MakerSquare is now Hack Reactor

As of 11/1/16, Hack Reactor has unified its network of schools, including MakerSquare and Telegraph Academy, under the Hack Reactor brand.

Subject to regulatory approval, MakerSquare's network of schools are rebranded as Hack Reactor Austin, Hack Reactor Los Angeles, Hack Reactor San Francisco and Hack Reactor New York City.

If you graduated from MakerSquare prior to October 2016, please leave your review for MakerSquare. Otherwise, please leave your review for Hack Reactor.

To view updated and accurate information, please visit the
Hack Reactor Course Report page.

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MakerSquare

Average Rating4.41
89 Reviews
0 Courses
MakerSquare is a 12-week immersive career accelerator program in Austin and San Francisco that aims to turn ambitious beginners looking to learn computer programming into marketable software engineers. MakerSquare's curriculum focuses solely on JavaScript with a large focus on software engineering fundamentals. NodeJS, Angular, Meteor and Express are just a few of the libraries, frameworks and platforms students work with. Additionally, throughout the program, MakerSq...

89 MakerSquare Reviews

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  • Anonymous
    Los Angeles
    Aug 31, 2015
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    MakerPrep Review

    I would not recommend MakerPrep to anyone who has been studying JavaScript/HTML/CSS for 2-3 months. The class is mostly for people with little to no coding experience so it felt very slow and a huge waste of time and $750 for me. 

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  • Kayla
    Anonymous
    Graduate • JavaScript Full-Stack Immersive • Austin
    Jul 05, 2016
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    Not impressed

    As much as I honestly don’t want to think about my experience at Makersquare ever again, I felt I had to write a review to keep things from being really biased here. Clearly I’m one of the only people who has anything bad to say, and I believe the reasons for that are as follows:
    1. It’s kind of a cult- when you spend basically every waking second of your life (except Sundays) with the same people in the same room for 3 months, of course you’re likely to come ...
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  • Nick Poling
    Anonymous
    Entrepeneur • Graduate • JavaScript Full-Stack Immersive • Austin
    Sep 21, 2016
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    Little to no value-added; ethically-challenged school running on auto pilot

    There are a lot of things left out of the positive reviews here.  Mostly because most kids don't want to commit career sucide by publically admitting that there was not really much value added by MKS and that it is an organization that appears to operate without standards or credibility.

    That's not to say that people don't learn at MKS.  Most do.  But thats mostly because they are highly motivated, intelligent people putting in 80+ hours a week.  They largely succeed in spite of ...

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  • Anonymous
    JavaScript Full-Stack Immersive • Los Angeles
    Dec 27, 2015
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    MakerSquare and MakerPrep Money Scam

    They Scam you for Money, It was a waste of time. I would have been better off watching YouTube Videos at Home and not wasting $17000 for 12 Weeks. The instructors were the worst. They just tell you to look everything up on Google and figure it all out for yourself. They are rude also. I will never recommend anyone in their right mind to go to Maker LA. Childish Teaching. They don't guarantee anything but say you should be getting a $120000 Job after going through 12 weeks where th...

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  • Anonymous
    Unemployed and looking • Graduate • JavaScript Full-Stack Immersive • San Francisco
    Jan 27, 2016
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    MKS: Exaggerated promises, poor Career Services, decent curriculum

    MakerSquare was barely okay, and okay is unacceptable when you’re paying $17,000 in cash for a 12-week experience.

    MakerSquare sells itself on a premise that sounds too good to be true. Interested in becoming a software engineer? Join our highly selective school, we’ll teach you everything you need to know, and we’ll set you up with a job that pays about $105,000 in salary. Don’t believe us? Look at our 96% job placement success rate!”

    This isn’t the truth. The truth is...

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  • Anonymous
    Graduate • San Francisco
    Oct 31, 2015
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    Go to Hack Reactor over MakerSquare even though they're under the same parent company

    Ok so I'm saying go to Hack Reactor over MakerSquare because even though they share the same curriculum, the job network is Hack Reactor's and Hack Reactor is a much better reputation. That reputation will open doors that MakerSquare's name won't.

    Aside from that, I feel like most students "drink the coolaid" at MakerSquare. They blindly trust the system and tend to praise MakerSquare and its staff when they get results rather than seeing that it was bec...

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  • Sam
    Anonymous
    Graduate • MakerPrep • New York City
    Aug 18, 2016
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    N/A

    Horrible

    Despite paying for in person education, the instruction from MakerSquare is primarily delivered through their online portal and the quality of their exercises is not as good as Free Code Camp or other online education platforms. The only benefit from the MakerSquare program is having a deadline, and because of that I recommend setting your own deadlines or doing any of the other less expensive programs.

