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Launch Academy is a full-time, 18-week program with a part-time, 8-week online phase and then a full-time, 10-week course in Boston, Massachusetts. After this immersive learning experience, aspiring software developers will be transformed into contributing members of the development community. The core curriculum is built on JavaScript, React, Ruby on Rails, HTML, and CSS. Students learn from building real products under the guidance of experienced software engineers. "Breakable toys" are at the core of the learning experience at Launch Academy. Students conceptualize products they always wanted to use and over the course of the program learn the technical skills they need to build and improve upon their "breakable toy". Launchers complete the program with a workable product they can present to companies at career day where they meet with hiring managers from tech companies all over the country.
Graduates receive lifetime access to post-grad support including regularly updated curriculum and career services. Launch Academy is looking for highly motivated and naturally curious students driven to create things that help other people.
TLDR: I completed 1/2 of the program between January-March (averaging ~28 hours/ week). I've been working abroad since April (paused the program), and am learning on my own. LA helped me get started with a strong foundation. I would recommend it to others, particularly under specific circumstances (see below).
Updated Review:
Learnings:
Suggestions:
Disclosure: I'm not sure what has been added/ changed about the program, so below are some ideas from my experience.
Overall, I enjoyed my time in the program and would highly recommend it to others for specific use cases: 1) You've tried learning on your own in the past, and struggled; 2) You need the flexibility of a self-paced program; 3) You're testing the waters of a career switch/ seeing if you actually like to code (it's a relatively cheap test, and it substantially lowers the friction to actually start coding); 4) You're really self-motivated and have a large chunk of time to devote to it.
For perspective, here's another online review:
Hello,
I graduated two years ago from Launch Academy. First of all I loved my experience there. I learned fast and was easily one of the top performing students of my class. I was also 19 and spent all of my inheritance on the program and paying for rent/food during the program. When it was finished I accepted the first job I was offered rather quickly(2 months) as I was then living off of a credit card. The job was a contract for an extremely small start up(4 people). They told ...
Hello,
I graduated two years ago from Launch Academy. First of all I loved my experience there. I learned fast and was easily one of the top performing students of my class. I was also 19 and spent all of my inheritance on the program and paying for rent/food during the program. When it was finished I accepted the first job I was offered rather quickly(2 months) as I was then living off of a credit card. The job was a contract for an extremely small start up(4 people). They told me that the company had experience with jr. developers before(which was not true). The lead developer was a 19 year old German college student. Needless to say it was not a growth experience. After the contract ended I was really in need of another job but didn’t receive help from my boot camp. My computer started experiencing problems and I could no longer run Rails. I found a full time volunteering opportunity with AmeriCorps teaching basic CS to students in low income areas and have been doing that for the last two years. I recently enrolled in a QA program for urban youth of low income and am now on an internship and will hopefully find a job quickly after. As I said I loved the experience during classes, but based on my experience I would say it should have costed $500-$1,000 not +$15,000 forcing me to live paycheck to paycheck and have no financial stability.
Was a great school
If I talk to someone who is remotely interested in computers, I usually ask if they would consider going to a coding bootcamp. Most people seem intrigued by this, and I then follow up with a recommendation for Launch Academy.
I'm not trying to shill for the program, but what they've done for me has changed my life. I've always loved computers, from building PC's to playing games on them. It wasn't until I heard about Launc...
If I talk to someone who is remotely interested in computers, I usually ask if they would consider going to a coding bootcamp. Most people seem intrigued by this, and I then follow up with a recommendation for Launch Academy.
I'm not trying to shill for the program, but what they've done for me has changed my life. I've always loved computers, from building PC's to playing games on them. It wasn't until I heard about Launch Academy (from my brother, who recruits engineers) that I seriously considered a career in web development.
After completing the course, I can honestly say that coding is the single best career in the universe... maybe slightly behind astronauts.
Why is it so good? Before attending Launch, I thought computer programming was all about math. This was one of the main reasons why I never majored in computer science, and it's also completely false. True, you can apply math in many different ways when coding, but a better analogy would be to compare coding to LEGOs.
When you code, you're just building something. Sometimes your project is small, like those 30-piece LEGO sets, and other times, your project could be massive and require many different sections. Either way, you're always putting the pieces together (with code) to build a working application. If this sounds interesting to you, then please strongly consider Launch Academy.
