Fullstack Academy met and exceeded all of my expectations. I had decided to make a career change to software engineering and was researching different bootcamps. I had heard great things, but it wasn't until I was in the program that I really appreciated how great it was. All of the instructors are excited to teach and the curriculum was well designed ot get someone (like me) who had very little experience in coding up to speed and proficient in the stack they were teaching. Building projects was a great way to learn how to apply the technology and I am extremely greatful for the experience. Everything is taught in a way that is understandable and there is never a feeling that you can't ask questions. I highly recommend Fullstack Academy (and in particular the Grace Hopper Program).

To echo a lot of other sentiments, my decision to go to Fullstack Academy was one of the best of my life. Previously, I had been working in the business (sales, support, marketing) side of tech. While I had some basic coding experience, I learned an immense amount from the robust curriculum taught at Fullstack. The entire staff in Chicago - whether instructional (Collin, Ben W, Priti, and Finn) or career/operations (Ben N, Holly, Brett) have been incredibly helpful in my success.

I'm depletely indebted to them for both my education and for the opportunity to serve as a Teaching Fellow. And without the hard work of the Career Success team, I would not have the amazing job I do now as I was able to land it through Fullstack's Launch Day.

Overall, the highest praise I can give.

Going to Fullstack Academy was easily one of the best decisions in my life.

When you go to a bootcamp, if you're just going for the material, you're doing it wrong. If you just want the material, it's all available for free somewhere on the internet. You should be going to a bootcamp for several reasons:

1) Learning how to learn various techs, and how to learn them quickly. Fullstack handles this wonderfully by constantly never allowing you to become complacent in your learning or start slacking. You constantly have to be pushing yourself to absorb new material and how to digest documentation.

2) You have zero idea how to actually break into the industry. Again, Fullstack provided this with great career coaching and prepping you to have a resume that is worth looking at. Fullstack as well provides an opportunity to meet several companies, towards the end of your bootcamp, allowing you to potentially to turn these meetings into on-site interviews (which definitely happened for me).

3) If you're new to this... you don't actually realize your own knowledge gaps and weaknesses. And it takes an instructor to help you with these and point you towards things you may have never come across before. You can have all the motivation in the world, but without a good teacher to take you there, it's useless. Fullstack has wonderful instructors who are extremely passionate about not only teaching, but improving their teaching (shout out to Corey Greenwald, one of the best instructors I've ever had in any sort of educational setting).

This being said, prepare to work hard. You will only get out of it what you put in. If you think you can just go during the day and not also put in the time, constantly, during your nights and weekends... and think things will go just as well, you're mistaken. Maybe you can coast. But if that's what you're intending to do... what's even the point? I really recommend Fullstack. But if you're going to do it, do it right. Give up your life for three months. It will pay off.

I started the program without any knowledge in coding. The speed of the course is high and you as a student will fell you aren't in control more often than you imagine. To follow that, I had to dedicate more than I had ever dedicated myself to any other academic experience. And after three months, you will be ready to get into the market that changes every single minute. More than JavaScript or any other framework, Fullstack taught me how to learn new things in the speed that the market requires. The school environment is also a plus. They take seriously themes like diversity and all the staff and teachers are very supportive. I couldn't be more grateful for the teacher and fellows I had during the program. Trust the process!

A focused, refined education with excellent people participating and running the show—especially the instructors!

I know FSA is expensive but it is worth it. You are paying for a sterling reputation and amazing network of graduates. Think Harvard of boot camps, with a no-assholes policy that is written down and clearly enforced. If you can get in, embrace the process, and focus, I doubt there is a better program in the country.

I am currently in the foundations portion of the Immersive Software Engineering cohort. I completed Bootcamp Prep in a Month recently and it was an amazing experience. Before the prep course I had only been studying on my own for about 3  months, and I can honestly say I learned FAR more in the 1 month of prep than I did the 3 months prior on my own. Now that I am in the Foundations course I feel so much better equipped to learn and understand new concepts. Having a solid background from the Prep course has allowed me to focus on studying big picture and practicing my new skills. There are a lot of complex concepts taught in foundations and with my Prep knowledge I'm able to understand these new concepts a lot quicker and am not struggling just to understand the concepts. I highly recommend to anyone who's thinking about joining an immersive cohort to take the Prep course.

The instructor was extremely knowledgeable and took the time to make sure all of us in the class (there were 7 of us total) really understood the concepts he was teaching. We worked together with the instructor, he really encouraged feedback throughout each lecture. Once the lecture was over it was our time to Pair Program (a technique explained in detail at Fullstack, where 2 people code on 1 machine or sharing a screen, one as the 'driver' actually writing the code, and the other as the 'navigator' walking through what to write and how to approach the problem) and work through a set of problems in the workshop. Pair Programming was by far one of the most influential aspects of this course, as it really helped to solidify any knowledge I had just received from the lecture. To be able to explain yourself and even to teach a concept ensures that you understand the concept and also helps you to identify the weaknesses you might have in that concept.

There was a plethora of options for support during the prep course. At any time during each class we could reach out to either the instructor or one of the Fellows who were there to assist us. On off hours we could reach out to the instructors and fellows on Slack, any time of day. A solid support team is so important when receiving this level of education.

