Flatiron School

I had the honor of having amazing instructors throughout my time at Flatiron. They were interactive and made sure we understood the material before moving forward. My instructors and coach went above and beyond to provide us with resources to help us better understand the material and learn beyond the curriculum. They were all approachable and were my biggest cheerleaders when I had self-doubt. They were always willing to help out when we had problems and never told us the answer but rather further cultivated our problem-solving skills and guided us toward potential answers.
My only feedback would be with some of the labs in the curriculum. Some lessons we read were confusing so I think it would be good to update the online curriculum more consistently. They also recently added some Data Structures and Algorithms material for additional reading, but I think it would have helped more learning some of it during the bootcamp instead of learning stuff like Sinatra or doing group discussions for example.
I'm also thankful for the Career Services team at Flatiron. A lot of the interviews I have gotten are thanks to their efforts. I think they do a good job of establishing relationships with companies. My career coach is also amazing. I have weekly meetings with her to see where I'm at in the job search process and how I can improve my process. 
Overall I am grateful for the experience and grateful for my instructors and the Career Services/Career Coach.

I cannot say enough great things about my Flatiron experience. The instructors and staff at Flatiron are top-notch and genuinely care about the success of their students. The curriculum consists of 5 mods (Ruby, Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, React, and a Final Project). Each mod teaches very relevant skills in the Software Engineering industry. Moreover, in my job search, I found many opportunities where my new skills were often in the required or preferred skills section of job descriptions. Being a Flatiron student requires dedication and hard work, but I promise it’s absolutely worth it! Flatiron also has adapted to virtual learning exceptionally well and creates a strong community among cohorts. I developed strong connections to my cohort mates and have worked with many of them on projects post-graduation. Speaking of post-graduation, Flatiron offers individualized weekly career counseling that has been invaluable during my job search.  

I graduated from Flatiron School's software engineering immersive program in December 2020.  Due to pandemic the program transitioned from on-campus to remote learning. We had to be on Zoom every day 9 to 6.  Our day would start with a group discussion summarizing yesterdays lessons, we would then move on to pair-programming, then there would be a lecture and then we would finish the day with working on labs.
I came to the bootcamp with zero programing knowledge and in four months graduated as a full-stack developer totally confident in what I've learnt. Honestly I was a bit skeptical before I've started this program, I couldn't understand how one can learn so much in such a short time. But the program is super intense and the curriculum requires you to learn and practice new concepts every single day. Every new skill you are taught comes with it's own labs which require you to use the skill until it becomes second nature. I like that Flatiron teaches you not only specific languages and frameworks, but they teach you how to learn, which is a great skill to have in life in general and certainly an important skill for a software developer.
A word about  instructors; the instructors we had were top-notch, super knowledgeable and helpful, and could explain complex, unfamiliar technical concepts in a way which anyone could understand. Our instructors were super supportive and they motivated us to keep going. The school's support does not end at graduation. Everyone is assigned a career coach who supports you for next 6 months and helps you during your job search.

I want to preface this by saying I have no experience with other campuses, but I can speak confidently about my experience at Flatiron in Denver, CO.

With some trepidation, I enrolled in September 2020. It is the best decision I could've made -- do you enjoy learning and aren't afraid to ask questions? Do you like to engage in theory and practice? Do you want to be taught how to learn effectively so you can apply to new languages you want to learn in the future? Do you want to join an incredibly diverse community full of supportive and caring individuals? This place is for you.

Flatiron School is the best coding Bootcamp ever!
If you do your part, you won't regret it!

In the fall of 2019, I enrolled in their full-stack Software Engineering program. I attended their Brooklyn campus in Dumbo. They taught us how to build cutting-edge, full-fledged applications using Ruby, Ruby-on-Rails, JavaScript, React, and Redux. By the time I was ready to graduate, I was able to build a fully functional, full-stack application!

Overall Experience
It was a very challenging experience, but very rewarding at the same time! Every 2 weeks you have to learn a new programming language, pass a code challenge, and build an application solo or as a team. There's a lot to learn in a very short time, however, they give you plenty of exercises and projects to gain a practical understanding of what you learn. At times, you have to do assignments alone, or in pairs. The school also has a lot of fun group activities that foster teamwork and camaraderie.

It was an overall great experience that pushed me to grow not only intellectually, but also as a person! I highly recommend going to Flatiron School!

