App Academy

My overall experience at App Academy was great. With that being said, the overall curriculum is extremely fast-paced. There are assessments virtually every week and they are crucial for you to pass in order to stay within the program. Because there is such a heavy emphasis on these assessments, the learning environment goes from learning as much as you can to try to pass these tests. Be prepared to spend hours studying and working on homework. Don't be afraid to ask questions. You pair program every single day. If you understand everything and your partner doesn't, slow down and explain it to them. Your partner will appreciate it a lot. If it takes you a while to understand, don't be afraid to slow your partner down and ask questions. It is your learning too. There is an overwhelming amount of staff support every step of the way, so don't be afraid to get to know them too. Your end goal is to absorb as much knowledge as you can and if you don't quite understand everything, that is okay too. Your full stack project is where you can solidify your understanding of everything. Overall, this is an amazing learning experience. You will stress a lot, study a lot and learn a lot, but by the end of it, you'll be extremely proud of how far you've come. 

App Academy has been extremely challenging but all the while rewarding. It is definitely what you make of it. If you put in the time and the effort, you will come out proud as can be thinking  - "Oh wow, I really learned all of this in just a few months" and "Did I really just create a website from scratch in a couple weeks?" I really enjoyed my time at App Academy and am so glad I took the course. Here are my pros and cons of the Full Stack Intensive:

Pros:
- Great group of TA's who put in extra time to help students, even on weekends. These TA's go above and beyond to help the students. They were once students themselves and know what each student is going through. They really want each student to succeed and will make sure to get them the help they need.
- Friendly and safe environment as well as inclusive
- Admissions process really brings in people who are very well-rounded and have absolute determination to succeed (and to get in job in the end) - I was surrounded by people who I thought was much smarter than me and hardworking which caused me to push myself to improve everyday
- Curriculum includes a ton of hands on learning - projects everyday to make you apply new concepts directly to code
- Ton of pair programming - a lot of opportunities to collaborate with other programmers and learn other techniques/methods

Cons:
- Some material/projects(not too many) of the curriculum were not very clear - the instructions were difficult to understand which obstructed my ability to get far in those projects during those days
- Ton of pair programming - as mentioned above, it's a great aspect, but sometimes it becomes too much - dense material can be difficult to understand in a few days and I personally found it beneficial when we had some solo programming days to really struggle through the day's projects on our own

Overall, this was a great experience for me and I definitely recommend this course!

Amazing organization. One of the most life changing organizations I have decided to be a part of. They provide the pace, structure, and push that I would've probably never had trying to learn their programming curriculum on my own. That being said, they are not a perfect organization and many things about their curriculum such as the relevance of certain tech stacks we work with or the deep theoretical underpinnings of some of the languages and APIs they use are not for me. I still believe they provide me with a great value for my money.

I think about how different it would have been if I didn't choose to study with a bootcamp and tried learning on my own.  I wouldn't have been able to complete as much as I did in such a short time.  The information is difficult to grasp quickly, but setting your only focus for the bootcamp is important to learning the material quickly.  I also wouldn't have learned as much if I had tried to learn the material on my own.  On my own I would try to learn what I need to learn to make my website operational, which would have left  a lot more holes in the knowledge of programing that I have now. Lastly, the price seems very steep, but I find it to be worth it in terms of the value comparison of a college education.  I graduated with a structural civil engineering degree but I find this fullstack course to be more challenging, more valuable, more productive time spent for a higher education and the overall cost was cheaper than unreduced cost of my degree.

I actually got a job after completing App Academy's in-person full-time curriculum in NYC.  I wanted to wait until I actually got an offer, so here it is.

If you're looking at this review, you're probably looking to make a career-change or gain an edge in landing that first software development role after graduating University (or High School?).  For me, it was absolutely worth it.

1. This is one of the only coding bootcamps which hold you to a certain learning-pace with weekly assessments for the first 8-ish weeks.  If you fall behind and fail two of them, you're out of the program, and trust me this will take a lot of work to pass.  It ensures that you actually learned the material and can do the basics, but the pace of this program isn't for everyone.  You will wake up in the morning, get to the office, code all day, go home, work on HW assignments, code some more, sleep, then repeat for 3 months.  You will literally live/eat/breathe code for the duration and you'll learn so much, but this brings up my second point.

2. You will have no life during the program.  When people say this in the reviews, they're not being excessive.  I almost had a panic attack on the night before my first assessment (Sunday) because I was struggling with some concepts.  You will learn a new concept and then be expected to pass an assessment on it the following week, while already learning new material.  Tell your friends/girlfriend/family/dog that you'll pay attention to them after 3 months.  (For reference, my cohort had like 20% of the cohort drop out...  This isn't a joke)

3. You will meet some of the most brilliant people you've ever met in your cohort.  We've had Ivy-League grads, WallStreet guys, Entrepreneurs, Musicians, Basement gamers who want to finally get a job, etc...  They were from all different backgrounds, but almost every single one of them were brilliant in their own way.  I actually felt dumb for the first time in my life.  Being surrounded by these people and pair-programming with each of them every single day will help you learn and see code in a different way.  You'll also learn how to deal with not-so-favorable people, which will help you during your actual job (stubborn/argumentative people, keyboard hogs, etc), but these interactions are rare.

