App Academy

I was in the NYC May 2017 cohort, and was lucky enough to make it through to the end. I came in with a bit of development experience, but App Academy helped me take it to the next level. To simplify things, I'll boil it down to a few pros/cons that I felt to be true after my three month adventure.

Pros: 
- you will be surrounded by very smart people with impressive and diverse backgrounds 
- lots of pair programming (something you can't do alone in the basement)
- a/A wants you to succeed since they're making an investment in you from day one
- streamlined yet intense curriculum that will set you up for a job afterwards
- tuition model means you don't have to pay upfront

Cons:
- As mentioned by many others, your social life will be nonexistent during the course
- You don't get much freedom in terms of what you do/learn in the main course
- If you're not meeting bare expectations, you'll be asked to leave
- Stress. Lots of stress.

​App Academy was the best decision I made and it was such an amazing experience. I graduated college with a Biology degree and was planning to go to physical therapy school, but my grades and GRE scores were not competitive enough, so I felt stuck. I was looking for a career change and that's how I found App Academy.

I strongly suggest learning how to code a bit to see if you like it! I ended up finding it more enjoyable to learn than studying for my GREs. I've never coded before and I had no CS or SWE friends, but I followed my instincts and decided to apply to App Academy. 

For the interview process, I checked out the resources provided by App Academy to prepare for the coding challenges and found them helpful for getting a good start. I went through every possible interview round there was.. first it was a timed coding challenge which I passed, but decided to attend their Jumpstart program where you have the chance to be accepted straight into the program if you pass their assessments (Which I highly encourage if you can make it out to SF for two weeks - just email them for more information about it). Unfortunately, I didn't pass Jumpstart, so I returned to SoCal and continued with my interview process. I went through a live coding test, a homework assignment, a timed test, another live coding test, and then finally making it to the behavioral interview before receiving the acceptance email.

Program:
- If you are thinking about doing a career shift and have zero coding experience, know that it's possible but you will have to put in a lot of work to learn the material and not fall behind. App Academy will be difficult. They move at a really fast pace and it will be hard to keep up if you fall behind.
- Be prepared to have no life outside of coding for 3 months. Because they're also open on the weekends, I went to a/A every single day during the program. Take advantage of the study area since they have computers, a restroom, and a kitchen! Why go to a coffee shop and struggle to find open seats :) There were nights where I dreamt about code, went to sleep thinking about code, and woke up thinking about code. 
- Don't feel down if you see that those around you are doing a lot better than you, a lot of times I realized that those around me have either coded before, taken CS classes, or have prior experience. 
- Make sure to study well for the assessments, they are timed so make sure to practice taking them over and over and over again if you don't do well under pressure.
- Staff/TA was great! They split everyone into smaller groups, so there's a good amount of TAs per group. We had weekly circle time where we went around in a circle and talked about our week which I really liked.

Job Search:
- My biggest challenge was to study algorithms, data structures, and mostly CS concepts since I did not have that background, but just study consistently the areas you feel you're weak at and practice. Set up a good routine and schedule for yourself. Resources provided by a/A
- Constantly check in with your coach! Meet up with your cohort mates to study and keep up the momentum to applying for jobs. Support each other.
- Buy yourself a whiteboard to practice writing out problems. Be comfortable talking about yourself and your projects (it's going to get repetitive)
- I wanted to wait until I received a job offer to leave a review... so I am happy to say that after 4 months of job searching, I received an offer from a company I am super excited to work for! Thank you App Academy! 

I attended App Academy this past winter, and it was a great program start to finish. Some background on me - I was coming from a software background building ads in Flash. I never had any organized instruction in software, so I pretty much only learned what I dealt with on a day to day basis. After a few years, Flash was almost dead, and I knew I had to get my skillset more in line with the current tech ecosystem. 

I enrolled in App Academy, and start to finish it was an awesome experience. They had the right mix of lectures, well-written readings, and actual coding. Every day you'd be paired with a new partner, and then at night you'd have readings and homework to buff up your skills. It was a TON of work, but it was so busy and interesting that it never felt frustrating or overwhelming. It was just a matter of telling all your friends "I can't hang out for a couple months," and then putting the time in. That's a tall order I'm sure, but I think it was worth it. I swear at one point during a break, I felt my brain tingling from all the thinking I had been doing.

Anyway, they taught a wonderful full stack curriculum that left me well prepared for coding challenges and interviews. It took me a while, but my new job is paying me 30,000 more than my previous software job. App Academy is an intense program, but for me it was one of the most personally rewarding decisions I ever made.

