NYC Data Science Academy

I had a great experience at the NYC Data Science Academy.

To give you a little background, I have a PhD in Biochemistry and did a Post-Doc in computational biology and bioinformatics and then worked in industry for a couple of years in both technical and non-technical roles. With the recent advent of data science, I made a decision to make a transition to data science and wanted to get up to speed in data science, Python and R, as well as machine learniing, in a rapid but focused manner. The NYC Data Science Academy provided the perfect oppotunity to do so.

The things that stand out about the Boot Camp were:

• Quality and enthusiasm of the instructors - Given the broad range of the participants, the instructors really knew how to challenge us.
• The Teaching Assistants - The TAs were patient and provided great guidance and instruction.
• Quality of the participants - It was a great experience to go through the boot camp with a really talented group of people. 
• Projects - The individual and team projects really gave me the opportunity to challlenge myself and stretch my abilities. It also provided with a nice portfolio which I can show potential employers.
• Vivian and Janet - The heads of the Boot Camp really showed that they cared about the participants and challenged us to work hard and remain engaged.
• Guest speakers - The quality of the guest speakers was really outstanding.

A word of caution about participating in the Boot Camp. Be prepared to work like crazy. I worked 12 to 14 hours a day, 7 days a week for three months straight. 

 

I though the bootcamp was an amazing experience.  It's helped me build a stronger statistical and programming foundation to start a career in Data Science.  It taught me the most widely used statistical learning methods in both R and Python.  We also covered topics employers look for like SQL and Hadoop.  The bootcamp involved daily lecture  and homework and was punctuated by projects to apply what we were learning.  We then had the opportunity to present our work to our peers and at monthly Data Science Meetups. The brought in weekly data science speakers to give us a sense of what being a data scientist in the real world is like.  These speakers included Owen Zhang one of the top ranked Kagglers, and Kirk Borne the head of Data Science for Booz Allen Hamilton.  The last two weeks of the bootcamp involved resume review, interview prep, and final projects.  They also helped us find jobs by actually bring data science recruiters and HR people to the bootcamp.  This program will LEFT JOIN your current life with a career in Data Science.

I attended the data-science bootcamp offered in NYC and had a great experience! I learned a lot on every aspects of data-science and machine learning:

• the theory
• the tools
• coding
• and a lot of practice through homeworks, in-class labs and projects

It is very intensive, you will work ~12h+/day and on weekends, but you will leave the bootcamp with so much knowledge, coding experience, practice, 5 projects added to your linked-in/resume, 5 blog posts, a github account to be proud of  and even, if you want to, a participation in a Kaggle competition.

The team is amazing. Vivian will do everything she can to improve your experience and has a huuuuge network:

• This week, for example, she organized drinks with 20+ companies who came to meet with us (ranging from Guggenheim Investments, Two sigma, Goldman to Medivo, Draft Kings, About.com and many startups too).
• Last week, she got Spotify to bring in 3 speakers who then individually interviewed 15 people the rest of the afternoon!

Janet, also will be in charge of continuously improving the program. That girl does not need to sleep. There were nights were I would leave at 11pm+ and she would still be there. A few weekends/sundays, I came to the bootcamp to work on projects with team-mates and she was there. She is incredible and really dedicated. She organises "Therapy sessions" every Friday to make sure we address and confront every problem we have encountered during the week which is really useful.

The instructors are friendly, professional and knowledgeable. Every class has slides and code. I saved everything. What a resource this is! I have all the theory and code right there on my computer, no more looking on google's 20th page of results to find something somewhat relevant, or reading un-understable wiki pages about all this machine learning. Here, the way we learn is:

1. theory briefely (no proofs) but complete.
2. focus on the different parameters, what they do, how they affect the model etc...
3. then code and actually show how to use all this
4. then homework to let us try to replicate what we just learned
5. then projects to make sure it sinks in!

rather than everything you will typically find on-line which is: theory and then more theory.

If this was not enough, on top of all the team and instructors, you'll have access to TAs too! They are very nice, smart and competent... and especially they are veeeeery... patient with us and our questions!

Additionally, you have projects that you have to present to the class. So you get valuable practice both in presenting and also in collaborating with peers that no amount of sitting behind your screen can bring! Everything is recorded and edited by a pro. All the classes and your presentations too!

