Galvanize

Career Services and Networking are Crucial

10/16/2018

John S - Recent Galvanize Grad • Software Developer • Graduate • Course: Web Development Immersive • Campus: Phoenix Verified via LinkedIn

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My time at Galvanize was both fun, and very challenging. After completing the program, I received a job offer as a Software Developer at my top choice company within 3 weeks.

You can learn everything we learned at Galvanize in many other places, and you can even learn it on your own if you're dedicated enough. What you won't get anywhere else is the knowledge and help that a Career Services manager like Maria Montoya will bring. That knowledge, along with going to school in an tech start-up enviroment like Galvanize, will allow you to network and make connections that will make finding your first job much easier. If you continue to apply that knowledge while developing your programming skills, you'll always have a bright future in Software Development.

Maria builds relationships with hiring companies, giving us opportunities to meet/interview with them, which lead to several of us receiving job offers from those companies. While making your decision on which school to attend, make sure that school has a great Career Services program, along with networking opportunities, as they're the reason I'd still pick Galvanize Phoenix if I had to do it again.

Galvanize quality going down

8/29/2018

Ryan • Student • Course: Web Development Immersive • Campus: Denver Verified via GitHub

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I am a current student here in Denver and the product here sucks. We've lost so many instructors to the point we are down to 6 instructors (for the last 15 weeks) for over 110 students. At the worst point, we were down to 4 instructors when 2 of them took vacations. Half of the instructors are resident instructors, which do not have enough experience to walk through coding questions without them asking for help themselves. The queue for asking questions on coding blockers takes over 3 days to get a response.

The lead instructors stopped requiring us to complete all the course work due to the majority of students falling behind, further robbing us of coding experience in other technologies.

They have decreased our hours of operation because instructors are getting burned out due to being over-worked since there is a lack of instructors. Many of the students across several cohorts are experiencing learning issues b/c there is a lack of teacher/student interaction. When asking for help we are told to figure it out ourselves in order to prepare ourselves for the working environment, even when we have been stuck on a project for almost 2 weeks. It is a disgrace b/c this is supposed to be an educational environment and many of the students have been talking about walking out even when they are just 3 weeks into the course. The overall product here has been slowly deteriorating b/c Galvanize spent all their funding acquiring Hack Reactor, their biggest competitor, and can't afford to hire lead instructors from the development field. Instead of being honest, the lead instructor and program director have lied to us several times about the untimely departure of all the instructors when they tell us they just found out about them leaving just days earlier. Only to be secretly told through innuendos by resident instructors that they would be leaving 5 weeks earlier.

Not only can they not hire qualified instructors in a timely manner, they cannot resolve internal issues with course support programs, ie: advisory groups. They just scrapped it b/c instructors could not communicate effectively with the others. For $21,000, this course has definitely lost its value. It seems that they have become like the majority of colleges around the country where all they care about is the almighty dollar from student tuition and not care about the quality of education and quality of coders graduating from the course.

The only people I truly feel like they are doing their job is the career advisors.

This Review Is Helpful6

207 WDI Graduate - SF SOMA

5/10/2018

Chuck • Full Stack Software Engineer • Student • Campus: San Francisco Verified via LinkedIn

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I studied in the 6-month Web Development intensive program at the SF Galvanize in 2017. Overall, I had a very positive experience. Here's the break down:

I started with no programming experience except for what I crammed pre-course.
There were 13 students at the beginning of the cohort and 10 of us graduated at the end.
We studied Javascript across the stack (React on the front-end, Node/Express on the back-end).
Our lead instructor had 20 years of experience in the industry. A serious JavaScript expert.
Six weeks after graduation, I had a job as a full-stack developer in San Francisco.

More than any other reason, I chose to study at Galvanize because it was a 6-month program (with excellent student/teacher ratios) and I really felt like the 3 month programs wouldn't have given me enough exposure to get to a professional level as a developer.

Would I do it again? Absolutely. Galvanize helped me reach my goal exactly as promised. The only advice I'd give to prospective students is to ask yourself these two questions:

Are you ready to put your life on hold and dedicate yourself to studying full time for six months? Like most things, the more you put into it, the more you'll get out of it.
Why do you want to be a web developer? The salaries sound great, but if that's your only motivation, it won't keep you in the game.

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9/10 Overall Score

5/7/2018

Marty • Graduate • Campus: San Francisco Verified via LinkedIn

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I rate my experience as a student and graduate of Galvanize WDI a 9 out of 10. I give Galvanize a 9 because I believed Galvanize did a great job in teaching me how to build a fullstack web app, unlocked the ability in me to learn and implement new technologies quickly, and strong career services support. Galvanize Web Development Immersive will teach you most of the basics in building a web app, including the front end and back end development. My only complaint in the curriculum was the lack of emphasis on CSS, which is really important in the real world. In the later portions, Galvanize also fostered an environment of self-learning, which is a really important skill required to make it in the real world. Galvanize also provided a strong career service department. They want you to succeed!!

