New York Code + Design Academy

I am graduate of the Software Engineering Intensive June 2018 program. Because of this program, I was able to successfully pivot careers and get a Front End Engineer position a month after completion with zero past coding experience.

What I love most about NYCDA is the community, which is perhaps the most important asset you can have as someone new to tech. It's a very laid-back yet still incredibly ambitious and dedicated group of people at NYCDA. You will not only have a classroom of people going through the same thing as you, you will also have a staff of people dedicated to your success. 

My success coach, Sam Lubin, was very much invested in our learning and post-program success. Sam provided critical feedback on my resumes, LinkedIn profiles, and portfolios. Perhaps most importantly, he sat down with me to do mock interviews which really, really prepared me for real-life interviews (so much so that in real interviews, I was even being asked the same questions that he prepped me for). He was such an invaluable resource - even providing answers to questions  such as, "what should I wear to this interview," or, "how should I reply to this recruiter." I attribute a lot of my post-program success -- getting and nailing interviews -- because of his assistance. 

  My instructor, Michael Lawrence, was a fantastic teacher. He is a self-taught programmer, so he provided a number of helpful insights on processes to best learn. Moreover, he taught us many things off curriculum that you probably wouldn't be able to learn otherwise on your own. He made programming very accessible and his teaching style really helped me nail down the technical part of coding. 

The program itself was very regimented and project-focused, which was a really great way to for me to learn and develop my skills as a programmer. If you really dedicate your time and effort, you will walk away with a really great portfolio of projects which will help you land that next career.

I wish I would've done this sooner.  I was reluctant at first to make the foray into an intimidating and new industry, but NYCDA really made it possible. 

tldr; Recommend. 10/10. A++. Would do again. 

True passion and focus for the students was unmistakably genuine with the two professionals I interacted the most with.

First, my instructor Cam not only went above and beyond the baseline criteria  needed to get us through the course but also promoted immense support and critical thinking. He was always patient, professional and taking his own personal time (as much as he could) to help. He would even put together additional mini lessons if anyone was stuck on a concept or challenges to help us apply a newly learned topic. Would not have been the same without him.

Jumping from a career in veterinary medicine, I was slightly nervous regarding job placement in the tech world. Nicole was the perfect solution. I never had a success coach available to me until Nicole but if I were to imagine the perfect person for this title, she would fit the profile in every way. Nicole truly exhibits a love for her job and was always great at staying on top of the students in orider to ensure we were on the right track. Even after I graduated, she would be the one checking up to see how I was doing and if I needed help with anything; truly amazing at her job. 

NYCDA completely changed my life. I've spent over a decade working in bars and catering, barely scraping by, struggling to make rent. Today I signed an offer letter to start a new career as a developer!

The course was one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life but also the most rewarding. I had Cam Crews as an instructor and he was amazing. He didn't just have us memorize code and spit it back out. He taught us how to learn. Going forward I know I'll never run into a challenge I can't solve because of the way Cam taught us how to attack problems and learn new skills.

I graduated in August and just got this offer in January. The five-month job hunt was longer than I had hoped, but the whole way through it I had my career advisor Nicole Arndt supporting me and helping me find new opportunities. She introduced me to my new employer! I can't imagine having to go through this process without having Nicole on my team. She is tireless and dedicated in a way that can't be over-expressed. I really owe this new life of mine to her.

Taking this course is a commitment to changing your future. It is grueling and exhausting and sometimes painful. I probably spent about 50-60 hours a week in the building for the three months I was in class. But if you commit and do the work, the staff at NYCDA will show up and work just as hard, if not harder, for you. If you are ready to work and dedicate yourself to your future, then I can't recommend this course enough.

I had a great time during my Web Developement Intensive course! My instructor David was amazing, as was our TA Ro. The cirriculum tought me the basics of what was needed to become a professional web developer. More importantly, I learned how to think like a programmer, and how to learn programming concepts. I'm currently a React Native engineer. React Native wasn't a part of the cirriculum, but I felt confident in my ability to learn because I had gotten so much support and learned the fundamentals which carry over into anything. 

After graduation NYCDA continued to support me. Nicole gave me great advice and was invaluable in reviewing my resume, portfolio, and all the things I needed to start my job search. She also helped preparing for interviews, which really helped, and when it came time to interview nothing really surprised me and I felt ready. 

tldr; Take this course

I took the New York Code + Design Academy intensive coarse this summer and it was the best experience I have ever had in a schooling environment. My instructor Casey was incredible, always willing to work through frustrations and difficulties until I fully understood why something was not working the way I had intended. I would recommend this coarse to anyone who is interested in learning code, here you will not only learn full stack web development, but even more importantly you will learn to learn code.

I am an alumn of the third cohort of the New York City Tech Talent Pipeline Residency @ Queens College. It is a four-month program that provides exposure to professional opportunities in tech for computer science majors. Upon completion of an initial four week web development and job readiness course, delivered on-campus by an instructor from the New York Code + Design Academy, participants begin a paid internship at leading NYC businesses in web and mobile development roles and connection to job opportunities post-graduation.
 

As a student tranisitioning from academia to the workforce, the process was grueling, arduous, and daunting.  However, NYCDA made the experience just a little less painful. It was comforting knowing I always had someone to turn to (whether it be Amanda, Nicole, Maddy, Krystal, or any of their various instructors) throughout the various setbacks and rejections I inevitably encountered. They motivated and inspired me when I lacked the confidence to do it myself. The individualized, one-on-one attention that their career coaches provided allowed us to know where my strengths/weaknesses where.  Too often, people in the industry turn a blind eye/ear to the people looking to enter the workforce. NYCDA took the time to listen to me no matter how busy they might have been.

I personally had a great expierience with Nick he was very knowledgable and was very good at explaining how to develop websites and explain how different applications of code work with web development.

Josh was also very goo dat connecting us (as students) with the community and potencial employers.  It made me personally feel very good that I actually found work in coding before I even graduated and he helped me look up potencial questions that they may want to ask me.

Thank you for all of your help guys!

I attended the Web Developement Intensive course and had a great experience. The curriculum was fast paced, but our instructor was good enough that he was able to challenge those who were catching on the most quickly, while spending more time with those who were not. 