Finally, they will regularly bring presenters to teach us about their projects, the real-world problems they face at work etc... Our class mentor (yes we also have a mentor/sponsor) is also amazing and very helpful.

And lastly, (I promise that's the last comment!) they will bring professionals in to help you optimze your resume, your linked-in etc... and prepare you for interviews etc...

Overall I am really happy with the program and glad they covered both Python AND R. I know some bootcamps do not teach R and the reality is that most companies use R and R is must. I am very grateful to everyone involved and working so hard to make this bootcamp a true success.

I am really enjoying taking the NYC Data Science Academy data science bootcamp remotely. I find their online classroom and materials very effective for learning the fundamentals of data science. The videos are very informative and the material well communicated and taught by the lecturer. The accompanying slides are clearly written and mostly self contained and you can learn a lot, just by reading them. The course is a nice blend of theory and practical programming experience using R and Python and other tools.

The learning process is aided by doing and submitting the homeworks for the lecture materials, as well as completing project assignments.
I interact frequently with the TA assigned to me. We often have Google hangout sessions where he helps set up my environment on my laptop like Git, R and Python. We also review my project assignments through Google hangouts where he provides valuable feedback and suggestions. The TA is very helpful, competent and knowledgable.

I would definitely recommend the online version of this bootcamp.

I attended the 12-week bootcamp this past summer and had a great experience overall. I was able to build a solid portfolio of data science projects and got a lot of job search support. The curriculum assumes a basic level of statistics knowledge so for someone like me whose background didn't include any it could be frustrating at times. However, they are serious about student feedback so I believe the course will only continue to get better. You can expect to put in a lot of work but as always what you get out depends on what you put in. Ultimately I landed a job I'm very excited about, and I had a positive experience with the course, instructors, and fellow students so I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in a career in data science.

Now I am going to start my new career as a data scientist.  I would like to share my 2 cents for this bootcamp and hope it would be helpful for the coming students.  Also I hope through those suggestions, you can have an idea about the bootcamp.

1.  Be open - This is a boocamp, not a usual school class or an online course.  So share your experience and expertise with others.  You will learn much more from each other.

2.  Be in a hurry - This is a short bootcamp, whereas it covers a LOT of content.  So be ready to work hard.  You need to have a sense of urgent that you are going to jump into interviews after 3 months.  Without your own hard working, it is hard to achieve the success after the bootcamp

3. Be brave - This is a hard bootcamp.  Some students slept less than 6 hrs per day for three months.  Does it sounds scare?  However I would like to say that be brave, after learning with others, you will see your shining point and know how to show your merits to others.  So be brave to take challenges and be brave to share with others.

4. Be collaborative - I hope after the bootcamp, you are not only getting a good job(s) but also getting a lot of friends.

Enjoy the bootcamp,

I attended the Data Science Bootcamp in summer 2015. It was a very enriching, useful and enjoyable experience. It offered plenty of important things that one couldn't hope to find by taking online courses or reading textbooks. The instructors possessed valuable knowledge and perspectives in the data science industry, and were able to share them with the students through various activities (e.g. lectures, invited talks, meetups, company visits, individual counseling, etc.). Also, students had a lot of opportunities to interact with established data scientists, as well as collaborate with fellow aspiring data scientists on real-world projects.

Data Science Bootcamp was the best experience in my career. Instructers were not only helpful in teaching the regular materials but also guide you to establish your confidence in yourself to be a Data Scientist. They will help you even after completing your bootcamp. Nice and honest enviroment. 

I took both Data Analysisand Machine Learning with Python with Vivian.

I highly recommend these classes to anyone who wants to take their analytics skills beyond Excel, pivot tables, and averages and into more advanced predictive modeling methods. Luckily, a lot of the work has already been done for us by the developers who created pandas, matplotlib, statsmodels, and scikit-learn. I didn't know anything about these tools prior to taking this class. Vivian makes machine learning easy. At work I can now stand on the shoulders of Python's giants. Pretty cool. Extremely useful.

I took the Data Science with Python: Machine Learning course and I learned a lot. This course helped me to improve my data analysis and general Python skills. It introduced me to several new libraries and algorithms, most of which I plan to use at work.

