding. And, they continue to build and adapt the program as technologies change and students share their feedback. The community is great. Supportive TAs. Useful online Study Groups. You are never alone on this journey.
I will echo my peers in saying the “job or money back guarantee” requirements are quite rigorous. It’ll help if you live in or close to a populous area. Take the advice. It works. The career coaches really know their stuff and want grads to succeed. I am closer now to my goal of a thriving dev career than I’ve ever been and I owe Flatiron School huge thanks for that.
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Anonymous
Applying to Software Engineering Immersive and Learn.co prep
I was really pleased with how quick the process from applying to decision was. I heard back from my final technical interview within two days which I really appreciated for my own decision making. The bootcamp and interview prepwork available on learn.co was really fantastic and set me up well for the interview process. I am excited to get started with the coursework in january! -
Anonymous
Data Science Prep Course
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For me, the prep curriculum gave me a bridge from non-coding to adopting an engineer's mindset. I have a market research background and this course was rigorous and fit well with my sense of curiosity and desire for challenge. The lessons provided a foundation of understanding followed by stretch excersies. I think there were some bugs in the practice problems, but trouble shooting with the other students on Flatiron's chat and with Flatiron advisors was super rewarding.
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Anonymous
Flatiron Bootcamp Prep
The coursework is very thorough and helpful. It really gets you prepared for the technical terms and skills you need before the course starts. I had a bit of a problem submitting my works, but the the instructors were very responsive and helpful when I ran into questions. Overall, I love the prep course!
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Anonymous
Data Science Bootcamp Prep
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This Bootcamp Preps you for admission to the "Data Science" course.
Basically it gave me an idea of what i would need to know before i took the plunge.
-- Basic Python, Plotting graphs etc.
-- Derivatives, linear equations, etc.
I was amazed with how powerful and easy it was to work with python, using open source libraries.
Also helped me brush up on Middle/high School math.
I did not need to interact with the instructors.
The piece missing was the instructions to setup python, which i was able to do search online easily.
You need to know how to interact with GIT to download solutions.
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Anonymous
Changed my life!
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I simply had an amazing experience at the Flatiron School. I had recently graduated from an art school where I had developed a passion for programming. While I was able to pick up some fundamentals on my own, there was still a lot to know to be able to work in the industry. I had a lot of doubts that someone from a non-technical background would be able to land a job as a Software Engineer. Flatiron seems to be churning out a ton of great entry level engineers at an unbelievable pace.
My favorite thing about the program was the people. The backgrounds in my cohort seemed to be CS, engineering, finance, and art/music. I was pleased to meet a few other musicians had been admitted to the program. To my delight, the musicians in the cohort seemed to be some of the best programmers! I can honestly say that the people I met at Flatiron are some of the smartest people I've ever known. I definitely felt like the dumbest person in the room (this is a good thing) and I've heard people way smarter than I say this too.
The curriculum moved pretty fast. If you were able to get through the interview and prework process, you should be fine. The first few weeks were pretty stressful. "Bootcamp" is a truly apt name for a program like this. The program is stressful enough to warrant a weekly "Feelings Friday" where everybody sits around a circle and talks about their feelings. Towards the beginning of the program, there were a lot of feelings, but by the end, everybody seemed to have adjusted to the intensity, and gained confidence making the sessions much shorter. The most common feeling expressed was something along the lines of "yeah I have no idea what's going on, but I'm going to trust the process". The information can be complex and come at a pretty high velocity and it seems like most people don't completely understand after completing the readings and going through the labs. By the end of the module, everybody absorbs the information through a combination of the readings, lectures, pair programming labs, and projects. For me, I only actually learned the material by discussing it, so pair programming and projects ended up being the most valuable part of the curriculum for me.
After the program, Flatiron provides a huge amount of support. I met with my career coach weekly to share my progress and revel in my wins and mourn many losses. Be warned: the job hunt is not for the faint of heart! You're competing with everybody in your cohort, everybody in the other cohorts, everybody from the other programs in the city, and the sought after CS majors from elite universities. If you went to a great school or have a technical background, you will probably be fine. If not, you're most likely going to be an underdog. The business development team at Flatiron does an incredible job of setting up interviews with students. At one point, I was doing 3 interviews a week scheduled for me by BD. This was almost worth the price of the program itself. Every job gets thousands of resumes from Bootcamp grads and most of them look identical to employers. It's really hard to make it beyond the first stage so having the interviews set up for you is really nice. I ended up interviewing at amazing companies: JP Morgan, WeWork, BounceX and many many more. I eventually got an amazing job offer that came through BD.
