Fullstack Academy Reviews
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Anonymous
Great Class but NO help getting a job
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This course had great instructors but they advertise that they have this great help to get you placed in a job. After graduating my hiring help went over my resume and gave me very simple recommendations. She missed or was late to many of our meetings and didn't seem to remember what we were talking about from past meetings. I don't expect her to memorize all her clients but some notes being taken down would have been nice. They advertised they had many companies that hire through fullStake as they know they put out good people. I've yet to see ANY company referenced as hiring or recommended from them.
As for the course itself you learn REACT, SQL, and Javascript as the main things you code in. Which you can build an app from front to back with that but most places I've seen hiring want you to know some object coding like C++ or JAVA which they don't introduce you to at all. As such all companies I've applied to don't think I have the qualifications for them. To my knowledge my whole cohort is having an extremely hard time finding at job. -
Anonymous
Great experience at Fullstack Academy
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Before attending the Fullstack Cybersecurity Analytics Bootcamp, my knowledge and ability to perform industry specific skills was very minimal. I graduated from Fullstack confident and well prepared for a career in Cyber Security. I was challenged my skills were increased tenfold. Big shout out to my instructors and mentors Ned, Kyle, Greg, Neel, Lauren, Anjili, and Michael. Our career coach, Kim Wood, was with us from the beginning and really set me up for success with pursuing career opportunities well in advance of the bootcamp ending. Thank you team! -
Anonymous
ts a great expeience to learn with knowledghut.......
its a great expeience to learn with knowledghut there sessions are amazing and there trainers are very good at subject. there little distrurbance in mentor session but ovrall experience is nice. also they have good softs skill session -
Anonymous
False Advertising
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Fullstack Academy lied to my entire cohort. Everything throughout the 3 month bootcamp for Cybersecurity was fine until graduation came and the job hunt started. Terrible. Horrible. I am so glad I didn't have to pay due to being a veteran and I was covered through VETTEC. 6 month job guarantee? Yeah, right. I have been on the hunt since before I graduated and I have come up with nothing. My recruiter, Kim Woods, gives the standard "just keep going!" and "here's a group zoom chat with an employer". None of those jobs have materialized. Also, only 33% of students from my cohort have secured employment! 33%! I did finally get a yes from a job after 7 months, and that job is Instacart. Not to be a driver, but to be an in store shopper. Thanks for nothing Fullstack. -
Anonymous
Fullstack Academy Cybersecurity Bootcamp
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The instructors at Fullstack Academy prepare by giving you ample time to develop the skills you will need in the field. There will be a lot of times where you will be Googling things and that is fine. That's exactly what you will be doing most of the time. Curiosity as a major requirement in this field. Answers won't be handed down to you. Take advantage of mentoring & 1:1 session, build patience and resilience. Have fun with the material and be prepared to take it step by step. -
Anonymous
Challenging but Rewarding
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During my time at FullStack Academy, the course seemed very daunting and difficult to overcome. The course is very fast-paced and during the full time class, it will most definitely take up your full time. While going through this course, the instructors would give either part of or the whole lesson depending on what they are teaching that day. Then the instructors would send you off into different zoom rooms (called it breakout rooms) to complete challenges and other schoolwork they had assigned. The problems we were given were pretty difficult and sometimes hard to understand. But there is so many tools in place to help you find the answers you need. Instructors, mentors, even other classmates would pop around the rooms helping out the team so we all could get the work done. The rewarding part was when you were able to solve the problems without any help and be able to help everyone else in the room find the solution. Like I said, this course seems difficult and hard but it really is the best feeling when things start to click and you are able to solve all the problems given -
Anonymous
A Life change
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As a student, all you have to know Is that amywhere in the internet you can find informations, but in the same time It Is very hard to find such a community. DevelHope strength Is about working together as a team, with your tutors and team mates, learning how to behave at work. The most important: I finished the studying in DevelHope three days ago and I have Just found a job as data entry in Milan. Enjoy ! -
Anonymous
Do not go here - software engineering full time immersive program
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Although it may have been a great bootcamp at one time, it is not anymore. Staff shortages, 1 instructor per cohort, calendars that are now pdf vs. Google calendar, disorganization on a huge level. It is the fyre festival of bootcamps. It was sold by the founders and purchased in 2018 by zovio (formerly bridgepoint education) and has had a recent change in management 6 months ago. It seems to be cutting costs anywhere possible and stretching instructors to their breaking point. Many quitting. -
Anonymous
Great Teaching
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The good: Fullstack Academy offers an immersive cybersecurity bootcamp that is well worth the time spent doing it. The instructors are patient and will walk you through the most basic of tasks, all the way up to configuring VPCs in AWS with load balancing and Remote-Access VPNs. If you have any technical abilities at all, the course should not be difficult to complete.
Heed this warning: Adjust your expectations as you consider signing up for this bootcamp. If you're expecting to land a job during/immediately after the course, you most likely will not. The majority of my network from the cohort that I finished 3 months ago still don't have jobs in the field. If you're an IT guy looking to expand into IT security, this would be great for you. If you're a Linux/Windows SysAdmin, highschool senior, etc. with time on your hands and don't need to get a job immediately after the course is over, this would be great for you. If you have bills to pay and mouths to feed, you're less than marketable without prior in-field experience.