Overall, I had a very positive experience.

I took Vivian's Data Science course and had a fantastic experience. I networked with Data professionals from the NBA, the Federal Reserve Bank, NYC startups, and more. I learned a lot very quickly and had a lot of fun. It's a nice part of the city and the building has a great startup feel to it.

I spent three months there applied my knowledge on several interesting projects, including Kaggle competition and data visualization of new york crime analysis with shiny (R).  Also the students and instructors are inspiring and motivating.  It was a nice experience for me.

I sharpened my skills by using different R packages to solve realistic projects.  It is a wonderful experience to solve those unique and challenging projects.

Great course so far! 4 weeks in and we've learned version control with Git, mapping in CartoDB, visualizations with D3, and machine learning, stats, and programming in R.

We've also gotten to network with Data Scientists at Google and Enigma and we'll be featured on Interview Jet in a few weeks!

Smart students and interesting projects are generating many strong portfolios for students. I don't think think any will have trouble finding a job when this is all over.

 

NYC Data Science Academy is a great choice for anyone looking for a bootcamp.  They look for students who have a science / engineering/ math background, but they don't require a PhD (though scholarships are easier to get for PhDs).  This school really distinguishes itself partly because of the emphasis on R.  People skilled in R command the highest salaries - and for a reason.  It is the gold standard for data manipulation and for all the most cutting edge algorithms.  I looked all over for a program that taught R (as well as Python) and NYC Data Science Academy is the only one I found!  Bootcamps are 12-weeks long and cover everything a data scientist needs to know to be up and running upon graduation, included R, Python, Hadoop, Raspberry, and much much more.  Vivian Zhang, the primary teacher and founder, is a great data scientiest, statistician, programmner and teacher.  She's also a great person.  Much of the emphasis is on preparing people to get jobs in data science and there is a lot of support in recruiting - including relationships with  firms Vivian has done corporate training for and partnerships with several recruiting firms.

I undertook the GenAI bootcamp at NYC Data Science Academy that was focused around LLM's. I thought the course was informative and was delighted to complete the capstone project which also gave me advanced knowledge of cloud methodologies while working with AWS. Thereafter, I did internship with the NYC Data Science Academy which allowed me to further implement my newfound skills in language modeling, which was a great way to apply the learning materials. 

This was no joke the biggest waste of my time that I could have made after I was laid off. I wish I had f*cked off for a year rather than do this bootcamp. Im not exaggerating when I say that the support here is almost non existent when it comes to getting a job. Vivian is a smart woman but she also needs to be WAY more honest about what this bootcamp can really do for someone who wants to be in DS or ML. She knows how to make money. She lies to you. She lies to the people who she wants to hire you, about your qualifications. All of the students in my cohort and even the instructors believe the same and think this is a scam. 5 years ago, this content would have gotten someone a job, but now that AI is a thing, this content is as good as a series of YouTube video tutorials. Do not invest your money here. You will regret it so fast. Every person I have contacted on LinkedIn who is an alum past 2024 has only had UNPAID internships. THATS IT.  The portal where the learning happens was down for 4 months. Not an exaggeration. This bootcamp is a scam. I want my money back. 

I wrote positive reviews at the end of my Data Science with Machine Learning bootcamp experience because that was part of the exit to the bootcamp. The only positive things about the bootcamp are a couple of the mentors who are actually helpful and some hands-on experience. This is not worth the INSANE cost of this bootcamp. The coursework is outdated and if you want to learn about AI (which is involved in everything), they encourage you to PAY for another one of their bootcamps. For one of my project presentations, the head of the bootcamp, Vivian, wasn’t even fully paying attention. I repeatedly asked for the recording and never received it and I’m pretty sure it’s because the recording never existed. Recently, the bootcamp got hacked and my blogs are completely ruined, so showing them to possible employers is pretty much a waste of time.  All but one interview that I have gotten, has been on my own. The one interview she finally got for me after 8 months of completing the bootcamp, she put me up against someone who hadn’t completed the bootcamp and that she knew had more knowledge than me, being that I am a career changer, in turn, setting me up for failure. Being that this was her friend and she knew what the position was, she could have told me to brush up on certain things I would need to know about AI. This bootcamp does not set you up for success. When I asked for guidance and insight about what questions to expect for a final round interview, she sent me the LinkedIn profiles of the people interviewing me and told me to research their jobs. None of which was helpful for my interview.  When I asked if the person who goes over leetcode problems to practice could do some SQL problems, he told me he’s not doing those again and I should go find the videos he’s already done (not helpful). The bootcamp also boasts all of the connections they have and how they can easily help you find a job. The only way you find out if there’s a connection is if you deep dive through their past participants and see if there’s an opening at their company, and then send a glowing email about yourself for her to forward (not helpful). Lastly, some bootcampers are given more help than others.  While some bootcampers were highlighted and promoted on her LinkedIn, others weren’t even mentioned. I’m extremely disappointed with the lack of support I have received since completing this bootcamp and would absolutely not recommend it. Choose a different one.

