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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.
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, MakerSquare hosts a variety of interactive events like mentorship night, weekly Makerstories sessions, Demos 'n' Drinks nights, hackathons, and career prep events. MakerSquare hosts a Career Day at the end of every class and also provides ongoing graduate career support to help students get interviews with partner companies. MakerSquare is looking for students who are passionate, tenacious, curious, patient and critical thinkers.
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...
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 MakerSquare is ran by a very small staff and they take in a lot of students. You'll only get a job if you work extremely hard for it and don't give up after over 100 companies turn you down. It might also be a shitty job: a contract job at a start-up that's going nowhere, or an internship. For the amount you pay, you’d expect to be getting focused attention from JavaScript experts, but really, you’re left on your own most of the time to figure things out for yourself.
Your experience at MakerSquare is broken up into two parts:
I’ll break my experience up and rate them by pieces:
1) Curriculum: Almost 100% of the information is taught in the first 6 weeks. 85% of the time, they are video lectures. Most of these video lectures are times pre-recorded lessons that were given at Hack Reactor, so they are very long, sometimes unorganized, and interrupted with long pauses while the instructor waits for someone to give the correct answer. Some of these videos are actually PowerPoints you scroll through. While the curriculum does a good job of exposing you to many topics you need to know to become an engineer, the presentation was very low-par compared to what I expected for the money. EVERY SINGLE ONLINE LEARNING WEBSITE, from egghead.io to Lynda.com to CodeSchool to CodeAcademy, had much, much better videos that were easier to understand.
A few times, we would get live, very short (think 15 mins) lectures from the instructors, both of whom sometimes lacked subject expertise and could not answer certain questions when students asked them. There was a lot of “Let me get back to you on that” because the instructors simply weren’t senior level teachers or experts themselves. Sometimes, they would even teach us something incorrect, leaving the smartest students in the class to correct the teacher. Groan.
There was also no lessons at all on BackBone.js or Express.js, or React, or CSS, unit testing, the latter of which is crucial to getting your foot in the door at a tech company.
Since the answers to these sprint projects were video-recorded, you’re not able to ask questions when something confuses you. They are long videos, about 50mins-1hr, and they are not organized, there is no order, and they are not broken up into chunks which make them hard to follow. The online video system they use to show you the video is very poor and would often break, skip or reload. They would ask us to write questions we had in a spreadsheet so our class could discuss them with the teacher during a 15-min session, which was a sloppy, ineffective way to get answers.
Even though they are video lectures, you cannot watch them from home because they limit your access to them to protect their materials.
Oh, and you never, ever get any of your code graded by the staff. Nobody looks at your code except you and your partner, so good luck building your expertise or learning from your mistakes when none of the teachers corrects them for you.
Grade: C
Verdict: While they cover a good number of important topics, the pre-recorded live lectures and limited teacher time makes you wonder if you could have better learned it all using online options like egghead and Lynda, whose videos are much more polished.
2) Staff
MakerSquare has an extremely small staff and they run MakerSquare like a true start-up. In the middle of our program, our teacher (who wasn’t that knowledgable anyways) left for good because they opened a MKS in LA and he likes LA better than SF. So for the rest of the time, the other guys cycled in, but you could tell they were not prepared to teach us.
MakerSquare has about 2 teachers, 2 people running the school, 1 career person, an admissions person. Their staff is extremely small for the 50~60 students that are there, and you can feel it. During the last 7 weeks I was in the program, I received personal attention from a teacher for only 2 hours. Once is during a 1-hour mock interview and another is during a whiteboarding session. But I expected more, much more for the money.
MKS tries to make up for it by having 4-5 “teaching fellows”. These fellows are simply students who just finished the program, and stay at MKS to teach and continue building their knowledge. These are the only people who you can call on for help while working on your sprints or projects. But that’s the thing, these fellows have barely finished the program themselves, and whom, 12 weeks before, were simply applicants to MKS. They aren’t highly trained staff, so many times they weren’t able to answer questions when you’re stuck because they don’t have any experience teaching.