Over the 10-week course, you will constantly get your ass kicked. The instructors will teach you a new topic, and then give a challenge to work on that involves said topic. Rarely, it will be easy. Most often, your brain will be completely taxed from trying to solve it. What makes this process so rewarding is that you're not in this alone: Almost every other person attending Launch is in the same boat as you are, and halfway through the course, I started to view these people like family. You'll struggle together, but more importantly, you'll succeed together. Teamwork is an integral part of coding, and it's also the most satisfying.
These challenges and exercises will wear you down, but when you stop and think about how much you've learned, your mind will be blown. There is pre-course work before the actual cohort begins, and by the second actual week at Launch, I realized how much more I knew about coding (Ruby in particular) than when I started. By the end of the course, I was shocked at how much knowledge I acquired.
There are plenty of other things I could praise Launch Academy for, but I'm sure you aren't interested in reading another 2,000+ words, so I'll touch on one of the most important (and my reason for choosing Launch over other bootcamps): job assistance. It's the reason you're here, and Launch delivers. No, you are not guaranteed a job, but after graduating, I had more interviews lined up than I have ever had in my life. It was a truly great feeling to have.
If you're looking for a career change and have any interest in computers or how things work in the magical wonderland known as the internet, you should definitely look into Launch Academy. With such a huge demand for programmers in the job market, this is the best way to get your foot in the door. You'll be exhausted after the 10 weeks here, but more importantly, you'll be empowered.
The Good
The curriculum at Launch Academy is really spot on. To start, you will spend 8 weeks in your own time, online, learning the basics. They will cover things like the command line, loops, arrays, hashes, syntax, JavaScript, es6, Git and a little bit of testing. They say they do this so you are ready to go once you make it to the campus portion and it certainly works.
As for the on-campus curriculum, it’s pretty solid – I only wish we had learned more but in order ...
The Good
The curriculum at Launch Academy is really spot on. To start, you will spend 8 weeks in your own time, online, learning the basics. They will cover things like the command line, loops, arrays, hashes, syntax, JavaScript, es6, Git and a little bit of testing. They say they do this so you are ready to go once you make it to the campus portion and it certainly works.
As for the on-campus curriculum, it’s pretty solid – I only wish we had learned more but in order for that to have truly of happened the entire program would have to be maybe 2 weeks longer – which is something they should seriously consider. You have 6 weeks of learning, each week a new topic. In my cohort it was, IIRC – React, Advanced OOP, Databases, Rails, HTTP and General Front End. The front-end week was kind of useless since they just skimmed over a crap load of material about design and typography and the like. Those topics are so dense, to give them such a superficial treatment was pointless. The time that week would have been better served expanding on existing material.
This is followed by 2 weeks of group projects, which was an amazing eye-opening experience and then 2 more weeks of solo projects, which is very stressful but you will overcome. Again, the curriculum is on point and I learned WAY more than I thought I would. It moves fast and feels overwhelming for the majority of the program but that will soon feel natural and you will sink into a rhythm and get into the zone by the end of the first week.
The Bad
The entire staff is committed to evangelizing the gospel of social justice. Now, I’m all for equality and I’d like to think I’m very open minded and tolerant but I didn’t pay $15,500 to be lectured about how, because I am a man, I need to censor myself around women. I also did not pay $15,500 to be lectured about how awful Donald Trump is. I am not a political person, I do not care. Leave politics and social justice out of the classroom and teach me how to code. The staff we’re routinely injecting politics into the cohort for no reason. It came off as cringe worthy at times and always forced. Like I said, this is a coding bootcamp, not capitol hill.
On two separate occasions, they sat us all down and gave a lecture on ‘Mansplaining’, I actually didn’t even know what this was when they brought it up, I had never heard of it before. They said that someone made a rude and insensitive comment, but they would neither repeat what was said nor would they be speaking with the individual in question. They actually ended up saying that, if what we can’t tell you was said, is said again then you will be expelled. What? None of us even know what they were referring to, not even remotely. This caused a lot of self-censorship and bewilderment. They ended it by telling all the men in attendance to be cautious of how they talk, because, and I quote “Men have a tendency to talk down to women and assume they know more by virtue of being a man”. Nice. Where I come from, assuming bias based on external and immutable features of a human is what is commonly referred to as bigotry. Not to these people, it’s called social justice.