The way I look at it, our time at Fullstack will only be a few short months, so why not get as much attention and education as physically possible and take advantage of all of the available options.

Overall I had an amazing experience. This 1 month course was one of the defining moments in my life and one of the most exciting moments in the journey to my future career as a software engineer. I can't stress enough how beneficial this course was in my educational journey. 10/10 would attend

Attending Fullstack was one of the best decisions I have ever made. The instructors are incredibly knowledgeable and passionate. The curriculum is constantly being updated to always be relevant to the top tech trends.

My favorite part of the entire experience was getting to pair program with fellow students. It was the first time I was around people as motivated to learn how to code as I was, and it taught me a lot about how to collaborate with others.

I was fortunate enough to be selected to stay on as a teaching fellow for another 3 months after graduating from the program. Having the opportunity to help others with the same material I had been taught cemented the concepts for me and made me more confident for my upcoming job search.

I am happy to say for me, fullstck was a worthwile investment. Just over 1 month after my fellowship, I was hired as a Software Engineer at Bloomberg.

Fullstack has been one of the best decisions I made in my life. All the instructors were not only knowledgeable of all the concepts in the curriculum, but they were all very compassionate in helping every student grow their skillset in coding. 

Fullstack is split into three separate phases: Foundations, Junior Phase, and Senior Phase. Foundations is 5 weeks long and is primarily self-paced. You are given online video lectures, weekly assignments, and checkpoint tests throughout the course of those five weeks. This phase is primarily self paced and helps reinforce advanced JavaScript concepts like functional programming, recursion, and closure, which will be useful to know in Junior and Senior phase. 

Junior phase is 6 weeks long at the Fullstack campus. About half of each day are live lectures, and the other half are pair programming workshops. Pair programming was one of the best learning experiences I had at Fullstack. Not only do you learn more about each person in your class, but you acquire knowledge from your time working with each individual (i.e. setting up your code editor to be more efficient when coding, understanding the Github workflow, keyboard shortcuts, organizing your code in a DRY manner, etc.). Pair programming is also reflective of how programmers code in their day job and is one of the fastest ways to really learn the technology taught for that day.

Senior phase is also 6 weeks long on campus, but focused primarily in building three projects, an E-Commerce website, a personal project, and a Capstone project. Both the E-Commerce website and Capstone project are built in teams of three or four people, and really help you learn how to work agile. The personal project helps you learn new sets of technologies outside the Fullstack curriculum to build a project you're passionate in and want to highlight in your portfolio. I built a Pokemon Augmented Reality game. 

At the end of my 17 week long journey at Fullstack, I was picked as one of the three Teaching Fellows to help teach the next incoming cohort of students. Being a Teaching Fellow added another level of coding experience that was invaluable. Not only did I have another 3 months of reinforcing all the concepts I learned from Fullstack, but also was given the opportunity to teach these concepts to incoming students. I also helped manage senior project teams to be more agile, and conducted daily stand up meetings. I am happy to say that after 1.5 weeks from graduating as a Teaching Fellow at Fullstack, I will be accepting a Software Dev. Engineer role at Expedia. 

If you are passionate in growing your coding career and want a quality curriculum, please consider Fullstack. If you are worried about the large expense, there are free information sessions, bootcamp prep, web development workshops, and other resources to give you a taste of what you may expect at Fullstack, and see if it is a worthy investment for yourself.

Fullstack Academy is so amazing! From the instructors to the curriculum, everything is designed to give you the best learning experience.

This course was split into two phases, the junior and senior phases. During the junior phase, students learn through lectures, hands-on workshops, and labs. First, the pace and organization of the course is great! Lectures were long enough for us to learn a ton of information, and they were paired with workshops and labs to really make sure we fully understood the information. Instructors and teaching fellows were always on hand to give additional guidance and answer any questions we had. I really got the sense that they actually cared about making sure we not only understood the information but also that they cared that we succeeded.

Towards the end of junior and throughout senior phase, we then shifted to synthesizing the information we learned through group and individual projects. These projects definitely gave me invaluable experience for my job search. This was all alongside some fantastic career counselors who made sure I was presenting the best version of myself for the job hunt.

If you are debating about whether you should attend Fullstack Academy, you should go for it! The instructors are fantastic and they actually care if you do well.

I've graduated from Fullstack Academy Web Development Fellowship, the program sponsored by NYC Tech Talent Pipeline.

I have an awesome experience with FS, like the most of it graduates and here is why:

1. Instructors are outstanding. A lot of people complain that instructors in bootcamps are often don't have much experience in real-world development. It's not the case with FS. First of all, because they do have not only experienced but PASSIONATE teachers. I won't speak for everybody, but give a shout out to Corey Greenwald and Dan Soval who were my instructors. Experience in web development multiplied by the natural ability for outstanding public speaking and great desire to teach other people => that's the recipe to engage you in solving the problems every day, every hour, think about code when you go to sleep and wake up because of the dreams about code. Sure it's information waterfall brings you to that state of the mind, but instructors make this crazy state ENJOYABLE and ENCOURAGING. They really care about you and want you to learn. Thanks Corey and Dan!
2. Curriculum. It's awesome. Why?
   • No spread of tech. You need to master your JavaScript before you go further or you'll have a total mess in your head. All stack is based in JS: React.js, Node.js, and other supporting frameworks. If you didn't do development before it's even hard to imagine how COOL is to write your front and back end using THE SAME language. Sure there may certain trade-offs, but it's the fastest way to learn FULL STACK for a beginner.
   • They listen to the trends. The curriculum is always updating. My cohort was going through the workshops and some of them will be replaced for the next cohort. They curriculum evolve synchronously with the tech trends.
   • Hands-on experience. You always writing code, even if you don't really understand the topic. A theory was for self-learning and even lectures were mostly based on live code writing sessions.
   • You work either in a pair or in a group. Only a few assignments were individual. That's how you would work in real life, right? You won't be a lone wolf, you should always communicate, that's the key for learning and for life.
   • They keep you in shape with checkpoints and exams. No slackers, you gotta work and code to learn something.
3. Competetive admission. No random unmotivated people, everyone was crazy about learning stuff.
4. No asshole rules. They were really monitored and enforced.
5. Support not only in your learning but also in life. It's hard to learn to code from scratch in a short period of time. You will be exhausted, unfocused or tired sometimes. You may think that you stupid or can't learn as fast as your teammates. But they have a special counselor who can help you to overcome such psychological barriers and instructors are always caring and attentive.
6. Fellows!!!!!!!! Fellows are awesome, that's recent Fullsatck Alums who employed by FS to help you overcome technical challenges and be awesome. They like your older brothers and sisters who will take care of you if you lost :)
7. Career counseling. The job market is a MARKET. Nobody can guarantee you employment (unless US Army is paying for your education). But you can learn how not to suck in the job search. And FS is fulfilling this. They have a special time in the program dedicated to hiring activities. They teach you how to LinkedIn, write a resume, cover letters, provide you with sessions with a personal career counselor and ongoing support even AFTER graduation. (Like negotiation)
8. Ability to apply for a FS fellowship. Later to the end of the program, you can apply for the fellowship and become the older brother/sister I mentioned before. It is competitive but most of the people are happy with it, teaching others to solidify acquired skills and give you more confidence in a job search.
9. Social activities. It may sound silly, but they are VERY important. You spend the time with the people who an in similar circumstances but may be very different than you. Social activities (like a hot seat :) made our cohort solid like a rock and caring for each other.
10. Reflection. Each week instructors seat in a circle with students and listen to all your complaints and kudos. And they really listen and change stuff! That's amazing for every organization, but not every organization do this.

To draw a line I just want to add that if you want to change your life, change your career FS is definitely what you need. 

In Fullstack Academy you will not only to learn how to write code, but how to become the better version of yourself, how to learn to communicate with other people.

Fullstack Academy's part-time Flex immersive was one of the most wonderful, worthwhile, and challenging experiences of my life. While there were some things that could be improved about the course, I can wholeheartedly say that everyone there is dedicated, intelligent, and fantastic. If you're thinking of applying to Fullstack, don't hesitate--you won't regret it!

Application

Applying to Fullstack was fairly straightforward. After filling out an online form and taking an online assessment, I was then contacted for a one-on-one interview with a teaching fellow. The interview consisted of two parts--behavioral and technical. Don't sweat the technical interview. They're not looking for experts, but rather that you have a good grasp of the fundamentals and can handle instruction/feedback if you get stuck.

Do not go in with 0 experience first, though. You need to, at minimum, understand the basics of JavaScript: variables, functions, arrays, loops, objects, conditionals, some recursion, etc. If you're on Code Wars, you should be able to solve level 6 problems with some regularity.

The Class

The Flex immersive runs twice a week in-person and one weekend a month. A block of time is set aside for remote work/homework on Wednesdays, though there is no lecture during this time. The class runs across two phases: a junior phase, which consists mostly of lectures and workshops, and a senior phase, which is when you'll build applications from scratch.

Eric Katz, the lead Flex instructor, is funny, insightful, and an all-around great guy. He's a brilliant engineer and teacher, and you'll be glad to have him as your mentor.

The curriculum itself is challenging and trying--as it should be. Initially, I had panicked and thought I'd fail, but I realized quickly that I'd be okay so long as I put in the time and effort. Every concept you learn in the curriculum is then reinforced in senior phase, which is when you go from a newbie to a software engineer by building real apps--from a shopping website to your own hackathon project to a fully realized final project.

The curriculum was supplmented by weekend projects Eric assigned, which helped us learn to build projects from scratch far earlier than senior phase.

Career Success

The career success team is great. They provide lectures on interviewing, networking, salary negotiation, and so on. But the lectures are the least of what they do.

First, they organize Launch Day--an event where companies looking for graduates come to the campus and interview students in a "speed dating" style event. Though I wound up not going with any of the Launch Day companies, I did gain several good leads there. It's also a great event and a good introduction to tech interviews.

More importantly, they provide you with actual support during your job search. Jackie Ore, in particular, provided tremendous support during salary negotiations--something that had always terrified me in the past.

Cons

The only cons I'd say are that--at times--the Flex program did not feel like it was part of Fullstack Academy. For example, the curriculum frequently mentions deadlines for the full-time students, a source of confusion for us at times. It also felt sometimes as if the full-time staff had forgotten us. I'm sure this wasn't the case, but occasional checkins through all 6 months of the program would have helped. 