The staff acts like they care about feedback. Once every week, there is an hour-long feedback session where you can give feedback on the school. While the feedback was important, it often became a place for staff to make excuses for why their super selective and expensive school was being ran so poorly and has so few resources.
Grade: C-
Verdict: Ran like a true lean start-up, you are nothing but a number to the limited few who work here.
3) Career Services
What Career Services(CS)? The CS guy told us that the job search is a numbers game, that on average for every 100 job applications you turn in, expect to get at most 2 job offers. Uhm, what?!
We had an hiring day, where about 10 companies came and we showed them our projects, but many of them dropped out at the last moment, and only a few of us actually got follow-up interviews from the hiring day. Only 2 out of 20 of us got jobs from a company at Hiring Day. The rest of the time, it was on us to turn in applications. While the CS guy did help give feedback on our resumes, that was about it. They really didn’t have any advice except “keep your pipeline full”. I expected much more from how they market the program, that they could help connect us to companies who were looking for people looking to move into engineering, but this wasn’t true.
Grade: D+
Verdict: While they pitch their program as a school-to-hire pipeline, any job you get is a result of your own hard work. Their career/job listings portal with Hack Reactor is worthless… nobody heard back from any of those companies.
Location:
MakerSquare Is located in the bustling Financial District of San Francisco. It’s easy to get to by BART, and there are a lot of good restaurants in the area. The actual campus needs some work. Most of the chairs in the classroom are made of fabric and attached to the carpet, so they’re uncomfortable. The space is way too small for the amount of students that they are packing into the program. The men’s restroom gets pretty dirty and the toilet overflowed several times due to the number of men using it. There are a few comfortable couches but you can’t use your laptop on them, and there’s a kitchen with an eating area as well.
Grade: B-
Here’s the pros and cons:
PROS:
CONS:
OVERALL GRADE: D+
I was a student in LA back in Jan 2016-March 2016. I graduated with a $95k base salary with benefits that exceed $120k (like paid lunches, ubers to and from work, health+vision+dental, bonuses + monthly paid out profit sharing of $1000 [untaxed] per month). So if you're questioning whether it works or not, it definitely works from my perspective. I was nervous at first when taking the dive - afterall $17-18k is a lot to trust in a school that is less than a decade old. But that's a better ...
I was a student in LA back in Jan 2016-March 2016. I graduated with a $95k base salary with benefits that exceed $120k (like paid lunches, ubers to and from work, health+vision+dental, bonuses + monthly paid out profit sharing of $1000 [untaxed] per month). So if you're questioning whether it works or not, it definitely works from my perspective. I was nervous at first when taking the dive - afterall $17-18k is a lot to trust in a school that is less than a decade old. But that's a better option than paying anyhwre from $65-200k on a 4 year degree. The dollar per time spent is a much higher value.
As I like to say: you take YOUR brain (no one else's) to job interviews, so it's your responsibility for what is inside it by the time you start your job search after the program. Like anything in life, you are responsible for what you know and what you don't. Anyone who expects to passively take the 12 week course and get good offers floodiing in afterwards without a spiffy online portfolio and stories of lessons learned while building applications during the program are fooling themselves. After you're done, you need to hunt for your livelihood in the real world - and it's a game of selling your skills and negotiating for the best offer after your time spent learning during the program.
While at Makersquare (hack reactor) you will need to put in 8-12 hrs per day to gain the skills necessary to earn a job in the field. Tha'ts what's great though - Makersquare gives you the focused cirriculum and support needed during the uncertain time of learning a trade to get you from novice to professional. If you learn on your own, it's hard to tell what is a waste of time and what will actually help you gain professional profficiency. For this guidance - Makersquare (aka hack reactor now) is very valuable. The students you are with are equally motivated to learn and they will help you discover tools / tricks of the trade. You will undoubtedly give back to them too with your unique perspective.