Galvanize Data Science Immersive

4/26/2018

Tyrone DeSilva • Data Scientist • Student • Campus: Phoenix Verified via LinkedIn

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Highly recommended if you already have some quantitative background and want to get your foot in the door. Career services are phenomenal, curriculum is mostly things you can learn online or through self-reading. Solid instructors. Make sure to take 1-2 months before the program to study, do pre-course, think about capstone, brush up on python and stats.

Bootcamping done right

4/26/2018

Yashwant Jankay • Data Scientist • Graduate • Campus: Phoenix Verified via LinkedIn

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Galvanize offers a great blend of talented instructors and chill co-working space to provide their students get the best of theory and true industrial practices in tech. They offer great pair programming exersises as a part of their Data Science currciculum which not only enables students to gain insights on different appoaches to problem solving, but also includes the gamification factor by learning to team up and tackle different parts of the same problem individually.

Galvanize gave me a great start

4/26/2018

Richard Jones • Student • Campus: Phoenix Verified via LinkedIn

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I found Galvanize kind of randomly. I thought long and hard before attending the school. I feel lucky that not only that I found Galvanize but committed to go through the program. Learning to program was a butt kicker, but being surrounded by great teachers and people passionate about coding -- let alone the other companies that work out of galvanize -- got me through the program and got me in the professional world. I am much happier in this new career field.

Loved it !

4/25/2018

Jessica Anais Duarte Cabrera • Graduate • Campus: Phoenix Verified via LinkedIn

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When I attended Galvanize at the Phoenix campus my experience was a rollercoaster of emotions in an awesome way of course because you are constantly being challenged and I loved that! Here are some of the top things I loved about my experience with Galvanize! First, the instructors are very knowledgeable and right away you can tell that they are passionate about their student's success and they will do anything from staying late to coming in during weekends to give their students extra help if needed. Second, the environment is very nice! I had access to tons of networking opportunities and most events provide food (lol). Third, I was able to gain many skills such as public speaking, networking, resume building, time-management, resourcefulness, branding, working under pressure and much more. Having a growth mindset is a big one at Galvanize and they helped me with. The career services manager will meet with you monthly to help you improve most of those skills, which is awesome. Fourth, I left with many long life supportive friends and with unforgettable memories.

I was amazed with how much I was able to learn in such a short amount of time.

Part of cohort g66,

Jessica Anais Duarte Cabrera

Data Science Immersive Program

4/25/2018

Aritro Majumdar • Data Science Intern • Graduate • Campus: Phoenix Verified via LinkedIn

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The Galvanize Data Science Immersive Program (DSI) was a wonderful experience to go through. I loved the structure and the content of the program. I come from the standard university background before this and comparatively, the DSI program was where I learned the most given the time. The structure was very tailored to the student actually learning as opposed to getting a grade. There were a couple times where I did not do well on an assessment and the instructors were encouraging me to not to feel bad but learn from it. The content of the program was also well made. All the instructions for assignments are clearly written and explained. Additionally, the content is open to change which means the student learns not only fundamentals but also new technology and algorithms that are cutting edge. Overall, I loved the program!

Glad to have joined the Galvanize community!

3/31/2018

Cait • Data Scientist • Graduate • Campus: Seattle Verified via LinkedIn

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Hands down the best educators I've ever had, and the career transition support was top-notch. The greatest value of this program for me was the network of companies who were already happy with past Galvanize DSI grads they'd hired, and looking for more data scientists to grow their teams. The collaboration and friendships I forged with my fellow cohort colleagues have been great for building my network as well.

The 3 month curriculum was a great quikstart into the field of data science --- packed with fundamentals and hands-on experience through daily project work.

This Review Is Helpful4

Worthwhile Experience!

3/30/2018

Steph Baron • Software Developer • Graduate • Campus: New York City Verified via LinkedIn

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Prior to enrolling at Galvanize's NYC campus for their WDI immersive, I had done a fair amount of research into the various bootcamps. What mattered to me was the curriculum (was it up to date with what the NYC market demanded from developers). student to teacher ratio, and success rate in finding jobs post graduation.

When I went on a tour of the campus, the first WDI cohort was already in session as the campus was brand new. I observed their class and felt comfortable with the environment. I also learned that they had hired a woman to lead the next cohort that began in late August 2017. That excited me the most as the other bootcamps in the city did not have any women on staff as teachers.

As I went through the application process, it became clear to me that they were concerned with accepting students that understand foundational JavaScript and were eager to learn and learn quickly. I was accepted after 4 interviews and started on August 28th 2017.

My experience in class was intense and challenging. The pace is extremely quick even for a 6 month course. We learned front-end development in the first quarter then went into server-side and backend development for the second quarter. The third quarter was focused on React.js and the fourth quarter we focused on interview skills, building our portfolios and finishing our capstone projects.