Aside from these minor issues, I wholeheartedly recommend Fullstack Academy. If you put in the work, you'll definitely succeed. Two months after graduating, I accepted a job offer to work as a software developer. :-)

I'm a graduate of FSA and it was one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my life. The program isn't just designed to teach you to become a (better) developer, it's also designed to help you become a better teammate, public speaker, life-long learner, and leader. 

I came into the program already having some experience with web development and I needed help advancing my career. Even though I had some experience already, I still needed to do a some JS studying before getting accepted. They offer a JavaScript prep course that many people in my cohort took and it worked well for them so if you don't have a coding background already, I would highly recommend that. If there's one thing I give FSA a lot of credit for is that they do a very good job at testing/interviewing candidates before they're accepted. I'm not sure about other cohorts but I was so impressed with every single person in mine not only by their abilities but also their kindness. FSA isn't kidding when they say they have a 'no a-hole' rule.

The program itself is very fast paced and it isn't intended for you to learn everything you could possibly know about softeware development but it does teach you everything you need to know to be successful. You'll learn how to learn and this is the best quality you could possibly have as a developer. Frameworks will come in and out of style but having the ability to learn quickly and apply knowledge is very powerful. Of course, like most things, you can only get out of it what you put into it. They treat you like an adult which means if you're not asking questions or putting in the effort in projects or exercises, they aren't going to chase after you. You need to make the effort.

FSA is also very attunded to what you'll need in order to get attention in the job market afterwards. The senior phase allows you to build projects, explore new technologies (this will help you stand out from other students), get guidance on your resume and interviewing practice. I was particularly impressed with the career guidance I was given by Holly who made me feel like she would literally drop everything to help me if I had a question. I just never expected to get such personalized attention after I graduated but the staff really made me feel like my success mattered to them.

I think the big question everyone has is what it was like during the job search for me. My experience probably isn't going to be what other graduates experienced because I could lean on my background in web dev a bit but by week five, I had two job offers with a third very close. One of those job offers came from a company that attended our Launch Day (previously called Hiring Day). I know there were a few other students who got offers from other Launch Day companies so it's a valuable event that should definitely be taken seriously.

That's not to say those offers came easy though. I didn't take any time off after graduation (which is what they recommend) and rarely took any weekends off too (mostly spent that time doing take-home projects and studying). There were many many applications, cover letters, interviews, take-home projects, and a lot of anxious nights. It takes some hustling and, as good as the FSA program and career counseling is, it's entirely up to you to land that job.

Overall, I have very little criticism of the entire program. It was an incredible journey all the way from the initial application to getting that first job offer. Entirely worth it.

Let's preface this by saying Fullstack Academy is NOT a fast track to a job. The entry bar to a junior software engineering is getting high, and it truly takes hard work to get your foot in the door. 

What this program really is, is a way to bring out your potential as a software engineer. Throughout the months of training, it makes you *fall in love* with programming. With my cohort, I was putting in hours that I didn't know I had. It was addictive. I was a pretty unmotivated individual and I joined FSA because I thought it offered the structure and the peer support(pressure?) I needed to get my act together, and boy did it deliver.

The instructor was knowledable, but he wasn't there to really hold your hand. In that sense it was more of a college lecture format. The instructor had a lot of ground to cover and little time, so it was understandable that a lot of concepts will be hand-waved. It will be up to you to fill in some of the gaps. The TAs were recent graduates who were there to get you through certain sections in the workshops, but I felt they too, were simply constrained by time to go over a topic on a deep level. WHICH MEANS! If you fall behind in your fundamentals, you will fall further and further behind. Even though you will probably still graduate, you are missing the solid fundamentals that you will be required to know to get a job. It will really be up to the individual to make him or herself responsible for really understanding the materials. Fullstack gives you the environment, you give yourself everything else.

Jobs. About a fourth of my cohort received real "software engineering" jobs. But a lot more, I'd say half, did manage a career change into a technical field, which I thought was extremely good. (Note, coming from a 4 year engineering degree, those numbers were pretty much on par.) Like many said, I wouldn't expect much from the "hiring day" here. 

The types of people who found success in this program were apparent in the earlier weeks. You know who they were, the students who were the most passionate and *optimistic* After graduating from the program, they would continue to work on their project, polishing up their skills. I couldn't stop studying after graduating from the program, because like many others, I was addicted to learning.

Could I have done it without FSA? No. Their structure, learning path, the peers, and the environment was what got me hooked and the rest was history. In that sense, this program was worth every penny and it would be disingenuous to say that I could have tapped into my potential myself. 

Because of the way FSA has truly changed my life, I will always consider it the best decision I've made. But in reviews I also need to recognize that some of my classmates complained that the lectures weren't very thorough and there weren't enough resources to catch them up to speed once they fell behind. They expected a more caring, handholding format but instead were thrown into the fire. For such a hefty price tag, it was a fair expectation from them. So, just know what to expect :)



 

II was a part of WDF Fullstack Academy Bootcamp for a period of almost 6 months and when I look back at my journey it still feels unreal sometimes because the growth I have achieved and the amount of knowledge I have gained in such a short period is something I had been aspiring to achieve for a long time. 

