V School

Web Dev Review 

• VSchool does not actually offer or operate a "Responsive, Mastery Based Learning" approach for it's students as advertised! The led was nice a person but their focus is pushing you through the program at a speed they projected on you, following a same curriculum as everyone else, so it was not a response, mastery based learning approach as they marketed. This was hard for me because I was completely new to tech and would have to spend more time something vs other things, and now having "completed" the program I realize the reason I signed up for VSchool vs. competitors was their response, mastery based learning approach. They need to change their marketing! -  https://vschool.io/responsive-learning/
  
  
  
• Here are quotes from their website, that are NOT true. You are expected to main a specific speed and basically being pushed through! https://vschool.io/responsive-learning/  
  • "Responsive lessons are designed around your past experiences and what you need to accept a job in the tech industry."
  • "Students move through the program by demonstrating knowledge and skill, not by completing a certain number of hours in a classroom. Take additional time on difficult content, so you graduate job-ready with skills you'll actually use."
  • "Each student learns in their own way, so responsive, customized education is necessary for success. The responsive model is developed around your past experiences, current learning needs, and schedule. This way, you can learn more and reskill without giving up your life."

• Most, if not all of the teachers and leads I interacted with NEVER held a job at tech company, they completed VSchool Web Dev program and then began working their. Into the program this was an issue for me because I was hoping to learn from industry people (again as marketed), and from people who actually went through and passed tech interviews at tech companies, not having someone who's never lived any of this teach me???
  
  
• As feedback, I think the team needs to remember students are paying for this program, so be careful with your language and how you speak to them, a little bit of professionalism and respect, empathy for your customers (the students) would go a long way. 

VSchool was a great learning experience, unlike other bootcamps here you getting a job is the final goal, how fast? Depends on you, on how much you put in, just like anything else in life we get what we put in, in my experience I had to take a few brakes because life is full of unexpected situations, they were kind, supportive and did not rushed me to get back in the curriculum until I was ready to do so, if I had been at another bootcamp I would've been removed from it leaving me with thousands of dollars in debt, at VSchool you getting the job is the final goal, not some arbitrary and sometimes unrealistic date set by people that in most cases just want to get you in and out as fast as possible so they can bring the next person in.  
The quality of the staff is by far the best thing about the school,  the instructors are always willing to help, the TAs are ready to answer questions and jump on 1:1 zoom calls to help you move forward with the curriculum, the SSM -Student Success Mentors- they are genuinely good people that want to make a difference in the student's career, Joseph Huson was the best SSM I've ever had, he always treated us like family, his encouragement and support helped a lot of us to keep going, not just with the curriculum but with life.

The curriculum is designed so you can follow it at your own pace, at the end of each module you have an assessment so you only move to the next one if you're ready, but if you need to go back and retake the assessment you can do so without fearing of being removed from the program if you fail x amount of times. I had a great experience, I'd definitely recommend it!

Stage  1 of the bootcamp was decent. The learning material was good even tho I think some of the projects could be better/real world. Zak is a great instructor and very helpful. There are TA's available for help, although I have to admit some of them have no idea what they are doing. Kelly was my SSM and she is very encouraging and helped me get back on track multiple times and get out of a slump. Stage 2 needs a lot of work. There is zero communication and you really have to chase people down to get an answer compared to stage 1 where everything is presented clearly and beautifully! 

This is a complaint- I feel that V School exploited me.

I began the UX program and only made it through level one and put 20 hours into the program total before realizing it wasn’t for me and withdrawing.

They are having me pay 13% of my income over 8 months (if it’s over 40k per year)

TL;DR

$4500+ for ~20 hours of working on the intro to UX and figma. I’m devastating and feel totally exploited.

If you withdraw they will f***ing take your money and run. 

I can’t recommend, especially when what they charge is exploitative to begin with! I should have thought twice before signing their agreement.

V school was absolutely amazing. The curriculum is structured in a way that allows you to really gradually understand more and more how all these concepts intertwine with one another. The Staff are all wonderful helpful people that were just nice to have a chat with every once in a while. The TA / Instructors all do a good job of pointing you in the right directions when you're stuck and all in all id say it was definitely worth it. 10/10 would recommend. 

I had multiple friends get hired before even finishing the curriculum so the Job assistance is also handled very well. 

V School is fantastic! Everything from the self-paced program to the incredibly relevant curriculum and amazing instructors is there to help you achieve your goal of learning the skills you need to pivot into tech. The student network is vast and diverse allowing you to connect with so many unique and intelligent individuals in a daily basis. The Career Prep side of everything is so intentional and powerful that it could be it’s own course. Your Student Success Mentor is your guide to go from eager student to working professional. I’ve had the opportunity to work with wonderful SSMs, instructors and students throughout my time in the Web Development course and look forward to continuing these relationships now that I’ve graduated. If you’re looking for the right bootcamp for you, look no further. 

