App Academy

I changed career in my mid-30s and App Academy made it possible for me through their curriculums and support.  
a/A is no joke! They expect students to spend ~70 hours a week and I actually spent more hours each week throughout the entire 16-week period. It’s a 2x full-time job. If you are unable to fully commit to it, don’t bother because most likely they will kick you out - there’s an assessment almost every week and if failed more than two, you are out! By the 4th week of my cohort, half of the cohort mates were gone. At the end of the 16th week, only one-third of cohort mates were able to make it to graduation. 
We had an instructor and 3 instructor assistants. They were knowledgeable about the learning materials and were able to explain very well whenever we had questions. 
In order to graduate, we had to have three projects - a javascript, full-stack, and team-collaboration full-stack project. These are keys to landing a job, especially if you had no prior experience in the software engineering field. I am glad they had this as part of their curriculum! 
After graduation, technical and behavior coaches did a fantastic job preparing me for the interview process. In the 3rd week of the job-hunting process, I had more interviews scheduled than I could handle so I had to slow down my application submission. I got two offers by the end of the 4th week and accepted one. Now working as a Software Engineer in a public traded company and loving it! 
Overall, based on my own experience, a/A is a legit Bootcamp school with organized curriculums and support teams to prepare people with no coding experience for the tech field. 

To anyone considering changing career paths, I couldn’t recommend App Academy enough! 
Before I applied, I watched countless YouTube videos and read many reviews and reddit forums about whether or not App Academy was for me. I never really heard anything bad about them so it almost seemed cult-ish but after eventually doing it, I can see why so many people recommend because it changed my life. 
I was working at a dead-end job as a landscaper, and couldn’t afford to move out of my parents house. I dropped out of college because it was two expensive and didn’t really have any other plan.
I knew a few people who attended App Academy and decided to pull the trigger and quit both my jobs. I did the JavaScript Bootcamp prep which was kind of expensive but I did think that it gave me a head start on learning JavaScript. Although, in hindsight, there are many online resources that would’ve made a great alternative as well! 
I did the 16-week Ruby immerse program and it was tough. Very tough. I for-sure had a few mental breakdowns about passing exams but looking back, there is nothing they teach that it too complicated to learn, it’s just a lot in a short amount of time. You need to know how to pace yourself so you don’t burn out and I recommend getting as far ahead in App Academy Open before starting the official course. And do the homework! It is very important!
After the 16 weeks, I was able to get a fully remote frontend developer role paying 90k+ one week after graduating. It seems like it’s almost too good to be true but App Academy really does prepare you for a job not only the curriculum, but also helping prepare your LinkedIn/ social platforms and mock interviewing.
If you are uncomfortable with your life, take the leap!!

The curriculum will feel very cut-throat if you aren't mentally ready to work 80+ hours. You can only fail 1 test and have 1 chance to retake, which used to give me nightmares. Speaking of which, don't you dare sacrifice sleep! Nothing's worse than a brain trying to focus on multiple lines of code for ~8 hours. Describing learning and retaining the material always gives me a visual of drinking from a fire hose without vomiting (sorry for the graphic imagery). You don't need prior coding knowledge (although boot camp prep will help a lot), but you do need to know how to make friends (or at least know how to not be an asshole). The other students will be trying to drink out of that water hose with you, and if you can help each other, at least you don't have to cry alone. So, put that ego away. The TAs are seasoned veterans of said fire hose with big hearts and determination to help you through as they were once students too. If you get through this program, it will feel surreal and humbling. No program is perfect and some materials need a major update, but this was worth it.

I attended the 24-week full-stack online program and graduated in March of 2022. I was looking to make a career change and decided that a fully immersive program was exactly what I was looking for. When I joined I had been working toward a CS degree, but I was new to programming. The curriculum was great it had live lectures, projects, and homework which introduced topics and syntax for the following day. I found that being new to programming it was important for me not to just read about concepts but to apply those concepts to build projects and App Academy provided this type of learning environment!  

I graduated from AppAcademy 24 week program in March 2022. It was a great experience for me. I was working in the fashion industry before that and have no coding background. This program taught me how to become an independent programmer and solve problems (debugging). I was very lucky to be in an awesome class where all my classmates are very nice, smart, professional, and positive. All my classmates became my network after we graduated. It is very important to know that: Do not expect anyone will hold your hand and feed you all the knowledge, the point here is to learn HOW TO LEARN ON YOUR OWN. It is very important in this industry because you will constantly need to learn new things and no one has the time to teach you one-on-one all day. Of course you can ask questions any time during AppAcademy, but try to ask good questions. Try to research or try solving before reaching for help.