Secondly, while having a spirited debate on the Launch Academy Slack channel about the issue of women in the STEM field, D.T. – the Vice President of Engineering @ Launch Academy, decided to interject and remind everyone that everything they say is being monitored. Here are some excerpts of what he said, verbatim:
“Do you really want to say things that are open for mis-interpretation that could present a "public" perception that makes you sound callous to the gender/diversity hot button tech issue of the day?”
“It's a fact that there are more white men in this community than any other group, and as such i particularly appeal to those of us who fall into that category to try hard to keep our tone and conversation in line with the Launch Academy cultural norms and guidelines that all of us benefit from.”
Of course, indiscriminately lecturing all men is not something that is explicitly prohibited in the Launch Academy Code of Conduct paper we all signed – because, you know…diversity.
One more example – A fellow classmate of mine was accused of sexual harassment by a female classmate, and without actually investigating the accusation, Launch Academy took it at face value and actually threatened to expel him. They told him that he was sexually harassing another student but refused to give evidence of it ever happening, the date, time or place in question it occurred or the name of the accuser. They wouldn’t even state exactly what it was that he did, just a nebulous “You committed sexual harassment”. They never followed up with this female accuser to press her for details, they simply assumed that she was telling the truth.
This and many other countless examples really irritated me. They treat people like they are fragile, broken creatures’, incapable of accepting the fact that someone has a differing view from themselves. To remedy this, they preemptively tell people to not talk about certain topics and inject BS politics into a program that is designed to teach me and everyone else how-to CODE. One of the staff members actually gave a presentation on how to “cope” with the fact that Hillary Clinton did not win the election. This is absolute garbage. Nobody cares. I want to build websites, not listen to your nonsense. I am here to jumpstart a new career. I risked A LOT to make this move in my life and to have Launch Academy staff show such little regard for the sacrifices I made to be there is very disconcerting.
The disruption and distraction caused by their nonsensical moral high-ground showmanship really put a damper on the latter part of the cohort – a sentiment expressed by well over half of the cohort to myself, personally. It made it difficult to focus on the already difficult course material because everyone was chatting in hushed tones about what we all thought these veiled threats of expulsion were in response to. We never really found out…
Conclusion
Here is the full gist of what I took from my experience. If you want to learn how to code, Launch Academy will in fact teach you to code – even if you are a complete novice. However, you should expect incessant lecturing about how horrible men are and how virtuous a litany of ‘protected’ classes are. Expect lots of political evangelism and expect to be told to conform to their way of thinking or shut up and leave. If given the opportunity to do it all over, I am fairly certain I would go the route of a Bootcamp, but I am not so sure, if I knew what I know now, I would choose Launch Academy.
Place is the absolute worst. After you are out of the program they never help you get a job. They lie about their numbers and barely teach. I should have gone to another bootcamp
Evan Charles of Launch Academy
Co-Founder; COO
Dec 16, 2016
Overall, I had a great experience. I learned the entire stack to build fully functional websites with impressive tech behind them. The curriculum is difficult and requires motivation on the part of the student. If you work hard, follow the guidelines, and keep up with the material, it is very likely that you will land a great job as a software engineer shortly after the class ends.
There were a few times when we were lectured on things like "mansplaining", which felt out of place...
Overall, I had a great experience. I learned the entire stack to build fully functional websites with impressive tech behind them. The curriculum is difficult and requires motivation on the part of the student. If you work hard, follow the guidelines, and keep up with the material, it is very likely that you will land a great job as a software engineer shortly after the class ends.
There were a few times when we were lectured on things like "mansplaining", which felt out of place for a class meant to teach you how to build websites. The school strives to educate the students on being professional in the work environment, so presentations like this felt downright odd.
These are minor gripes, and overall the experience was a positive one. For anyone willing to focus on the material and put in the time necessary, a job as a software developer is well within your grasp after Launch Academy. I landed my dream job after taking the course, and I couldn't be happier with it.
Every time someone asks me what I thought about my Launch Academy experience, I give them the same answer: it was the best 10 weeks of my professional career so far.
Warning: wall of text incoming. Skip to the end if you want the cliff notes version.
I, like many of my fellow classmates, did not come from a CS background. I had been working as a project manager at a translation company for the past two and a half years. I had moved into a more technical role, though I n...
Every time someone asks me what I thought about my Launch Academy experience, I give them the same answer: it was the best 10 weeks of my professional career so far.
Warning: wall of text incoming. Skip to the end if you want the cliff notes version.