Conclusion: The instructors are great, and as a noob, you'll learn a ton. Just don't expect to work in-field anytime soon. -
Anonymous
Software Engineering Immersive
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I would highly recommend Fullstack Academy for those seeking a career in software engineering. As for my background, I graduated university with a B.S. in computer science, but had no related work experience, even internships. After months of zero replies from numerous job applications, I decided to take this coding bootcamp. It mainly covered JavaScript and React with a focus on front-end, but I was able to get a decent amount of experience on back-end technologies and concepts as well. It's very fast paced and can easily get overwhelming from time to time, but they all come back together towards the end of junior phase. Senior phase is when the excitement begins as you get to build creative project with fellow cohort-mates. I liked how it was up to us to explore new technologies this phase as it really opened up my eyes to realize what tools are out there within our reach. It took me about 2 months after graduation to finally secure my first career in software engineering, and the job hunting skills that our career coaches have taught us really helped me all the way. It may be intimidating at first, but it definitely pays off as it did for me. -
Anonymous
Web development
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It's a wonderful program for individuals who already have basic understanding of programming such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript. I say this do to the fact this program is only 3 to 6 months so there's only time to touch the surface of each of these languages, I feel for individuals that have never touch code and are complete beginners would find this program overwhelming and difficult to understand at times, beginning projects are pre written meaning mostly just copy paste into your code editor such as "VSCode" which didn't help me being a" hands on learner" "means I learn by typing each letter" this made it difficult for me to understand how I was making projects at times and what websites I was creating or why I needed the code I was using to make them with. Therefore making it harder for me to apply the knowledge to my own projects later and it's wasn't until towards the end of the course that we finally put together a website of our own but by this time, it was hard to recall the past knowledge from weeks before or even know what files you need for different projects or which code needs to be in what files! and it's around this time that "before class hours" go from 3 day a week to just 1 day a week but I could reach out to each teacher on slack are ask for visiting hours if needed sometimes hope this helps. -
Anonymous
Great Instructors
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I had an overall very positive experience at Fullstack Academy. I got into their WDF program which is part of a partnership with the city and is 100% tuition free, so bear in mind that the fact that I got to go for free may have made my perception a little rosier than it would otherwise be. That being said, if I had to do it all over and pay the full cost for this coding bootcamp, I absolutely would (especially their Grace Hopper program, which has deferred tuition). I just got my first coding-related job 4 months after graduating and I'll be making almost triple my previous annual salary, so the cost is definitely worth it in my opinion.
The two main instructors that I had at Fullstack are amazing. Sarah especially is incredibly effective at communicating very complex topics clearly in a short amount of time. Going through a coding bootcamp, you have to absorb a crazy amount of information very quickly and it's difficult to keep up no matter how good you are, but having great instructors is essential to making it more manageable. Being able to deliver massive amounts of information to beginners in a way that is digestible takes a lot of talent, and I'm impressed by both Sarah and Orlando for doing it so well. All the fellows who acted as teaching assistants were also amazingly supportive and helpful.
The curriculum overall was very good. We started off learning coding basics in JavaScript for about a month, and then moved on to learning the PERN tech stack, which includes PostgreSQL, Express, React, and Node.js. There were some workshops that I think were not as clear as they could have been, and some other workshops that stood out as being brilliantly written and organized (shout out to Finn who made a couple of those A+ workshops). The workshops were made to be worked on in pairs, with one person sharing their screen as they type code, and the other person giving directions on how to approach the problem. The idea of "pair programming" is central to Fullstack's education model. I did get social burnout sometimes from pair programming so much, but for the most part I liked it and found it to be very effective.
There was lots of career success support during and after the bootcamp but I think my cohort got extra support especially after graduation because we were in the WDF program. I underestimated how important career success support was, and I think a lot of people tend to do that. It's not unusual to graduate bootcamp with imposter syndrome but getting coaching, resume reviews, and interview prep definitely helped me counteract those feelings of self-doubt.
Going through this bootcamp was extremely challenging but great instructors and classmates made it fun and manageable. You learn a LOT in a very short amount of time, you WILL have to study on your own time during and after the program to fill in knowledge gaps, but overall it's well worth the cost and the effort! Although there are lots of free resources out there, I wouldn't have been able to learn how to code like this from scratch on my own. Now that I have a solid base of coding knowledge and have "learned how to learn" so to speak, I feel like I can make better use of other resources too. -
Anonymous
Immersive Software Engineering Program - Grace Hopper Program
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I recently graduated from the Grace Hopper Program at Fullstack Academy and I had an amazing experience. Even though the entire course was remote, I was able to gain the skills necessary to get plenty of interviews and job offers as a software engineer after graduation. I was also able to form meaningful friendships with my classmates and professional connections with the instructors. I think the main thing to know if you're considering any bootcamp is that people won't hold your hand the whole time. You have to be a motivated, self-starter in order to put in the work during the course and put the work into applying for jobs. Super worth it though, I successfully changed careers from something I hated into something I now love. -
Anonymous
Grace Hopper Grad from FS academy
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I did the Grace Hopper Program at Fullstack Academy. I thought the experience was overall very worthwhile and made a huge impact on my career choice. In terms of pros, they have a great curriculum with everything you need to begin as a software engineer and a very welcoming community including staff and other students. On the other hand, being well prepared for the job doesn't mean well prepared for interviews. I felt that the last few weeks of the curriculum were not concrete or taught as smoothly. This was the time when the focus was on algorithms and data structures. I think it would've helped to have more preparation in that area because Fullstack offered Launch day. Launch day pairs students with employers and gets them the first interview. Upon doing well on these interviews, students move to the next round with those companies and if they aren't well prepared to interview right out of boot camp these will be wasted opportunities. Of course, there will be more interview opportunities after graduating but note that graduates will need to spend significant time on their own in technical interview preparation. -
Anonymous
A community of kind and smart people
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I highly recommend Grace Hopper for
1. The community - everyone from instructors, staff and students operate under a no asshole rule but they go beyond that. People go out of their way to help each other out.
2. The learning opportunities - the instructors are subject matter experts that love their craft, which makes learning really fun. The material is also highly relevant to the course and to the real world - I received an amazing job that is using the tech stack we learned at Grace Hopper.
I'm so happy with my decision and highly recommend it for anyone else who wants to pursue a career in coding! -
Anonymous
Fullstack Academy Cyber - Full Time Fully Immersive
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I loved my time at fullstack. It was an incredibly challenging experience and I totally white-knuckled my way through. They do provide an abundance of academic support as well as career counseling and social-support as well. I was very impressed with the diverse group of students they admitted to the program. Everyone came from a different background, and they were all very friendly and intelligent. I have made life-long friends and we continue to ask each other questions, and provide support for one another. -
Anonymous
Very happy experience
Very friendly staff and classmates, I have the happiest days here in my life. Everyone loves everyone. When we are doing group projects we help each other.