A lot of people complain about the video lectures, and that makes sense. The video lectures are just about as good as you can get online (if not as good). But that's not really the point of going to a bootcamp. The real value you gain is from struggling on real projects during the program using modern javsacript/(fontend and backend) frameworks and tools with real people who know more or less the same amount about software engineering as you do. You can't rely on someone who is more knoweldgable than you to get things done (just like the real world). You make mistakes, you get lost, and you learn through collective struggle. My brain hurt a lot through all 12 weeks. It felt like that ache that you get in my muscles after I work out, but in my brain. Through this process, I became a better individual problem sovler, and a better teammate.
As for career advice, i think the program was lacking here - but at the same time the confidence and negotiation tactics (aka learning the bravado necessary to make $100K/yr demands from employers) I got from the program did help me. They basically taught me how to look past the BS that recruiters will tell you, and how to defer saying a number first when negotiating for a salary (and what to ask for aka 100k/yr). I quickly learned while on the job search that recruiters are basically amateurs that dont know how to code that assume that they know everything about tech. It's best to avoid them, because they suffer from the Dunning Kreuger effect worst of all (which sadlly, we all suffer from but have to recognize in ourselves). They trick themselves into thinking they know what companies value, when in reality, they dont truly know what it takes to provide value to these companies (or else they would know how to code).
Anyway, I've talked too much already. In my opinion, you should do it because it lead to a great path for me. But if you're that baller that you can learn software engineering all on your own (see Dunning Kreuger effect) then by all means, go it alone. I'm proud to say this program helped me, and I dont need to listen to anyone else that doubts.
I was in the 3rd Cohort at MakerSquare back when they still taught Ruby on Rails and JS. The main thing I can say is it is well worth it in terms of value. Learned everything I needed to to get a job at a company I had always dreamed of working at. As far as the job placement / interview process it was definitely rough at times during the tech interview part, but overall not that much worse then when I first got out of College with my batchelor's degree. Also I am sure their connectio...
I was in the 3rd Cohort at MakerSquare back when they still taught Ruby on Rails and JS. The main thing I can say is it is well worth it in terms of value. Learned everything I needed to to get a job at a company I had always dreamed of working at. As far as the job placement / interview process it was definitely rough at times during the tech interview part, but overall not that much worse then when I first got out of College with my batchelor's degree. Also I am sure their connections have gotten a lot better since I graduated.
My name is Brian Boyko - you can reach me at brian.boyko@gmail.com, so you know I'm a real person, real student, real everything.
I'm going to give an unqualified, enthusiastic recommendation for MakerSquare.
But, you have to come into MakerSquare with the attitude that you are there to learn. You will be coached and pushed along by your peers and your instructors, but you only get out of the course what you put into it.
And yes, you do need to *actually ...
My name is Brian Boyko - you can reach me at brian.boyko@gmail.com, so you know I'm a real person, real student, real everything.
I'm going to give an unqualified, enthusiastic recommendation for MakerSquare.
But, you have to come into MakerSquare with the attitude that you are there to learn. You will be coached and pushed along by your peers and your instructors, but you only get out of the course what you put into it.
And yes, you do need to *actually like* coding. This is important: I think that the promise of bootcamps is not that "anyone can code" but that the potential for learning to be a good coder can be found in unlikely places. I'm kind of a "prototypical" example: Before MakerSquare I was a liberal arts major and marketing consultant who thought he could never program because he was "bad at math", and had even tried to major in programing in the 1990s, only to be told by professors that I'd never succeed.
But I always had an analytical mind, and if it wasn't for a (crazy) few life events, I never would have learned I had the talent, never would have gone to MakerSquare... never would be where I am now: an engineer.
That said, it *is* possible to do everything in MakerSquare with something like FreeCodeCamp. I actually like and recommend FreeCodeCamp for just about anyone considering a bootcamp program. But there are a few things that MakerSquare offers that FCC doesn't:
* Free Code Camp is almost always done by one person, themselves. MakerSquare is structured so that the first half is dedicated to pair programming. Both FCC and MS will teach you the technical stuff, but MakerSquare also makes sure you can communicate those ideas to your partners and teammates.