I am currently studying at App Academy. I think I have made a great choice. 
Curriculum:
The Curriculum is great and intense. Every night you will have homework and readings. Each morning you will have lectures and each afternoon you will do pair coding. Most of the time you won't complete the daily project
There will be 6 assessments and at least three large projects during the cohort. 
It's not a joke of drinking from the fire hydrant.  There is more and more stress every day.
No one is super confident through the whole cohort.   or understand everything  App Academy teaches you.  At some point, you will feel behind. The TAs will tell you it's normal.  You should believe it. At least I do. 
Do your best to learn everything. Use all your time to work hard on it and believe you could make it through.

By now there are tonnes of reviews for a/A and they are all true. The problem lies in who exactly they are true for. We all come from so many different backgrounds and lifestyles that our experiences can vastly differ from the reviews we read. However, there is one constant among us, the will to learn software development and the hope to get a great job in the industry. While I can't really comment on the second aspect (haven't actually begun job hunting yet),  at the end of the day if you want to learn how to quickly and effectively develop software AND have a great time with your cohort mates and TAs, a/A is undoubtedly one of the best places you can choose to attend. 

A few caveats that you should pay attention to. You have to eat, sleep and breath code. You have to constantly give more and more of your time and effort as the course progresses. As soon as you think things might start slowing down and you might have room to breath, the course will get more intense. So one of the best advice I can give to any one who gets accepted into a/A: KEEP UP WITH THE WORKLOAD, regardless of your daily schedule. The curriculum is one of the best, believe in it to teach you the skills you need as long as you can do what it tells you to do. On top of that the TAs (atleast in my "pod") are some of the nicest, smartest and the most knowledgeable people I have ever met. Use them.

The job search curriculum seems to slightly drop in quality (Not the lectures on actual job search, those are great, but the organization and content of that part of the overall course). The intensity never drops and you are forced to be more independent in your work, though do note that this is by design. You still learn buttloads of good stuff, especially on how to actually get a job which is what everything led up to. Despite that it feels a bit lacking coming from the main curriculum.

On a final note. There will always be times when you feel in over your head. There will always be times when you doubt your own ability. But if you are willing to ignore those thoughts and keep pushing through with the right mindset, trust me, you will become a software developer.  Hopefully I'll remember to update the review once I get a job. Until then, good luck.

AppAcademy - the best place to learn to code, pair-programming and become a software developer. 

Pros:
Great resources and environment - Curriculum is designed day by day and it is clear what to learn and practice every single day throughout the course, and it will lead you to be able to build the full stack application by the week of 10. If you get stuck (especially debugging), you can ask TAs and circle leader for help anytime, and they are experienced, welcoming and awesome to work with!
Cons:
Workload and assessment pressure - Even though the course ends 6pm, there are a lot of readings and homework everyday. If you can't commit 70 - 90 hours a week, you might feel behind or not ready for the assessment. Failing the assessment twice means having to leave the program, so there are a lot pressures to handle. 
Context:
I attended May cohort 2017. Prior to the actual program, I attended the 2 weeks program called Jumpstart, that teaches the basics of Ruby language to pass the border of admission. After receiving acceptance, I went through the online a/A preflight materials called Alpha course for about a month. Once the actual course starts, time flies so fast. I gave up a lot of things on weekends for the course, but making apps and solving problems is exciting and I currently enjoy working on the flex project with my awesome classmates. 
I could have done this much without a/A.

I entered App Academy in the May 2017 cohort, and it has been a great experience. The courseload is heavy and requires a more than full time commitment. I spent many days past 6 PM, especially during the project days towards the end of the curriculum, but I learned thoroughly all the topics covered.

We covered the fundamentals of programming to creating higher level applications and complete products. The workload was immense at times, but the reward matches the time put in. The instructors are extremely helpful and qualified, and are great people.

App Academy has life changing potential.  I think we can all agree on that given that the program offers to make you eligible for Software Developer jobs in the span of three months.  There are some caveats though.  I'll address the negatives of the program before I delve into why I think it is a fantastic program that everyone should consider.  

The a/A lifestyle is not for everyone.  Whether you are invited to Jumpstart, or make it through to receiving an offer, it becomes quite apparent that a/A does its best to recruit the best, brightest, and youngest to their program.  Completing this program fortified my passion for coding.  If you can't picture yourself coding from 9am-6pm (with a lovely 75 minute lunch) and then doing homework until 10 or 11PM every night, then you may want to reconsider.  The material itself is not super, super dense, there's just an absolute ton that they shove at you in 8 weeks.  In essence, be ready for your lifestyle to be a/A all the time.  Myself, and a lot of my cohort mates would take Saturday off and play basketball Sunday mornings - so I want to be transparent when I say that although it consumes your entire life, there are patches of time to catch your breath.  