The education I received was current and competitive in content. The career support I received from Arthur Chisholm was incredible. He dedicates himself to working with each student and making sure they are confident going into interviews.

When I was going through the interview process in the 4th quarter, Arthur and I had many 1:1s to go over interview questions and the ways to be a strong candidate. I ended up getting the job before I even graduated. My first day as a software developer at an advertising agency in Times Square was a week before my cohort officially graduated in February 2018.

Now that I've been in my job for a little over a month and a half, I can say that all the principles of development that I learned in the WDI course helped me understand all that I've learned thus far in my job. It's beyond difficult and not for everyone but if you really devote yourself to furthering your education in software development then you should enroll in this course.

Overall, I would recommend Galvanize. There are ups and downs to every bootcamp and it's ulitimately up to you on what is important and which bootcamp aligns most with what you want to get out of it. If you're going into a bootcamp thinking that you'll learn literally everything you need to know to become a software developer and have your hand held in the learning process, then it's not for you. You need to be self-sufficient to a point and not be afraid to ask for help when you need it. You get out of it what you put into it.

Best decision I could have made.

3/29/2018

Kat • iOS Application Developer • Graduate • Campus: Seattle Verified via GitHub

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I'm not even sure where to begin with this review. Attending Galvanize changed my life and it was the best possible decision I could have made.

A bit of background: I did have a fair amount of technical training, a B.S. in a STEM field (biology) and exposure to coding/computer science from an early age. That said I never considered majoring in CS in college and definitely did not code "for fun" as a kid or young adult.

My more recent background had me working in a retail environment where I struggled to find a challenge. After a few years working the sales floor I moved into a marketing role where I managed social media, web presence, and advertising. This role reminded me that coding was something that I kind of enjoyed, and made me think about a career switch. Fast forward a few years, I got laid off and it was the right time for me to make the switch.

All this to say that a) I had a fair amount of background in technical areas and b) I knew that this was what I wanted to do. I would say that a coding bootcamp is not for someone who is code-curious. You should have a good amount of coding experience (side projects, Udemy or treehouse or FreeCodeCamp or whatever classes, etc) and be sure that you enjoy it.

The curriculum focused entirely on JavaScript, which I think was a good thing as it enabled us to learn front end, back end, functional programming, and the React framework, without having to relearn syntax. I did do my capstone project in iOS/Swift, which I think significantly impacted my job prospects after graduation, as I am on an iOS team now.

In short, I loved my 6 months at Galvanize and I'm a bit sad that it's over, but I landed a dream job at a major corporation working on an iOS application with millions of daily users, making more money than I ever thought I would.

If you're sure you want to do it, and you know that you *can* do it (impostor syndrome aside, we ALL get that) - your investment will pay off. You will have to work your butt off before, during, and after - but I think it's worth it.

Great Place to learn

3/26/2018

Aldo Torres • Graduate • Campus: Seattle Verified via LinkedIn

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I went to Galvanize knowing nothing about code and now I'm entering hackathons with fellow classmates.

This Review Is Helpful2

Highly Recommend

3/24/2018

Shayla R Richard • Software Engineer • Graduate • Campus: Denver Verified via GitHub

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I originally started my bootcamp experience at Turing. It was a rough start and I liked it, but I struggled like hell. I refute any claims that you can walk in off the street and fly. This program is hard! Not in a bad way- I met some amazing people and found that I love this stuff. However I struggled in MOD 1 and ended up repeating it. I took the summer off for family reasons. I then sought Galvanize to complete my journey, this time uninterrupted. I initially visited Gschool first, but didn't go. This time it all worked out. I had amazing support from teachers and staff. I got what I needed as a learner. No one said no, or was too busy. I had an incredible cohort as well. I feel like any program is as good or bad as you make it, however my experience at Galvanize changed my life and my career. I am expensively grateful.

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Great choice, worth the money

3/23/2018

Ronald T. • Software Engineer • Graduate • Campus: Seattle Verified via GitHub

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I took a lot of time to do my due diligence when selecting a bootcamp. I had to stay in Seattle and I knew an online bootcamp would not be ideal for my learning style, so my options were a little more limited. I checked out every single one, in person. Even after all of that work and effort, Galvanize only barely looked better than the rest. Their campus was nicer and the people seemed great but they were the most expensive.

In the end, I have no regrets with my choice. Galvanize was worth the extra money. I feel like I learned things permanently and was able to apply my knowledge to real world applications. My instructors were Wes and Roger. I feel like I got lucky because getting two lead instructors is rare. On top of that, both Wes's and Roger's teaching styles fit my learning style great. I have 0 complaints about the instructors and feel that these two really put my experience above expectations.

The curriculumn was a little clunky. My cohort was the first of a new curriculumn, so there were a lot of bugs and errors. The students were the ones that discovered a lot of these errors. Additionally, the curriculumn was not standardized between writers. This largely came into play near the end of the course, where the content suddenly became very dense and hard to absorb. Despite these downsides, I still enjoyed the program.