I only wish that there was a little more emphasis on pushing our websites to production. We only spent a short time on that, and after the class was over, I struggled remembering/solving problems that I encountered trying to push my own projects to production. 

I would like to share my personal experience after taking course. Before that, I had no programming skills and my field of activity was not related to technologies. Nevertheless, I decided to change my life and take an intensive course in web development, which I do not regret, and moreover, I am very grateful to NYCDA. I liked very much how everything is organized in the academy, from filling out an application to graduation and job search. I am especially grateful for the help of my instructor, who was conducting this course, Cam Crews. I advise to everyone who is thinking about taking this course try to get into his group. Big thanks for the help of Krystal Kaplan, who takes the position of Outcomes Coordinator. Her advices on writing a resume and personal website were very helpful. I would like to  recommend to everyone not to miss her classes and follow her advices which definetly will help in job search, because I was able to find a job as a web developer right after taking this course. During my studies I not only gained knowledge and a specialty, but I also found new friends. So once again I want to express my great gratitude for such a friendly atmosphere and professional approach!

I took this class with a career change in mind - I wanted to become a full-stack web developer - and I was actually hired by a startup before the class was even over (initially as a freelancer, brought on as a salaried employee a few months later). It's important to put this in context - I had been working as a self-taught web developer for about 2.5 years before starting this class - I had a pretty solid grasp of the basics and could build simple apps in a LAMP stack and hack my way through a Ruby on Rails app, but I was really lacking a sense of best practices, and found frontend frameworks (ReactJS, Angular) to be hard to grasp. I decided to take this class because I was getting a lot of job interviews (I had a good-looking portfolio with a few production apps) but was flopping during the interviews themselves.  Even though this class effectively started from square one and I was already a more moderately-experienced dev, I wanted to break myself down and start from scratch.

After the first few weeks, I felt that the class was moving at a good pace for me - perhaps a little too fast for some of my classmates who were not as experienced and didn't quite have the contextual understanding that I had, but the teacher and the TAs made a point to provide a lot of opportunities for extra help.  I have two main criticisms of the class itself -

1. There were not a lot of assignments. Mainly, we focused on three large projects. Personally, I was ok with this - I was working a full-time job while taking this class, and honestly wouldn't have had time for much more than this, but I feel like a class like this would benefit from little things like a daily coding challenge or something along those lines, especially for people who are just starting out.

2. Code testing is a very important skill and, although we did investigate a few testing tools, we didn't really address how to effectively build them into a development process. But, for what it's worth, this may reflect trends in the 'real' world as well - testing gets a lot of lip service, but I'm not sure how many people actually do it (so far, at my new job, I have not seen anyone implement any sort of test... oh well).

Those critiques out of the way, I'd have to say that everything about my experience at NYCDA was positive. This class emphasizes developement in a Node/React environment, which is really what you want to be studying right now. Other bootcamps are still focusing on Ruby on Rails, which seems to be rapidly fading from popularity (as all techs eventually do... but why study something that's already on the way out?). The staff at NYCDA is genuinely invested in your success - Krystal Kaplan (of the Career Services department) makes an active effort to get involved with the students early on in the program and stays involved all the way through (and after) the class.  She really got to know all of the students from the class, and was constantly involved with us - helping with resumés, talking about interview skills, passing along oppurtunities and news.

Overall, this class significantly boosted my professionalism - now I feel like I actually know what I'm doing!  I found the listing for my new job on the NYCDA job posting board, and I aced the interview process because of the skills I built here.  Is it possible to give a better endorsement than that?  Well, maybe - most of the other students in my class had little to no development experience, but six months later, I can honestly say that I was completely floored by the amazing final projects that they had all built - every single person in my class produced amazing work.  Great job students, faculty, and administration!

When I decided to do a career change and learn web development, choosing from the various bootcamps and programs in NYC was a bit daunting. Choosing NYCDA was the best choice I've ever made. The school is small and warm, and it truly does feel like family. David was my instructor, and I can say that he was really supportive and was always available to help and provide resources whenever I asked. Krystal is a fantastic success coach and really took the time during and after the program to make sure I was well prepared for interviews and provided me with the resources I needed.

One of the many things I love about the school is the support you receive from all the alumni, staff, instructors and teaching assistants. Everyone is always available for advice, help or just to chat. You never ever feel like just one more student or just a number. 

Remember, a bootcamp is just a place to gain the foundations you need to become a developer. Whatever YOU put into it is what you'll get out. If you choose NYCDA you are doing more than just learning "how to learn", you are receiving a lot of support from everyone at the school and you will be part of a caring community. 

TLDR:  Don’t enroll in UX programs at NYCDA,  they are great sales people but awful teachers.  

 

I recently withdrew early from the UX immersive program.  I have never been more disappointed with an experience at a school, which is why I felt compelled to write this, even after receiving a full refund.  Keep in mind that I left a good high paying job for this program, and I can’t immediately find another high paying job.  So I have lost income and greatly disrupted my life to go to a sham of a school for five weeks. 

 

I feel like the school actually lied to me about the nature of the program, such as material that would be covered, and the way in which it would be conducted.  I was told this program was a very competitive program, that would have me ready for a UX career in three months.  I currently work as a designer in fashion, so I felt like an intense program for a few months would be a good investment.  I was told that I would be in class with other professionals looking to transition their careers, and candidates were rigorously screened due to the intense nature of the program.  I considered this important as I knew these programs entail a large amount of group work. I was also told that there would be a foundations program to get everyone up to speed.  However most students weren’t “up to speed” and the class began on a very very basic introductory level.  It seems that my foundations program wasn’t even reviewed by anyone at the school, and my teacher, Jimmy Chandler wasn’t even sure what was covered in this program we all had to complete before day 1.