* Free Code Camp relies entirely on self-discipline. That can be difficult for many. MakerSquare's structure and required attendance helps you stay on track.
* MakerSquare prepares you for the job search, giving you guidance and advice for how to present yourself to employers, as well as lifetime career support.
Here's my thought: If you're on the fence about joining a bootcamp, go to FreeCodeCamp.com and give it a try. If you hate coding, you just found out for free that it isn't for you.
If you are self-motivated enough to do it and have all the projects: Great! You saved a lot of money. If you are happy doing this kind of work but maybe don't have the self-motivation? That's where MakerSquare can help out.
Ultimately, I consider MakerSquare one of the most transformative experiences of my life.
I recently graduated from MakerSquare and received employment about 1.5 months after. More than just the curriculum, which was excelllent, the big thing I noticed about MakerSquare was that the instructors all care about the students and help in any way they can. They know that bootcamps are stressful and they offer any support they can.
If you're willing to put in the time it's definitely worth it. That Ricky Walker sure is a dreamboat.
This Review is about the initial phaze of getting into the Fullstack Immersive program in NYC.
I recently just started the process of getting into Makersquare Fullstack Immersive program in NYC. I was really impressed with the clarity of the steps, and the resources available to bring you up to par with what starting the program requires. They, not only provide you with the guide that you need, but also provide free workshops, so you that you can get a feeling of what the program...
This Review is about the initial phaze of getting into the Fullstack Immersive program in NYC.
I recently just started the process of getting into Makersquare Fullstack Immersive program in NYC. I was really impressed with the clarity of the steps, and the resources available to bring you up to par with what starting the program requires. They, not only provide you with the guide that you need, but also provide free workshops, so you that you can get a feeling of what the program is about. I am starting today the MakerPrep: Introduction to JavaScrip that lasts about 1 month, 3 days a week.
Although, I haven't finished the program yet, I have to say that of all the other coding bootcamps that I applied to in NYC, Makersquare has definitely been the best. I took one of the free workshops offered bt the school, and I loved it. The day following the free workshop, I signed up for a tour of the school, I was lucky enough to be given the tour by Omar Mohammed, who up to this day, has provided me with excellent guidance, as well as providing me with info about all the tools available by the school in super sincere manner, going above and beyond to help me. I also got to meet and speak with Tyler Lamber, who is the Managing Director. He is unbelieably friendly, and you can feel his possitive energy, and his willingness to make you feel warm and at home. Mr. Lambe was also present during the free workshop, overseeing the lecture, and helping prospect students with questions, and inquires about the program.
I applied to some of the most popular coding bootcamps in NYC, and in most of these programs, everything has been more of a guessing game, and a gruesome and lenghty process, leaving you frustrated most of the time, with little or no guidance on the application process, with the exception of very few. This is where MakerSquare in my opinion, so far, succeeds, and exceeds. I am looking forward to finishing the program, and provide a more comprehensive review. I highly suggest that you start out by trying Makersquare.
Great experience, even though I had to drive almost 2 hours every day it was worth being around an awesome group. The people are the difference here. The curriculum was challenging, but the staff, especially the fellows, were supportive and helped get me get through technical and non-technical challenges. The job support after graduation was effective, I had my first offer after 4 weeks. My suggestion to job seekers is to not apply to their first choice positions at the beginning of the se...
Great experience, even though I had to drive almost 2 hours every day it was worth being around an awesome group. The people are the difference here. The curriculum was challenging, but the staff, especially the fellows, were supportive and helped get me get through technical and non-technical challenges. The job support after graduation was effective, I had my first offer after 4 weeks. My suggestion to job seekers is to not apply to their first choice positions at the beginning of the search. Even though we did mock interviews and whiteboarding during the class, I underperformed on my first few interviews and I wish I would have gotten that practice for a position I was less excited about. At the end of the day, I'm at a company I like with a salary that is far beyond what I was making before so everything worked out.