I, like many of my fellow classmates, did not come from a CS background. I had been working as a project manager at a translation company for the past two and a half years. I had moved into a more technical role, though I never wrote a line of code (and would not have known how, in any case). While I had liked my job at one point, I no longer did, and it had become clear to me that it was just that: a job. I wanted a career. I applied to both General Assembly and Launch Academy in Boston, was accepted at both, and after a painstaking couple of days, decided on Launch Academy. And gave my notice immediately after making that decision.
Launch Academy has a pre-work curriculum that every Launcher does at home in the weeks before the cohort starts, called Ignition. With our cohort they placed a lot more emphasis on learning as much Ruby as possible during Ignition so we could really hit the ground running on day one.
The first six weeks are well-structured and give students a practical understanding of core web development and use techniques that really force students to digest what they're learning. Evening assignments were on new concepts and accompanied by a reading. Sometimes this reading included a step-by-step guide that you could follow to build something, but the assignment (which students were required to turn in by the next morning) always required some extra thinking. Often, though, the assignments required a good deal of outside research in order to complete. Students returned the next morning and broke into smaller mentor groups where an EE (experience engineer, as the instructors were called) would address any specific problems a student brought up. The morning facilitation (a lecture-like presentation by an instructor) then went over the concepts from the previous night's assignment in more detail.
Afternoons were less structured. Almost everyone worked in pairs on the afternoon assignment, and each day a couple of EE's had office hours where students could get some dedicated one-on-one time if they wanted. Optional clinics were available for extra coverage of certain topics or more advanced topics.
This style of teaching was key. I had to figure out how to do something before I was taught. I was never given all the tools, but I had the means to acquire them. If I struggled with a concept, one of my fellow Launchers was there to help me. If I managed to complete something quickly, there was someone else I could help. And this is the kicker: the best way to learn something is to teach it. If I made something work by trial and error, all well and good. But in order to teach someone else, I had to go back and really understand what I had done and help my fellow Launcher make their code work.
The last four weeks were more open-ended: two weeks were dedicated to group projects, and two weeks on our own breakable toys. EE's still had office hours every day and held optional clinics. We received some guidance on group projects but the EE's became much more hands-off toward the end, really making us take the reins and lead ourselves to success. We met with Corinne, the wonderful, amazing, talented, insanely hard-working career services director, several times, and had mock technical interviews. We practiced (and practiced and practiced) our presentations for career day. We were as prepared as we could be.
We were not guaranteed jobs. We were guaranteed assistance in the job search and guidance. The staff will prepare you as best they can, but you have to want to succeed. Launch Academy's job placement rate after graduation is extremely high... almost ridiculoulsy so. Check out their website. I had booked 8 interviews in the first week after graduation, and accepted an offer just a week and a half after graduating. I could not be happier with my overall experience and where I ended up.
TL;DR:
In the end, you really get out of it what you put into it. This is not school. No one is forcing you to be there. If you're there, it's because you want to be, and this is what you want to do. Don't expect to coast along. But, if you put in the time and the effort, it will pay off.
Even before I had finished the program, I have been receiving requests from prospective students to share my experience with the program, why I choose to attend a bootcamp - and Launch Academy in particular, and what my post-grad experience has been like.
TL;DR
This is a pretty lengthy review. If you're only interested in my outlook on the program, just skip to the conclusion at the end.
My Background Story
Are c...
Even before I had finished the program, I have been receiving requests from prospective students to share my experience with the program, why I choose to attend a bootcamp - and Launch Academy in particular, and what my post-grad experience has been like.
TL;DR
This is a pretty lengthy review. If you're only interested in my outlook on the program, just skip to the conclusion at the end.
My Background Story
Are coding bootcamps too good to be true? It's easy to believe that based on the statistics they tout to prospective students. There are dozens, possibly hundreds of programs out there that offer to take your money and turn you into a coding ninja in just a few short weeks. Most of them also claim that your skills will be so red hot that companies will be lining up to offer you starting salaries that will make your bootcamp tuition pay for itself in just a few months.
My journey as a developer began after I finished graduated from college. Like many students, I went to school for four years for a degree in something that I thought I would love doing (and would lead to a job). After graduating with a B.S. in Urban Studies and Spanish and having nearly 2 years of internship experience under my belt, I struggled to break into a field that had seen layoffs and staffing reductions across the country due to the 2007 recession.