The non-instructor personel were very friendly and helpful. They frequently solicited feedback and I felt like they genuinely cared about the students. It also seemed like they were always available for us.

In the end, I got a great job and am very happy with my decision to go to Galvanize.

This Review Is Helpful5

Fantastic Coding Boot Camp

2/10/2018

Kevin S. • Graduate • Campus: Seattle Verified via LinkedIn

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I was a bit skeptical of the boot camp approach to learning to code, but having just graduated the Galvanize Seattle 6-moth Web Dev immersive, I couldn't be more pleased. The instructors (Wes, Roger, Scott & Charile) and the support staff at this campus are incredible. I could really tell that it was more than a job for them; they seem to be really invested in trying to make the course the best it possibly can be for the students. They are knowledgeable, approachable, willing to listen and go out of their way to help, and have real work experience. The material is thorough (I don't think we could have possibly jammed anything more in, but on the few occassions where any of us got a bit ahead, they had plenty of additional stretch exercises to keep us going). On my last day we tried to write all the topics we covered on a whiteboard and completely filled it (having likely missed a few things). The coursework was a mixture of online lessons (custom designed by the Galvanize staff), lectures, and lab time. It worked out to be a really nice mix. We used real world tools from day one to write and deploy our code and learned a lot from each other. We not only covered the essentials, but also practiced white-boarding (for job interviews) and delved into some of the computer science topics typically left to the university courses (Big-O, search trees, etc.). There's an additional emphasis placed on learning how to learn so that you are more comfortable picking up new topics beyond the scope of the course. So, for example, while we covered JavaScript thoroughly in class, along with frameworks such as BootStrap and React, I also had the opportunity to pick up some Swift on my own. Others in my cohort learned GraphQL, React Native, assembly (to write kernel code for a Raspberry Pi), and numerous other topics during their indepedent study time. A couple more details: Yes, there's a lot of work and you'll work hard, so be prepared for that (but know you'll have a really solid support network from both the teachers and your classmates). No, a job is neither promised nor guaranteed, but they do everything short of that: they help you tune your resume, learn ow to network, what to expect in an interview, bring in guest speakers, and pass along any job openings and connections they become aware of. I'll finish by repeating what I said at the beginning: the staff at a school will make or break your experience, and the Seattle Galvanize Web Dev tem is simply amazing. They made the experience for me.

This Review Is Helpful7

Docker Workshop

11/14/2017

redbarron23 • Campus: San Francisco Verified via GitHub

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The workshop will cover the following topics:

A High Level Introduction to Docker and its Current Use in the Industry.
Executing Commands and Programs Inside of Docker Containers.
Investigating Your Docker Workspace.
Understanding Docker Images and Building Your Own.
Running Docker Containers Using Docker Compose.
Running Development Containers Using Docker Compose.
Running Multiple Services During Development Using Docker Compose.
Development Database Using Docker Compose

Excellent Teachers, Thorough & Rigorous

9/30/2017

Tyler Langenbrunner • Software Engineer • Graduate • Campus: San Francisco Verified via GitHub

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What they really excel at

* The instructors are superb

No, listen, they're incredible. The level of respect and professionalism was really high, in fact, the instructors were really more like CTOs and project managers, especially in the second half of the program. I have to give a shoutout to Josh Wyatt who was the lead instructor for our cohort, one of the most masterful teachers I’ve worked with. Especially with the small class sizes, it just concentrated the level of support and the quality of teaching. The teachers excel at transparency, really great, direct, thoughtful communication—during lessons, about expectations, industry standards, meet ups, events, etc.

* Great space

It feels much more like an incubator or co-working space rather than a school (in part because it is!). There are a bunch of opportunities to meet people in the space and network, if that kind of thing comes naturally to you. There’s a group that does exercise on the roof once a day, and that was super fun.

* Project-based

There are assessments, but it’s much more structured in terms of building things, and learning the technologies by applying them. This is much more realistic experience

for how the real world is for developers.

* Duration

The program lasts for 6 months, and it was really worth it to stay for longer. I don’t feel like I would have been ready after just 12 weeks like most bootcamps, and I’m no slow learner.

* Full Stack

The program covered frontend legacy technologies like HTML, CSS, jQuery, and simple frameworks like Materialize and Boostrap; we learned backend by writing RESTful APIs using Express and Postgres; we went deep into modern in-demand frontend technology like React and Redux. They really tailor the curriculum based on what’s popular in the area, and iterate form cohort to cohort. Very smart.

Places they could improve

* Scholarships: There are some scholarships, mostly targeting women and minorities, and during my session Adobe was offering one with an internship attached to it. I would like to see more company partnerships like that which provide a clearer path to career after the program.

* Making even better use of the space: One of the great opportunities available at Galvanize is that the campus hosts a bunch of startups and company satellites. it could do more to facilitate connections between companies and students.