Overall it was a great experience. I would highly recommend it to anybody who is willing to put in the hard work required before, during, and after the program.
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Anonymous
Awesome courses!
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I just finished the prep course for the Data Science bootcamp immersive. I had a great experience with their prep courses. They explained a duanting topic very easily and made it all very simple to understand. I particulary enjoyed how gradient descent was explained through real life examples. Their prep course was a lot of fun! Their simplification of daunting topics and their reputation to help you get started with your carear was the main factors I decided to apply for Flatiron School.
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Anonymous
Very enjoyable prep
I found the prep for flatiron to be the reason why i applied and am going to attend. it was fun, engaging, in depth and the live help is crucial.
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Anonymous
Data Science Class
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For context, I have just recently been accepted to the Flatiron Data Science class and have no background in coding at all. I have completed the data science bootcamp prep and about 2/3 of the other bootcamp prep class. As coding is new to me I had tried several online intro classes (datacamp, codeacademy, udemy) and the Learn.co online class Flatiron has was by far the best. The courses really explained not just what was going on in the classes but why it is occurring which is very helpful for me. Additionally, the very accessible Community tab was by the most amazing feature which allows you to ask questions about the specific course you are working on and actual tutors and other students respond within seconds (sometimes minutes, longest wait time was never longer than 5 minutes). The people who always responded helped me walk through the problem instead of just typing the code solution, an amazing feature for a free online class. Every conversation I had with any of the admissions team went amazing they were very open and informative and answered every question that came up. Lastly, my favorite part of Learn.co experience is that it wasn’t so formal, there are graphics and jokes and pictures that make it a little more fun as you go along instead of just pages and pages of text. I am very excited to start the class after completing the online courses and going through the interview process. -
Anonymous
Bootcamp Prep course
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If you are familiar with Udemy or other online learning portals, you'll find that there is usually a disconnect between the learning and your working through the materials.
What Flatiron has done with learn is pretty amazing in that you can use their IDE or your dev environment to fork, clone, pull all the labs, test the labs, and submit the labs for review.
The written materials are very easy to follow, and those materials in conjunction with the realtime feedback of the labs made learning the basics of Javascript and Ruby a piece of cake.
If you are new to programming, or have interest in starting your Javascript or Ruby journey, I would strongly recommend considering this course. This has been an invaluable resource for me thusfar.
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Anonymous
Worth Every Second
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This program not only gave me the knowledge and confidence to chase my goals of becoming a developer, it gave me a network of individuals - from my cohort to instructors to other alumni - to help me along the way. It seems crazy to learn as much as you do in 15 weeks, but you really do. Now, it's no lie that you have to put the work in which they tell you from day one, but if you are willing to immerse yourself for just 15 weeks, then you are sure to come out on the otherside confident in your skills as a developer.
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Anonymous
Amazing embark on an exciting career
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I had the pleasure of beginning Flatiron's in-person immersive bootcamp last summer and then switching to the online two months into the immersive (due to personal conflict) Flatiron was an amazing experience and think really highly of this program. It was a great experience having done both. Of course, the in-person immersive is a lot more demanding because of the 3 month time period. The modules go back quickly and you are expected to keep up. Every end of a module they'd give you a practice project for you to test your knowledge and if they see you are struggling, you repeat that module. I believe Flatiron's instructors and overall culture is that of genuine support. They want to see you succeed just as much as you want to. The culture is amazing too because you spend so much time with these people everyday and are embraced with the same friendship and support.
That being said, if you are in New York City, the in-person immersive is the way to go! But the online experience was just as worthy, it was just sometimes a little challenging when you're working on the final projects but they have weekly/nightly online meetups so the support and instructors were just as there for you as the in-person. It just took me a little longer because I felt for the final module, I really wanted to absorb and understand so that was an upside because i felt taking my time really learning and redoing labs benefited me in the long run. The only critique I'd say is when you're doing the online program and can't make some of the online study groups, it can be a little isolating as opposed to having a cohort you can reach out to have help you. I do wish there were more online instructors with more lectures for the different modules.
