Jacob Washington Student • Full Stack .Net Back-End with React Front End • Orange County
Aug 13, 2020
For those of you looking for a quick summary, Sabio is... a bust. You're lured in with excellent marketing, a plethora of well produced testimonials, and, if you're like me, the rap video starring the school's cofounder and CTO is the straw the breaks the camel's back. "This is the perfect coding school for me," I thought. But, just like a damsel awaiting her prince in shining armor, my expectations were too high.
Things started off well. I was a VA student using my VOC Rehab ben...
For those of you looking for a quick summary, Sabio is... a bust. You're lured in with excellent marketing, a plethora of well produced testimonials, and, if you're like me, the rap video starring the school's cofounder and CTO is the straw the breaks the camel's back. "This is the perfect coding school for me," I thought. But, just like a damsel awaiting her prince in shining armor, my expectations were too high.
Things started off well. I was a VA student using my VOC Rehab benefits to cover tuition, and Liliana and Gregorio were eager to have me on board. They made exceptions for me, allowing me an extra month of Prework and access to the Irvine campus while it was supposed to be closed (Covid-19). I found myself a bit frustrated with the Prework process and lack of access to live instruction, but they assured me that once I was in bootcamp, my instructors would be available to guide me as much as I might need. And so I pressed on through the Prework, taking them at their word, passed the entrance exam with only one incorrect answer, and was excited to start the bootcamp that following Monday.
Monday came, and I was ready. I'm the type of student that's eager to jump in, is the first to speak up when asked for input, and I'm not afraid to encourage and support peers who need encouragement and support. I'm confident that if you asked any person in my cohort (C88), they would agree that, up until the final month of training, the characteristics I've assigned myself are true. But slowly, along the way, I grew increasingly discouraged, and as much I've tried to find my own fault in it, I cannot, at this point, deny that Sabio's failure to provide patient, positive, and meaningful instruction, as well as their tendency to intimidate and bully student's who're unhappy with their pedagogy, ultimately drove my discouragement to disillusion.
The first time I spoke up, it was too late. It was July 6th (nearly 4 months into my time at Sabio, counting Prework), and I sent Gregorio a private message on Slack, detailing my growing sense of despair. Instructors on the Q did not take the time to ensure I understood a solution to a problem, rather they solved it for me or gave such vague guidance that I found myself more confused. On the Q, instructors frequently seemed bothered by my questions and lack of understanding, and I was met with condescending tones often after waiting an hour or more to even ask my question. The Wiki (online reference guide for code) was more a collection of code snippets, rather than something I could turn to for deeper understanding of things I needed to grasp. I felt, strongly, that while others may have been able to work through these barriers, I was "slipping through the cracks." And those were my words to Gregorio. I pleaded for the instruction that I needed, deserved, and used invaluable time and resources to attain, and the response I got? "I told you so."
Gregorio went pointed me back to the orientation videos in which he tells you to prepare for feeling like you can't do it. But if he'd at all took the content of my message seriously, he'd have clearly seen that I was confident in my ability to make it, confident that I could learn the skills they claim to teach and confident that I would be, in less than a years time, a Full Stack Developer with no prior background in tech. But rather than asking that his instructors be more patient, rather than asking that they adapt their attitudes and approach to teach briefly, to support a student who wanted to learn skills they possessed badly, I was told that I should drop the course. "Listen," Gregorio said. "If you're not confident that things are going to work out by now, then you should just drop the course." He went on to explain all the ways in which he felt I failed as a student. I didn't ask questions well. I didn't make sense of the Wiki the way I should have. I shouldn't have been so sensitive to the instructors passive-aggressive, dismissive, and belittling tones, because people in tech have strong personalities. I felt ambushed. I felt defeated. I felt that in asking for help, I would receive it. And instead I was scolded and rebuked. But I'm one to always put a positive spin to things. I tried to see it from Gregorio's perspective, and convinced myself that should I head his advice, I could still come out of Sabio with the knowledge and ability to creative beautiful, responsive, scaleable web applications and land my first gig as a Web Developer.