I decided last year to sign up for app academy. I was a beginner coder with only enough experience to pass the requirements to get accepted. I had a great time meeting new friends and very smart people along the way. The instructors are very good and skilled to explain everything you need in the class. The technical instructors are also amazing across all the modules, they are always there to help and don't hesitate to answer any questions. The structure of the program is also very good. Now that I have been through it, I feel like it is well structured to optimize the amount of material students learn each week. The job search support and the career coaching that is available is also great. Not many coding bootcamps have this kind of support to really set all students for success. I had a great experience and would definitely do it again! The one thing I would do differently now is, that I would take some time prior to starting the bootcamp to study up to set myself for a success from Day 1. Unfortunately, since I did not have any experience prior to starting aA, I felt very overwhelmed especially at the beginning which resolved in the deferral in the first few weeks. After that I was able to catch up, understand the basics and create a momentum to be successful in the program. Again, if you are thinking about joining a bootcamp or not sure about which one, I cannot recommend App Academy enough. It is money well spend and I would do it all over again.

Pros - 
Good career services with not just counselors but a community that pushes you to learn and grow as a software developer. 
If you're willing to put in the work to not only produce the projects but also understand the concepts and speak intelligently about approaches to software development, you will get a great job.
The classes, with 16 weeks to learn a lot, could sometimes feel a bit dense, but with the amount you're expected to learn in that time period the instructors do a great job of it not seeming too overwhelming or putting too much pressure on the students to learn at a pace they would struggle with
Also a huge plus, with the ever-growing industry, people seek out boot camp grads more, and App Academy partnerships are a pre-vetted opportunity to get some great experience under your belt with a good wage.

Cons -
Very steep learning curve at first - about 65% of our cohort made it to the end.
Whether this was a failing on their part to properly understand the material or instructors' inability to pick up on people struggling, this was sad and the process of deferring was handled in a rather macabre way that was needlessly dramatic.

I decided on App Academy for my pivot into software engineering because I had a friend who graduated from their in-person program and now works at Google. I was also drawn by their advertising that you don't need ANY background in coding in order to succeed at a/A, which applied to me. I am honestly shocked at how much I've learned in just 24 short weeks. I went from knowing ZERO code to being able to confidently create a functioning full stack web application. You definitely need to be self motivated and put the hours in, but the way they have structured their curriculum is really beneficial to learning and understanding the languages they teach (currently JavaScript and Python). My issue with learning how to code on my own was always getting stuck and not knowing how to get unstuck. App Academy's instructors and TA's are invaluable assets to the coding experience, not to mention the growth that comes with pair programming with another person and having to explain your code out loud.

It's definitely not a flawless system, and they have a couple bugs to iron out on their curriculum at times, but I'm really thankful for my experience at App Academy. Also, they are constantly improving their curriculum to stay up to date which I respect.

App Academy is stressful not going to lie, especially if you have zero coding experience. There will be many occasions where you will be experiencing self-doubt and feel like you're all alone. But at the same time, it was one of the best decisions I've made despite everything. There's an amazing group of people to support your learning and to make it all slightly easier.

If you are interested in coding, I do recommend a/A. I know a lot of people tend to say ruby isn't used in a lot of places, which is the first language you learn - but it def helps to start with ruby because it literally reads like english, so it makes the transition and the learning process that much easier. Trust me, someone who went through the course, that this is not easy. Expect to study every waking moment and lose your weekends. If you do that and work hard, you will be in good hands by the end of the program. The curriculum does get increasingly difficult, as with everything you learn in life, but there is good support and the TAs are always available to answer any questions you may have to clarify specific things. Overall, it was a wonderful experience - you meet lots of great people and make friends that'll last a llifetime :) 

I attended the 24-week program. I would recommend it to others but only if they know the commitment it'll take to finish. The 24-week program is very generous with time and allows for students to learn at a comfortable pace. Sometimes it might be too much time because some days feel pointless. The program will also only focus on Web Dev as it is the easiest way into the industry. Now that the negatives are out of the way. I have nothing but praise for a/A. They have a very up-to-date curriculum that reflects the pace of the tech industry. Instructors are helpful and just pure awesome. The job support afterward is incredible if the alum puts in the effort. Finally the income share agreement/deferred payment plan lowers the financial barrier and is by far the highligh of a/A.
Verdict 4.5/5.