The career coaches are outstanding as well! They really support and work with you to make sure you are receiving interviews and doing well. I was getting interviews even before graduating. Their job placement team really knows what they are doing to ensure you find one once you complete.
It definitely recommend Flatiron among all the other bootcamps out there without bias. I believe the culture, modules and instructors will challenge you and you learn so quickly! It is a demanding program but if you have the passion for learning to code, it willl all be worth it in the end.
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Anonymous
Helped me get my first dev job
I had spent more than 10 years in SEO prior to Flatiron and was scared to make the jump. I feel a lot better now that I have my first job. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. The Web Dev Immersive is hard, but having a cohort full of people you can rely on and instructors that care helps you push through. Career services seals the deal. Worth every dang penny. -
Anonymous
Amazing experience!
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I will never have another 15 weeks like those I spent at Flatiron, nor will my life be the same after graduating from the program! The school draws together all the best aspects of learning-- the curriculum is very challenging, but achievable; the school's culture promotes friendship, collaboration, and connections; the material and instruction is relevant now and also prepares you for a lifetime of learning. Lastly a shoutout to Career Services who holds your hand throughout the job search process with expertise and attentiveness, at a level you rarely find in any service as an adult.
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Anonymous
A great way to start coding!
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This is probably the best intro prep material out there (especially as a free resource) that let's you get started immediately. The Learn platform comes equipped with a terminal and editor with the lesson plan available to the side that you can follow. It feeds into the online (and immersive) web developer program, where you can continue the program.
The quality of the instructional material is top-notch and community based, which tries to mimic real-life, where you can see people who are working on the same lessons as you and have a chance to interact on many levels, from asking a question to forming study groups.
I would hightly recommend the bootcamp, and thus far, the online web developer program, which I signed up for shortly after.
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Anonymous
Online Web Development Program Review
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I was part of the Online Full Stack Web Development Program. Before going to Flatiron School, I had done some basic Codecademy tutorials. I also enrolled in one intro to programming course at a community college just before I got accepted to Flatiron School and finished it while also doing Flatiron School. Overall, my experience with this program was great, and I truly feel that I would not be where I am today without the guidance of the program.
What I loved about this program is that it was super flexible compared to the in-person program many schools/bootcamps offer. I worked full time for the first 8 months I was in the program. The way the program is set up allowed me to go through the content at my own pace (which was quite slow), while also offering live online lectures/study groups throughout the day/evening.
When I was about 75% done with the program, I was given a career coach to work with and help prepare me for looking for jobs and the interview process. This was awesome! My career coach was a huge help throughout my job search process and was always available through skype or email throughout the week. My coach was my go-to if I had any job/interview related questions or if I just needed some support.
With all of this, I ended up actually getting a job before I even finished the program (which I know may not usually be the case)!! Personally, I am super glad that I decided to do this program at Flatiron School. You can tell that the people there really want you to succeed and are passionate about what they do (this includes but not limited to the dean, instructors, TA's, career coaches, and students). Everyone was so supportive, and I think this is one of the main things that made this priceless to me -- the community the school and students has helped create. It can be a difficult road to change careers, but a support system with people cheering you on every step of the way makes it a lot easier and helps keep you motivated.
While you could probably learn a lot of the stuff by yourself (without going through the program), here are a few reasons why I am glad I chose Flatiron School. 1) I am used to the structure of a classroom. This program gave me structure that I would not have gotten alone. While there aren't due dates, there are hundreds of lessons, labs, and 5 projects that have an order and are there for you to complete. Especially with the labs and projects, I learned a lot from doing those and they helped to reassure me that I was learning. 2) The projects are great to add to your portfolio and they teach you a LOT. They give you some guidelines as to what should be included in each project, but the project idea/topic is basically up to you. There is a lot of freedom, but they also provide you with some suggestions if you are having trouble coming up with an idea. Also, the assesments on the projects really help you learn how to talk about/explain your code to other people. This is super important and a great practice for interviews. 3) I really believe in support systems and communities. I do not think that I would have been able to get myself to a point where I am able to switch careers so quickly by myself without the help/support of others. 4) They are constantly updating and writing new content to add to the program. It is great to know that what I am learning is up-to-date.