 

I was assured that the course would start to speed up, but it actually slowed down after my teacher gave his very basic introduction slides to UX.  He progressively lectured less and less.  His two hour slide presentation, became a 45 minute slide presentation, and one day he had some allergies and just put on a video for an hour.   The rest of the day we were meant to work in groups, but we didn’t have much work to do at all, so after finishing our work we would try to learn on our own or just socialize.  Although there often wasn’t much to do, Jimmy required us to stay the whole day for a fifteen minute wrap up at the end of the day.  This entailed everyone to go around the room and say what they learned that day, it only took fifteen minutes because we struggled to think of anything.  At $15,000 for a three month program, I was effectively paying $250 a day.  When I signed up for this program Jason Poole, an advisor from the school, told me this full time program was a great deal because I was effectively paying less per hour for the instructor’s time.  They also had an evening program that was less expensive, but also less hours.  I have an email from him where he breaks down the price per hour of instruction in each program.  However my teacher didn’t actively teach most of the day.  He regularly took meetings during the day, left with saying nothing, ate his lunch during class time, or just blankly stared at his computer.  

 

Furthermore Jason Poole advised me that html and css would be integrated into our program. However, on receiving my syllabus I saw it was only a few days in week 9.  Upon arriving to class Jimmy Chandler advised us that he actually moved it to the last week of class because he had a conference he would be missing class for, and would be having someone else teach a workshop.  The average job in UX requires knowledge of html and css, so I was extremely disappointed that this would only be a small part of the program at the very end.  My success coach advised me to learn on my own through tutorials, which I immediately began.  I don’t expect a school to teach you everything, but when something is promised in a sales pitch….. is this allowed?  Who is policing NYCDA and other bootcamps to follow through on the promises that they make students. 

 

While nothing is a guarantee and I was clear that NYCDA wasn’t a staffing agency, they also didn’t seem to have much in terms of career/job resources.  My success coach was a former student, who worked in theater and as a tutor, but didn’t seem to have any professional experience at all.  Every week we had to do a lengthy assignment where we filled out paperwork regarding our personality, career goals, and did research on the industry.  All were templates he gave us were things pulled from the internet.  I didn’t receive any feedback on these assignments.  Their slack job channel seemed full of internships.  I had no idea how I was going to take the little that we were learning, and materialize it into skills that would elevate my career.  

 

I filled out a formal complaint, and spoke with several advisors at the school.  Everyone seemed sympathetic to me, but no one knew how to make the situation better.  They didn’t have resources to get another more competent teacher in quickly, and it didn’t seem that Jimmy Chandler was going to suddenly become more knowledgeable.  Finally someone from a remote office in Florida emailed me and asked me to call them.  She said if I left that very day I could have all of my money back, but if I stayed I would be obligated to pay the full $15,000 as I was past the drop date.  They wanted me out and fast.  So I took my money and I left. 

I will go chronologically. First, the onboarding was terrible! Not even an introduction email with some basic instructions, there were not even instructions on where the course is being held and most of us arrived to a wrong location where they did a presentation but was not the actual place of the course, when we finally arrived the teacher literally said open your text editor and start executing programs we didn't even know they exist. The teacher was ok and was really pushing us to do stuff (which is good) but was lacking of experience like a lot and then we switched to another teacher, one that was the other way around, he's been prograamimng since a young age, has LOTS of experience, knowledge and get things do amazingly good but as a teacher, bad like really bad. The entire time was just looking at him doing stuff, always late and could never follow the structure that he made (bc he didn't like NYCDA structure), we ended up graduating with just a final project in our github and many topics were left aside and from the academy itself... careless, the person in charge of Amsterdam operations left in the middle of the course, classrooms were absolutely disgusting, sometimes even locked down and we had to use other disgusting rooms, at the very end of the course we finally hear from somebody in NY who offered support, she was actually very helpful but it was impossible to compensate with the lack of experience after the course, now I find myself trying to apply for jobs with a very poor portfolio and serious lack of skills.

Prior to enrolling in NYCDA's web intensive program I had ZERO programming knowledge. After the first two weeks with my teacher Orlando, I was already building confidence, learning the basics, and on my way to creating my first app!  Although challenging, and the instructors encourage you to find answers on your own, NYCDA gives you all the tools and vocabulary necessary to begin programming! You will surprise yourself after three months at NYCDA.

    In addition to learning how to program, NYCDA has a great career development team.  Nicole Arndt and Krystal Kaplan helped curate my resume, gave excellent mock interviews, schooled us on time managment, and showed us how to avoid interview pitfalls. 

I recommend starting your programming experience at NYCDA. 

I did the web development intensive class over the summer 2017. It was not only a great learning experience, it was also pretty fun. Our instructor David would give us challenging work and after big assignments we would play some fun games to relax. Going into this class, I knew I would struggle styling apps, I have NO artistic ability. Luckily, our TA Ro was a UI/UX guru and was able to help me make my projects look decent.

The course itself is not the most challenging out there. Many of the others will expect you to know some of the basics going in. One of the employees put it best 'It is a 0-60 bootcamp, while some of the others are 20-80.' That being said 4 of my 8 classmates dropped out, so you will need to have some skills. Surprisingly, some students didn't even look at any code prior to the class. You are paying good money and changing to a new career, do a bit of coding on teamtreehouse.com first and see if it is for you. The plan is to live with this choice for decades not 3 months!

The curriculum was a small complaint of mine. The slideshows were gross and unclear with little example code. David eventually was writing lessons of his own which were great. Although I had complaints, it is important to note that they were nearly finished with a new curriculum which supposedly rolls out in 2018. It sounds better since it is more focused on how you would work in a job, rather than making fun apps for yourself.

Job assistance was nice to me. Nicole was always ready with advice and gave us a lot of good tips for interviews and resumes. Don't expect them to get you a million interviews. They were able to get me one. The rest I had to find myself. But their advice/guidance was a big reason for those.

Don't expect a job out of the gate.  I was one of the lucky few that found a job pretty fast (2.5 months). Much of this had to do with the fact I had taught in public schools for 5 years so I had some work experience, I taught myself React for my final project which is currently in demand, and created another app after graduating (I strongly suggest this). I also know that many students stop coding after a month of so. You can't do that, employers literally know. 

I now work as a react developer in the city for a small company in NYC. Honestly, I got lucky to get a full time job this early. I know of many people still searching and working hard to get their feet off the ground. I am really happy I did the course and for those out there who are motivated, have tried some coding, and want to make a change. I strongly recommend NYCDA. 