In terms of curriculum it is hard to say what is the best, what full stack offers is a little bit of everything, and it gets me ready for a SWE job.
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Anonymous
Ultimately rewarding, but room for improvement
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Pros:
-Structured class setting with minimal lectures and lots of hands-on work
-Great workshops that don't hold your hands
-Great setting for working with others whether it's pair exercises or group projects
-Great instructors who are always available to help
-Awesome career day that really helped get you prepared for more serious interviews down the line
Cons:
-The pacing of the course could use some work. e.g. REACTOs (practice technical interviews) are more of an after-thought in the current set up when they are so crucial for the job search
-Based on my experience, the weaker students are generally grouped with the stronger students for group projects, giving little incentive to demonstrate that you are a top student; almost better to just do the bare minimum on the Junior phase. -
Anonymous
Great curriculum, but some flaws
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I don't regret going to FSA. I have an engineering job as a result of what I learned at the program, but a few things rubbed me the wrong way. I'm going to focus mostly on negatives because I haven't read some of my biggest concerns in other reviews. Also, apologies for the rambling and disorganization below, I acknowledge the structure of my review could be better.
Fullstack Academy is not equipped properly to handle everyone of all levels
I think they removed this from their website, but they use to state that everyone from all backgrounds would benefit from going to FSA, even seasoned programmers who want to brush up their skills. Some people with programming experience, especially seniors, would pull their teeth out with the amount of pair programming the bootcamp forces you to do. I personally wish they did less pair programming. They immediately alienate people with programming experience in the first week by doing a long workshop on why pair programming is the best way to learn. FSA tries to prove the point that pairing beginners with beginners leads to the most amount of growth, but they fail to discuss intermediate and expert level programmers paired with beginners. The beginners obviously learn a lot from people with more experience, but, ultimately, the people with the most experience get dragged down a little by less experienced partners. You're not supposed to finish every workshop, but some of the more knowledgeable people would benefit more from finishing the workshop all the way through, and doing the extra credit, instead of teaching their partner the workshop. FSA recommends finishing the workshops at home anyway, but it could feel like class time is wasted time. This applies to both experienced programmers and fast learners who end up becoming the top of the class.
I think FSA needs to work on a way to better balance the curriculum for beginners, those with a background in programming, and fast learners. The curriculum is great for computer science graduates because a lot of universities do not teach full stack technologies or web dev, however, workshops and especially group projects can be painful when you're not supposed to move on if your partner does not understand what's going on. I'm not saying person who is struggling should be left in the dust, I'm saying it's just not ideal scenario for both parties, and I do not believe that FSA handles the students who struggle the most appropriately, but I'll talk about that in a later section. FSA has to rely on pair programming due to not having enough resources (teachers and teaching assistants) to support every student during a workshop.
Those with a CS degree also want to do a bootcamp like FSA because they want help in building a portfolio for job hunting, so the second half of the program sounds incredibly appealing. FSA gives you a ton of code and knowledge of a stack that you can leverage to build your own projects, but it's difficult to produce a decently functional app in the short amount of time you're given if you have to code along with someone who is struggling. Yes, you can work on the app after you've graduated but some people want to immediately dive into the job hunt once the program ends. I witnessed a couple students do the entire project for the rest of their team, which really sucks for the people who didn't actually end up doing the project because they can't even explain the code. In this scenario, I think it would be better to match students of similar levels for projects so everyone will learn together (as FSA even stated at the beginning of the program).
Additionally, there's a little bit of a toxic culture towards individuals who have a computer science degree or had a programming job. This is not only specific to FSA, I have encountered other bootcampers who express the same sentiment. FSA's curriculum is great for CS degree graduates who were never taught full-stack technologies. Despite these graduates not knowing web dev, other students talked about the experienced people and asked "why are they even in this program?", or put down computer science majors for not knowing the same things bootcampers know. It was enough to make me feel uncomfortable and that reaction is unwelcoming to students who do have a CS degree. It's one thing to say you accomplished something without a four year degree, but it's another thing to put someone else down for it.
FSA does not provide enough support for the top strugglers
As mentioned earlier above. FSA should be more strict with who passes junior phase. The strugglers would really benefit from redoing the first phase (which is a possibility) instead of FSA expecting other students to educate the struggler during the final phase when these other students are already past that point and want to start developing applications. Someone from my cohort didn't finish and understand the last project before senior phase, had redo the project, and somehow "passed" even though they still did not understand React and Redux in senior phase. FSA threw them on a team for the first project, and expected the rest of the team to catch the person up with pair programming. This person ended up even more left behind because the team wanted to have a working app. It's not a great situation for everyone involved and is a great diservice to the person who's struggling.
There are not enough teaching assistants, not long enough office hours, and class sizes are way too big. My cohort size was around 40 students, which FSA mislead me about when I was applying. I asked several times how big classes are and they either gave me a non-answer (it fluctuates with the seasons) or told me about 20. I was not expecting that class size. Students do not get enough attention or resources amongst large class sizes. Increasing the class sizes also floods the market with even more junior dev job seekers, so it's even more difficult to get an engineering job.
FSA is misleading about their outcomes
I'm not a big fan of the fact that they showcase success stories and companies who have hired graduates from the first year or two of FSA, when bootcamps were probably at their peak. They also do not explicitly state how many people get non-software engineer jobs like product management, support engineer, or solution constultant. Not all graduates land programming jobs, quite a few end up in a form of a technical role that does not involve coding. FSA also links to out of date CIRR reports that have higher success rates.
FSA spends too much time on "sharing your feelings" and "bonding" events/workshops
Someone did mention this in another review, and I also felt the same way. You are forced to go to lunch with a group every week to share your highs and lows. There are retrospectives where you compliment other people in the class for something they did well. Sometimes FSA ends the day early for bonding activities with other classmates or fellows. It felt like wasted time when I paid so much, and FSA already moves too fast and doesn't spend enough time on certain topics. Also, somewhat related, everyone is an adult, but I felt like I was being treated as a child by how certain FSA staff talked to the class.