My Advice

* Must have coded before

Before the program, you absolutely must have some experience in coding, with either JavaScript or a similar language like Ruby or Python. Take a couple of CodeAcademy courses, watch some YouTube videos (Fun Fun Function, Learn Code Academy, and Taversy Media are all worth checking out). Basic coding skills like familiarity with for-loops and functions, HTML tags, and CSS classes will help you out a lot.

* Be proactive

Be ready and willing to learn. If you want to get the most out of the program, you have to be the kind of person who a lot of questions and is comfortable asking for help. Not a super social person, or an extravert necessarily, just willing to be proactive and connect with other people.

* Learn to learn

What they aim to teach at Galvanize is more than the tools. Rather, they try to help people learn to learn, so that, as they gradually release responsibility from actively helping you on things, you are able to pick up new technologies and work autonomously.

* It’s a big time commitment, but it’s worth it

It’s much more than full time (think 6 days a week or more), but they do deeply care about us, and the dedicate resources to checking in and supporting us.

That’s also in the context of this model which supports people being proactive. It’s very much a “you get out of it what you put into it”.

There are break weeks, and in the first two quarters you can use them for a break, to recharge after working really really hard for 5 weeks, and, in the next two quarters, using them to network, to catch up on career services work, etc.

This Review Is Helpful9

Galvanize - PHX

9/25/2017

Chris • Student • Campus: Phoenix Verified via GitHub

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Choosing Galvanize has been a life-changing experience not only in my career but also in my personal life. The instructors and staff here are supportive in everything we do as students and aspiring developers. They are constantly guiding and feeding us the knowledge we don't even know that we need. There are events every day in the building that are connecting students with people who employ developers or people who code for a living. If you really want to give yourself the edge over students at other boot camps then Galvanize is a must.

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An straight up life changing experience

7/11/2017

Frank Gonzalez • Software Engineer • Graduate • Campus: Austin Verified via LinkedIn

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Background: Retail customer service and sales in the tech/electronic industry, no prior software experience. Some general education teaching experience.

Now: Just hit 4 months in as a software engineer for a ed-tech company that services students around the world.

My review could just be those two lines up there and it would speak for itself but that would be an injustice to both Galvanize as a school and it's staff. From the admissions staff to the career services director, everyone there is working constantly to see you, the student, suceed. I went in interested in learning software development and hoping for a career change, I left with those hopes fulfilled and an insatiable drive in continuing my education as both an evolving engineer and a possible instructor in the future.

Contact and communication is constant. Seminars and teachings galore beyond the course material, on subjects as: how to get a job as an engineer, how to grow and groom your social network in the tech community, what we're interested in learning, and actual speakers from existing tech jobs. Not to mention the tech employees and recruiters who come during the course of the cohort to see what you're working on and to network/provide opportunites for employment. It's incredible.

Of course all of that is a side to the meat and potatoes of the main curriculum, so no review would be complete without mention of the instructors. I wish I could look you, the reader, in the eye as I say this; despite it's clichéd nature: I've never had a better teacher than I had while I attended the Austin Galvanize location. Zubair Desai is the instructor you should look for and the teacher I aspire to be. Having some teaching experience I know how difficult the concept and act of teaching.....anything really... to anyone is, it might honestly be the hardest damn thing to do. Bar none. Zubair handles it effortlessly. It's honestly almost wizardry at how much he knows but more than that, how much he can impart on another human being.

He can take a classroom from nothing and turn them into accomplished software engineers. Period. Every single person in my cohort is working in the programming field as I write this, a literal 100% sucess rate for my class. It's insane. I hope that I can get this across in words as vehemently as I would if I were in front of you, he doesn't just teach you how to learn Javascript or Rails or Java or sorting algorithms or any of a million other things, (Spolier Alert: he does), he teaches you HOW to learn these things. If that doesn't make sense I implore you to enroll and see how you go from knowing nothing as an aspiring developer to being able to teach yourself an entirely unfamiliar language WHILE learning the languages and frameworks that make up the Galvanize curriculum. He's a credit not only to the tech community, in shaping the developers of tomorrow, but a credit to teaching as a profession. Learning from him is a means of unlocking your full potential as a software engineer and I honestly don't know to give higher praise than that.

During my time there we had the pleasure and privlege of workng with a pair of assistant instructors as well, Oli and Louis; that brought invaluable skills, experience, and humor to the class. From learning the intricacies of Ruby on Rails with Oli to the finer workings of Swift with Louis, ALL of the instructors at Galvanize put the time and effort in making sure you succeed. If you have questions, they're there to make sure you have answers.

Every moment of my time at Galvanize was spent learning something. It was frustrating at times and blissful the rest but every moment made me the developer I am today and I have this school to thank. For those on the fence, do it, you won't regret it.