Unable to get my foot in the door, I went back to school for a masters, believing I would be better qualified for that first entry-level job in local government. After two more years I obtained my MPA and another year of internship experience. I applied for hundreds and interviewed for dozens of jobs and prestigious fellowships around the country, but after several months, was no closer to a job than I was two years earlier.
Discouraged, I started thinking about other options. I had spent the last six years in school, studying for a career that seemed out of reach, and accumulating massive amounts of student loan debt in the process - debt that would soon come due. A friend of mine who had been studying for his MBA while I studied for my MPA had gone through Launch Academy to become a developer. I began asking him questions about the program and why he chose to go through a program like Launch Academy after spending so much time studying for an MBA.
Why a coding bootcamp and why Launch Academy?
That summer I took a trip out to Boston to visit my friend and see Launch Academy for myself. After that trip I had made up my mind to become a developer. I started taking courses on Codecademy and readying myself for the admissions interview. I researched other bootcamps in Boston, NYC, and San Francisco. Launch Academy stood out not only because of my visit to their office space (or Mission Control as Launchers call it) but also because of their small size and focus on students. Each cohort is limited to around 35 students (Launchers) with 6-7 instructors (or Experience Engineers) available. Additionally, I had spoken with some alums of the program who were now working as developers, making considerably more money than in their previous jobs, and enjoying their work more than what they had previously did. Lastly, although Launch Academy no longer touts hiring statistics on their website, they claimed a 96% hiring rate for graduates of the program at the time, along with an average starting salary of $55k to $75 (more on that later).
What is the admissions process like?
In a word: competitive. When I applied for the program (7th cohort) the acceptance rate was around 13%. That's more competitive than most Ivy League universities. The admissions process begins with an application that includes some questions on why you want to be a developer. After submitting the application I scheduled a Skype interview with one of the Experience Engineers (EEs). I was told to prepare by reading Chris Pine's Learn to Program. The interview process consisted of two parts. For the first part, I would work through a coding challenge in the book with my interviewer, so they could see how I approach problem solving. This part of the interview is essential for evaluating the problem solving skills of a prospective student. The second part consisted of a 3-5 minute Lightning Talk. During this talk, I would teach my interviewer something - anything - that I found interesting. Bonus points if it isn't related to programming. The purpose of this part of the interview is to assess the student's interpersonal skills, such as how well they can present their ideas to others.
3... 2... 1... Ignition!
Ignition is the first phase of Launch Academy. Each cohort, the curriculum is refined and enhanced in a process of iterative improvement. During my cohort, I spent time learning fundamental programming concepts, the principles of object oriented programming (OOP), and practiced simple coding exercises or code katas. By the end of Ignition I was writing simple command line games such as Tic-Tac-To and Rock-Paper-Scissors.
Alpha Phase
The first week of Launch Academy was a mind-blowing experience. My cohort spent the first week drilling through more katas in Ruby and reinforcing everything we learned in ignition. I remember looking back at the end of each day and contemplating how much more advanced the project from that day was compared to what I was struggling with just a day or two earlier.
During the second week of this phase I started learning how to build simple webpages in Sinatra, which is a barebones Ruby MVC (Model-View-Controller) framework. By the end of the week I had built a simple to-do list app in Sinatra that saved data to a csv file.
Bravo Phase
Bravo Phase began during the 3rd week of Launch. By the end of this phase, I had build my first simple website with the Sinatra framework and was busy learning how to write manual SQL queries so that my app could query a database of movies and actors. One of the most notable challenges to come out of this phase was a pairing challenge in which we had to write a command line Blackjack game that conformed to the principles of OOP. It was during this time that some of the concepts that I had read about during Ignition really began to sink in as I put them into practice.
Charlie Phase
Charlie Phase started during week five. The learning curve had been rapidly building with each passing day, but it was during this time that the pace became truly blistering for me. During this phase we learned about database design and management, normalizing database relations in ActiveRecord, complex SQL queries, acceptance testing using RSpec and Capybara, Rails fundamentals, Javascript, and jQuery. Much of this phase was designed to prepare us for Delta Phase, where we would be building and deploying our first Rails apps.
Having spent the last few weeks learning how to build websites in Sinatra gave me a great appreciation for how much more complex and powerful Rails is. Rails is like a big black box. You can tell it to do something and most of the time it just works out of the box, whereas even simple tasks such as compiling a SASS stylesheet become massive undertakings in Sinatra requiring a thorough knowledge of the entire process.