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Anonymous
Fullstack is great, just be ready
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If you’re thinking about a boot camp, go to Fullstack. That’s the gist of this. Boot camps won’t totally prepare you, but they do a pretty good job, and you should get ahead of this as much as possible because there might be a job bubble coming if there already isn’t one.
Students: They clearly care about who they let in to the cohort. Most students are kind, sociable, and chill. Some are especially decent. A couple are bummers, but the ratio is outstanding. Everyone stops what they’re doing to help each other out. I have made great friends from Fullstack. I was someone who was going in thinking “this will be cool but these aren’t going to be my people”. They will be your people. If you're thinking of changing careers or adding a skillset, the student body alone is a reason to choose Fullstack.
Company + Personnel: Fullstack is scrappy, mostly transparent, and they take you seriously. The instructors are good, super smart, and very kind. They're completely sincere and straight forward with you. Only the people whose job it is to be obtuse will be obtuse, and even then they do their best to no be, and for the most part, understand that’s sort of their function within the structure of the company. People here work hard to show that they care. The fellows (the student teachers) range from being brilliant and kind to being NOT the best engineers ever but still very kind. They are all wonderful and committed to being helpful. This is a reflection of the student body again, and the commitment to a stellar culture. The recent Bridgewater purchase of Fullstack makes me nervous, but I doubt they'll interfere too much with how the company is run for now. Just look out for that, I guess.
Education: I know JavaScript. That's just true. I understand most things about it at a fundamental level. I have a stack I can code in. I felt fully supported the whole time, with tons of opportunity for extra help and practice even after school was out. The exams were tough but fair. I have made more than one app since graduating, like, got it up and running by myself. They were dinky toy apps, and most were used for interview projects, but I can do that now. It's wild. It will be brutal, it will be fast paced, but seriously trust the process. You'll see a lot of people say that, and they're right. The process won't help you get a job, but it will allow you to learn a lot very quickly.
All that said, there’s a lot more to learn, and relearn, and relearn. You will still be a junior when you leave. You graduate an engineer in that you can engineer things, but you’re going to be very confused looking at a large codebase, you’re going to forget a lot of what you learned, and you’re going to feel stupid but you’re not! They teach you well, so you’ll be able to brush up on what you forgot. It's 3 months though. Take it easy on yourself. You are pretty much job ready, and that's amazing.
Most importantly — despite their best efforts, unless you have a BS in Computer Science or general experience with CS, you will lack those CS fundamentals and algorithm skills. If you can help it, spend a couple hours a week practicing algorithms before the second half of the program where you will practice more frequently. It’ll be a lot less rough when you get out of the program that way.
Diversity + Culture: The environment is great. Fullstack is pretty progressive regarding identity politics so that's really nice. I mean, not everyone who is there totally gets it, but everyone is very friendly and I knew at least one trans person who had a solid experience at Grace Hopper, and I know there were other NB folks who did well there. There is still a lack of diversity mostly in gender and sexuality in the Fullstack cohorts. Mostly dudes, mostly white, with a few SEA and EA guys (my cohort had one queer person and no black people). Almost no women because they usually go to GH, which can make it a bit of a boys club, but the environment does a great job preventing that from happening (GH helps too, you interact with your sister cohort quite a bit). GH had a lot more overall diversity.
But yeah, just reemphasizing that the culture is overall really great. Very surprised how cool everyone was. They clearly care a lot.
Other thoughts:
The whole boot camp thing is nuts. You go in there, and you're learning a hundred new things a day, and they're trying to give you theory but also trying to make sure you can actually get something up and running so you have projects on your resume by the time you graduate, and they spend a good amount of time practicing whiteboarding problems but it isn't enough, and you're meeting new people, and you're working 60+ hours a week, and you're not seeing any of your friends and family (or if you are, not that often) and it's just bananas. Fullstack is pretty great, and there will be people who are better at identifying specific negatives about the program. I had a good time, I did well for myself, any flaws I saw seemed to be no fault of theirs as much as it was the fault of boot camps as a whole. I think if you have a different background or you're a different kind of person, maybe Fullstack isn't right for you. I don't know. Read other reviews, they helped me a lot when I was deciding.
You're almost definitely not going to come out of this interview ready. Some of you will, because some of you are wired for this. God bless. Most of you will not, and you'll probably take a very high paying hybrid role (sales + engineering usually) and do quite well for yourself. There just aren't as many junior roles out there right now. The industry is starting to grow wise to the fact that they can avoid hiring new engineers by just paying seniors more money to create systems that do junior work for them. Yes it is unfair, but that's how this works right now. There are a ton of great folks in software though looking to mentor people. Find them -- they will help you. Unless you have a lot of natural talent (and even if you do), it's going to be a long road. A handful of folks from my cohort got jobs after a normal amount of time (3 - 4 months), but a majority are still looking (4 - 5 months in right now).
None of this boot camp stuff is sustainable, but it is available right now, and it is totally feasible that you leave Fullstack with a high paying job in the tech space. Also, if you come from a relatively privileged background, and you're young, and you don't have a lot of direction, just do it. Nothing out there is going to fulfill you right now, but you'll be able to get some direction in your life towards a discipline that pays well with tons of flexibility, you'll get out in front of the incoming automation wave, and you can maybe even have some time and energy and capital after all of this to eventually do something you like for a living that isn't actively contributing to the siphoning of wealth from the bottom to the top. I don't know.
If any of this sounds appealing to you go to Fullstack. If I sound like someone who thinks like you go to Fullstack. It’s probably the best boot camp around.
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Anonymous
Recommended, but Set Expectations
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TL;DR
The education I received from Grace Hopper Academy was invaluable and provided me with the tools I needed to obtain a job in the field and progress my career. Moreover, I established very strong friendships that benefit me both personally and professionally. If I could do it again I absolutely would, but would strongly recommend managing expectations - not all aspects of this program are great.