If you have a duck phobia, be forwarned that this place has rubber ducks. I know it can be quite frightening. Especially when it gleams at you from across the desk as you ponderously work on your assigned project. Which you undoubtedly have spent many long hours on and will spend numerous more on.

Let me say right up front that before I took this course I already knew how to code and have been programming for many years. The reason I took this course was to get an understanding of how all the pieces fit together, and what technologies were being used by web developers. This course was to be a foundation on what one needs to know to excel at web development. 

It is important you understand where I come from and what I wanted out of this program. I have read numerous other reviews by similar programmers who bash the course for not delving deeper into the technical intricacies of web development. They are quite true in that regard, this course will not give you those details. What this course will do depends on where you are coming from. If you have never programmed before then this course is a great way to learn, you skip the comp-sci theory and jump right into making things which is extremely powerful. If you come into this program already knowing how to program (say you are a computer-science major) this is still value to be had. For the text book programmer, this is a great place, it can challenge you to learn new frameworks, langauges, and api's and then utilizing those skills right away. With that being said, if you are coming into this already knowing how to program then know that you are going to have to raise the bar your self on the challenges the course gives you. The assignments are pretty easy up front but there is plenty of room for you to take the extra mile.

tldr. good foundation for web development, great place for coding illiterate to learn, and experienced coders need to challenge them selves by doing more then what the assignments ask.

Once done with the course NYCDA does help with job placement. That is not to say they will get the job for you rather they will present you with opportunities to do so. I took the course in New York and the coordinator their Krystal Kaplan was a tremendous help. When I was moving back to PA she connected me with the coordinator there (Emily Jennings) who was an amazing help as well.

This place is a shit show. They are the epitome of unprofessional and do not exert any amount of effort for their students. As a student you will be constantly faced with teachers that don't care, zero transparency and blatant lack of response post graduation. They privately acknowledge that thier curriculum is outdated yet continue to enroll new students with no updates to the curriculum. I left this school feeling completely unprepared and have required a ton of additional work on my own post graduation. They have an entire department dedicated to Career Services which informs students of the importance to brush their teeth and shower before interviews. These recommendations were even written down on the board for visual representation........in other words if your in NYC please do not get fooled by the cheap prices spend the extra money and go elsewhere.

I was skeptical going into the class at first but was amazed how warm and friendy everybody was! Lynell was really easy to work with and helped me get started enrolling into class. Nick is an amazing instructor. He is really easy to work with and takes time to make sure you understand all the content. Big shout out to Josh for always hooking it up. He make's sure we are talking to all the big companies hiring web developers and always brings food! Overall this has been a life changing experience. I am very grateful for all the amazing friends I've made and I'll the skills I've learned to be a better developer.

NYCDA is Awesome, at first I was taking the Full time Web dev intensive and the instructor was great. I have learned more than I expected throughout the course but still got a lot to learn.  Unfortunately. I got really sick the last month and was sent to the hospital a couple times. So my attendance went down and I felt discourage. But NYCDA Admin worked with me and got a second chance to attend the Part time Web dev, I took this opportunity and didn't waste it. I am Very grateful, thank you. 

Hi everyone! I am a front end developer from Russia. Last summer I decided to combine business with pleasure, broaden my knowledge in UI/UX Design while improving my English. I read a lot of reviews about various bootcamps and chose the User Experience/User Interface Intensive at The New York Code + Design Academy. The New York City campus is located in the center of the Financial District, what I regarded as an advantage because it took me only about half an hour to reach the place by metro. Since the very first day, I was pleasantly surprised by the family atmosphere at the school, the friendly attitude of the staff, the comfort and coziness of the area and well-equipped classrooms. Our course instructor, Jimmy Chandler, is a great specialist in Interface design and a wonderful teacher whose lectures were cleverly structured and supplemented by activity tasks. It was really cool to chat with him about some new tech issues at the lunch breaks. Each week, NYCDA invited specialists in design to share their experience, ideas and new technologies with us. Meetings were held in a format of business lunch. Throughout the course, the school also organized extracurricular lectures in New York City museums.

To supplement our work in the course, the Outcomes Producer, Krystal Kaplan, provided the most informative lectures on self-presentation, going through the interview process and creating the perfect CV. She met one-on-one with each student to give them tailored recommendations. With Krystal’s help I managed to make important improvements into my personal website.

This bootcamp helped me discover this new field and made me a full stack developer. Now I know the all methods of researching in design and how I can use them. I learned how to conduct interviews and how to test prototypes. I completely mastered the Sketch and several  other apps for creating interactive prototypes. By the end of course I added three completed projects to my portfolio. Coming back to Russia I found a job at a global company. Apart from the professional benefits, I made many new friends. I want to sincerely thank all the people who were with me at that time - it was one the greatest experiences in my life!

Avoid this place at all costs. The course I took here was terrible. Unprofessional, badly taught, unclear, and often beset with many technical problems such as projectors not working, etc. Homework was practically non-existent, even though it was supposed to be weekly. I didn't come out of it feeling like I'd learned anywhere near enough to justify the high cost. The class numbers really dwindled toward the end. I'd estimate more than 50% of students dropped out within the first few weeks. 

I also had numerous problems with their billing department, who somehow could not get it together to take money from me. This part of NYCDA is really chaotic and disorganized. I ended up getting multiple "Your Payment is Past Due"-type emails from them spread over nearly a year after I signed up for the course. Very, very stressful. 

You're in NYC, there are far better coding schools than this. Go to them instead.

The time that I spent at NYCDA was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.  I came to NYCDA in the hopes of switching fields from elementary education to the tech industry, and that change would not have been an option for me without NYCDA.  The course was both rigorous and engaging, and the program’s learn-by-doing approach taught both necessary technical content and practical skills such as resourcefulness, logic, and analysis.  The instructor was knowledgeable and helpful, and the staff cares about their students.  After graduating, the staff has followed up with me regularly, offering job placement assistance.  I have already worked a contract position in Quality Assurance, and, because of NYCDA, I can now look forward to a career in an industry that I find interesting, challenging, and rewarding.  Thank you, NYCDA!