V School have everything organized in a nice and concise way. It is a full online FullStack JavaScript Web Developing or UX Design bootcamp that offers the opportunity to learn, practice, masteries skills  that are in high demand at the moment. What really blows my mind is that they stick with you until you land your first job. Every student have a SSM (student success mentor) that motivates you and teaches you career prep so you know in advance how to look, apply, interview, and negotiate salaries in a tech job. In my little time, I have met great mentors and other students with the same goals as me and I have been learning from all of them. 


I had a degree as a software developer prior V School, and I can say that I didn't learn as much as I am learning now through V School. Regular education pushes so much information that student don't retain or work on app or programs to showcase to employers. I joined V School because I needed experience to boost my resume and couldn't during my degree. By the end of the phase 1, I had 3 projects as part of my portfolio that served me as practice and for recruiters to see what I have learned. I am currently looking for a job, but I have seen students graduate and land a job in less than a week. One student landed a job while in the program. 

V School accepts GI Bill for military and qualified members. They also work with an income share agreement, in other words, you will pay back whenever you get hired. That is another reason that V School needs to place you in a job. The only thing I regret is not knowing about this opportunity before. 

Making the decision to make a career path or career change was daunting for me but honestly the staff at V school made it feel easy and we’re very supportive. After making the decision to start a Bootcamp I was still a little skeptical about the whole process but after beginning the curriculum with zero experience (other than the course pre work) it came along at a steady pace. Day after day it’s up to you to put in the work but the staff and student success mentors are there for you, it’s their job to help you succeed! Not to be cheesy but the staff are truly just good people, very positive, extremely helpful, and intelligent to say the least! My student success mentor was an amazing person who always kept positive vibes, always supported us, and made sure we were sticking to our career prep plan to help us ease into this career change. Overall, I would do it again even if I could turn back time. Also, the self paced curriculum was another bonus for me!

I enrolled in the Web Development program here and it was one of the best career decision I've ever made.  The material and lessons are structured very well and the concepts build on each other which is a huge confidence booster.  What I loved most about the program was being in the program!  If I ever needed help, there was always access to one of the instructors or teaching assistants!  I also loved that they assigned you a Student Success Mentor who was there every step of the way for me. Awesome and active Veteran Community inside too!  NO CODING EXPERIENCE TO HIRED IN 5 MONTHS! Overall...If you want to start your career in tech, this place is the real deal.  

p.s. - You'll make life-long friends in here to

It took me 1 month to really research what the best bootcamp for me to get my career in software engineering started. It basically teetered between Coding Dojo, and V School. I knew I was not going to be able to do a full time curriculum in person or online. However it came down to the selling point of V School's Mastery Based Learning and Flexible Times. It wasn't a sound bite, and they really enforced that to the benefit of the students. But enforced is a harsh word at this point, but the concept was to ensure students were to come out of the bootcamp with the knowledge required and retain it in the long run. Students are assigned Student Success Mentors who pretty much gives you that necessary nudge/motivation/fire and refocus you on your own set goal. Especially during days you don't feel like coding. 

V School instructors were competent and if they didn't know the answer, they coded and debugged with you, and it helps students understand the troubleshooting process/ debugging process that carries over to industry experience. In other scenarios, there are other instructors who can fill in the gaps of learning and go in depth of the subject during their daily review sessions. Instructors during review sessions are also flexible that they are willing to open up the room for other students to help them understand and get through any blockers.

The balance comes in where students still had to put in the necessary discipline of focusing and learning on their own time. This is also accompanied by the career counseling that the Student Success Mentors tirelessly put in. Those who persevered and worked hard will find success, and those who feel like the instructors/staff should carry them through their software engineering path, will eventually fail. But those who succeed, will be one of the best.