Delta Phase
During Delta Phase we continued learning the basics of Rails, including user authentication with Devise, namespacing, RESTful conventions, email, TDD (test driven development), and how to secure our Rails apps against common security threats. Last but not least, we learned how to deploy our apps through Heroku.
Unlike previous phases, there were few daily challenges or katas during Delta Phase. Instead we were tasked with a group project. In groups of 4-5 we would build a simple Yelp-like review site for anything of our choosing using Rails and TDD. The project had to be minimally styled and conform to RESTful conventions. The primary objective of the project was to experience what it's like to work on a team of software developers using tools such as Trello for project management and Git for version control.
We were originally told that the projects would be due the following Monday (beginning of Echo Phase). On Friday at 4 PM however, we were all informed that our projects would be due at 5:30 PM that day, and that we would be presenting them to the entire cohort. Looking back, this was one of the most stressful moments at Launch Academy, but an excellent exercise in prioritizing tasks and working as a group effectively. Despite most groups having planned to spend the weekend finishing the project, every single group successfully presented a styled and functioning site at 5:30 PM, even if some of us were still deploying to Heroku just minutes before our presentation!
Echo Phase
This was the final phase of Launch Academy - the home stretch. Everything up to this point had been to prepare us for our capstone project, or breakable toy as we call it. The focus for this entire phase was on building our breakable toys to present to hiring partners on career day. The only lectures during this phase were on computer science theory and job hunting skills that would help us land jobs after the program.
During this time I became a lean mean programming machine, spending 12, sometimes 14 hours per day, 7 days a week working on my breakable toy to get it ready for career day. Whenever I wasn't coding or sleeping, I was studying computer science theory and practicing my interviewing skills with the EEs.
Some of my fellow classmates and I even held a 24-hour coding marathon in Mission Control, which was among my fondest Launch Academy memories.
Career Day
Despite record snowfall that would go on to be an all-time record for Boston, career day proceeded more or less as planned. For ten weeks we had practiced our coding skills, built apps, and helped each other along the way. Now it was time to present our work and ourselves to hiring partners who were all looking to hire junior software developers.
For my cohort and the cohorts since, career day was split into two separate days with approximately 20-25 companies represented on each day. We were divided into four groups of 6-7, as were the hiring partners in attendance. Each Launcher would have just 2 minutes to present their project and explain why they are passionate about coding and would make a good fit on a company's team. After each person had presented, there would be about 20-25 minutes of time for networking with the hiring partners that had been with the group. Each group of hiring partners would then rotate to the next group of Launchers to repeat the process. After about 2 hours, all the presentations had concluded we were free to network with the hiring partners and eat pizza.
The Job Hunt
While I knew coming in to the program that I likely wouldn't find a job for at least a month or two after the program, the first few weeks after career day were the most difficult. It took me nearly two weeks just to land my first interview. By that time, over half a dozen of my classmates had already received offers. The next month or so saw a slowdown in the hiring rate for the cohort. It seemed as though many people, myself included, were being interviewed weekly, sometimes two or three times per week, but not receiving offers. I watched as the hiring rate slowly ticked upwards to around 30%. During the second month post-grad, the pace of hiring began to pick up, with nearly 60% of the cohort hired by March. As of this writing, around 80% of the people in my cohort have found jobs as programmers, myself included.
Reflections: The Good Stuff
Although I sometimes doubted myself, I know that I made the right choice in going through Launch Academy. It was a stressful and expensive process that has only just begun to pay dividends. Three months after graduating, I landed a role as the Lead Developer for a startup company in Boston. While some of my classmates obtained high-paid roles with flashy startups or larger companies, many such as myself did not. I opted to work for a pre-seed startup, sacrificing a high salary for the potential to make more money later, but more importantly, to gain experience working as a remote developer on a team of one. More on that later. Others in my cohort also worked for small pre-seed startups or went on to become freelancers. A few are still searching.
Reflections: The Not So Good Stuff
Going in, my expectations were perhaps a little too high. I really did expect that everyone in my group would get a high paying job. That didn't happen. Several of my classmates weren't endorsed for career day, and for many of the rest of us, finding a job was no easy task, even for the best of us. It is true that the demand for programmers is nearly insatiable at the moment. That said, companies are as picky now as they've ever been about who they want to hire. Completing a program like Launch should not be seen as a guaranteed ticket to a job, but merely a launching pad to a career. Finishing Launch Academy opened the doors for me to a career in programming, but I still had to work every day for months afterwards before I finally got the job.