I found my interest for programming during my undergrad and I knew I wanted to pursue it as my career but I faced a lot of hurdles along the way and could not pave a path by myself through online courses and self study. My husband told me about bootcamps and how they provide you with the skillset needed in the job market today in a short interval of time. During my search for bootcamps, I stumbled across many options, all promising to offer the best learning experience and future career goals and i was over whelmed by the number of options I had. I decided to reach out to alums of various programs and ask them how their experience had been first hand during their time at various bootcamps. After hearing back from a number of people praising Fullstack Academy's teaching methods and how their curriculum taught frontend and backend in the same language (Javascript), I was convinced on joining this program.

The next hurdle I faced was to figure out how to pay my tuition for the program and the two options I came across on Fullstack Academy's web-page were:

1) Web Development Fellowship NYC Tech Talent Pipeline Program (free of cost sponsored by the state)

2) Their all female (Grace Hopper) deferred tuition payment program

I applied for the WDF program and gave the Grace Hopper as my second option( in-case i don't make it through to the program i really wanted to join). I was asked to take an online assessment and after a one month long wait time (the longest wait of my life), I was told I have not made it thorough directly to the program and that I have to attend an on-campus Bootcamp Prep Course and if i pass that, i would be officially accepted into the WDF program. How could i say no and honestly it was the best opportunity for me because i like working under pressure. 

Bootcamp Prep was a fast paced one month long course where we were on-campus for 3 hours on weekdays (evening) and were first given a lecture on the topic and then a workshop to be completed in pairs. (Yes pair programming was one of the things we were being tested on in order to qualify for the program) The instructors who taught us during this course (Sean and Corey) were the best I could have asked for. They were very experienced in the course material they were teaching and had a solid grasp on the concepts being taught. They kept us all on our feet and made the lectures were interactive and energetic. In this course, we took 2 exams and their accumulated score along with an individuals attendance and collaboration during pair programming were taken under consideration to decide who would be considered for the interview phase of the program. I was selected and after an online live coding challenge, I was given the news of making it successfully to the WDF program. 

Next came the Foundation phase, this is where all the pure Javascript core features were taught to us via online recorded videos and workshops( for WDF students, it was mandatory to be on-campus for this phase). We had instructors there to guide us and teaching fellows helping us along the way if we got stuck at anything. This phase involved taking a 3 hour long test every week to make sure each student was on track and if not, was provided with full guidance and help to keep up with the curriculum. The end of this phase was marked with a grand test passing which put me through onto the next phase; the Junior Phase. This is where all the major technology and softwares were taught and was the core portion of learning in this bootcamp. We started off with backend first and then moved onto to front end in the later weeks. In this phase, we were given a lecture every morning (sometimes twice a day) by our instructors (Corey and Dan) who by the way brought so much energy every morning that I found it hard to not pay attention to what was being taught and Dan with is funny jokes made sure to keep his audience awake and upbeat. Following the lecture we had to complete a workshop (pair program) based on the topic taught to us. Pair programming provided me with the opportunity to look at problems from another persons perspective which comes in very handy later on when finding jobs because you would be asked to solve questions in many different ways during interview process. The curriculum that was taught and the way it was planned to be taught was something I really found helpful because implementing a topic right after learning about it, really helped me understand it well and once i wrote the code myself, it helped me memorize the syntax as well. This phase also involved weekly tests to check the progress of each student and to provide them with any help needed. Study Saturdays were also implemented to help the individuals who were lagging and to keep them up to pace of the program. 

The last phase is the Senior Phase which revolves around projects and prepping for the job search related material. We had to complete a total of 3 projects during this time and they became a part of my portfolio once i graduated. This phase really hits it home because you actually build and deploy apps and web pages that others can access using the tech taught during the bootcamp and learning and implementing new tech along the way. Career advisers helped me along the way to formulate a resume, update linkedIn profile and  with other career related stuff. This phase is a little hectic with longer working hours but it really pays off since the things that I created during this time were the ones I talked about during many of my job interviews.

All in all, Fullstack Academy really changed my life because it gave me the proper skill set and knowledge that is currently a requirement of the job market and not only that, it also prepared me so that if i want to learn things on my own, I am more than capable of doing it now. The confidence I achieved during this program is huge and I was honored to be a part of an environment where everyone supported each other, no one was left behind and where no question was left un-answered. 

I recommend this program to anyone who is looking to make a career change and just as I took the word of alums who experienced this first hand, take my word for it and you would not be disappointed.

TLDR
- Amazing life changing experience
- You get out of this program what you put in, so give it your all!
- Hired fast and increased my salary

My time at Fullstack Academy (FSA) was amazing.  I left my job 12/2017 that I felt trapped in, I was unhappy with, and I was not making much for the dissatisfaction. I completed the program at the Chicago Campus and became a teaching fellow (a position you apply for as a senior during the program). I received a Job offer one week after completing the fellowship nearly doubling my previous salary. 
One week and those kinds of gains are NOT typical of the program. I had a low paying job before, and I was very lucky that a company wanted to hire me after Launch day (the event at the end of Fullstack's program where you have a number of 10-minute interviews with companies that are hiring developers). 
Many people that have gone through FSA have had a transformative experience. I am one of those people. My confidence has been restored. I have confirmed my passion for programming and expect a long and fulfilling career in development. I spoke to a previous student at Launch Day (actually a member of the team that hired me) and we both talked about how we almost didn't trust the reviews and testimonials because they seemed too good. I am perpetuating the cycle of people gushing way to hard.
 
