App Academy

Disclaimer: I did the 16 week program, but it was online rather than in person due to Covid.

For me, App Academy was a great experience. From great instructors to amazing cohort mates, the people are what made the journey fun and enjoyable. When I started, I expected to be pretty much isolated from the rest of the world for 4 months coding. However, App Academy's friendly instructors and my fellow cohort mates made the physical isolation feel like nothing as I would log in every day looking forward to talking and learning to code with them. The course, while challenging (I put in 70-80 hours a week), was fair and the material was taught in a clear, step-wise manner that allowed for ideas to reinforce each other day after day. I know some people do not like it, but I enjoyed learning Ruby over Python and many jobs that I applied to did not care that I knew Ruby as compared to Python or Java as long as I showed a willingness to learn the other language. After my graduation was where I thought I got the most bang for my buck. My career coach, who held weekly 1 on 1's with me and was responsive to my many questions, gave me wonderful and insightful advice to clean up job application materials as well as how to properly prepare for interviews. That advice resulted in me being offered three software engineering jobs within 2 months of graduating with one being over 100k.

The con of App Academy is pretty much the cost, as its deferred cost is more than other programs deferred costs. But with how quickly i got a job, I am not complaining!

I can without hesitation recommend the App Academy program to those who are looking to enter tech from a non-tech background.

I attended the 16 week App Academy program starting in December and graduated in April. I started with a little bit of knowledge on coding. However, the course progressed very quickly through that. While it may feel overwhelming at times, the TAs were super helpful and always available to help. The assessments aren't terribly difficult, but definitely need to be studied for. My fellow classmates were great people and willing to help. A majority of the class was spent learning Rails, Javascript, and React to build 3 projects. These projects really gave the sense of progression as everything you learn in class comes together. The only gripes about the curriculum are that React hooks are not taught and I believe Python would have been preferred over Ruby.

Post graduation, the job search support has also been great. Coaches are always available even when they're not even assigned to you! The support network has been great and I'm looking forward to the future!

Finding self studying hard? Don't know where to start with coding? A bootcamp may be for you! App Academy has an amazing support system, whether it be the mod leads, the TAs, to your own cohort mates. It is fast-paced though, and if you don't study or do the homework, you will fall behind. It's for your own benefit, anyways! Now that I'm in job search, I can full-heartedly say that my career coach is absolutely amazing and super helpful. A tip I would give is to start practicing DS&A problems halfway through the bootcamp on your own so you don't have to stress about it as much like I am right now after the bootcamp. This bootcamp give you amazing pair programming experiences to talk about, and also group projects and solo projects for your portfolio. If I could do it again, I would, and I would start doing one DS&A problem every day or every other day or something.. starting from week 7 probably. I would definitely recommend App Academy though!

I completed the 24 week software engineering online program.  It was hard, but if you do the homework and study the practice assessments you will be fine.  It was quite a ride, and there were times when I wanted to give up, but I got through it and now am in the job search portion of the program.  App Academy teaches you how to learn effectively and efficiently.  We had one week where we learned python and then two weeks later we built a full stack app using a python backend. 

Overall I would recommend App Academy.

I am a graduate student here. I have had great experiences here. The teachers have a lot of experience in teaching and have a wide understanding. They are also very enthusiastic to answer and guide me when I ask questions. I also appreciate the teaching method, I feel that the method of teaching knowledge is quite easy to understand and remember for a long time. We also participate in regular extracurricular activities to deepen our understanding of the knowledge being taught. I feel very fortunate to know and experience the teaching service here. https://krunkerio.io

The course is very intense, and requires you to learn a lot in a short time. If you are the type of person who can lock in and persevere through any obstacle, this is definitely for you. You don't need any prior knowledge, I came in directly from working in a lab with a chemistry background. Everything you need to know, they will teach you, and plenty of help from instructors are provided. However, I definitely recommend, more prep is always best. Also, before starting this journey, please ensure you are financially ready. Though the course is 6 months, it can easily turn into a year. Timeline varies for everyone, if you defer multiple times, or how long the job search lasts for you. Don't be ashamed of deferring, people who were smarter than I deferred, which is why you should plan for it, if taking this course. From this point on, you must plan for any scenario in your life. This will make you a better coder, and person. I definitely would do this course again, and recommend it to those with a creative, and problem solving mind. I wish I would have done something like this sooner.