I had a great experience at Flatiorn School and would recommend it to anyone who is serious about going to a bootcamp or changing careers. It DOES take a lot of hard work, but it can be very rewarding too. I do recommend checking out any pre-bootcamp prep and any free lessons Flatiron School offers on their website. It will give you the best feel for what it will be like in the program.
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Anonymous
Flatiron School Review
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I attended the Flatiron School's Immersive Software Engineering program from May to August 2017. The experience was great, and I am happy to say that now as of the end of November I have just completed my first day as a Software Engineer.
The program is very challenging but Flatiron school does a great job to make sure you are supported throughout. The education was great, and the style of teaching really worked for me. They really do a great job at changing things around quickly once they get feedback which I really liked as well.
I really appreciated the career services team also! I very much felt supported throughout my job search in all ways. I would say about 90 percent of my interview leads came from them which was very encouraging and made a stressful situation less stressful.
If you are interested in learning how to code, and you enjoy learning in a group of energetic people, the Flatiron school is for you!
Also, they have a great bootcamp prep course that is free of cost that I actually completed prior to starting the program. I was a complete novice and I found the prep course to be one of the most helpful ways to get up to speed with the basics. I highly recommend the prep course to anyone who is interested in getting a feel of what learning the Flatiron way would be like.
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Anonymous
The Future of Education
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I graduated in Feb of 2017 and was able to land a job teaching intro computer science. Aside from assorted classes online I hadn't had any previous CS experience. If you're thinking about Flatiron, go for it. The most important thing you'll learn is how to learn new things rapidly and effeciently. This isn't like college where half of your lecture is asleep or on their phones. 3 months of 8-12 hours a day, depending on how hard you're willing to work, is far more effecient and effective than a traditional education where you spend weeks at a time on winter break, summer break, etc. Save time, get the essential information and change your life!!!
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Anonymous
Really enjoyed the Bootcamp Prep Course
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I found the Bootcamp Prep Course incredibly informative, easy-to-grasp, and quite engaging. It provided me with a strong base of knowledge and allowed me to decide if programming was what I really wanted to pursue. Overall, I greatly enjoyed the Integrated Development Environment that Flatiron has created and found it incredibly effective in introducing and solidifying essential programming concepts.
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Anonymous
Good prep course for bootcamps/technical interviews
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Went through the interview process with a couple of top-rated bootcamps using Flatiron's Learn.co platform. It should most definitely prepare you for any/most technical interviews. Even more so if you couple it with another resource. A couple things I noticed:
1. There is someone to help you at almost any time of the day via chat. You also get connected to a network of people working on the same assignments. If you ever get stuck, there will always be an expert around to help you (without giving you the answer), which I found was the biggest perk to using this platform.
2. You use the actual tools (Atom, to be exact) that developers use in order to complete the assignments, which means you know how to use the basic functions of Atom by the time you're done (instead of built-in interfaces which you'll find on coding websites which you'll never use outside of the learning process). If you're looking just to dabble in learning JS/Ruby and aren't very serious about it, Atom may not be the easiest thing to work with at first.
3. The learning curriculum covers both JS and Ruby, and you can choose which you want to study. I personally focused on JS as that is the language I'd like to focus on and took all my technical interviews with. Ruby seems to be more beginner-friendly, in general.
4. The exercises make you really stretch out and apply what you've learned. They will definitely be challenging at times, and you'll feel ecstatic and satisfied when you find a working solution. If you feel like you need supplentary information, Code School most definitely works as a great tool to start out with OR reinforce what you already know.
5. From my understanding, they recently updated the course, which meant there were a few small kinks they needed to iron out. They were already working on getting those fixed while I was working through the exercises though, so should be absolutely no problem.
I most definitely recommend this course - especially now.. I mean, it's free. Get it while it lasts!
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Anonymous
Excited to attend!
I have only just completed the prework and enjoyed every bit of it. Excited to attend the June class.
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Anonymous
Great Free Prep Course!
