Fullstack Academy

Deciding among a handful of competitive coding bootcamps was a really difficult decision, but I'm thrilled I chose to attend Fullstack Academy. The whole staff has done an incredible job of creating a culture of curiosity and collaboration in which students grow an unbelievable amount in just a few months. The program is definitely not designed for people who haven't already learned the basics on their own or through a beginner course, or who aren't committed to really pushing themselves day in and day out for an extended period of time. For anyone looking for something more than simple online tutorials to help them get to the next level though, it's hard to imagine a better option than Fullstack.

The curriculum at Fullstack is constantly evolving based on student and employer feedback to stay up to date and to get better with every cohort. The fact that they teach full-stack JavaScript is an important difference, since it allows you to learn a single language deeply without suffering from the context switching of having to learn a couple languages at once, and also because JavaScript has a great online community and a huge, growing ecosystem built around it. The best thing by far about Fullstack though is the people. I was consistently amazed not only by the intelligence of the other students in my cohort, but also by the lack of ego, competitiveness, or negativity. Spending so much time surrounded by brilliant, motivated people helped push me to grow at a pace I couldn't have achieved otherwise. My cohort's instructors were also some of the best teachers I've ever had in any context. They're incredibly smart, knowledgeable people who are clearly passionate about what they teach, and probably even more passionate about teaching. I was always highly satisfied with the level of support I got from everyone on the staff, and I felt comfortable asking whenever I needed help with anything.

If you're considering Fullstack, try to talk to someone who's been through the program to get a better sense of what the day to day is like and how they feel about their experience now. Going through the immersive program has undoubtedly been one of the best, most rewarding experiences I've enjoyed in my whole life, and I'm so grateful I found it.

The course curriculum is great. Within the time provided I learned quite a bit about MEAN stack development. Being in the flex class I had the feeling they were having issues scaling up. 

After every cohort they will hire a handful of TAs to help out - unfortunately the majority will only be around to support the full-time class. As a flex-immersive student you will be missing out on extra activities, CS Saturdays, a few CTO lectures, and communications. 

Flex came across as a bit disorganized at times. Sometimes forgetting to schedule a TA to help, little to no handholding, and not being allowed to use campus facilities outside of our normally scheduled class-time. This last piece was particularly stressful during capstone phase. Speaking to students in the FT cohort, no such decree against coming to campus outside of normal hours was given. 

Another major difference between FT and Flex. TAs will act as a project manager and code reviewer for each capstone team. For someone just starting out- this is extremely valuable.

Job support is okay. If you don't find a job at the first hiring day, don't expect much help after. You'll not be able to come to future hiring days. Occasionally you'll get a check in to see how the job search is going, with much of the framework for what you need to do  provided. Speaking to GH alumni, the job support experience sounds very different. Perhaps this is because rather then being paid up front, they get a cut of the first year salary.

In summary, the course work was great, and the teachers helpful. However, if you want the full experience - go with fulltime and avoid flex. If you are already very confident of your ability- flex is viable. Perhaps you are already a developer? If so, flex seems to be a great stepping stone into a new tech stack. 

I did Fullstack's flex program (nights and weekends) and would not recommend it.

I would recommend Fullstack Academy.

• The instructors are great. They're all knowlegable and nice folks.
• You're learning node. Node.js is, in my opinion, a better language to learn than ruby on rails, which a lot of other bootcamps teach. Node does a better job of handling single-page-applications, which is where tech is headed. Also, if you know node, you know both frontend and backend.
• The cirriculum is good. It's not great, but I doubt any of the other options are better, unless you spend the time to go and get a degree. There is only so much you can learn in three months (or 6 months part time).

That being said, avoid the flex program. I did the flex program, and I felt like the red-headed stepchild of FSA.

• First of all, you don't get as much. There is less classroom time than the fulltime program. They tell you that you're supposed to review on your own of the off days, but if you're doing flex you probably have a job (and a life) and don't have a lot of extra time.
• There are significantly fewer resources available to you, simply because everybody has gone home. By the time you get there, the instructors/staff have already put in 9+ hours and are ready to leave. So you don't have the ability to get that extra insight/different viewpoint.
• There are a lot of great things that FSA offers, like guest lectures and hackathons, but they all happen during the day. If you can make it, great, but if you have a job you're outta luck
• They just don't cover as much. This goes back to the classroom hours. I heard from a graduate who went on to be a teaching fellow that the fulltime class went deeper into the material because they had the time to really jump in.
• And they charge you the same amount. If I had paid less for the flex, I wouldn't be upset because I would have gotten what I paid for. But no, it's that same hefty price tag for a fraction of the experience.

TLDR: Fullstack good; flex program bad.