*Full Disclosure: After I graduated the Web Development Intensive course, I worked as a TA for several months before I landed my developer job.

First things first, everything everyone has said so far is valid, being on both sides of the course as a student and TA, I was fortunate enough to really get a full experience from both sides. There are people who come to NYCDA open, focused, confident, and love the environment and do very well and then there are people who come scared, anxious, not willing to follow instructions, are antagonistic, and wash out. There are also people who go from one end of the spectrum to the other. If you're seriously considering or thinking about attending, there are two important things you should consider, the coursework and career services. 

Let's talk career services. No offense to anyone who works career services at coding boot camps but from my experience, you can either get someone who is sincerely supportive, with your interests at heart or you get someone who will help you get the job. With that being said, you really get both from Krystal and the outcomes team at NYCDA. Krystal helped me get my shit together after I graduated NYCDA, helped me negotiate when I had job offers, and to this day I still get that A-1 career advice from her. I remember this one time when I was applying to companies and I asked her if she had a contact at a company I was seriously interested in. She actually ended up reviewing my resume with the CTO to figure out how to make me more marketable. Who else would do that for you? 

Now let's talk about the coursework. I was fortunate enough to have a great instructor ( Orlando ) and to work with great instructors ( Liza and Will ). BUT, I can totally understand the sentiment that former students had about their instructors/the curriculum. Recently, NYCDA has been fighting these issues and management seems to have been taking the school in the right direction. There is now a full-time team in place just to focus on developing the curriculum. In addition, the instructional staff has gotten more diverse in their backgrounds and they are excited to teach/mentor students. 

Here's the final takeaway from all this, I was an average student for the WDI course, became a better TA for the WD100, PTWDI, and WDI, and now I'm working my first job as a Front End Developer with a digital agency in New York City ( so it kind of worked out for me ). With that being said, I have nothing to gain from writing a positive or lengthy review, I just wanted to share an honest opinion. I had a great experience, I have no regrets, and at the end of the day I was surrounded by good, smart people and if you're willing to work hard what more can you ask for? 

 

NYCDA's Web Development Intensive is sometimes stressful, often frustrating, and 100% worth it. If your goal is to learn how to code, and to pursue a career in web development/software engineering, I couldn’t recommend NYCDA more highly. The instructors (I had Orlando), and Outcomes Coordinator (Krystal) work hard to put you in position to succeed, and to help you get the most out of yourself and the experience as a whole. Come ready to work, and this program is every bit as good as advertised.

Background - I had graduated from college in January, but realized I wanted to work in tech shortly after graduating. Needing a quick way to enter the field, I did a search for coding bootcamps after hearing about it from my friend in college. After looking at a few, I chose NYCDA for being one of the least, if not, the least expensive bootcamp as well as having noticed the friendliness of the staff at one of its Open Houses before I put my deposit. 

The Program - The 12-week program teaches you full-stack development, meaning you will learn both front-end (for visuals) and back-end (for functionality) programming. The typical day consisted of 2-3 hours of lecture, 1 hour of lunch, and then the rest of the day devoted to workshop to apply what was just learned or getting a head start on a project to be completed each week. The first 2 months were a little more strict on that schedule while the last month is mostly project based, so the schedule becomes less strict as you go on. The great thing about the curriculum is that while you will learn a core group of languages, the instructors are constantly thinking of ways to improve the curriculum so that you are well equipped with as many skills.  They also gave various presentations from different speakers in the industry to talk about design, job preparation, coding interview prep, and tech industry updates.

The People - I came in the program thinking that the people I would be learning with would not be that important to my experience, but that thought was quickly changed. I was in a cohort of about 20, and while most of us struggled during the course, there are multiple instructors there that do well in offerring support (both academically and emotionally). Many stayed after to get extra help to ensure they understood the material. I was blessed with awesome and talented peers of all different backgrounds (think college students to mid-llife career changers) and while it was slightly awkward to make friends in the first week, it eventually became so natural to ask anyone for advice or to talk to them about anything. The instructor, Orlando, made it clear what was needed to know for each lesson and frequently drew upon his 10+ years of programming experience to offer valuable advice about the industry. Krystal Kaplan, the Outcomes Coordinator, was an awesome resource for career readiness and helped me a lot personally in finding a job by providing job resources and resume/Linkedin/and portfolio website sessions. There are also multiple T.A.s to help tutor during or after class and even the program administrators introduce themselves at the beginning and make it clear that they are approachable for any questions as well.

Summary - It is a tough decision for anyone entering a bootcamp as people face uncertainty with how they will do or what will happen after you finish. I left with many transferable skills, friends I will talk to for probably the rest of my life, and an entry-level full-stack programming job 1 month after graduating. Even if it isn't your goal to get a job in tech, this program is great to learn a skillset that will help you immensely either for fun or for other job industries, but you must work diligently and not give up easily to understand what you are doing. The difference between NYCDA and other bootcamps is, besides being significantly less expensive, the friendly culture - you can talk to most anyone there knowing that they will gladly in any way help you in your journey to learn how to code.

Let’s face it, the U.S. economy sucks right now for young people.  We don’t live in the same era as our baby boomer parents did, where graduating with a B.A. in some worthless degree would still present you a plethora of job opportunities.  This isn’t the case anymore.  After making questionable career choices in the past, I decided that my career was in dire need of a reboot as badly as Batman’s film career did in 2005.  Pursuing a STEM career is one of the few (and best) choices a millennial could make in the current economic climate.

The New York Code + Design Academy is one of the less expensive options for a coding bootcamp in the NYC area.  While it doesn’t have the same prestige (yet) as The Flatiron School or Fullstack Academy, it provides a good education at a cheaper cost than other coding bootcamps in NYC.  You will learn enough programming languages and frameworks to call yourself a full-stack web developer at the end of the Web Development Intensive course, but expect to be more of a Jack of All Trades/Master of None type.  The school will offer you the basic skill-set, but it is up to you to keep refining your skills.  Look at what skills are in demand, and focus improving on those.

Do note that because you will be learning 2 years worth of computer science material in 3 MONTHS, this class is going to be INTENSE.  I was literally working on a homework assignment or project every day of the week, even showing up to school on weekends to get assistance from the TAs.  But at the end of the course, I felt like a champion.