4. The Job-Search support is actually one of the best parts of this curriculum.  Technical and Non-Technical interviewing is a skill just like programming, and you'll gain a ton of practice white boarding and talking about yourself/background.  My career coach was the best hype-man I could've ever asked for, and I think he actually helped me ultimately land my first role.

If you put in the work, and you pass all the assessments, you'll land a job.  A vast majority of my cohort all landed jobs within the first 6-months after program completion.
The most important part is putting in the work after you actually finish the program (Job-Search is honestly the hardest part because there's minimal hand holding and you're actually competing for roles against other people who often have CS degrees).  There's no time for an extended break after completing the program.  Start working on more features on your fullstack project, start learning data structures / algorithms more in depth, white board at least once a week, etc...  It will take a lot of work.  The best part is that you have access to the office at all times, so you can go in to work while you look for a job even after you complete the program.

For me, this program changed my life and I'm thankful I went through it.

Lastly, I want to share one tip:  Before you start the program, you absolutely should complete a beginner's web-development "course" on freecodecamp or Udemy.  It goes a LONG way, trust me.

With graduation near, I can't wait for this program to be over, but I am confident that it has prepared me well to land a job as a software developer.

The good: 
App Academy is a high quality coding bootcamp, and if you make it through, you will be well prepared for a career in software development. The curriculum is clear and thorough. The program is continuously updated to reflect changes in the industry. The students and staff are passionate about learning and coding. The staff are very helpful, and due to the tuition agreement, they are very invested in the students' success. 

The bad: 
App Academy advertises that there is no coding background or experience required for their 12 week bootcamp. This technically is not wrong, but I would never recommend this program to someone with no coding experience. If I were to do this over, I would spend several months teaching myself to code and would take some free online classes before starting App Academy.  The stress and lack of sleep I'm experiencing during this program are affecting my physical and mental health, and it would be much more bearable if I had known a lot more coming in.

Overall, I’m very satisfied with the experience I had going through App Academy.

The strong reputation that App Academy has in the industry is well-deserved - the quality of education is excellent, and the instructors do a great job of presenting the material in a clear and concise manner. The curriculum designers are also constantly aware of current technology trends, and are unafraid of completely revamping their instructional materials to ensure that what they teach is relevant in industry.

However, while the program claims that no prior programming experience is necessary to get in, I found that the vast majority of people who completed the program and excelled in my cohort had some kind of technical background, ranging from CS/STEM majors, to some basic web design experience. This is not to say that those who came in with no experience did not finish the program, but rather that they had to be a lot more self-sufficient and proactive about learning the material in order to keep up.

The program is rigorous, but it forces you to push yourself to higher levels of productivity than you ever thought possible, and getting to work in an environment surrounded by people who are self-motivated and all working toward a similar goal is incredibly satisfying.

At a/A, there has been many challenges. You go through test assessments, 3 hours of homework, full stack projects...etc. 

For me, if you told me I'd be able to pass all this 3 months ago, I would have felt this was way over my head. In the last 10 weeks, I've learned about myself. I've learned to learn.  There has been a great amount of help from TAs and classmates. I've learned to take all their styles and watch how they work and just pick a part of it. One clear example was while working on my CSS for my project, I was going back and forth between my text editor and browser to see changes I've made. After having a TA to come help solve a bug, I got to see how they handled CSS and found a more efficient way to work by making changes in the browser that has a immediate change. That is just one of many example of how I've learn to work  through the techniques of others. 

There is a lot of content to learn, but with the well structured curriculum that a/A gives us, you're more than prepared to be successful. 

This is my honest review about app academy, this bootcamp is the most intense but also rewarding experience of my academic studies. Be prepared if you really want to succeed, I spent two month before this bootcamp just learning code, still feel overwhelmed during the program. You will need really good fundamentals and a modest talent at coding to get through the program.

The coding curriculum is two month, so you have to learn very fast and be willing to work very hard. The materials provided by the curriculum is valuable and can be best used going through them thoroughly. They also structure the program in a very competitive way to weed out the weaker students who failed multiple tests, which forces you to learn and give your best shot.

My overall experience there is positive, if you are a person enjoys challenges then this is for you.

App academy has a curriculum that can be challenging for people with no prior experience, but it isn't impossible.  The curriculum is slightly dated, but there are several people working to update it daily.  To succeed in the course isn't hard if you are a diligent student, but you will get back how much you put in.  

There are several students have had to leave due to failing multiple tests, which is fair, and lets them know that the pace is too fast for them, or this style of learning is not appropriate for them.  a/A has been nice in terms of paying back the students. 

Pros:
- Decent curriculum that covers basic knowledge, create full stack applications, and learning the skills to learn on your own.
- Community of learners with the same goal
- Nice TAs.
- structured learning for those who need it.
- deferred payment plan.

Cons:
- Some projects are poorly written, and require more effort to understand than is necessary.
- short time to work on projects toward the end, but you can improve on them later.