Makersquare is hands down one of the best experiences I've ever had. The awesome community built upon an already awesome community is what makes this bootcamp so special. From the initial moment you see your classmates faces on day one, you know you're in for a unforgettable ride. Furthermore, the instructors and staff are genuinely excited to meet you and assist you on your path to a software engineer.
But to describe Makersquare in a few words, it's almost like an intricate and...
Makersquare is hands down one of the best experiences I've ever had. The awesome community built upon an already awesome community is what makes this bootcamp so special. From the initial moment you see your classmates faces on day one, you know you're in for a unforgettable ride. Furthermore, the instructors and staff are genuinely excited to meet you and assist you on your path to a software engineer.
But to describe Makersquare in a few words, it's almost like an intricate and beautiful timepiece with numerous parts working together to achieve one common goal. Cheesy I know, but it's honestly how my experience felt like.
Almost all the pieces of this program are present in order to craft you into a software engineer: top of the line instructors, equipment, and community. But it can't finish the job until it has the last missing component, your endless hunger to learn and improve. You have to go beyond 100%. The moment you step out of your comfort zone and solve a problem, you're hooked. You look forward to the next day of being bombarded with unknown alien code and jargon for 10 hours because you know the feeling is amazing once you figure it out. If you stay hungry and are genuinely curious about the full spectrum of web development, then the program will take care of you because it did for me.
I'd like to preface this review with this: If you are not ready to work and give a school 110%, MakerSquare might not be the place for you. Though it is only 3 months, It definitely takes a lot out of you. But what you get in return is much more than I could have ever imagined.
The staff was amazing. So many resources there to help you in constructive ways. Instead of giving flat answers, they worked with you until you would came up with the correct logic to the puzzle.
...I'd like to preface this review with this: If you are not ready to work and give a school 110%, MakerSquare might not be the place for you. Though it is only 3 months, It definitely takes a lot out of you. But what you get in return is much more than I could have ever imagined.
The staff was amazing. So many resources there to help you in constructive ways. Instead of giving flat answers, they worked with you until you would came up with the correct logic to the puzzle.
One of the toughest challenges in learning any programming language is getting passed the basics. Learning where and how to take that next step can take years. At MakerSquare, within a month I was learning advanced concepts, bleeding edge frameworks and technologies, and solving complex algorithms on a daily basis.
Upon completion of the program, I felt very prepared in every aspect for my future career as a Software Developer. Not only did I have the required technical and interview skills, but I learned how to properly work in a team to develop dynamic applications.
I was able to land an amazing job within about a month of graduating the course. It was the best career move I could have ever made.
10/10 would learn JavaScript again
As a graduate of MKS27 I had a very good experience overall. My main purpose in writing this review though is to not rehash all the stuff you've already read about them, but maybe offer some encouragement for a different group that might be considering applying.
I think alot of the reviews are coming from the type of person you're likely to see at Makersquare, namely "unmarried, 20 somethings, that have some college or a less useful college degree". All in all they are great...
As a graduate of MKS27 I had a very good experience overall. My main purpose in writing this review though is to not rehash all the stuff you've already read about them, but maybe offer some encouragement for a different group that might be considering applying.
I think alot of the reviews are coming from the type of person you're likely to see at Makersquare, namely "unmarried, 20 somethings, that have some college or a less useful college degree". All in all they are great people, hell they were me 10 years ago, but how many more reviews can you read from that same person.
I was not the typical MKS student. I'm married with two children and was looking for a better future for my family. If you are concerned about something similar, just know it's doable. Budget, plan accordingly, lean on your family and friends, and just knock it out.
The rest is like everyone says, namely it works. Yes it can be difficult at times, but you learn enough to land a job relatively quickly that pays pretty well.
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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