Fast forward to August, I've headed all of Gregorio's advice, and find myself essentially in the same place. My graduation date is set for the 14th, and I can build components in React, but not build a React App. I can tell you what I need to build an API on .Net, but I can't actually build it. The only place I truly felt like the training clicked, was in building databases in SQL, and that's really not much more impressive than learning to count to 10. And so, when Gregorio sent me an email on August 11th asking why I hadn't been very active on the slack channels or morning standup meetings, I told him that I had not made progress. That I felt disappointed in the quality of instruction and training I received, and that all the same issues I'd said were contributing to my sense of despair in July had consisted, and prevented me from completing my training with satisfactory competence.
And that's when they really let me down. Without my knowledge, Gregorio and Liliana contacted my Voc Rehab counselor, requesting that I be removed from the program. They claimed that I had communicated to them that I could no longer participate in the program, something that was not remotely true (particularly as there were 4 days left for my cohort). I confronted them in an email which CC'd my counselor, informing them that their claim was not factual, and clarifying for my counselor what was actually said. I then received another message from Gregorio, separate from the string in which my counselor was CC'd, which claimed I was in violation of Sabio's attendance policy, and that they had grounds for dismissal. I reviewed the policy, found that I was not in fact in violation of it, and responded to Gregorio asking that he explain what exactly qualified me for dismissal. I asked that he ensure any further communications include my counselor, to ensure that no further accusations were made without proper representation being present to witness. I never received a reply, and the next day, with 2 days of training left, my access to Sabio's training site, as well as my cohort's slack channel and all other lines of communication, were cut off. I emailed Gregorio asking that he clarify whether I'd been dropped from the program or not, and again did not receive a reply.
Tomorrow is my graduation from Sabio. I participated for the entirety of the program until my access was blocked. I contributed to the "Client Project", and my work can be seen on the site still. They'd already sent a copy of my Certificate of Completion to my counselor, and yet, I've been dropped from the program. This, without any explanation or further communication from any person at the school.
I truly hope that my experience here has not been anyone else's, and that if Sabio is successful, it's because they've recognized their flaws and corrected their course. I do not recommend this school to anyone, though at one point I even helped them promote the school on my personal social media. Sabio was, by far, the worst decision I've made in my academic and professional career to this point. Do not make the same mistake I did.
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Liliana Aide Monge of Sabio
Co-Founder & CEO
Sep 02, 2020
Our program is intensive, which is why we call it a coding bootcamp. We offer Senior Instructors from Monday - Friday all day from 9am - 6pm, and often on Saturdays, our Co-Founder and CTO, Gregorio will also help students.
We understand that during COVID alot of students are eager to train with us in-person, on-campus like we have done for many years; however, the health emergency does not allow for that.
These are all very difficult times for everyone, and everyone at Sabio is still working full time schedules, while juggling the pandemic, kids at home, and loved-ones that may be unwell.
We provide all of our students with 100% support and assistance, no other program in the nation offers the type of contact hours with a Senior Instructor as we do, and we build amazing products that help you launch our career in tech. C88 graduated less than 2 weeks ago, and already 5 people have found meaningful employment, and many more will continue to do so.
We understand the program is stressful, and we are a technical training program that is condensed. You already explained that you were with us much longer than the typical student. And we can accommodate various schedules; however, we cannot tolerate that our faculty and team members be spoken to with flagrant redistrict.
We stand by all of our training materials, as we are a Candidate for Accreditation via the Council for Occupational Education, and BPPE re-approved our 5 year license in Feb 2020. We also go through audits via the VA. We know that our program is top-notch, albeit intensive.
We wish you nothing but the best, and know you have learned a lot during the many months you were with Sabio, and wish you luck in your career journey.
Sincerely, Liliana Aide Monge