This Review Is Helpful10

Rigorous and complete data science prep

6/24/2017

Wallace Printz • Graduate • Campus: Austin Verified via GitHub

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Galvanize offers a complete overview of data science theory and application. The program is very intense but the instructors are amazing at breaking down core concepts into coding building blocks that explain fundamental mathematical underpinnings as well as how to implement in a range of examples. The acceptance rate is pretty low, because the application process is strict, but this maintains a high class standard and ensures quality students will help each other effectively. Career services are top notch and really help career transitions from other industries to effectively stand out. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at Galvanize.

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If you want to learn Machine Learning, look no further

6/23/2017

Zack Lee • Student • Campus: Austin Verified via LinkedIn

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I attended the Galvanize Data Science Immersive in Austin, Texas. Unlike many of the other students, this was actually my second bootcamp, the first being Hack Reactor.

If you are the type of person who loves learning and is interested in Machine Learning, Galvanize is by far the best place to learn it. The instructors are fantastic, and their curriculum is well structured.

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Do. Your. Research (And soul search).

3/23/2017

Thomas Jameson • n/a • Student • Campus: San Francisco Verified via GitHub

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First off, I'll start this review by telling you all that I didn't end up graduating from the SF Galvanize bootcamp (the only one out of 13. I'll also state that I graduated UCSC with honors, so it's not like I'm completely dumb). Despite my own personal situation (more on this later), I share many similar sentiments with the rest of the cohort about the school.

Secondly, I'm trying to leave a fair review despite not graduating; however, this review is subjective and, of course, is based off my personal experiences at Galvanize.

A typical day unfolded like this:

9-10: warm-up algorithm
11-12: Reviewing the algorithm's answer, and then lecture.
Lunch from 12-1
1-2: Another 1-2 hour lecture.
3-Rest of day/evening: More work to be done; projects, homework review, etc (typically with other classmates, with some instructor assistance - in other words a lot of pair programming. In fact, if you're anything like most of us, you won't get by without working with other people.)

There are 4 quarters at G:

1) Front end (HTML/JS - lots of working with dom manipulation)
2) Server side stuff/back end (our stack was Node, Express, and Postgresql)
3) Computer science stuff (algorithms, data structures, trees, linked lists, etc)
4) Learning a few front end frameworks (React and Angular - more on this later), as well as "self exploration"

Each quarter had its own project:
1) A front end app that requires an api call
2) Connecting an app to a server and database
3) Something computer-sciency
4) A final capstone project in culmination of the cohort, bringing together most of the ideas throughout the school. Must be full stack, and requires a new technology not taught in the cohort (a different database, for example, like mongo db).

I guess I'll start with the pros of Galvanize:

1) Our personal cohort had an student:instructor ratio of about 13:3 (more on this later), which is a very good ratio as far as bootcamps go (from what I've heard). Also, the instructors stayed from about 9-6, so we had them for almost a full 8 hours.
2) The instructors and staff were all enthusiastic and supported us. They truly did care about our success (which I've heard differently about other bootcamps).
3) The campus itself was pretty cool. Kinda like a tech hub, with a whole bunch of tech companies in the building, as well as Galvanize data science cohorts.
4) We also had a lot career support. A few times a month, our homework would instead consist of networking, resume building, targeting companies, how to present yourself, stuff like that. We even had our own personal good docs of all the career things we were supposed to keep on top of (which was a lot - a lot).
5) Lots of events on campus - tech companies coming in to present there stuff, networking events, and companies (like IBM) coming in to give presentations and talk to potential future employees (us, hopefully).
6) At those events - there was a lot of free food. Lots of pizza, booze. A lot of delicious, fancy food as well. Most of the events are open to students - as long as you sign up on Eventbrite (sign up for as many as you can to network and eat awesome food). If you go to them, even if it's for the free food, at least pretend to care about the event, and give people time to do their spiels.
7) Getting to know everyone for 6 months was a pretty fun experience - we were from all walks of life (more on this later), and had a lot of different experiences. A lot of us became pretty close throughout the cohort.
8) The cohort was 6 months; most other bootcamps are much less than this (more on this later).
9) They preached a growth mindset. Look it up if you're not familiar. Quite necessary, however more on this in a bit.
10) I ended up receiving two scholarships, for a total of 4k off the admissions price (bringing it to 17k from 21). However, I'm not sure if they're still offering these scholarships.
11) The staff is pretty receptive to our suggestions and complaints. So they may be working on some of the things I'm about to list below.