I believe my linked in will be on this post, so if you are mulling over going and want to talk someone who did it and does not work for the school feel free to reach out.  

I was part of the first WDF cohort. We spent almost 5 months on the NYC campus going first through the foundational materials and later through the main curriculum. Fullstack gave me a very solid understanding of software engineering principles, and most importantly, taught me how to be self sufficient. 

The instructors and the stuff were excellent. I was never bored but was continuosly challenged. The level of students at FS is very high, yet everybody was always super supportive.

I accepted a job offer at arguably one of the toughest companies to get in after about 4 months after graduation. 

If you are thinking about becoming a professional developer, I can't recommend Fullstack enough. With that being said, I want to empisize that your results will be directly proportionate to the effort you put in (during the program and especially during the job search).

I recently graduated from the FSA program in NYC. Before joining fullstack, I have no experience in coding. I wrote my first line of code in June 2017 while I was taking online prep course to get ready for FSA's interview. 

The program at FSA is amazing, awesome, full of fun, and a lot of hard work. I would like to give a shout out to the instructors - Geoff and Omri. They are both very knowledgeable in the course curriculum and are extremely supportive and thorough to explain concepts to us. I have taken numerous online tutorials and I don't think any tutors that I had online can compare to these two dedicated instructors. That really sets apart Fullstack from any other bootcamps. Once you go Geoff and Omri, you can never go back!!

Towards the end of the program, there is a huge emphasis on career coaching. We were being mentored by a one-on-one career coach as well as the support from the entire career success team. At the end of the program, there is a Lunch Day where companies come on campus. I was really impressed by the Lunch Day and quite a few individuals from my cohort get recruited that way. However, I didn't get recruit through the hiring day and instead stumbled upon this role on LinkedIn. If I were to tell you getting a job is easy, I would be lying to you. If requires a lot of hard work and I did apply to hundreds of jobs online. However, what keeps me motivated throughout this process is Jackie - my career counselor. She really did take the time to keep us on track on a weekly basis, and helps us stay positive. I wouldn't have done it without all the pouring love and support from FSA. 

If anyone is considering a bootcamp, definitely Fullstack. Because not only you learn to be an excellent programmer, you also make friends that would last for a lifetime, and the impacts that each individual who works at Fullstack on me in insurmountable. I love FSA!

I graduated from the Grace Hopper program in 2018 and 2 months after graduation, I received an offer from my current company, who I came into initial contact with during Fullstack's Hiring Day. Prior to the program, I had no experience in Computer Science or Software Engineering, and Fullstack took me from having never touched a line of code to landing a full time software engineering role in a matter of months. I highly recommend this program for anyone interested in making a career change. Rather than paying to return to college, paying to attend an immersive program to learn a highly marketable skill is the way to go. The instructors at Fullstack are extremely knowledgeable and invested in the students' work and success. The career success emphasis helped greatly in preparing me for my job search and the practical knowledge I gained in such a short amount of time made the overall experience incredibly worth it!

So the big question, is it worth it? Definitely. 100%. I was actually a bit nervous because it's a lot of money to put into a for-profit school. But as someone who holds a CS degree, what you get from Fullstack Academy is far more than a piece of paper.

The first thing I want to say is I think bootcamps are underrated. In general, many of the things taught in Computer Science tend to be too theoretical and divorced from what actually happens in the industry. That is not to say that a CS degree is useless. But Fullstack Academy keeps up with the industry and teaches technologies that employers are looking for. It's like an alumni that came to campus to speak who does actual hiring said. Bootcamp graduates hit the ground running.

The second thing is that the community is just amazing. I've met so many amazing people through the program. As someone else in my cohort said, I'm just amazed at the people I've met. We've had so many fun times together and created some cool projects along the way. And we'll continue to help each other in the future. I feel like these bonds will last a lifetime. And it's also because of the community that I've come so far. When I first attended Fullstack, I would say I was a super social recluse. But everyone accepted me for who I am, and through my experience here with them, I became a bit more social and better at communicating my thoughts.

And the instructors (and the teaching fellows) really care about the students. I want to give a shoutout to Geoff Bass, Omri Bernstein and Corey Greenwald. One of the things you will have to do by the end of Senior Phase is make a Portfolio Enrichment Piece about a technical topic. I wrote mine during Review Week, which is the gap between Junior Phase and Senior Phase. And Geoff gave me a lot of good comments on how to improve my PEP, which was a blog post on Medium. He told me how like I was underselling myself because it was obvious I put a lot of work into researching my topic. By the way, listen to career services and your instructors when they say to do it during Review Week because a million things happen during Senior Phase (I am 100% glad I did it during Review Week). When I did a mock technical interview with Omri, he pointed out what I could do better (like eye contact and telling the interviewer that I'm thinking) and that helped me a lot in interviews. As far as I know, the instructors like Corey help alumni with mock interviews all day even after graduation.