Curriculum
The curriculum is very rigorous! Here's a breakdown of the process you go through in the immersive SE program:
- 1st week, you learn Ruby
- You're given a ton of assignments to do
- 2nd week, you take a code challenge to test your understanding
- - If you pass, you get to do a group project that you can present to your whole class. Very fun experience!
- - If you fail, you have to do a solo project that ends up being scrutinized and you're grilled by 2-3 instructors in a room. Very stressful experience!
- 3rd week, is for the presentation of the solo or group project.
- - If you fail the solo project, you can't continue the program in-person, you have to continue the program online at your own pace.
- - You technically can't fail the solo project, because you already passed the code challenge. Bear in mind that those projects will end up in your portfolio after graduation, so it's in your best interest to have great projects, whether you did the solo or group project.
- The cycle repeats itself for Ruby-on-Rails, then JavaScript, then React, and finally Redux. Every 3 weeks you learn something new, culminating in a project where you apply those skills.
- The last 3 weeks are for your capstone project that incorporates everything you learned from the beginning to the end of your time there. You have to learn at least 2 new technologies (tools, frameworks, plug-in, etc) on your own and add them to your project. It's a fun, stressful, and rewarding experience!
- The very last week consists of you presenting your project to the entire floor of Software Engineering students. Many alumni come through to see your projects. Sometimes hiring managers also attend.
- The last day is graduation day, the saddest day you'll experience on campus :(

Important: For the immersive SE program, code challenges are not graded! You're evaluated based on your understanding of the subjects, not your grade. They assess your understanding from the mistakes, bugs, or incompleteness of your code or answers to the questions.

Instructors
I found the instructors to be very knowledgeable of the subjects. They also were funny, witty, and approachable. You can talk to them about personal issues you may be going through and find them to be very understanding. All the instructors and coaches I had were AWESOME! They must have a very good selection process for hiring them. Most instructors are actually former students that become coaches, then instructors themselves. From my understanding, they're contracted for a year or two after which they have to leave to pave the way for the next set of student alumni.

Job Assistance
After graduation, you're assigned a career coach, with whom you meet every week for the next six months or until you get a job. If you signed up for an Income Share Agreement (ISA), then you don't have to pay the tuition until you find a job, after which a percentage of your salary goes towards paying them back. The contract you sign guarantees that you'll find a job within 6 months, if you don't, then you don't have to pay them. As part of your money-back guarantee (MBG) agreement, you have to meet with your coach once a week, establish at least 8 professional connections or contacts, write a blog, and have at least 5 GitHub contributions (aka 815). Failure to do so results in voiding your MBG contract, meaning that you have to pay the tuition amount even if you don't find a job. In other words, failing to meet any of the weekly 815 obligations means that you will have to pay them even if you don't get a job in 6 months! This is very important to understand and stay on top of!

They're affiliated with companies that hire bootcamp graduates. They have a unit called Employee Partnerships (EP) that send you jobs that they believe match your qualifications. 95 percent of all interviews, code assessments I had were through EP. They're a valuable asset in your job search!

I personally had a very good coach! She gave me great advice and guidance on how to maximize my results for getting a job. I did my 815 as best as possible, attended virtual (due to covid) conferences, lectures, meetings, book clubs, study groups, etc. I made some great connections along the way. I finally found a job via EP, three and a half months after declaring my job search date. I found all of their claims to be true and I'm excited to start a new career as a software engineer! If you choose Flatiron School to start a career in software engineering, you won't be disappointed so long as you do your part in fulfilling all of the obligations that are asked of you! 

Best wishes!
- JP

 I attended Flatiron School's full-stack software engineering immersive program from May-August in 2020 at the Denver campus remotely. The Denver instructional staff is top-notch and extremely knowledgable. They have created an extremely positive educational environment and welcoming campus culture. They don't make you pay $ to repeat learning Modules and they don't grade your projects which allows you the freedom to develop whatever interests you in each learning Mod. They cater to everyone's learning needs and let you choose the lessons each day depending on what you have questions on and what you are interested in learning more about. The Learn.co labs and coursework is also very well done and Flatiron School helps you create an extremely active GitHub profile and set you up well for professional opportunities. Multiple individuals from my cohort as well cohorts in front of mine and behind mine were able to get software engineering jobs just 1-2 months post program. I would definitely recommend Flatiron School Denver to anyone looking for a positive bootcamp experience and great career services. 