Improving the Curriculum
The curriculum for each cohort is an improved version of that from the previous cohort. Cohorts before mine did not begin working with Sinatra until the fourth week. My cohort began working with Sinatra during the second week. The cohort after mine started working with Sinatra on day one. Now it is part of Ignition.
While I can't speak for the curriculum of the current cohort or those to come, there were some things that I wish my cohort had been able to cover that would have prepared us better for the job market. Chief among these things is responsive design using popular frameworks such as Bootstrap or Foundation. We touched on these frameworks only minimally during my cohort. Designing a flashy website says little about a developer's programming skills, but a lot about their presentation skills. This is especially important when presenting work to non-technical hiring managers.
The other area that my cohort didn't spent a lot of time focusing on was Javascript - specifically popular libraries like jQuery. Frameworks like Angular, Backbone, Ember, Meteor, and React are all the rage these days because they allow for rapid development of single-page ultra-fast web apps. jQuery has been around since 2006 and is an excellent library for new developers to get their hands dirty with. It is widely used around the internet, powerful, and easy to learn.
Conclusion
Launch Academy was one of the best decisions I've ever made. It's opened the doors for me to a career I love, and as an added bonus, one that pays decent wages. Launch Academy is not for everyone though. If you're lazy, lack motivation, and are only interested in landing a high-paying job as quickly as possible, then Launch Academy is not for you.
If you decide to go, you will work like a dog for months on end. you will struggle day and night trying to understand complex data structures, SQL queries, and RESTful conventions. You will grow grey hairs trying to understand Git workflow. You will spend many hours stuck on T trains that smell of urine as you commute to Chinatown. You will likely gain weight eating Chinese food because you won't have the time to cook proper meals. You may even get to wade through 4 feet of snow and slush in freezing temperatures to make it to your career day presentation.
If you decide to go, you will make new friends and colleagues who will help push you along and keep you motivated. You will experience moments of joy each time you finally understand a difficult concept. You will cheer when you deploy your first app to Heroku. You will learn that most programmers survive on a diet of coffee and beer alone. Every day you will learn something new and be challenged to grow as a developer. Lastly, you will be part of an elite group of Launch Academy alumni who are active on Slack and constantly helping each other with coding problems and help requests, or just meeting up for lunch and a beer.
Should you pay $12,500 to go through 10 grueling weeks of the most intense learning experience of your life for the chance to become a junior web developer? Only you can decide!
TL;DR: Attending Launch Academy was one of the best decisions I've made.
I'd been trying to break into a career in software engineering for a while, and the practical skills and education I got through Launch Academy put me over the top.
The curriculum is well-crafted, layering concepts on top of each other in an organic way, so that you're given a solid foundation before moving on to a more complex subject. I didn't give it 5 stars beca...
TL;DR: Attending Launch Academy was one of the best decisions I've made.
I'd been trying to break into a career in software engineering for a while, and the practical skills and education I got through Launch Academy put me over the top.
The curriculum is well-crafted, layering concepts on top of each other in an organic way, so that you're given a solid foundation before moving on to a more complex subject. I didn't give it 5 stars because (in my limited view) many companies these days are looking for more experience with JavaScript and a front-end framework, but I'm pretty sure they'll be making that adjustment for the future, if they haven't already.
Something I also appreciated about their instruction is that they don't tolerate lazy coding. Often, there's a quick way to get something done that will get something working now, at some significant cost later; Launch was very clear about doing things in the *right* way, not just the *fastest* way.
It is INTENSE, though. I dropped as many obligations as I could to make room for the 50+ hour weeks. Learning so much in such a short amount of time requires dedication.
I'm not sure how they managed it, but the culture there was great. The instructors are all super-friendly and helpful (and badass), and the entire student community was mutually supportive. I felt that Lauch really invested it me, and that they cared deeply about my personal success.
I've also been impressed with their Career Services. Part of the curriculum is focused on what it takes to get hired: your resume, profssional profiles, interview skills, and so forth.
As for the actual hiring process post-graduation, Corinne is tireless. About two dozen companies looking to hire came to Career Day, and she's been in touch with many more since, setting up interviews, phone screens, etc. And even though the gig I eventually landed I got through my own connections, Corinne was still incredibly helpful.