Grace Hopper Academy:
Grace Hopper Academy is a specific cohort of the Fullstack Academy school, specifically the all women’s program. The curriculum is the same, there is often intermingling, and teachers rotate through all cohorts.
Comparison to Other Bootcamps:
I take as many opportunities as I can to speak with graduates from other programs - App Academy, General Assembly, Recurse Center, Hack Reactor, Hackbright Academy, etc. The impression I get is that Recurse Center is only a good option if you are very self-motivated, independent, and have a solid foundational knowledge. Otherwise, Hackbright Academy and Fullstack Academy / Grace Hopper seem the best options. Most feedback on others have been a bit negative.
The Curriculum:
Most bootcamps seem to focus on Python, Ruby, Javascript - usually in a mixture. Grace Hopper teaches full stack javascript, currently focusing on their "NERD" stack (Node.js, Express.js, React, and Databases using SQL). Only focusing on Javascript allows the program to do a deep dive into the language that already owns the front-end and is being increasingly adopted for back-end. I would recommend this approach to most others, but would be hard pressed to decide between Javascript and Python.
The school takes feedback seriously when it comes to the curriculum, and are constantly aiming to keep it up to date with where the industry is going.
The depth in which computer science concepts (data structures, data types, algorithms) were covered was adequate for understanding questions in entry level interviews, and certainly provides a solid foundation from which to easily continue learning.
Teachers vary in competency, but by and large are good. Just because they are an instructor there does not mean they are knowledgeable on everything or even good at instruction. There seems to be an issue here with a culture of, “We are here to help! But also, no one helped me so figure it out for yourself.” It can be a bit jarring. If you have made it through the process to get into this program, odds are you are not the type of personality that just wants knowledge handed to or problems solved for you. Expect this type of dismissal sometimes when raising questions, and push further when you are told to just look it up online (as if you haven’t already).
Bootcamp Prep (BCP):
Unsure of if this still exists or if the details are current: BCP's tuition rolled $350 towards the overall tuition of the program. This is a great incentive to take it. If you are coming from no background in programming or computer science, this is likely necessary at a minimum.
The Program Schedule:
- Builders:
At the discretion of the fellow that interviews you, you may need to take Builders, the precursor to Foundations. I would recommend asking to take it either way, because it’s very useful and provides more time to get your computer set up to their specifications. This does not cost extra, but does mean that your work starts two weeks prior to Foundations.
- Foundations:
A part time, remote program which covers javascript fundamentals. If possible, I recommend treating this as full time. The better you do here and the more you understand, the easier the main program will be. If you continue to work during this, it will be manageable but hectic. This lasts 4-5 weeks. You will have time slots to ask fellows questions. I recommend utilizing these times and asking as much as possible. Some concepts may be tricky.
- Junior Phase:
Junior phase is the first half of the program - 6 weeks. Class sizes are really big compared to when they began this program. Originally being more like 16 people, now class sizes are mid to high 30s. Most days consist of a review Q&A a half hour prior to class beginning at 10:00 AM, lecture, a solo assignment, and pair programming guided projects. The pair programming is an integral part of the curriculum, and it will be something you do every day. Focus less on finishing the project and more on understanding everything with your partner before moving on to a next step. The pairs are randomized, and you can (and should) provide feedback after each pairing. This will become relevant in Senior Phase.
Your cohort will have a handful of fellows, which are students who just graduated and circle back through the program as the next cohorts mentors. Keep this in mind for perspective on their knowledge level. Classes have two or three teachers that cycle through on different topics, so there is less rapport built with specific teachers than before when there was a pair assigned to a cohort.
- Review week (“Async Week”):
Depending on when your cohort begins in the year, this may be a week or a month (for example, December holidays makes this a month). This is a week you work remotely again. There is enough to do that I would recommend treating it as if school is not on break. While this entire program is very demanding of 3-4 months of your life, my perspective is to lean into it because it is so short and you should take advantage of everything.
This week will have you working on making a boilerplate and understanding OAuth. Boilerplate will be good to understand in your future career, because projects can often jump off a stock boilerplate codebase. OAuth is pretty important to understand, so keep at it this week.
Instructors use this period to determine who will replay Junior Phase (with additional tuition charged). Two from my cohort were replays from the previous cohort and two replayed into the next cohort. Seems like 0-3 is average.
- Senior Phase:
Junior Phase pair programming reviews and ratings come into play heavily in Senior Phase. There will be four major projects:
------> Presentation
A video or blog post on a specific topic you researched.------> Grace Shopper
A week and a half e-commerce website project with a group of four. This group is based on your ratings from Junior Phase. This project incorporates MVP (Minimal Viable Product) stages and code review with instructors.------> Stackathon
A solo project lasting a half week and weekend. Hit the ground running and ensure you have a good direction with your instructor before the weekend comes and you won’t have access to assistance. Some instructors may not have experience or knowledge of mobile development, so be careful what project you choose.------> Capstone
A two and a half week project with a group of four. This is group is based on your ratings of all students in a survey taken after Grace Shopper. By now you may understand more the importance of doing this. You pick the technologies to use, but the more technologies you try to cram into this project, the worse off you will be - both on a technical struggle standpoint, as well as when you need to speak about your projects in interviews in the future. Hiring managers will care much more about how you attempted to solve interesting problems on an unfinished app than a super simple, shiny game built on Unity.<------------------>
The group members for Grace Shopper and Capstone can make or break your time there, so take rating pairings seriously.
I’d recommend keeping a list of ideas and researching interesting concepts for the Presentation, Stackathon, and Capstone starting in Junior Phase (Async Week at the latest). This will allow you to have plenty of input in how these go. Moreover, Senior Phase moves very fast so the sooner you finish the Presentation - which there is no class time allotted for - the better you’ll be. I would recommend doing this in Async Week.