Flatiron School helped me develop my engineering skills due to their daily deadlines, constant pair-programming, and their lessons on working autonomously. I was a newbie to coding when I started the program so I was suffering from major imposter syndrome, but despite that, every single person in their staff made me feel so comfortable and provided me with guidance and positivity throughout the whole program. Being in this program also taught me how to learn and be more independent in terms of making my own decisions, not being afraid to try different solutions out, etc. After I graduated, my career coach helped me so much along the way and gave 100% in everything she did for me. I was awful at reaching out to random people/networking in general, but with her advice and applying different techniques, it became really easy and way less nerve-wracking! I am beyond grateful to everyone that contributed to my growth at this school, and would recommend it to anyone who wants to dive into a coding boot camp!

 MY EXPERIENCE AT FLATIRON (JULY 2020)

Full Time Software Engineering
I would not recommend Flatiron to anyone, period.
My Student/Admissions Rep had terrible communication skills (which is not acceptable) and would take days and days to answer 1 email after asking again after 2 or 3 days and then CC'ing the general info@flatiron email to try to get an answer. This went on the entire 3 months of correspondence leading up to the class and even after, when I tried to switch to Self-Paced (more on that later). I voiced this concern to the Senior Manager of Admissions and Enrollment, Marquise Martin, after my Student rep emailed me (for the first time to tell me) at 2 PM that my Enrollment Agreement had to be signed THAT NIGHT. I was literally in the middle of driving a 26' Uhaul truck full of my possessions with my car on a tow dolly on the back driving halfway across the country when I saw the email later that afternoon. Marquise at first seemed interested in my concerns only to quickly brush them aside and just say sorry that I have concerns. (The great customer service continues) I feel for you if you get Tiwanna Hamilton as an Admissions/Student Rep, she seems unorganized and lacks responsiveness and the communication skills needed to be a Rep.
They have what's called a First Mile, which is just your first 2 weeks of school, and it has requirements to complete before time is up or you fail and have to be placed in the next Cohort (if it's your 1st time failing). Unfortunately, due to my wife contracting the Coronavirus, that left me beginning my First Mile while taking care of her and our 3 kids. This caused me to get behind, so behind that I spent days on Iterations and had to ask a Teacher's Assistant (TA) for help on every lab. By the time I got it, I was out of time to complete the rest of the curriculum.

The curriculum is a joke. I am not exaggerating when I say it is a few paragraphs, sometimes with a video, as the lesson. The videos are poor quality, it just shows a screen capture and the narration sounds like it was recorded on a laptop mic from 2008. To say it's poor quality is an understatement. The curriculum, more often than not, does not teach you how to do what they then ask you to do in their labs, which, as you can imagine, makes things very difficult. (Why did you guys wait until after iterations for ANY code-alongs??) You will either be Googling Ruby syntax to try to piece together the code yourself from Quora, or you'll be copying/pasting former student's code from repl.it, or asking a Teacher's Assistant to help walk you through it. Though others were offered help via screen share, this was not offered to me until 3 days before the First Mile ended. (I didn't even know it was an option) Most of the TAs are not great at teaching, they were not skilled at breaking things down in a simple-to-understand manner. This made (most of) them almost useless.

My instructor, Annabel Wilmerding, was a former (2018) Flatiron student (her only coding education and experience, apparently), now teaching her first Cohort with absolutely (apparently) zero experience coding outside of Flatiron. This led to many confusing Lab demos where she would go 'chasing rabbits' that weren't helpful, having students correct her and ultimately made the videos of little help. Call me crazy, but I kind of want someone who has actually coded for companies outside of the Flatiron school bubble, teaching others how to code for the first time. She was a nice person. However, according to Flatiron instructors are supposed to assist students via Slack. The entire 2 weeks, she helped 0 students via Slack. She ONLY posted once a day in Slack, a morning update with how many assignments should be completed by the end of day and what they are called. That was the extent of the "Instruction" at Flatiron. I voiced this concern to Tana Glenn at Flatiron (not sure what she does because her email signature doesn't say and neither did she), which disregarded my experience for a canned response about methods for getting help with curriculum. Again, see lack of customer service skills and poor communication.

Upon not completing the First Mile, my instructor Annabel contacted me about whether I wanted to continue with the program and be put into another Cohort or withdraw and receive a full refund. I was confused as to why your instructor, especially a now former instructor, would be responsible for this part. It seems like Tana or even the Admissions rep should be responsible for handling all of this. Regardless, I emailed Tana and asked her when the next Cohort would be, only to be told that she didn't know, but that it could be as early as mid-late August or early September, an entire month to 2 months later. Not being satisfied with this huge of a delay, I asked if I could switch to Self-Paced. That way I could pickup where I left off, I still got TA support, didn't have a useless Instructor, saved $6k versus Full Time and might could even still finish on time as the original Full Time program as I wanted. She said it was against policy to allow me to switch. I asked if I could withdraw and reapply for the Self-Paced one instead and she said yes, but it could take weeks to be accepted again (no kidding with Tiwanna as a Rep), trying to force me into staying Full Time at the $15k. So I withdrew and reapplied 3 days later. I was told by Hannah M. I would be contacted by "finance" to discuss the refund and everything.