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I had been learning javascript for a little over a year when I started my application with Flatiron. They have a bootcamp prep course on their website that is really helpful in getting more comfortable with programming. The learn IDE platform is such a wonderful tool that is really helpful with getting your familiar with the concepts and real time application. You can either choose the Ruby track or Javascript track. It is challenging enough to teach you to be able to read errors (which is super important) and links you to more reading materials if you want to get to know the concept a little bit more. There is also assistance whenever you need! If you have a question or stuck on a problem, you ask a question and someone quickly responds so you can either message them through their chat boxes or share your screen with them. They get you back on track without telling you the answer. It helped me become more confident on my road to code and highly recommend starting with their FREE prep course!
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Anonymous
Good complement to CS education
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I was a Computer Science major at a very small liberal arts school, so my education was heavy on theory, and light on actual implementation. After graduating, I got a dev job, and quickly realized that my degree hadn't done all that much to prepare me for an actual job. For instance, I was never taught how to use git, or any means of source control! I worked there for a year, not really loving it (spending a lot of time maintaining some very old Java code), before speaking to a friend (fellow CS major, we graduated the same year) who had moved to SF and done Dev Bootcamp. He spoke very highly of it, so I looked into similar programs in NYC, and found Flatiron.
I was worried I'd be wasting my money: after all, I already had a CS degree, how much more was there to learn? But I decided to give it a try, and knew after a week it was the right move. There was a lot left to learn, as it turned out. I had an advantage at the very beginning, when we were doing the basics of Ruby/programming in general, but as soon as we got into SQL, and then ActiveRecord, Sinatra, and Rails, I was pretty much on even footing with my classmates. And I had to work just as hard to keep up.
I think my fellow students were actually the best part of the experience. I don't know how they do it, but Flatiron does a great job selecting for passion: with a handful of exceptions (who dropped out), every single student was just unbelievably committed. Coming in early, staying late, coming in weekends, and creating an atmosphere that somehow pushed everyone to do better, without being overtly competitive.
All in all, it was an excellent experience, and I believe that I picked up more practical (in the sense of day-to-day engineering stuff) knowledge in those 12 weeks than the whole of college. That's not to say Flatiron was better, or more useful, than my CS education, but a really good complement to it.
The only gripes I had were that the lessons didn't always start on schedule, and weren't always fully organized, and we didn't spend enough time on learning about JS (Avi, the cofounder & dean, was/is prejudiced against it, but it's still a critical part of almost every junior developer job). But from what I hear, both of those issues have been smoothed out.
NB: I'd like to reiterate that my particular case is a bit special, since my CS education was so theory-driven. I think CS students from bigger schools, who can take more implementation-heavy classes, would find Flatiron (or other programs) less helpful.
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Anonymous
Lead Designer & Developer
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As someone who does well with detailed lecture and written informational instruction, the Flatiron School's teaching methodology, structure, and their use of the Learn platform was ideal for my learning. My background was in project management and art history (I have an MA in archaeology and art history) so the detailed prework and information Learn lessons were very helpful for someone so outside the field. Full disclosure: I got into AppAcademy, and Hackbright but was incredibly turned off by the atmosphere and also the sudden jump/intensity into a new realm. Flatiron was one of the only places that gave you a detailed 'textbook' of notes before they expected you to do a coding challenge.
The instructors I had were incredibly kind, very committed and very engaged in my understanding and mastery of the material. I enjoyed that this program was not a "do tons of coding challenges" driven environment and was instead about delving into the understanding behind the code and craft.
While like anything, a student gets what they put out of it- the teaching environment is very very conducive to one growing a love for web development.
In regards to job search, my cohort graduated in an interview dead period - Late October, right before the holiday season and while I had a lot of interviews and meetings almost all of them flaked or didn't get back to me until mid January. The career coaches are kind, informative, and helpful but they do expect you to be on your game. There is a commitment contract afterward that I very much suggest engaging in to make sure your coding and networking activity is where it should be. They are also very open and honest that 3 months is the typical timeline for a job search. I technically received an offer within 4 weeks of graudation but turned it down and was able to have a frank honest conversation with my career coach for my reasons to turn it down (Despite obviously wanting to 'offload' students, my career coach was very good about not pushing decisions) I received the offer I accepted the first week of February.