So yeah, I feel pretty good about having gone through Launch.
Overall, I had an amazing experience at Launch Academy. I learned enough to land several interviews and my first job in a new career in software development. If you truly enjoy software development, are hungry to learn and grow, and are ready to work really really hard, Launch Academy definitely delivers on its promise to prepare you for a new career as a developer. You get what you put into it though, so don't expect to slack off and t...
Overall, I had an amazing experience at Launch Academy. I learned enough to land several interviews and my first job in a new career in software development. If you truly enjoy software development, are hungry to learn and grow, and are ready to work really really hard, Launch Academy definitely delivers on its promise to prepare you for a new career as a developer. You get what you put into it though, so don't expect to slack off and then expect Launch to work a miracle for you. It is an excellent program for anyone who has a passion for development and is ready to truly dedicate themself to levelling up.
The preparation for interviews, resumes, networking, etc. was all excellent, and the two career days where you meet prospective employers looking to hire junior developers is amazing. Getting this personalized job preparation and coaching and introduction to hiring parters was one of the most valuable parts of the entire experience in my mind.
The curriculum seems to improve with every cohort. In the past Ruby on Rails was the main emphasis, but I think they are adding more and more JavaScript.
Having done a lot of research, I think Launch is the best bootcamp you can find in Boston. The personalized attention and focus on one cohort at a time I think really sets it apart from some of the other bootcamps.
Attending Launch Academy was one of the best decisions I've ever made. I had recently relocated and unable to get any momentum in a new city with no professional network. Coding was always in my peripheral, but I had never actually taken the plunge until I started to look into bootcamps. Launch Academy really focused on Web Development moreso than others, so I dove in.
You'll initially spend 8 weeks online learning fundamentals, slowly ramping up to the 10-week online program whe...
Attending Launch Academy was one of the best decisions I've ever made. I had recently relocated and unable to get any momentum in a new city with no professional network. Coding was always in my peripheral, but I had never actually taken the plunge until I started to look into bootcamps. Launch Academy really focused on Web Development moreso than others, so I dove in.
You'll initially spend 8 weeks online learning fundamentals, slowly ramping up to the 10-week online program where you'll be taking on a different topic each week. The pace picks up really quickly from there, and it's not only challenging, but you'll be surrounded by people who fast become very close friends. By the time you're done, you'll know enough to build your own small apps and what you do from there is up to you. I personally kept the moment going and started to teach myself other languages I never could "figure out" before without the experience Launch provided.
Launch's curriculum changes very dynamically. Technology changes faster than fashion, and Launch keeps up. After graduating, they've got a pretty intensive job assistance program to keep you busy and active on the job hunt. It's a great experience.
Employed in-field | 96.7% |
Full-time employee | 73.3% |
Full-time apprenticeship, internship or contract position | 23.3% |
Short-term contract, part-time, or freelance | 0.0% |
Started a new company or venture after graduation | 0.0% |
Not seeking in-field employment | 3.3% |
Employed out-of-field | 0.0% |
Continuing to higher education | 0.0% |
Not seeking a job for health, family, or personal reasons | 3.3% |
Still seeking job in-field | 0.0% |
Could not contact | 0.0% |
How much does Launch Academy cost?
Launch Academy costs around $17,500.
What courses does Launch Academy teach?
Launch Academy offers courses like Immersive Full Stack Software Engineering Program.
Where does Launch Academy have campuses?
Launch Academy has an in-person campus in Boston.
Is Launch Academy worth it?
The data says yes! In 2020, Launch Academy reported a 58% graduation rate, a median salary of $70,000, and 97% of Launch Academy alumni are employed. Launch Academy hasn't shared alumni outcomes yet, but one way to determine if a bootcamp is worth it is by reading alumni reviews. 54 Launch Academy alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Launch Academy on Course Report - you should start there!
Is Launch Academy legit?
We let alumni answer that question. 54 Launch Academy alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Launch Academy and rate their overall experience a 4.63 out of 5.
Does Launch Academy offer scholarships or accept the GI Bill?
Right now, it doesn't look like Launch 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 Launch Academy reviews?
You can read 54 reviews of Launch Academy on Course Report! Launch Academy alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Launch Academy and rate their overall experience a 4.63 out of 5.
Is Launch Academy accredited?
Licensed by the State of Massachusetts.
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