Almost every day is begun with a REACTO (Read back for understanding, Examples/Edgecases, Assess/Approach, Code, Test, Optimize) problem or the occasional lecture. REACTO is this school’s approach to algorithm and coding interview preparation. You will be paired randomly with someone for a week and switch off each day on being the interviewer and the interviewee. The problems can be quite difficult, and I personally used this time to, again, focus less on finishing the problem and more on working with my partner to understand as much of it as possible. REACTOs done here are, on average, on par in difficulty that interviews provide.
The work involved with presentation of the Capstone seems somewhat relevant to product management and pitching ideas. However, the format is off to me. You spend too much time making a video and script for a presentation as if the app you make is full, finished, and worth presenting. You will certainly never show this video to any potential employers. I would recommend focusing more on thinking and practicing (with your group) talking points on interesting code or design you used, problems you came across, how you did or would solve them, and so on.
Launch Day:
This is a hiring day in which companies come to campus for a mini career-fair which includes both Grace Hopper and Fullstack Academy cohorts. Somewhere around 4-10 from my cohort accepted offers within two months from companies they initially met on Launch Day. It’s merely an intro, an initial point of contact. Some companies may not be hiring but come anyway. Some may be hiring in 3-6 months. Some may be hiring for other cities like Boston. Some may be only hiring customer-facing, non-technical roles. These are things to keep in mind.
The roster for this day varies, but there are strong partnerships with some that come often (American Express, JP Morgan Chase, Simon Data as examples). You are assigned to four companies and have little say in who they are. Still, there is a networking session after in which you can approach anyone. I recommend taking advantage of that, and even trying to catch someone before it starts.
Value:
Fullstack Academy: $17,910
Grace Hopper: $19,610
These are not low numbers, to be sure. Contrary to their marketing, the Grace Hopper absolutely does have upfront cost in the form of a $3,000 deposit due before beginning. The final total after graduation is somewhere around $16,600. Note that BCP tuition may be deducted here. Monthly payments after accepting an offer will be along the lines of $1,800 for nine months.
With the three (or four) months of full time commitment, $3,000 deposit, two to four months (on average) of job searching after, this is a huge investment and is out of reach for a lot of people. Sure, the tuition repayment for Grace Hopper makes it slightly easier for women to take this route, but not by much. If you cannot afford a full 10 months off without income, this probably won’t be an option for you.
The CIRR report they show is usually dated by a year or two. Cohort graduates near mine, ending in the second half of 2018, saw in the $70k - $100k range - typically ~$85k. With that result, it seems quite clear as being worth it. I do not see or hear any stories of people going through this and exiting the industry after (even after 2-5 years). I know myself, and self study would not have been nearly as adequate to set me up for success.
You’ll make an excellent network of peers and friends and have so many resources to take advantage of once you begin.
Career Counselors:
This is a good example of how parts of this program can be helpful for those with little to no experience in a certain area. If you have gone through career changes, job interviews, networking, etc. there is quite a bit here that can feel very dumbed down or a downright hinderance. Keeping the perspective in mind that they are providing a really solid framework and tools available if needed will help you not be disappointed in the lack of depth. Sometimes, there doesn’t actually need to be depth, and sometimes there is only so much they can do to help you. Which leads to the problem of expectations. Do not allow this or other bootcamp’s marketing to shape your expectations into thinking that after this program you’ll be handed a job or it will be super easy.
That said, I will reiterate that they do provide a lot of resources and framework.
There is a career counselor dedicated to you when you graduate, but they have dozens of other graduates to help as well. Still, they were relatively available. I felt they were inconveniently unavailable the day I received an offer. Interpersonally, I felt quite disappointed with the career success staff. The habits and guidelines they propose for the job search are a great start, but should only be used if you are not actively in the interview process with one or more companies that need more attention.
Job Search:
This will be brutal. Expect to not get an offer for at least three months. You can get lucky, you can know or meet the right person. But do not expect that you’ll stand out to any company in any way. Too many people underestimate how rough this will be, how much rejection you will face, and how long it will take to get even one offer.
Hit the ground running and have a strategy for this time period. You need quality, but you also need quantity. Those from my cohort that applied to only a couple places a month are really struggling. The career counselors have a guideline they propose for this, and I’d recommend that as a starting point.
Another point is know what you want. You can certainly get an offer for a tech support role or a client-facing role that doesn’t actually touch any code except when they let you for half a day on Fridays. But know what you’re willing to do and what you want to do. Keep in mind that the first job is the hardest to find by far, and once you have one the next will be easier. Stepping stones.
Alumni Network:
You will certainly make strong connections in your immediate cohort. I would recommend interacting with your Seniors and Juniors to triple that exposure. There is a dedicated alumni slack workspace.
I feel confident that the network I have established from this program will help me moving forward. Moreover, it appears that most graduates from bootcamp programs are very receptive to one another. Traditional computer science graduates are hit or miss.
This will end up being on you to be a part of the change in the industry which has its fair share of gatekeeping.
Grace Hopper Moving Forward:
Like many trade schools, this has some potential problems with lowering admission requirements and diluting the reputation in pursuit of profit. As of right now, I did not find this to be the definite case. Moreover, the impression I receive from other bootcamps is that Fullstack Academy is the best when it comes to this.
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Anonymous
Amazing experience
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I had an incredible experience at Fullstack academy. I came into the program with hardly any coding experience and left feeling like a certified pro. The instructors were made the course such a wonderful academy. Unlike my college educators, the Fullstack instructors were engaging, thoughtful, and made learning quite fun. I would recommend the class to anyone that has an interest in becoming a software engineer.
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Anonymous
Classes too big
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Class sizes used to be <20, now they are 30-40. This matters a lot. Older reviews are not going to reflect what your experience will be like as this organization changes. Ask recent grads and current attendees directly on other websites like linked in, etc.
Work hard, have high expectations of yourself — and yourself only. Your classmates will be your biggest asset, so build good strong working relationships with them.