The staff was pretty friendly and was always willing to lend a helping hand.  Krystal Kaplan, the Career Services coordinator, really cares about the students’ success.  We still keep in touch months after my graduation.  Some of the students in my class complained about the teaching methods of our classroom instructor.  However, one thing I noticed about this was that the students in question who complained the most were also having the toughest time in class to stay ahead, whereas the best students in class didn't say a word.  Crabs in a bucket mentality.

As far as job hunting goes, getting your foot in the door as a developer with 3 months of coding bootcamp won't be enough.  Sure, there's always those one or two kids who somehow get jobs right after graduation, but this won't be the case for most.  I even know graduates who moved back in with the parents after failing to find a job within months of graduating.  I have some advice to counter this.  One, you can find some sort of non-developer tech position, such as a project manager or QA analyst, and transition into a developer role that way.  I like this method because you will have income rolling in while learning tech skills on the side.  Another way is to pursue a freelance career.  You may not make enough money right away to live in a major U.S. city like NYC or SF, but you have the option of living anywhere in the world (with good Wi-Fi, of course).  The key is to live in a lower cost-of-living area while making a U.S. salary.  This is what I'm doing now.  You can do this short-term while still looking for work in the U.S.

At the end of the day, investing in a coding bootcamp was one of the best decisions I ever made.  Before NYCDA, job hunting was the most painful, miserable experience of my life.  Employers couldn’t care less of my existence.  Now the tables are turning.  Shortly after graduating, I’ve had a few interviews and even rejected a job offer from a start-up for not offering me market-rate salary.  Finding a good job is still difficult, but not as bad as what it used to be.  For now, I am living the digital nomad life of travelling the world, working remotely on freelance projects, and upgrading my skills.

TL;DR: NYCDA's WDI class is great, Career Service Department is awesome, but you must work hard and teach yourself to become a great programmer.

I recently graduate from the WDI class, and it was definitely one of the best decisions I ever made. 

I had no prior experience in programming (of course I did some Codeacademy, but that's it), but I was always interested in the digital field and I was ready for a career change. I chose NYCDA because of their interview processes. Compare to other big institutions, NYCDA was more personalized and focused on my stories instead of their strict interview guidelines. I just thought that I could attach more to this institute than others when learning. 

During the course, I had a great cohort and I had fun. I do better when I am in a comfortable environment, and our class definitely made me feel comfortable. I think people in NYCDA are great and they will help you if you need help. Curriculum was okay, I knew that I was going to learn Ruby and Javascript. I can't say it is the best, but I knew that even before I came to this course, so not a big problem. Also, in the end, it is not about what they teach you, but it is about how much are you willing to Google and learn yourself. I must say this again. You MUST know that there is no end of learning in this field. They will only teach you basics of the programming. However you will learn to teach yourself, so It is upto YOU to improve and be great programmer. 

What I like the most about NYCDA is the career service department. The Outcomes Coordinator, Krystal Kaplan, is super great at her job. I can tell that she puts a lot of her time to bring recruiters and find opportunities for students. She also brought in graduated students to have a QA sessions with current students, which helped current students to briefly figure out which path they should focus on. Even after graduation, she keeps contacts with all of the students and share all the resources that she finds. I personally had a great experience with her, and I think she is the best. I know some graduated students from the other institutions and they did not have career service departments like NYCDA's.

Please note that great Career Service Department is not equal to job gurantees. However, it definitely helps, and I have to appreciate her hard works. It really shows. 

Most important thing about attending a programming bootcamp is that everythign is up to you. Before I came in I thought taking the courses would make me a super great web-developer who can build anything. However, you have to know that there are so much things to learn in programming and you will have to learn new things every single time you build an application. If you are considering to take the WDI course, make sure you are ready to enjoy the hard work! :) 

 

I graduated the Web Development Immersive on December of last year. I had Orlando Caraballo and Jen Shannon as my instructors and Krystal as my outcomes coordinator. All three are exceptional at their job as they all hold the student's best interest in mind. I know the curriculum and job assistance has come under some flack, but these three people have made the overall experience much more rewarding.

Orlando and Jen are very experienced instructors and definitely put me in a great place by developing my skill sets towards a professional career. Both are very experienced and able to communicate complex programming concepts into a simple, digestible form. Both are humble, as well as continuing to learn by themselves, so they are fluent when it comes to the language of learning.  Their dedication to teaching and growing students are unparalleled when it comes to programming. Both of them understand that learning programming is hard, really hard, and they offer the academic, and moral support throughout the entire program. 

When it comes to job assistance, I have never met a more talented and caring outcomes coordinator than Krystal Kaplan. Krystal has a keen eye for matching students with ideal professional environments. And that ability comes from the inordinate hours she puts in to really get to know the students, as well as reaching out towards building hiring relationships with companies. She gave me more of her time and effort than I honestly thought I deserved. When I was laid off she worked as hard, if not harder than I did, to find a good job fit for me. She changed my life from being unemployed to working at one of the biggest ad agencies in the world. 

 She has changed the careers services aspect of NYCDA for the better. I am excited to see what other positive changes she will bring to the NYCDA community. 

There are many ways to go about your tech journey, but NYCDA stands apart from them all.  It’s been less than a year since I have graduated from this school, but in that time it has expanded to several different locations.  This growth is a testament to the type of value NYCDA brings to its students.    

One major highlight is the community that has been set in place by the instructors and employees.  The environment is supportive and encouraging for a student to succeed in whatever it is he or she is working on.  As a beginner, you can reach out to any instructor or peer and they will be more than happy to help you any time of the day with any issue.   

Another reason why NYCDA stands apart is because of the Career Services Team.  After your coursework ends it’s time to find an opportunity that is appropriate for your goals and the Outcomes Coordinator Krystal Kaplan has proven to me that she genuinely cares.  She supported me after I graduated by helping me refine my resume, encouraged me during my search for employment and ultimately referred me for an internship which aligns perfectly with my goals.  