Ok, a lot of good stuff, but there was definitely a lot that could be improved upon (the bad):

1) Of the three instructors, one was really not fit to be an instructor at all. His lecturing skills were bad, and we're all convinced he actually didn't know anything he was talking about. However, it sounds like he's changed his ways since we left, as we did quite a bit of complaining about it.
2) The next cohort turned out to be much bigger than ours (20-something students), and right in the middle of their cohort (somewhere near the end of quarter two I think), Galvanize ended up firing two of their better instructors, meaning for about 30-something people, we had 4 instructors or so trying to help us finish up our capstone while helping the new cohort. Since then, they've hired two instructors more, and might bring back one of the fired ones. The newer cohort was pissed about this situation, and did a lot of complaining (as did we).
3) Some of the students felt as though the career services came too early; the lectures and homework weren't really relevant early on in the cohort while we were trying to bust our butts coding and really had no prospects or thoughts of getting a job. I, personally, didn't mind a break from the extensive coding.
4) The school (and even some teachers) claimed we'd only be working 40hrs a week due to the fact that the school was 6 months long. This was entirely untrue. Don't expect to be working under 50 per week. 60 is more like it (for 6 months don't forget). It's LONG. There isn't time for a part time job, relationships, partying, etc. A lot of normal life things will be pushed to the side. Keep that in mind.
5) This school will kill you if you don't get good rest and have mental stability. I, personally, was going through a lot of stressful situations throughout the cohort, and was averaging around 5 hours per sleep, with 10 hour days for the entire 6 months. It's entirely possible that, had my mental state and life circumstances been better, I would have faired much better in school, and would have an entirely different outlook coming out of G.
6) A lot of the homework didn't sync up with lectures, which made things confusing. A lot of times, there wasn't time to do the readings either, as there was just too much homework. In addition, a lot of the tests in the homework were simply wrong; we'd spend hours trying to fix our code when it was right in the first place. Hours lost over this stuff.
7) Galvanize dropped the ball entirely in quarter 4. We were supposed to learn at least one new front end framework (we voted for React). It turned out we had only one one-hour lecture on it, and many of us were hoping to create our capstone with it. This is possibly the reason I didn't graduate, as I tried to use React and didn't quite understand it. The instructors also pushed me to use it, despite me being very uncomfortable with it. This is what I'm most pissed about. Also know that you will be cut off from campus resources (career support and instructor help) if you don't graduate. I'm now basically alone in my job hunt, minus some help from fellow students.
8) Ok, this is a big one: it seems the ONLY people that did really well were people with prior experience in some way. Someone with years of database experience, an MA in engineering, a grad from another bootcamp with a couple years of experience, and two with prior coding experience in some way. For those of us from different walks of life (this includes me), this class was ten times the struggle - and it showed. Everything came slower. Some of use still can't center divs correctly on a page. Our projects looked ten times worse than everyone else's.
9) Speaking of centering divs, our time with CSS was pretty rushed. A lot of us don't have good foundations with it, and there weren't many lectures on it. We were basically given some links to check out to get a better understanding of it.
10) At some point throughout the cohort, we found out our area's market (SF) only wanted senior devs, and we were told it'd probably be a good idea to look out of state. Yikes.
11) I was accepted to the bootcamp even though I didn't pass the entrance algorithm. Had I not been accepted (and rightly so), I would not have taken out a $20,000 loan with no prospects of getting a job. Were they just trying to fill seats? It's possible, as I did hear rumors of this floating around at some point.
12) The reason they fired two instructors possibly due to the hiring of a new CTO, who possibly wasn't a good fit. Whoever it was made cuts in the wrong spots, and some of this landed on us. This made me remember that G, along with all bootcamps, are still a business (non-accredited btw) at the end of the day, and saving/making money is what it's all about.
13) Multiple people (outsiders watching) I had talked to claimed the students didn't get enough support. They felt as though we needed a few more tutors/mentors. I suppose this is the nature of the bootcamp however.
14) Many of these negative sentiments are shared not only by me, but also by the previous and proceeding cohorts. In this case - the bad points may not just be a manifestation of my personal situation, but are a true reflection of the school. The upside is that Galvanize is aware of many of these sentiments, and is trying to correct at least some of them. Again, I'd like to remind you that much of the staff does truly care about student success. Many of them even made themselves available to me personally even though I had not graduated.
15) In regards to instructor situations, the current cohort just had their best instructor randomly get placed as a student in a data science class. This doesn't really make any sense, especially since the current cohort was so upset over the previous instructors getting fired. To be clear, this particular instructor was already promoted to another position, but that was still a teaching related position I believe. Now, the current cohort is completely without his help. In regards to all this instructor movement/loss, I've heard this about more than 2 other bootcamps, so it's not necessarily just a Galvanize thing.
16) One final point, which is definitely a big one as well, which I hadn't thought of at the time for some reason... Why are we paying money for a personal exploration quarter? I came to school to be taught, not to learn things on my own. In this case, what am I paying money for? The school might as well have been set in trimesters instead of quarters, with a smaller tuition fee. Remember, for a 21k tuition, that means you're paying $5250 to learn things on your own for a quarter.

Not sure if this is relevant or not, but I'll list it anyways as just something to ponder. The prices people paid to get in were kinda all over the place. Like I said, a few of us got 2-4k off, one person got their entire tuition paid for (I think by some foundation, so that may be irrelevant), and one student got half the tuition off upon threatening to go to another bootcamp. Now, from what I understand, there were no scholarships given for the current cohort.