After much deliberation between going the self-taught route versus attending a bootcamp, I enrolled in the 16-week online program focused on Javascript and Ruby on Rails. Without a doubt, attending App Academy has been one of the best decisions of my life. Attending the program gives you a support network of TAs and peers who are with you each step of the way to keep you motivated and to hold you accountable, which is something I would have missed had I decided to teach myself to code. Who knows how long the projects would have taken me to complete had I decided to try to code for X or Y hours each day? The coursework is challenging and for the most part is very hands-off - you get out what you put in. I still recall one review of App Academy that I saw before attending and the punchline read something like "Sure you could teach your self to code, but who knows how long that will take. You'd probably get a job and start making money 1/4 of a year earlier with A/a which would offset the cost of the program very quickly."

Going through the 16 week course was a ton of fun, I've made some amazing friendships that might last my entire life. The curriculum is very loose, almost self-guided, but the way it's structured inspires creative and innovative thinking, and teaches you good programming habits and problem solving processes.
You have to put in a lot of your own work, and the curriculum does not really teach you as much as you would teach yourself through being hands-on and introspective during the process. The guidance is really loose, but it really helps you understand the depth of the concepts at hand.

Attended App Academy's 16 week hybrid bootcamp option (now available in-person rather than online). Overall enjoyed the program and feel as though it prepared me well. The curriculum does facilitate your learning and help you pick up more skills on your own after your studies are done. 

Pros:
- Really good instructors (at least for my cohort - Darren/Spencer/Diego were amazing teachers)
- Short timeframe to gain the necessary skills/experience
- Good project experience to fill out resume and give real world examples of programming
- Got a lot of pair programming experience
- Good partnership opportunities with certain companies (including some FAANG level opportunities)
- Strong sense of community with your cohort

Cons:
- Some of the curriculum is a little outdated (specifically the React portion could be better). You should 100% learn React hooks after the cohort ends to be ready for frontend interviews (or even before if you feel ambitious).
- Homework/instructional videos start out quite good and get to be lower quality towards the end of the course
- Advanced data structures and algorithms are mostly just touched upon briefly and not covered in depth, so you'll need to learn them on your own 
- JavaScript is the language you'll feel strongest in by the end of the program, and it's not ideal to interview in. Ruby is also taught but you won't be using it too actively post week 8 aside from the full stack project, but a lot of companies do not interview in Ruby
- After the instruction ends, there are a lot of boilerplate meetings you'll need to go to for the career quest which will slow down your study of data structures and algorithms. If you want to be strong at this, you'll need to really study hard and not take it easy despite graduation

While I did list several cons, all of these can be nullified by having a strong work ethic and learning on your own. If you're motivated to do well and want to take a career change seriously, App Academy provides a really good foundation and I would recommend it a lot.

I had a really great experience at App Academy. I attended 16 weeks Full Stack Software Engineering program. Due to the pandemic, it was online. I started with basic knowledge of programming. I remember I used to struggle with loops and variables when I started the Bootcamp, but in the end, I was able to create a full-stack single-page web application. App Academy's course structure is perfect, it starts with basics and ramp-up to an advanced level. Before starting the Bootcamp you don't have to have previous knowledge of programming, but if you do, it's a plus because it is a fast-paced Bootcamp. The First 2 weeks of the course are the basics of ruby, and there are no lectures, so you have to study by yourself but the TAs are always there to help. After 2 weeks, there are lectures in the morning and pair boarding in the afternoon.I really enjoyed pair boarding, it does improve your social skills and prepare you for the work environment and job interviews, plus you get to learn a lot from your fellow students. I had an amazing team of TAs, they were always ready to help and teach new things. They are also app academy graduates, so you get to learn a lot from their experiences. After graduation, the app academy assigns you to a coach who helps in the job search and prepares you for the job interviews, whether it be technical interviews or behavioral interviews. I highly recommend people to join App Academy if you want to start a career in the software engineering field.