NYCDA is there to help you foster intellectual development in the field of tech and help you with your journey thereafter.  The motivation to succeed ultimately comes from yourself, so have goals in mind and put in the work!  

Ultimately, I am very happy that I made the choice to pursue learning at NYCDA !  

December 2014: My contract at a large pharmaceutical company as a data analyst was coming to an end. I was scrambling to find a job with my experience at a Fortune 500 company backed by a business degree from the University of Pittsburgh. Come March 2015, I’ve sent out metaphorical stacks of job applications with little prospects. I stopped what I was doing and began pursuing skillset that had more demand, computer programming.

After extensive research on coding boot camps, I found information about New York Code & Design Academy. I went to one of their open houses in Center City Philadelphia and was quite impressed with the way the Chief Academic Officer, Zachary Feldman, described his program and the skillsets the class would produce. This reinforced my confidence in my decision to change careers and a few weeks later I was having an interview with the Director of Admissions, Nathan Conn. Nathan answered my questions and quelled the rest of my remaining uncertainties.

August 2015: first day of classes. I was feeling good with my shiny new Mac Book Pro and revving and ready to learn. First two weeks were learning how to develop the front-end of the internet. The front-end is the pretty stuff that you see and the elements you interact with with your mouse, finger, and keyboard. The HTML. The CSS The JavaScript. I loved this stuff because I’m a visual learner.

The next few weeks were harder. The program teaches you the back-end. The database side holds all of your Facebook Posts, your Twitter Tweets, your Instagram Grams. I had difficulty learning this stuff because it was a different way of thinking. But I understand the importance of being able to construct database tables and Creating, Reading, Updating, and Deleting data. Our instructor, Jon Wexler, is an amazing teacher and was able to break down concepts so that even a simple business major like me could understand and digest.

Throughout the course, the program’s Development Manager, Constance Ip, was constantly connecting with outside companies. We would have a speaker once a week and sometimes more because of her hard work. Speakers would give us insight into their role at their company and how our skillset could be applied into the job market once we graduated.

November 2015: My favorite part of the course was the Meet & Greet. This was an NYCDA event that is held for graduates to present their projects to a large group of prospective employers and tech recruiters. I met some really cool people at this event and a few of them worked really hard to help me find a job.

March 2016: I am employed at a large health insurance company with a highly marketable skillset.

June 2016: I finish a personal side-project making a website and physical menu for a small dessert shop in Chinatown. I show off the website to my classmates from August like a kid who just learned how to do a wheelie.

Job assistance post course needed work. I received very little assistance in the job hunt from the program post course work.

Summary: I believe I made the best decision in my life enrolling into this program. I often compare how value of 4 years of business school and vocabulary words I never use is nowhere close to the value I received in 12 weeks at NYCDA. My personal development has never been at a faster pace. I believe that the implicit problem solving abilities that I picked up programming has accelerated my ability to learn. I feel so much more empowered and able to express myself with this skillset.

I attended the web intensive programs at NYCDA, It was hard but totally worth it. The professors are great, the staff is really helpful and specially Krystal Kaplan from the Career Service department who helped me to network with awesome people throughout the course, build my resume and gave me tons of advice, I was able to find a full time developer position a week after I graduated.

I learned so much about programming, enough to be confident and overcome any programing challenges, NYCDA gives you all the tools to succeed and all you have to do is to use them wisely. 

I was very hesitant when coming to this campus. Having had a terrible experience with another bootcamp that was in its inception, NYCDA, has the full-fledge support system that makes sure that you leave knowing how to create well-done web applications and also knowing how to learn.  

The intensive typically consists of daily lectures from 10-6pm, and to say that they throw info at you is an understatment. But luckly the support system is activated long before class even starts.  A month prior, the admissions councelor gave a thorough asessement of my skills (nothing to difficult). They basically want to know if you could follow directions and do basic arithmetic.  After that, you get a confirmation within three days. Once you pay  your deposit, you recieve a link to their video archives (which is massive), they also give you materials to study the basics of HTML/CSS.  You also have connection to their student network via slack, where you can ask all the preliminary questions and get all the nervous gitters out.  Very friendly and very informative. Topping that off..you also get access to your own mentor (my mentor was an instrcutor for the weekend kids class they established). All in all the support system is there.  Also, its important to keep in mind that the intensive covers the main topics of the language. They don't cover everything within the three month span, but you can always reach out to any one including the CEO, for any questions and tips on any missing pieces. 

Week 1 : HTML/CSS

Week2 : JavaScript/ Jquerty

Week3 : Ruby

Week 4 : Sinatra

Week5 : Ruby on Rails..

Week 6 : More Rails/ SaSS

Week 7 and On: Rails projects, incuding group work, and peronal project.

 

Just to emphasize: you get in what you put in. But during the massive span of time you realize that your ability to retain info increases exponentially. You have to put in the time after-school and you will get it. Also there are people from all walks of life, from those with no exp, to some who are already established but just want to learn Rails, but all of the info eventually clicks.  The T.A. attend class and help you when you're completely stumpted.  There's also a job support system via their job councelor.  He does weekly presentations  and 1 on 1's to develop a plan that's feasible to what you're trying to do after the course is over. They don't promise a job, but they do help you to get there. 

And if you attend their monthly open house before you start the intensive you get 10% off tutition. Not bad at all...

They also started an intensive in Amsterdam, in which they'll have student housing so that's a plus as well!

All in all I'm very satisfied I chose this school. They know what they're doing. 

Despite being a huge Unix geek and learning how to program a bit here and there, I ultimately decided not to pursue a career in software development. Around 5 years ago I realized it was time for a change and I started to learn Ruby / Ruby on Rails in my spare time. I eventually transitioned into working as a Junior Jr.™ Rails developer, getting freelance gigs when I could.

I knew that I needed some more formal education in order to progress in my career, but the typical “coding bootcamp” was not for me. I was already very comfortable with more or less all of the topics that most fully immersive programs would cover in the first six weeks. After spending months weighing my options I discovered the New York Code and Design Academy on Reddit. I took a look at their website and sure enough they had an Intermediate Rails course.