My personal conclusion:

Galvanize wasn't worth it. Or any other bootcamp for that matter - unless you already have a previous related background and you know your brain is trained to think like a programmer. The market (at least in Silicon Valley) does not want entry level programmers. The risk of not getting a job is too great (unless you plan on moving out of state), especially if you're planning to take out a loan, like I did (and now feel pretty screwed in my situation).

My personal recommendations:

Do your research. I thought I did enough, but now I don't feel as though I did. I'm not talking about research on just bootcamps, but research on the market, what stacks are most wanted, what camps teach these stacks, and which camps will give you the most support. Research tuition prices, potential scholarships and deals, connections the school might have in terms of job placement, etc. Possibly most importantly, talk to previous grads to get their experiences. Was it worth it for them? Pros? Cons?

Finally, do plenty of soul searching before you fork over thousands of dollars. Do you even want to be a programmer, or are you in it for the money? If you're in it for the money, you might not survive. I personally was in it half way for this reason. Yes, I wanted better pay (how else can one afford a living in Ca? If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Also I had back surgery, so I lost half my job opportunities right there). However, I also knew that I liked solving problems and making things work (better). I also wanted to upgrade my resume. In this sense, it's possible I might not even end up as a developer, but I may end up utilizing my full stack skills in some other way. Combining them with previous work experience? Possible.

If you don't know if you want to program - take online courses first. Make sure you do enough - not just a few free ones off CodeAcademy. Take full stack courses off Udemy or Udacity, places like that. Even if you spend a couple hundred bucks on online classes, this move can potentially save you thousands of dollars if it turns out you don't wanna program. It's even possible you'll get a job with just online courses if you're that adept.

Finally, trust your gut. I was very hesitant to fork over the 2,000 tuition fee; I should have taken this as a sign. Throught the first quarter, there were many times when my gut was telling me to drop out. I should have trusted my gut again, yet I listened to instructors that told me I should stick with it.

Remember, my experience at G was subjective (as everyone else's). Read more than just my review. Do your research and soul search!

Good luck in your bootcamp prospects!

This Review Is Helpful116

Moving to SF, Studying at Galvanize, Getting Into Tech

3/10/2017

Brian Balagot • Cognitive Apps Engineer • Graduate • Campus: San Francisco Verified via LinkedIn

Overall Experience:

Curriculum:

Instructors:

Job Assistance:

Hi Everyone,

Greetings!

The perspective I am sharing is that of an individual who moved to SF just to join the program, from another country.

I moved here from the Philippines in September, three days before the start of Week 0, the "intro" to the "intro to Python" (I highly recommend it). I chose Galvanize because as early as 2013, I was already aware of Data Science and Zipfian, and read so many good things about the program. Because of life circumstances, I could only join after June 2016. This April 2017, I am just about to start my career in Tech at IBM - working on Data Science and Artificial Intelligence projects. I can honestly say that none of this would be possible if not for my experience at Galvanize.

I have two main points for this review that I am writing:

1. The Galvanize Data Science Immersive Program is transformative - there are so many things today that I could not have done in Sep 2016, and I largely attribute these to my phenomenal growth rate as a result of the instructors and curriculum
2. The DSI Program at Galvanize is not a magic pill. What you get out of it depends on you.

Point 1: The Galvanize Experience
The instructors were excellent. They were all very hands on in terms of coding and teaching, very insightful in terms of mentorship and guidance, and very amicable and approachable. The curriculum covered mathematical statistics, linear algebra, machine learning, nlp, network analysis, recommendation systems, big data tools, and app development. Galvanize works closely with many different companies in order to match graduates to opportunities and job requisitions. Because of the program's design - which intends to get you to be as comfortable with code and concepts as quickly as possible, I am now able to: build machine learning pipelines in spark, code recommendation systems from scratch, transform log data into events and apply time series analysis, push apps to the cloud in order to host prototypes users can interact with, and have the tenacity and aptitude to read documentation and pick up new languages.

Point 2: What You Get Depends On You
Individuals who join the program come from all kinds of backgrounds. Mine was not tech related, data related, or USA related. I managed a chain of supermarkets in the Philippines for eight years and I do not have a MSc in a STEM field. I had to make my own reality check, adjust my expectations, and do the best with what I had. However, Galvanize exposed me to an excellent network of people - I was able to hit the ground running in terms of making friends and getting a chance to talk to companies (like IBM) because of the may different career talks that happen on campus. I had to make the most of it by going beyond myself, making connections, and maximizing my skills by picking up two side projects after graduation in order to build up my portfolio and make myself more marketable. Thankfully, it paid off.

My Galvanize experience was great. Partly because of Galvanize, and partly because I made the most out of it. I highly recommend this program to anyone - but just make to understand that it is not going to be a walk in the park. To get the most out of it, you have to work very hard.

Cheers,

Brian

This Review Is Helpful20