I could write a lot more, but to restate what I said in the beginning, I'd definitely recommend Fullstack Academy 100% to anyone looking to get into Software Development. When I had graduated from college, it was really hard looking for a job. I was on my own, and I didn't have any side projects and I was not that great at communicating. But coming to Fullstack, I gained a portfolio of side projects, along with friends for life, along with better communication skills, along with full stack web development skills (which I connect together with the skills from my CS degree). And now I have an offer that I have accepted.

And the career success team is really awesome as well. They help you with your Resume, your LinkedIn, Follow-Ups, Meetups, etc. They're always there helping you 100% to get that software engineering job. It's very very personal compared to college in my opinion. I wanted to also give a shoutout to our career success counselors, Jackie Ore, Rachel Fogel and Natalie Giuliano, because they worked really hard (and continue to do so) to help us throughout the process to get that job.

I am a graduate from Fullstack's Immersive Course in NYC, and I don't think I can fully explain how thankful I am for Fullstack's guidance, from the instructors to the fellows to the student experience specialists to the career counselors. I had so much support every step of the way, from the moment Foundations started and never ceases to end.

There isn't enough gratitude in the world to explain how much the staff at Fullstack cares about their students, and how much effort they put in to maximize our results as developers. My instructors during my time as a student and fellow were Omri Bernstein, Cassio Zen, Corey Greenwald, and Geoff Bass. They were all instrumental in my growth as a developer, answering my questions both with ease and with excitement. They were also crucial for the very stressful times, as the course is extremely intensive, during my senior phase and my time as a fellow.

You know the whole "10/10 would do it again" spiel? Yeah, I'm on that train.

I recently graduated Fullstack Academy, the full-time immersive cohort in NYC. I highly reommend this program to anyone who is interested. Below are my thoughts.

A quick background, I was a finance major who felt like software engineering was an important skill to understand to stay relevant and valuable in the job search. However, I was skeptical of bootcamps - can I really learn to code in 3 months?? Will an employer ever actually hire someone with 3 months of coding knowledge? Seemed too good to be true.

However, when I got to FSA, I was impressed at the skill level of the instructors. I went to a good high-school and college, yet the instructors at FSA were by far the best instructors of any educational institution I had ever learned at. They take incredibly complex concepts and make them totally digestable. When you're confused, they take time with you, one on one, to uncover the confusing parts of the course and teach it to you at another angle. Behind the scenes, FSA keeps track of every single student's progress to ensure they are ready to move on and forward. 

So when you're choosing your bootcamp, ask about the teachers. They are the mentors you will learn from day in and day out and if they aren't talented, you will have a harder time getting hired. At FSA, the questions I asked at the beginning: "can I really learn to code in 3 months?? Will an employer ever actually hire someone with 3 months of coding knowledge?" have been answered. Yes, you can learn to code in 3 months (and at a skill level much higher than some of the other devs out in the working world). It's hard work, but totally worth it. 

I graduated from college with a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics and knew that I needed another practical skill to make me more marketable.  I lacked any internship experience from college since I had switched majors. I had heard about software engineering bootcamps that would be beneficial for people who were interested in code and a career in technology.  I knew how to code through some of my coursework but I hadn't done any real development so I knew I needed to get ready for a coding exam (such as the Fullstack entrance exam).

I spent a month learning JS through free resources I found online including some free bootcamp prep sites. I applied to a few bootcamps and decided on Fullstack from the reviews I read and the experience I had during the coding interview. I can definitively say I made the right decision for me. I felt it would take my analytical thinking style and give me something tangible, and through studying for the entrance exam I found a real love for coding.

The program itself is intense and very fast paced. Theres a foundational period where you learn basics and more advanced topics, in general programming. It's a very valuable experience and something I go back to this day. The instructors are phenomenal.

The onsite immersive part of the bootcamp is another beast, but its easily the best part. For me pair programming and spending time with others is the best and learning from such skilled instructors only made the experience better. Imposter syndrome can set in because you are surrounded by such talented and smart people, but theres a real sense of community and feeling that everyone wants you to succeed. Its very hands on and gives you real practical knowledge and experience to take forward into your career.

The career services and post Fullstack experience were equally amazing. They care and prepare you well for what lies ahead.  They know what goes into interviewing and landing jobs at top tech firms and prepare you very well. They set in stone habits that make you not only a good programmer, but a good engineer.

I cannot say enough good things about Fullstack. The friends I've made, the skills I've learned, and the vast network of skilled engineers who are always available to help is well worth the time and money spent.

I graduated from college with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and then spent the next 5 years as an officer in the Navy running nuclear reactors. I decided that I did not want to spend the rest of my life deploying for 9 months at a time so I was going to leave the military once my commitment was complete. I started playing around with coding a bit and I fell in love with it. I would think I was working on a problem for 30 minutes and actually, several hours had gone by.

I started to research the logistics of acquiring a masters degree in CS, but I quickly learned that it was going to take me around 2 years to complete the necessary coursework. So, I decided on attending a coding bootcamp. After looking through all of the available options, I decided on Fullstack. 

The reason that I chose Fullstack is simply that they teach you how to learn to be a programmer. Many of the boot camps that exist today are teaching some boilerplate code template, and as soon as you deviate from that one bit, you are lost. Fullstack does not do this, they truly teach you the fundamentals of coding and you learn how to build full web applications. After attending Fullstack, I had no issues picking up and using other technologies or languages because the foundations were put in place.

