General Assembly is a technical education provider that teaches students the skills, career advice and networking opportunities needed to make a career change into a tech role, in as little as three months. General Assembly offers part-time and full-time bootcamps and short courses in web and mobile development, product management, data science, and more. The bootcamp experience is led by instructors who are expert practitioners in their field. Students should expect to build a solid portfolio of real-life projects. Since 2011, General Assembly has graduated more than 40,000 students worldwide from the full time and part time bootcamp.
To enroll at General Assembly, applicants should submit an online application to connect with a GA Admissions team member who will work with them to decide if a tech bootcamps is the right fit. The GA Admissions staff are also prepared to speak with applicants about the best tech role for them, learning styles at GA, expected outcomes after the bootcamp, options to finance the bootcamp, career services offered by GA, and more.
To help students land their first job in a tech role, General Assembly students are supported by career coaches from day one. The program is enhanced by a career services team that is constantly in talks with employers about their tech hiring needs.
I have been in graphic/visual design for 8+ years of my career. I know the ins and outs of it and I know I'm pretty good at it. However, I knew I wanted to pivot my career. I was tired of being a pixel pusher, and I wanted a bit of a change. UX really is the future, and so after a lot of conversations and preparation, I decided to register for the parttime UX Design course. It took place every Tuesday and Thursday evening, from 6:30 - 8:30 PM, for 3 months.
Luckily, I live in Mi...
I have been in graphic/visual design for 8+ years of my career. I know the ins and outs of it and I know I'm pretty good at it. However, I knew I wanted to pivot my career. I was tired of being a pixel pusher, and I wanted a bit of a change. UX really is the future, and so after a lot of conversations and preparation, I decided to register for the parttime UX Design course. It took place every Tuesday and Thursday evening, from 6:30 - 8:30 PM, for 3 months.
Luckily, I live in Midtown so the commute wasn't the worst, but traffic absolutely sucks when you're in a rush to go right after work. I work until 6 PM, so I definitely had to move it. Luckily, I was late maybe once the entire time. It was an easy commute otherwise.
The course itself was laid out very well. I will sincerely say, I enjoyed my experience with the General Assembly. I learned SO MANY new things over the three months, but it also allowed me to pinpoint areas in my career where I've already used UX principles without realizing it. You basically start from the very beginning of the process, all the way to the very end: problem statements, user interviews and personas, competitive analysis, user flows and sitemaps, wireframes, and prototypes. I would say 2/3 of the time, you're learning more about the UX research principles, and 1 month is dedicated more to the actual design process, such as wireframing and prototypes. One of the biggest benefits for me was learning how to take the data from interviews and user testing and actually apply it to my product. You learn that with UX design, the design strategies you start to implement, are data-driven and done for a reason, and not just because someone tells you to do it a certain way.
Our instructor was very well prepared and did a great job making sure we understood what she was teaching each evening. But she was more than just an instructor. She was our friend and our mentor. I lacked confidence and second-guessed my abilities, but she helped push and challenge me the entire time. In the end, she also pushed me to be more confident in my skills. She was definitely a driving factor to my excitement to take the course.
Be warned, the three months isn't easy. What I mean by that is it's a commitment. Some days you absolutely won't want to go to class, but you're paying to learn a wide range of skills that will benefit you in the long run. There were days that I had to drag myself to go. But I'm glad I did. I learned something new in every class. I also made some connections that I wouldn't have made otherwise.
The biggest and only real negative is that as a part-time student, you do not get help with job placement or networking. Sure, General Assembly looks great on your LinkedIn, but that's sort of the extent of what you get besides a completion certificate. If you're absolutely brand new to UX or design, and you're looking to make it your career after completion, I would actually recommend maybe considering the full-time immersive program. They give you far more portfolio pieces in the end (3 to 5 versus just 1 in the part-time), and they do their best to help with job placement. I was really lucky that as a graphic designer, I was able to tweak some of my work to speak to the UX of a given project. Others may not have been as lucky.
Costwise, it wasn't cheap either. The part-time program costs just under $4,000. They do offer some payment plans, which helped a lot. I don't think anyone can just drop that kind of money in one swoop. So it's not cheap, but I genuinely think you do get the value out of it.
Do I recommend the part-time program? Absolutely. If you have a job that you're not ready to give up yet, definitely consider the part-time course. I would not have learned as much as I did, or taken it as seriously if I had taken the online course. I, unfortunately, do not know anyone who has taken the online course, but I do know some who have taken the full-time course, and they got out of it exactly what they were wanting. I got out of the part-time course, exactly what I wanted too.
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How much does General Assembly cost?
General Assembly costs around $16,450. On the lower end, some General Assembly courses like Visual Design (Short Course) cost $3,500.
What courses does General Assembly teach?
General Assembly offers courses like 1. Data Science Bootcamp (Full Time), 2. Software Engineering Bootcamp (Full Time), 2. Software Engineering Bootcamp (Part Time), 3. User Experience Design Bootcamp (Full Time) and 15 more.
Where does General Assembly have campuses?
General Assembly has in-person campuses in London, New York City, Paris, Singapore, and Sydney. General Assembly also has a remote classroom so students can learn online.
Is General Assembly worth it?
The data says yes! General Assembly reports a 84% graduation rate, and 95% of General Assembly alumni are employed. The data says yes! In 2021, General Assembly reported a 82% graduation rate, a median salary of , and N/A of General Assembly alumni are employed.
Is General Assembly legit?
We let alumni answer that question. 712 General Assembly alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed General Assembly and rate their overall experience a 4.31 out of 5.
Does General Assembly offer scholarships or accept the GI Bill?
Yes, General Assembly accepts the GI Bill!
Can I read General Assembly reviews?
You can read 712 reviews of General Assembly on Course Report! General Assembly alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed General Assembly and rate their overall experience a 4.31 out of 5.
Is General Assembly accredited?
All of General Assembly's regulatory information can be found here: https://generalassemb.ly/regulatory-information
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