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Anonymous
Thorough, in-depth, well-organized experience
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The 14 weeks onsite at FullStack were intense, challenging and very thorough The instructors are deeply knowledgable (and very patient). The curiculllum was clearly set out at the beginning of each phase. Pair programming and test driven development kept things interesting daily. Workshops and test were challenging and really helped motivate me. There are several bigger projects as you progress through the course and they really helped increase my understanding and enthusiam for software development.
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Anonymous
Incredible Experience!
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Fullstack was truly an amazing experience and I would recommend it to anyone. Coming in with almost no computer science background, I was worried I wouldn't be able to keep up. The instructional team went above and beyond to ensure that I understood the material and provided every resource I could possibly need to succeed. If you are considering attending a bootcamp, Fullstack should be at the top of your list.
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Anonymous
Learn modern technologies and CS fundementals
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Fullstack's curriculum is pretty great and very up to date. Fullstack gives you a solid foundation for modern web development careers. Every project was jam packed with essential programming concepts, which was overwhelming at first, but it was useful to return to these projects during the studying phase of my job search. I also felt that my instructors were genuinely interested in web development and also in teaching. Fullstack is very high quaility bootcamp and you cant go wrong if you choose it.
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Anonymous
I am a completely different person than I was last year thanks to FSA
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pros:
1. full-stack JavaScript-focused curriculum with strong emphasis on React.js was a perfect fit for jobs in the NYC market;
2. amazing, committed instructors;
3. project-based and collaborative (pair-programming throughout) was a plus in interviews;
4. Career Services helped me negotiate a higher salarycons:
1. not enough emphasis on becoming proficient at writing tests (e.g. Jest, Mocha, etc.), and
2. Career Services was great at the negotiation phase, but they seem to be too busy to give too much individualized focus before that pointgeneral advice:
1. Computer Science fundamentals is extremely important, but only so much of it can be taught in a 4 month program - make sure you study algorithms and web fundamentals on your own after graduation;
2. I probably was under-qualified for admission into this extremely rigorous program, which meant that I was constantly trying to catch up. I didn't really hit my stride until a month or two after graduation as I continued practicing on my own. Do your best to take advantage of free resources prior to the bootcamp (such as FreeCodeCamp) -
Anonymous
Fantastic and Valuable Learning Experience, Even for CS Major
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I attended Fullstack as a Summer of Code student. I was weary of attending at first since I am already a computer science student, and thought it may be "overkill." But it was worth it in the end because I learned so many valuable skillsets that I would have not encountered otherwise. The interview prep support was also tremendous, and I really enjoyed learning and working with others who are equally motivated. Shoutout to Kate who was a wonderful mentor and teacher throughout my Senior phase! If you are weary about price/experience, just now that this is such a worthwhile experience and I feel way more confident in my programming abilities now. If I had any criticism, it would be that specific internship support wasn't available, but I got enough out of the job support that it didn't make a huge difference for me.
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Anonymous
Amazing experience
If you are serious about changing careers into the tech industry, definitely consider Fullstack Academy. It was chanllenging, but you get out what you put in. The job search comes after the bootcamp can be even tougher. Be ready.
Aside from getting a great experience from the bootcamp, I also gain an amazing Fullstack network which I treasure a lot.
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Anonymous
Challenging But Worth It
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Foundations was incredibly challenging. Junior phase was very challenging. Senior phase was challenging. Everything got easier over time because your confidence improved and your understanding of the context of what you were learning improved, and your skills for learning improved. At the beginning we all kept telling each other and ourselves, "trust the process." It got easier to trust over time. We got a lot closer than I thought we'd be able to over a remote platform, but it really felt like we were all hanging out every day. I made friends that I still talk to all the time. The instructors are not equal, but they're all very competent and helpful. Everyone in the tech world that I talked to after the program was thoroughly impressed by my knowledge and experience from Fullstack. I felt great during interviews and ended up with 2 offers. It's not all perfect, you've got to advocate for yourself and take initiative to get out of the program what you need from it. At the end of the day I really had fun in the program and I'm literally making more than double what I was in my last profession (with a master's degree) with no prior tech education or experience. What more is there?
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Anonymous
Well worth the risk
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For me, leaving my career and starting this bootcamp was a huge risk. It would mean spending most of my savings to continue to live in NYC will not working, not working for the first time in 12 years which grated on my psyche and not being sure I would get a job quickly... if at all in this field.
Grace Hopper was well worth it. You can tell from the get-go that it's a mutual investment because of the tuition policy but it's more than that. I do have some criticism regarding my cohort in particular and the lack of consistency of instruction - but we still did learn a substantial amount.
In terms of instruction - the curriculum is clearly tried and tested and is being iterated on consistently which is key. It does require a lot of self-direction and motivation but.. it's a bootcamp so that's to be expected. I was disappointed by the fact that we didn't have consistent instructors (only had one for quite a few weeks) and that I don't feel the instruction was always very strong. You can be an amazing engineer without knowing how to communicate that to other people. Instructors need to be able to communicate that to other people and stay organized.
One thing I can't say was awesome enough was the career success team. Again - you need to stay on top of your own stuff - but they will support you really well (at least my counselor did). She was responsive and no-nonsense and made it very clear that the goal was to get you a job that you could thrive in for a while to come. My resume and linkedin and negotiation skills have never been better. At hiring day, I met so many companies that followed through with interviews and got and accepted my first offer within a month. And if that hadn't been the right offer for me, they would've helped me come to terms with rejecting the offer and making a plan for how to get a better one.
Moral of the story: if you're thinking about it seriously, do it. It'll be worth it.
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Anonymous
Grace Hopper
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I would definitely recommend attending Grace Hopper! Overall, I had a great experience and was able to find a job as a software engineer fairly quickly after graduating.
In doing boot camp research, I found that Grace Hopper/Fullstack's curriculum was the most robust and industry applicable of NYC boot camps. Also, the fact that it's the only all-women boot camp on the east coast (I'm pretty sure) was a huge selling point for me.
The curriculum was very thorough and delivered very very fast-paced. Not everyone makes it from the first half of the program to the second (project based) half. Even more stressful than the huge influx of information were the presentation-based projects. I definitely appreciated them, because it made it easier to talk about different technologies confidently. I hope they continue having that as an integral part of their curriculum.