     It’s difficult to summarize my overall feelings about attending V School. I began the course back in August 2020 and completed the program in March 2021. 1 year after completing the course, I am not working in the tech industry and I am employed in a position that does not utilize the skills I learned at V School. When I decided to take out a $16,000 student loan to pay for the bootcamp. I did it with the idea that this money would be an investment for my future. I was motivated to attend the bootcamp because of the school’s overall message that they would assist me in landing a career in tech. They did say this was not guaranteed but that I would have the full support of the school to assist me in the interview process. However, I was naïve into thinking that by completing this course, I would be a qualified candidate for any entry level web developer position.       I quickly began to experience employers not extending interviews and the feedback I received by some recruiters was that I simply did not have the background to be successful in the interview process. I began searching for jobs back in April 2021 and by August 2021, I had submitted well over 100 applications to various companies. Out of those applications, I only received 4 interview invites. My first technical interview exposed my incompetence in answering basic CS based questions. I was tasked to live code data structure and algorithm questions but couldn’t get past the first question. I was deeply embarrassed and had a rude awakening that I was not qualified for a basic front end developer position. I was deeply discouraged by this and began to see my ability to break into tech simply fade away. After August, I began to look at other career paths because I was running low on my savings and had to begin making nearly $500 a month payments on the $16,000 loan I took out to attend V School.      My career success mentor that I was paired with at the beginning of the bootcamp was instrumental in motivating me in completing the course. I felt I had an advocate that was supporting me and gave me a voice in the program. However, she abruptly quit the bootcamp in June without warning. I was scheduled to meet with her one day before she had announced she was leaving the school. After her departure, I felt I did not have a voice, and no one was advocating for my future in tech. Although I was paired with another mentor, I felt that I was not receiving the same assistance as other students. I began to see students who started at the same time as me receive direct assistance in securing interviews with companies. One of those students was hired by a reputable company in Utah. I was encouraged to submit my application to the same company but received an immediate rejection after my submission. These events left me feeling depressed and hopeless. Although I had successfully utilized React Native to build and deploy an iOS app to the Apple App Store, I continued to see other students receive support in landing roles with companies.   
     Looking back and knowing all that I have experienced these past 18 months, I would have not attended V School. I am paying back a loan that simply financed my ability to learn how to code online and receive underwhelming feedback from instructors and career success mentors. I could have spent substantially less by subscribing to different online courses such as Scrimba. Ironically enough, Scrimba was used as part of the teaching method for this program. A website that takes pride in advertising as a cheaper alternative to a bootcamp. A founding member of the school currently is employed at Scrimba, which is ironic for a bootcamp to use a platform that showcases itself as an alternative to a bootcamp. My current career path is utilizing my M.S. in biochemistry that I received prior to enrolling in the bootcamp. This degree cost me substantially less than the $16,000 piece of paper that I received from V School. If I had not graduated in a middle of a pandemic and was desperate to find a job, I would have not attended this bootcamp. I was desperate at the time and this school was my answer to my desperation. However, I was naïve into thinking V School would support my path to break into tech and have a meaningful career in the industry.

     At the end of the day, V School is a for profit school that needs to have a steady source of income in order to finance their ultimate goal of assisting anyone to break into the tech scene. Part of that process involves marketing themselves and posting positive images and videos of former students who they assisted in becoming employed in a high paying tech role. I know the school will point to those alumni and say how they are achieving their goal in getting nearly a 100% placement rate. There will also be alumni who will probably chime in and share how they were employed in a lucrative tech position days or weeks after graduating. However, I know there are other alumni like myself who struggled to get hired let alone land an interview. 

     I worked really hard to complete the program at V School and that hard work is showcased by my iOS app that is on the App Store. I had the motivation, talent, and potential to become a better developer. The problem I saw was that the school simply ignored this and chose to assist other students in securing interviews. I didn't expect V School to just hand me a job but my expectation was that they would make that initial connection to an employer on my behalf. Many but not all students received this assistance. One student that began at the same time as I did is now employed at a reputable company in Utah. This individual personally thanked V School during an alumni interview for making that initial connection. Seeing other students get this type of help while I struggled to get any interviews furthered hampered my confidence and made me feel as if there was favoritism occurring at the school. If the school was making these personal connections on behalf of some students then this type of connection should be offered to all students. After all, we all paid the same amount to attend this school, some of us actually used our own money and didn't get any 3rd part assistance in financing our studies. 

     At the end of the day I would not have attended this bootcamp if it was not for the pandemic. In August 2020, I was unemployed and desperate to find a path that could assist me in gaining the skills that could make me a more competitive candidate for employers. V School was that answer to my desperation and I sincerely trusted them in helping me make my dreams of working in the tech industry come true. I fell for their sales pitch and I am now paying the $16,000 price for it.      

I graduated V School in October 2018 and as I reflect back to my experience I'm overwhelmed with gratitude.  It took me 4 months to land my first job, started out with a 60k salary and within a year earned over 6 figures.  I was able to do so because of the things I learned at V School.  The robust curriculum provided me with a solid foundation and helped expand my knowledge in software development.  The community and the staff are awesome and genuinely want you to succeed.  

Attending V School was one of my best decisions and I highly recommend it!