I withdrew July 22nd, it's been weeks now and I still have not heard anything from "finance." I had to email Hannah and ask about whether I would receive my $500 seat deposit back, whether they tell Climb Credit or I do, whether they refund Climb Credit or me for me to pay them back. (Again, see poor communication skills) I wrote her on Aug 5th asking for an update regarding finance or Climb and still haven't received a response after weeks now.
Then I receive and correspond to Tiwanna again as she (much to my utter disappointment) is assigned again as my Admissions Rep for my July 25th application, it went like this:
"Jul 29 @ 12p, me to Flatiron: Hi, I applied last week (Jul 24) and haven't heard anything back.

Jul 30 @ 9a, Tiwanna: Did you previously withdraw from the program?
<<Do they not communicate with each other??>>
Jul 30 @ 9a, me: Yes.
Jul 31 @ 2p, me: Hoping to hear back about my application before the weekend.
Aug 3 @ 10a, Tiwanna: It is our understanding that you recently withdrew from the program.
<<Um, duh, we just stated that, it's like she's implying something here but won't communicate what it is she's implying.>>
Aug 3 @ 10a, me: Yes, I withdrew from the full time program after not completing the curriculum within the First Mile allotted time. I am re-applying for the self-paced program since I was not permitted to switch to self-paced.
Aug 5 @ 10a, me to Tiwanna and info@flatiron since she wouldn't respond: Can I please hear back about this? It's been almost 2 weeks since I applied.
Aug 7 (FRIDAY) @ 5:00p (she waited until close), Tiwanna: Appreciate the follow up.
At this time we have decided not to proceed with your enrollment in the self-paced program."

Imagine my surprise. I guess they are doing well enough that they don't want $9,600 (they don't even refund it because it's self paced so they are literally just butthurt because I didn't submit to their greedy Policy for preventing students from switching Paces based off of what the student needs). Flatiron is not interested in your success, they are not interested in your best interest, they don't care if you or your spouse have had the Coronavirus and needed to switch paces because of it. They just want your $15k+ and nothing less.
Flatiron has switched to entirely online due to the COVID panic generated by the government and media. However, they have not provided an equivalent product to the Immersive experience and yet want to charge the exact same price. They have claimed to do just such a thing, which makes them dishonest and unethical.

Having used Treehouse for a couple of years, Flatiron's curriculum is pathetic compared to Treehouse, leaps and bounds in terms of video production and instruction quality. They are equal in educational support. Treehouse is $25/month.
TL;DR: Tiwanna sucks, as does the rest of the staff have poor communication and slow responsiveness and there is zero accountability for the staff, the instructor graduated Flatiron and started teaching others, they won't let you swap Full Time to Self Paced, curriculum is basically $15k to Google search to pass the Labs that they don't teach you how to do.

How Flatiron can sleep at night charging $15,000 for this pile of junk that they call a school is beyond me. Terrible staff, horrible curriculum, overpriced Google searching for what they call an "education," and the worst part is they just literally don't care about the students. 

Enrolling in the Flatiron School boot camp was probably the best decision I've made, both financially and personally. The boot camp does cost a fair amount of money, but now I'm making way more than I would've before and earlier than if I had gone the self-paced route. I originally wanted to pursue teaching (high school English), but the education field requires a lot of work to get into for very low pay and not a ton of support. Pretty shortly after graduating, I landed a role as a Cohort Lead at Flatiron. So now I'm able to teach and code while also being on track to pay off my ISA easily. I also know plenty of others who have graduated before and after me who have landed roles at major companies like Amazon and Shopify despite even COVID-19. Overall, the best aspect of Flatiron is the community. My cohort lead and career coach both went above and beyond to help me develop my skills and land a job. Beyond that, everyone I worked with - from admissions to education to career services to alumni, and even now, the hiring and HR teams - have been absolutely wonderful. The people working at Flatiron truly want everyone who enters the boot camp to leave with a job they love and that supports them, and they work above and beyond their job responsibilities to try to get you there. Some people take longer than others, but from what I've seen personally from other cohort mates is that if you are determined/able to put the work in and love to code, you will finish the program with the skills to build beautiful and functional full-stack applications from scratch.