The range of students also varies considerably, but by the end of the program everyone is committed to finishing together.  One fact that I heard a lot, yet still surprised me was how diverse the cohorts are.  Keep in mind software engineering is some really hard stuff.  Learning Javascript in one week is not for the weak, so it makes sense that a majority of attendees come from prestigious schools.  If that makes you wary, don't be.  We had students with backgrounds from MIT, Standford, Princeton, dozens of mechanical and electrical engineers, former employees at firms such as Google, Goldman Sachs, Mckinsey.  But we also had multiple  people who failed college, only attended community college, had never held a job more than 25k.  I think youre starting to get the picture.   The people that have a limited background in tech/engineering/coding do typically do better but that's true with most endeavors in life so I hope that doesn't deter anyone reading this.  What's vitally more important is being flexible and having a lot of drive.  There's not a person above 30 in our group, and it makes sense given that a lot of us dropped everything to come to a city with the highest rents in the country and a full-time curriculum to learn in a matter of months. It's overwhelming, and they specifically design it that way.  Again, I want to repeat that because people will bash a/A for stopping to help them when they're struggling, or going too quickly through the material, but they design the course to make it feel like you're always inches away from drowning.  They don't have time to make it easy because you're competing with unemployed young guns with a fancy CS degree and boatload of knowledge.

Their contract sounds strict, but when it comes down to it they really want to help you find a job.  If they had any loop holes they'd be exposed and taken advantage of.  You can't offer someone a free curriculum without being sure that they will do everything they can to go out and get that job upon completion.  Again, you have to be ready to work and that is even truer during the job search curriculum.  It's also worth mentioning, because people read too many marketing materials and get a ridiculous thought in their heads, that they will make 100k in 12 weeks.  There are probably 2-5 people in our graduating cohort (out of 70) that could obtain that.  The majority of graduates take 90 days to find a job so take that into account as you're doing your preparation.  

A few parts of my a/A experience that I am forever grateful for are the relationships that you make and the material that you learn.  It's actually pretty easy to show up to a place that day in and day out keeps trying throw more and more work on top of you.  The biggest reason is because you develop extremely close relationships with a lot of people as you tackle trial and tribulations together.  In the end, you enter the job market with a network of 1000+ a/A grads that know everything you went through.  Don't underestimate the people in your cohort.  A lot of us all came in with the same mentality of buckling down and getting the job.  Like actual software development, you need to rely on your team in order to achieve.

Every day is long and tiring.  Every day will waver your self-confidence and raise your level of impostor syndrome to unprecedented heights.  But every day is also extremely riveting and fulfilling.  You will do and create things you wouldn't imagine.   You find a way to get it done, and then you do it.  That's engineering.  That's innovation.

Any questions, feel free to shoot me an e-mail.  I was once in your shoes but somehow after twelve weeks of telling myself to take it one day at a time, I finally emerged as a software developer - and know that you can too.

App Academy is one of the most difficult programs I have ever attended. Not only does app academy tell you all the fundamentals to succeed in the tech industry, it also teaches you how to learn a lot in a quick amount of time. If you do get in, you not will not much time to do anything else besides program for the next 3 months. It is one hell of a journey. There could be a lot of improvements to app academy's infrastructure, but what made my experience amazing was the people. You will meet tons of individuals with different backgrounds and places in life, but what makes you guys similar is how hardworking everyone is. There is lots of learn in a/A both interpersonal interactions in pair programming and software engineering knowledge. It is not for everyone, Best of luck if you do attend!

I attended App Academy in May 2017. It is a 13 week course that trains you to become a web developer through their rigorous program. I came into the program knowing little to no coding. I attended jumpstart before hand which was a free prep course that trained students for the interview process. The overall process was a positive one. From week 1-9, the curriculum is a lot to take in. Prepare for a lot of long days and nights especially if you are new to coding. The amount of knowledge that you need to take in can seem crazy at times, but if you put in the time and effort, the experience is rewarding. It would've been hard for me to believe if someone told me that I could make a website at the end of nine weeks. But it is totally doable, and if you want to get into programming, I don't know a better place than App Academy.

App Academy has been great so far in terms of having a structured environment for learning and partially teaching yourself to code. TAs provide assistance along this journey as well as classmates. It's a lot of work and can be stressful at times but other classmates and TAs provide a great support system. Material taught in the curriculum is good as it's adapted to the current trends in the industry. It's very intensive but if you have the determination, you get through the course and attain the end goal of starting a new career in tech.

This intense 13+ weeks bootcamp has changed my life completely. Before starting, just know basic Ruby and Javascript, I didn't think I would be able to create wek/mobile applications on my own. However, after completing the course, I am able to create a full stack application on my own and further, I am able to learn a completely new stack and still produce a fully functional application. They don't spoon feed you the material but they make sure that you are capable of adapting to new technology. However, job search could be better.