I thought the instructors were a great mix of people in the industry and people who graduated from GH or Fullstack themselves. They seemed genuinely invested in your success, which is not something you hear about a lot of boot camps.
The culture at Grace Hopper was amazing. I loved how they emphasized collaboration over competition. For the most part, they seem to choose students who are easy to work with. I came out of the program with a lot of new friends.
Their career service team is really aggressive, in a good way. They are really great at what they do, which made it less stressful to find a job after graduating.
Overall, I had a great experience at Grace Hopper, and would recommend it to any woman looking to change their career.
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Anonymous
Better than I ever could have hoped
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My experience at Fullstack Academy was truly remarkable. I had an amazing time at Fullstack and it redefined my career goals as my job search was more successful than I ever could have hoped. The technical foundation you are provided with truly is enough to obtain a job at a top company. The quality of other students was very high and it was truly special to learn alongside so many interesting people who had succeeded in many different areas and industries. I could not reccommend Fullstack more highly. The only caveat I would note is that the expereince is what you make of it and it is not magic. You must be willing to put in the work to fully reap the benefits of this amazing program
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Anonymous
Great experience
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Fullstack was not just a great bootcamp experience, but one of the best educational experiences of my life. The team of instructors does a great job creating a sense of community. The curriculum is incredibly thorough, and by the senior phase of the program I could not believe the kinds of projects we were producing. I think the only downside was that the instructors are incredibly capable and experienced programmers, but they don't have much teaching experience. Overall, FSA is a great program that really produces job-ready graduates.
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Anonymous
Really nice prep experience
Really nice progression of material - liked the instructors a lot and they offered a lot of help with material that I had been struggling with. In the application process now and feeling a lot more confident for all the interviews that are upcoming!
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Anonymous
More than just an educational course
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Going to Fullstack was one of the best decisions I ever made.
There's a lot of things that come into play when you're transitioning to a new career, especially in the tech field.
A purely educational course isn't enough. Anyone can take an online video course in their pj's at home and learn the same material I learned at Fullstack.
What you get is a community of people who you'll potentially know and make life-time friends with, who are all going through the same experience as you. Also you'll get staff who are invested in you, supportive, and who know what it's like to be in the tech industry. Staff that wants to know what you're up to months later, that helps you with a job interview a year after you graduate, and staff that basically just wants to see you suceed.
Not becuase there's something in it for them, but becuase they honestly want to see people at their true potential.
I had virutally no previous experience in coding before I attended Fullstack (other than what I needed to know to pass the application) and I won't lie, getting a job wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. But I've learned so much at Fullstack, and continue to learn becuase of the skills they taught me. And becuase of that, a year after graduating, I'm in a position I never thought I'd be, earning more thant I ever thought I could. It's ignited this passion in me and I'm positive that flame was started by the spirit of the Fullstack staff.
If you're in the New York area and are looking to attend a bootcamp to become a web developer, this is where you want to go.
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Anonymous
Great Place
The instructors are amazing! You spend a lot of working on projects and have fun doing it with awesome people.
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Anonymous
Spot-on education, deeply caring environment.
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First of all, I can definitely say that Fullstack provided me with everything, and more, to land a coding job and be a successful coder. A power-packed curriculum taught by brilliant profs, plus an extensive and innovative course on having great coding interviews, landed me a job very soon after graduation. But many other coding schools can teach you similar things. What sets Fullstack apart is the sheer personal attention and supportive, friendly environment they create. I'm still in touch with so many alumni and the team at the campus and everyone looks out for each other. It's not one of those schools that spits you out, lands you a job, and forgets you, in other words. You're always a part of it. If that's what you're looking for I highly recommend it.
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Anonymous
Best education experience I've ever had
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I don't have much to add here to all the great reviews. I had a great time in the program and really enjoyed every aspect of it.
My favorite parts:
- The other people in my cohort were all super-sharp. You could tell in admissions that Fullstack isn't messing around when they let in people for the program.
- The curriculum is really fun and up-to-date. They were shifting to React and Redux and I really liked how they presented it. I've done lots of online tutorials and found that Fullstack's curriculum really is well-presented.
- The instructors are some really cool people. I felt they were supportive and always had good insight into how to do something better.
Some things I wished I would have known before the program:
- The job search is tough - they keep telling you that but when you do it, it's a lot of "nos" all the time. You have to really get used to that - I wish I had kept up more with my cohortmates and kept working together afterwards.
- They have a cool set of classes on Saturdays around CS topics. I liked them but you feel a bit burned out going to class 6 days a week. They should consider making those more optional.
- Sometimes you get to choose who you get to work with like on the final project. That can be rough if you don't get along with your team and our cohort had some teams that seemed to have drama.
All in all - Fullstack helped me do what I set out to do - I'm sitting in a new programming job now and it's amazing - I really can't believe how far I've come in the last six months. If you're willing to put in the work then this is a fun and fast path to a new coding career.
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Anonymous
poor organization
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I had very high hopes for Fullstack. I took their techincal test and got through to the interview. After that, things rapidly declined and I became very frustrated with their team.
After the second interview I took their bootcamp prep course, which was poorly organized. The lessons were straightforward enough but MANY of the example questions did not match the lectures in terms of content and those that did, were on a completly different level than the lecture examples. The TAs that assisted each session had no clue what was going on. The instructors themselves were recent graduates- and while their efforts were commendable, they couldn't quite make up for the awful course. Not to mention the course is $3k. Hack Reactor offers a prep course for $800, and they are on par in terms of rigor! I would not recommend FS!!
After finishing their bootcamp prep I did the reassesment and their admissions team ignored it. The message they give to applications is that they are disorganized and don't care. It is exteremely frustrating to 'work' with them. They are VERY SLOW to respond if they do at all. Additionally, their cohorts have burgeoned to about 40 students each, and they have not been able to handle that expansion well. Previous reviewers/graduates have not experienced the new FS, which is falling very short of their reputation.