I took this bootcamp mainly due to a referral from a friend and colleague from work. I had a background in working with R but had never really worked with python or ML. My schooling is in Engineering and have been exposed a bit to ML and programming, but have neve really delved deep into it. 


The Good: 


I though the availability of the TA’s and their responses were amazing. You essentially have infinite time you can schedule with them and their responses re always great. If you asked a question they didn’t have an immediate response to, they would even go back do research and follow up through email and personally cater to your questions, it was great!


The best parts of the course were the python and R modules, they do a great job at explaining these and help you get started right away. The advanced modules on ML were hit and miss and found that I definitely needed to re-inforce after with more studying.


The career guidance and the career network is amazing, at the time of writing I have not yet been actively pursuing a job (just graduated), but am already finding a ton of support. 


The guidance you can get from Vivian (the bootcamp founder) is great, she’s always actively trying to get you the best offers and career guidance and you can notice that she really wants her students to succeed.


The projects are well structured, and I really loved them. They are designed to make you progressively get into designing a full blown ML project and though they were great. 


The Bad:


Many of the office hours, live lectures and additional support are only offered from 9-5, even for the part-time online version of the bootcamp, this makes it difficult for working professionals to actually benefit from this. It would be nice if some of these were offered after 5pm so that we could attend.


As you get more advanced and specialized, not all the TA’s can really help you, for example I had questions about CNN’s and LLM’s that the TA’s couldn’t really help with until they hired an expert (sometime later) that really knew the topics. The help on all the basic programming stuff is great though. 


I thought the SQL and Git modules were a bit lackluster and need more development, however, I also didn’t take the Data Engineering part (I decided to take the data science curriculum), so perhaps they’re better explained in the Data Engineering part and are only supposed to be a gentle intro for the Data Science curriculum. 


Some TA’s give better lectures than others, at the time I took the course the best and most comprehensive lectures (especially for the math heavy bits) I thought were given by Luke. The other TA’s did not give great lectures and found were difficult to follow. This mostly applies only to the advanced ML lectures were the math really played a big role. For the basic programming parts, all of the lectures were great, as a matter of fact I found Alex to be a great lecturer for these parts. 


Overall:


I found this experience great, for me it was much better than just taking a course online from coursera or other platforms since here you actually have deadlines and classmates that you can interact with and they help keep you honest and push you towards actually finishing. That part was important to me as a working professional since I always found it hard to motivate myself to actively separate some time to studying ML on my own, but this course gave me all the correct motivation in all the best ways. 


If you’re looking for a smooth introduction to ML and can’t find the motivation to go it on your own, this bootcamp is the best. 


I will definitely need to study more after graduating to snag a job, but that comes with any bootcamp, and the post graduation services here are great as well. 

It is one my best investments taking Data Science Bootcamp at NYC Data Science Academy. I am from advanced quantitative background, and at NYC Data Science Academy, I was able to acquire and structure knowledge in Machine Learning. Vivian and her team doing great job continuously updating and introducing skills into the program to make the graduates marketable in the industry. One of main aspects of the NYC Data Science Academy is that you can always count on them in job assistance and expertise anyone needed to keep up  with the industry. They always got your back and are ready to help you. I strongly recommend anyone who wants to join the industry regardless the background take the Bootcamp in Machine Learning. If you devote your time to studies you will be well prepared to do a great job in the industry. I personally after graduation because of their assistance got a six figure job at a consulting company. I am positive any graduate of NYC Data Science Academy can do even better.