The program itself is a fast-paced fully immersive program where you will spend your days learning at a rate that you likely have not experienced before. At first, it is very tough, but your mind just needs a bit of time to adjust to the pace. After about a week, the speed at which the information is coming at you is no longer an issue.

The approach that Fullstack takes of learning by doing was by far my favorite part of the program. I personally despise being PowerPoint-ed to death, and the program tries very hard to minimize the amount of time you are in a lecture compared to the amount of time you are actively building a project. 

I also can't say enough about the staff and students at Fullstack. Some of my best friends in the Chicago area are from the people that I attended the program with. It was awesome getting to spend 3 months working with like-minded individuals who actually were interested in learning the material, not people who were in class because they were expected to be there. 

Fullstack also does a very good job of preparing you for the job search. During the senior phase of the program you spend time each morning doing technical interview type questions on a whiteboard. These problems really set me up for success during my job hunt, and I was able to do very well in my technical interviews. Because of what I learned at Fullstack I ended up getting and accepting an offer at very good company 2 weeks after I graduated. 

I can't recommend Fullstack enough and if you do decide to attend, Ben N. Ben W., Collin, Finn, Brett, Priti, and Holley will make sure it is an absolutely amazing experience.

The Summer of Code (SOC) program was an excellent option for a (then) soon-to-be graduating student like me. I've done my best to briefly describe the reasons why - 

0. 'How' to learn Comp. Sci. concepts -

One of the skills which I use every day as a software engineer is the ability to learn new computer science concepts/material/technologies quickly, and then implement them. Full stack's immersive is designed to teach you 'how to learn' along with 'what to learn'.

1. Curriculum & staff - 

One of the things which struck me about the curriculum was that how well detailed and thorough it was. The instructors have perfected the curriculum over time. Additionally, the 'career success' team are very helpful in getting you ready for interviews.

2. Practical coding skills - 

Most computer science students will relate to this: you know what a database, server & web page is on paper, but how do you implement them together, seamlessly? Building 2 live websites/apps in teams, using Git, was when I realized - now, I'm a software engineer who can make things.

3. Strong network & colleagues -

My colleagues were highly determined and bright students. It was great to work & get to know them - and then go on to be part of the Full stack alumni network. 

The Summer of Code program is perfectly scheduled during the summer break between semesters and I highly recommend it to any soon-to-be graduating student!

I graduated from college with a degree in theoretical math and I had no idea what to do next. Luckily I had a friend who was a year above me with the same major who went on to attend a bootcamp and land a great job quickly. So I began to teach myself to code during the summer while looking into bootcamps.

Fullstack Academy was at the top of every list for bootcamps and it has a Chicago location, which was important to me. I decided to attend Fullstack's bootcamp prep in order to progress my JavaScript skills, to make sure coding was right for me and also to experience Fullstack’s culture. I highly recommend bootcamp prep because it reassured me that this huge commitment I was about to make was right for me, I got a lot of questions answered and felt very prepared to take the assessment and interview for Fullstack which has a rigorous admission process.

I personally believe the immersive portion of Fullstack is so great because:

1. They teach you more in six weeks than you can probably teach yourself and having great instructors, fellows and classmates makes this easier because there are people who can answer questions, remind you to stay motivated and push you even further. I believe great people come through the program and make it even more exceptional than it already is. This is portion of the program though was the hardest for me, I felt overwhelmed a lot of days and wasn't sure I was picking up the material fast enough because the pace of the program is quick, but I just kept moving forward and it all came together.

2. The second part of the bootcamp is all project based which leads to having things to put on your resume. I really solidified my knowledge during this part of the program and gained confidence that I could work a job in this field. I also loved that Fullstack emphasizes a git workflow and agile methodology for teams since this is often found in the real world. My advice for this portion of the program is to figure out what you love and how to incorporate your background somehow with coding. It will make for a seamless transition to finding a job if you work on projects that you truly care about and are in areas you want to get a job in.

3. Fullstack also has a great career success team. To be honest I was pretty skeptical about this since I think getting a job is hard and I didn’t believe there was honestly that much they can do. But I was wrong because by doing whiteboard problems every morning in the second half, I was prepared for those during interviews. There are also practice technical and behavioral interviews which truly helped me prepare for those questions since I was given great feedback. I also got a lot of resume feedback and honesty it is just a great place to make connections. Go to meetups, reach out to other Fullstack grads and use your own connections and I believe you will be successful because Fullstack prepares you to be. I received 3 offers 3 weeks after finishing and I felt that Fullstack prepared me for the interview process.

Just remember the point isn’t to finish the bootcamp but to become an excellent coder. Fullstack is an absolutely wonderful resource to achieve this but it requires a lot of commitment from the student to push themselves and ask questions when necessary. You might remember being told to go to office hours all the time in college and similarly go to office hours with instructors and fellows during the program because they are there to help you and can only do that if you make it clear to them that you want and need help. 

And finally just remember to always question why you are using a technology/library/framework, what are the benefits, the downsides and what would you do if you didn't use that specific one. I think it's easy to just be told we are using React and not think about why and other considerations. This truly was my experience at Fullstack and I hope this helped. Good luck if you are applying!