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Hackbright Academy is a software engineering school for gender equality in San Francisco, Dallas, and Lehi founded in 2012. In addition to in-person classrooms in the US, Hackbright Academy also offers their courses online. The school offers a 12-week, immersive full-time software engineering program and a 43-week, part-time program, both of which cover the fundamentals of computer science and modern web development such as the command line, Python, JavaScript, HTML & CSS, Git, Flask, Django, pair programming, SQL/ORMS/NoSQL, and deployment. The part-time program covers the same content as the immersive program, but is designed for students who want to maintain their jobs. Hackbright also offers a 4-week part-time prep course, which teaches the foundations of programming; and a week-long immersive prep course.
Prospective applicants will need to fill out an online application detailing their interests and personality, then complete a coding challenge and two interviews. Hackbright's ideal candidate has a desire to learn software development and has prior exposure to programming.
Hackbright Academy provides students with mentorship, tech talks, and career services. After graduation, Hackbright Academy connects graduates with Silicon Valley companies looking to expand their engineering teams as alumnae work at companies like Amazon, Facebook, and Slack. Hackbright Academy offers deferred tuition, limited scholarships, and payment plans for qualified students.
TLDR: I came to HB with 0 coding experience. I tried 3 different online courses to learn coding in my previous non-programming, non-tech career with no bueno. Based on my experience and what I have gathered from my classmates, friends from other bootcamps and tech companies, do not expect that "omg! I'm going to be a programmer after this bootcamp!" Expect that you'll know one way to build a website. That doesn't make you a hot Mission burrito in this town. It makes y...
TLDR: I came to HB with 0 coding experience. I tried 3 different online courses to learn coding in my previous non-programming, non-tech career with no bueno. Based on my experience and what I have gathered from my classmates, friends from other bootcamps and tech companies, do not expect that "omg! I'm going to be a programmer after this bootcamp!" Expect that you'll know one way to build a website. That doesn't make you a hot Mission burrito in this town. It makes you a Chipotle buritto at best.
Disclaimer: This review is sarcastic and can come off as harsh; in complete opposite to HB's practice of being encouraging and believing in oneself. If you'll get angry or bitter reading negative reviews, skip this one. Also, this is meant for those who are career switching with no prior tech-industry experience.
Classroom experience:
I agree with many reviews who say that the instructors are knowledgable and are good teachers for basic programming techniques. You'll learn the basics of how to write code. You will NOT learn how to write good, scalable, or smart code. If a good CS degree holder can write it in 10 lines, you'll probably use 20-50 and your run time will be poor. When whiteboarding in interviews (or mock interviews), you'll be trying to use recursion to traverse the tree when a while loop is sufficient and then stutter, "I don't know..." when the interviewer asks for the spatial complexity. But, you'll be able to write code.
Social experience:
I understand that HB is now multiple classes per session. Each class has it's own personality. I met great ladies whom I am close friends with till today. We mainly commiserate about the state of our morale, bank accounts, and job search prospects (all dangerously low, if you're wondering). One thing that really impressed me was the diversity of women I met. Great women who work hard and deserve so much more.
Career Services:
They are great people in the career services. But I personally find them to be emotional roller coasters. They build your expectations up and then when you come head to head with reality and crash, they are nowhere to be found. Everytime they're told how difficult it is, they say, "aww, that's too bad. You need to keep trying!" After the 4th email saying that, I stopped giving them my weekly updates. I can now program my own bot to wish me good luck by text if that was all I wanted.
Go and study with your classmates and use the online resources (someone here linked a bunch of awesome sites). Besides, with the new intakes being so large, I have no idea how they expect to provide sustainable support.
Oh and those partner companies? Isn't great to go on on-site visits and talk to REAL engineers and get interview practice??!! Come job application time, you'll be told they're hiring people with 3+ years experience which is not surprising considering the funding situation now.
Post-HB:
HB is a safe place. After you leave, most of you are going to go feel effing terrible and great at the same time. You'll meet alums who are still job searching 6-months in and think, "Oh, that won't be me" but then wonder a week or two later if that'll be you. Go out with a clear mind and no positive expectations about how fast you're gonna be a legit programmer. That is the best start you can have.
Personal note:
One advice I will give you if do end up going to HB: Your personal project is your own. A friend from the other class (same session) had to fight tooth and nail to get her project approved. Even then, HB refused to help her with the aspects "they warned her is over her head" but are basic things we should have learned about Python. Fortunately, her mentor helped her sort it out.
I wish I had made something other than "[popular website] but for [another everyday item/hobby]". I am now working on a less-bootcampy project to put on my resume.
Come project seasion, keep this in mind: Everyone is making a website/webapp. If you are front-endy, by all means, make a beautiful website. During the early years of HB, projects were augmented reality, compilers, large data sciency things, actual programs, etc. Do something to stand out from the sea of websites. Own it. Fight for it and don't give up cuz this is just the begining of the battle of entering the tech world. You'll be fighting to prove yourself even after you get your first job. Might as well get some practice in now.
Wendy Saccuzzo of Hackbright Academy
Director of Career Services
Jan 26, 2017
How much does Hackbright Academy cost?
Hackbright Academy costs around $12,900. On the lower end, some Hackbright Academy courses like Hackbright Prep Course cost $249.
What courses does Hackbright Academy teach?
Hackbright Academy offers courses like Full-Time (12-week) Software Engineering Program, Hackbright Prep Course, Part-Time (24-week) Software Engineering Program.
Where does Hackbright Academy have campuses?
Hackbright Academy has an in-person campus in San Francisco.
Is Hackbright Academy worth it?
Hackbright Academy hasn't shared alumni outcomes yet, but one way to determine if a bootcamp is worth it is by reading alumni reviews. 110 Hackbright Academy alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Hackbright Academy on Course Report - you should start there!
Is Hackbright Academy legit?
We let alumni answer that question. 110 Hackbright Academy alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Hackbright Academy and rate their overall experience a 4.52 out of 5.
Does Hackbright Academy offer scholarships or accept the GI Bill?
Right now, it doesn't look like Hackbright Academy offers scholarships or accepts the GI Bill. We're always adding to the list of schools that do offer Exclusive Course Report Scholarships and a list of the bootcamps that accept the GI Bill.
Can I read Hackbright Academy reviews?
You can read 110 reviews of Hackbright Academy on Course Report! Hackbright Academy alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Hackbright Academy and rate their overall experience a 4.52 out of 5.
Is Hackbright Academy accredited?
While bootcamps must be approved to operate, accreditation is relatively rare. Hackbright Academy doesn't yet share information about their accreditation status.
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