I ended up not taking the Rails course, because after sitting in on the iOS Development with Swift course one evening I decided that for me, programming a pocket-sized computer to do my bidding was infinitely more exciting than web development. I dedicated a tremendous amount of time to studying outside of class and learned a ton. By the end of the class I built a working app that used Core Data, MapKit and UIImagePicker.

Shortly after I finished the class, Jeremy Snepar (CEO and co-founder) contacted me with a potential job opportunity. To make a very long story fairly short, myself and another student who was in my class ended up developing the app together. Developing the application was true baptism by fire, we worked 60+ hours a week for four months and we had a great time. I’m happy to say that the app is available on the App Store for download. I could not have done that without my time spent at NYCDA.

So that’s my story, but I’ve yet to tell you what makes NYCDA so great. There are a lot of reasons, but one word in particular that comes to mind is community. From the first moment that I walked in the door I was genuinely treated like a friend. The staff goes out of their way to make sure that you’re having the best experience possible and is always their to help you with anything. You can stop in any time regardless of whether or not you have a class that day and get help or use the facilities to work (including Saturday’s and Sunday’s, they will actually give you a key if you want to use the space on Sunday when the staff is not there).

Zach Feldman (Chief Academic Officer and co-founder) is some how always available to give you a hand with your work, give advice or just to talk in general. Victor Wang (Business Development Manager) is one of the most helpful people I have ever encountered in my life, he was like my personal liason during my time at NYCDA and he is a good friend.

The instructor I had for my iOS development class was very professional, knowledgeable and dedicated. She is a true master of her craft but on top of that she is an excellent teacher which is a rare combination.

While NYCDA offers the “typical” Ruby on Rails immersive-style program, they also offer classes that focus on new and exciting technology including Angular.js, React.js and Go. I’m considering taking the upcoming React.js course.

Today I am proud to say that I am an iOS developer. NYCDA made that possible and I am eternally grateful.

I had been a coder as a high school kid but since then, moved into the health field and into teaching. Now I wanted back into development. 

I took their web intensive course and came out knowing my way around code once again with solid background in Ruby on Rails and Front end technologies but more importantly, I had the ability to learn more on my own and the understanding of how today's environments work. 

From there, at our class' Meet and Greet, I got my first job as an implementation engineer and from there have moved on and now am a full time front end developer!

I can tell you that all their instructors and supportive personel are all knowledgable in the field and will always go the extra mile for you to help you understand something, including giving you tips on topics after you graduate and get a job. The CEO Jeremy Snepar, even teaches a few classes on his experience at creating NYCDA as a startup and what those who want to create a startup can and should do.

They also have plenty of meet and greets / information sessions with folks who tell you more about the field and give you advice on getting a job. They even invite quite a few job agencies in that give you even more of an education on what you're doing right and what you can do better. 

When I decided to switch back to technology, development in particular, I wasn't sure I could do it. I knew I wanted to do it, and for me, I knew it was fun. I also knew I couldn't do it alone. NYCDA helped me a lot and I'm knee deep where I wanted to be in a little over a year.  That's right, in less than a year, with NYCDA and a lot of leg work on my side as well, I'm in developement, making apps and web pages and working with great people everyday. 

I recommend NYCDA wholeheartedly. If you remain deligent and do what you have to do, they will teach you the skills and get you where you want to be.

I have taken classes a few other places and NYCDA is the best! I started out with Web 100 and then moved on to the Frontend class as well as Angular. I loved it! Not only did I learn a ton, but they helped me land a job post taking the classes and I'm still working there today. Every class is what you put into it, but not only are the teachers great here, but the staff is attentive, checks in with everyone and makes a point of ensuring that you are getting what you need to be set up for success. 

I have had some experience with web development prior to joining NYCDA Rails 101 course. The class's  curriculum is designed to engage students of all coding skill levels. The instructors and staff are super helpful. I also met my first employer at one of the Meet&Greet event hosted by NYCDA. I would highly recommend this school to anyone who is serious about learning coding and programming.

I'm a recent graduate of the WDI course given at the New York Code+Design Academy and I can definitely vouch for this school given the success I've obtained after graduation. The instructor truly cares for his students heavily. There was moments that truly tested my knowledge and he pulled me to the side to make sure he could teach me the topics in full depth along with some humor to keep morality and positivity going. Even the CEO takes out time from his work to have 1 on 1's with students to talk about interview techniques and how to implement them well. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have successfully landed the position I currently have and the crazy part is that he helped me while I had moved to Orlando, fl area through emails and video chats. All of the staff truly cares for your success and I valued that more than anything!

NYCDA helped to make my career change possible! Prior to enrolling in the Web Development Intensive course last year, I came from the education industry and had a limited knowledge of programming. Their 12 week intensive course taught me everything from basic HTML and CSS to Git and Ruby on Rails. I was skeptical at first - the course was fast paced, challenging and required a lot of effort, but I quickly realized I had learned the technical skills to build web apps on my own. At the end of the program, I had a portfolio with a few completed apps to show employers. Through their employer showcase at the conclusion of the program, I gained several interviews and was offered a Technical Lead role at an amazing startup in NYC! 

The WDI teacher is really great - smart and witty, which makes getting through some of the challenging topics a bit easier. The staff is super friendly and class sizes are small so you actually get individualized attention. I had a great experience, collaborated with some awesome folks and became a web developer!

NYCDA ignited my career in the tech industry. Before coming in i had no experience at all in coding other than two weeks of self teaching myself the basics of the new IOS programming language. I was sure about what I wanted, I wanted to code and I was not going to let anything get in my way.

I searched online for a coding school and came across The New York Code + Design academy's website, after reading the stories of their students and checking out the amazing work that they had done in class I had to chose NYCDA to help me learn coding.

I took the IOS Development course which was for beginners. What I loved most about the class was that it was small, this was great because the teacher would help anyone who needed help. I learned a lot throughout the  8 week course and got everything that I expected. I will be uploading my first simple app to the apple app store in a week thanks to NYCDA.

NYCDA gave me that push that I needed, I still have  a lot to learn but I feel like I could teach myself IOS and pick up everything quickly and implement it into my apps. 

START NOW! Chose The New York Code + Design Academy to teach you how to code.

p.s. "It is never to late or too early to start coding"