      Their statistics for graduate performance are ...
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  • Anonymous
    San Francisco
    Oct 31, 2015
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    ABSOLUTELY NO JOB HELP

    They count internships and contracted jobs into their numbers and pressure you to take jobs that you don't want or feel excited about so that they can keep their "numbers."

    I attended MakerSquare a few months back and have bounced around from contract job to unemployment to contract job. MakerSquare has not helped me get a job in the slightest and has all but forgotten about me even when I ask for help. I guess once you've been included into their numbers they d...

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  • Alice Kao
    Anonymous
    Graduate • JavaScript Full-Stack Immersive • San Francisco
    Jul 29, 2016
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    One of the best!

    Great curriculum and top tier instructors, glad I picked makersquare. Can easily say it was the most valuable learning experience of my life!
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  • Anonymous
    Graduate • JavaScript Full-Stack Immersive • Austin
    Mar 27, 2015
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    My experience

    mediocre at best.

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  • Diandra
    Anonymous
    Graduate • JavaScript Full-Stack Immersive • Austin
    Jun 08, 2016
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    Mostly Good

    I'll start by saying that I got exactly what I came to MakerSquare for. I have an awesome job. I got that job quickly and easily after finishing. I felt qualified starting it. 

    In my six months at MakerSquare (3 as a student, 3 as a fellow) not everyone had as easy of a time and there were a handful of things I didn't like. This isn't meant to be a negative review. I learned a lot, got a great job, and met a ton of wonderful, intelligent people. But I do want to highlight a coup...

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  • Greg Cosgrove
    Anonymous
    Software Engineer • Graduate • Austin
    Sep 03, 2016
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    MakerSquare/Hack Reactor sold out it's first generation.

    I graduated from MakerSquare and enjoyed the program.  I am an employed engineer, but when I signed up part of it was the promise of future support including perpetual access to the application.  Less than six months after graduation they switched to a JS curriculum and would not open up to alumni.  Pretty much all support for us disappeared after that.  Then Hack Reactor bought them up and we were all basically forgotten.  MakerSquare wouldn't have existed had the first generation not tak...

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MakerSquare Alumni Outcomes

Recent MakerSquare News

Liz Eggleston
Liz Eggleston
Updated November 01, 2016
Have you heard the news? MakerSquare and Telegraph Academy s network of schools are rebranded as Hack Reactor Austin, Hack Reactor Los Angeles, Hack Reactor San Francisco and Hack Reactor New York City. But what exactly does this mean for MakerSquare and Telegraph Academy alumni, current students, staff, and future students? We asked the Hack Reactor team to answer our questions about how this merger will affect tuition, admissions, curriculum, culture, and reviews. FAQ ...
Imogen Crispe
Imogen Crispe
Updated September 01, 2016
As an immigrant from the Dominican Republic who grew up loving computers, Ricardo originally studied civil engineering in case he had to return home to get a job. But after the recession reduced the number of exciting civil engineering jobs available in the US, Ricardo decided to revisit his passion for coding and enroll at MakerSquare in Austin, Texas. Ricardo tells us about why he chose MakerSquare , his exciting final project Melody Map, and his plans to work remotely and travel ...
Imogen Crispe
Imogen Crispe
Updated August 31, 2016
Welcome to the August 2016 Course Report monthly coding bootcamp news roundup! Each month, we look at all the happenings from the coding bootcamp world from new bootcamps to big fundraising announcements, to interesting trends. This month the biggest news is the Department of Education's EQUIP pilot program to provide federal financial aid to some bootcamp students. Other trends include job placement outcomes, the gender imbalance in tech, acquisitions and investments, ...
Imogen Crispe
Imogen Crispe
Updated August 02, 2016
Jamie was a software engineer working at companies like eBay and PayPal for 10 years before he followed his passion for teaching and joined MakerSquare Austin in August 2015. He is now Head of Instruction and leads the senior phase of the bootcamp, as well as iterating on the curriculum. Jamie tells us why he fully believes in the bootcamp model, why soft skills and team skills are so important, and how MakerSquare is now offering free weekly workshops. Tell us about your background ...
Imogen Crispe
Imogen Crispe
Updated July 14, 2016
MakerSquare has just opened in New York; its fourth campus after Austin, Los Angeles , and San Francisco. We spoke to campus managing director, Tyler Lambe, about his background starting another bootcamp, why MakerSquare chose to expand to New York, how the curriculum differs compared with other campuses, and what sort of companies are hiring junior developers in NYC. Q&A How is MakerSquare NYC going so far? I came out to here in late February 2016 to launch the campus, we ...
Liz Eggleston
Liz Eggleston
Updated November 01, 2022
Since the first bootcamp acquisition in June 2014, we ve seen several coding bootcamps get acquired by a range of companies from for-profit education companies (Capella Education), to co-working companies (WeWork), and other coding bootcamps ( Thinkful + Bloc )! With rapid market growth in the bootcamp industry, for-profit education companies are taking note. These acquisitions and consolidations should come as no surprise, and some have been very successful, with schools ...
Liz Eggleston
Liz Eggleston
Updated May 13, 2016
Meet Doa, an alum of MakerSquare s first cohort in 2013. Three years later, Doa has immersed herself in the New York startup scene, fallen in love with JavaScript, and even hired several coding bootcamp graduates. Doa isn t your typical developer, and she says that s made all the difference. We talk about what makes a truly successful bootcamp grad, the 12-point checklist every bootcamper needs at their first job interview, and why Doa is excited for MakerSquare to open in New York ...
Imogen Crispe
Imogen Crispe
Updated April 11, 2016
MakerSquare and Hack Reactor are two well-reputed, full-time coding bootcamps which teach full stack JavaScript. In January 2015, Hack Reactor acquired MakerSquare , and it became part of the Reactor Core network of schools. While MakerSquare continues to operate independently, the curriculum has changed slightly to better align with the other Reactor Core schools. Because of the overlap in curriculum and leadership, making a decision between MakerSquare vs. Hack Reactor ...
Ravi Parikh
Ravi Parikh
Updated March 15, 2016
Have you ever thought about building a technology company using code school graduates as your founding employees or even as a co-founder? It’s tempting since a junior developer from a bootcamp can cost two thirds less than a senior engineer, but can a code school graduate really build what you need at such an early stage? Hiring a junior at the foundational level of your company is a huge decision since the early software you build is so crucial to the future scalability of ...
Liz Eggleston
Liz Eggleston
Updated December 28, 2020
Are you planning on attending a coding bootcamp? Deciding between two bootcamps? We ve scoured the net for alumni blogs from top coding bootcamps including Fullstack Academy , Dev Bootcamp , The Iron Yard , Coding Dojo , MakerSquare and Hack Reactor . From a CS major to an event planner, these bootcamp graduates give you a snapshot of what makes each coding school and experience unique. FVC Productions - Fullstack Academy A female computer science major? Yep! And she just completed ...
Nick Toscano
Nick Toscano
Updated September 08, 2015
Move over tinsel town and make some space in the greater Los Angeles area for some of the finest coding programs in the country. While LA once paled in comparison to San Francisco when it came to the sheer quantity of bootcamps, we've seen a surge in LA coding bootcamps this year. There is a wide choice of code schools with campuses in LA's "Silicon Beach" that all bring a unique take on web development training. These schools are helping to support LA s eclectic collection of tech startups. ...
Liz Eggleston
Liz Eggleston
Updated May 14, 2015
Jeff Louie was a Physics and Econ double major at UC Davis who always had an interest in astronomy. After completing MakerSquare ’s San Francisco JavaScript bootcamp, Jeff continued his education as a Fellow before landing a position as a software engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory . We chat with Jeff about his coding bootcamp search, learning how to learn, and how much of Interstellar we should actually believe.   What did you study in college? ...

MakerSquare Alumni Reviews Summary

Overall Experience
4.4
Instructors
4.5
Curriculum
4.4
Job Assistance
4.3
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More Information
Guarantees Job
Job Assistance
Includes Housing
Offers Corporate Training
Accepts GI Bill
Licensing
Approved and Regulated by the Texas Workforce Commission—Career Schools and Colleges
FAQs

How much does MakerSquare cost?

The average bootcamp costs $14,142, but MakerSquare does not share pricing information. You can read a cost-comparison of other popular bootcamps!

What courses does MakerSquare teach?

MakerSquare offers courses like .

Where does MakerSquare have campuses?

Is MakerSquare worth it?

MakerSquare hasn't shared alumni outcomes yet, but one way to determine if a bootcamp is worth it is by reading alumni reviews. 89 MakerSquare alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed MakerSquare on Course Report - you should start there!

Is MakerSquare legit?

We let alumni answer that question. 89 MakerSquare alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed MakerSquare and rate their overall experience a 4.41 out of 5.

Does MakerSquare offer scholarships or accept the GI Bill?

Right now, it doesn't look like MakerSquare 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 MakerSquare reviews?

You can read 89 reviews of MakerSquare on Course Report! MakerSquare alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed MakerSquare and rate their overall experience a 4.41 out of 5.

Is MakerSquare accredited?

Approved and Regulated by the Texas Workforce Commission—Career Schools and Colleges

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