BrainStation
Average Rating4.66
2336 Reviews
30 Courses
BrainStation is a global digital skills training and workforce transformation provider that offers bootcamps and courses in data, design, development, digital marketing, product, artificial intelligence, and leadership both online and at state-of-the-art campuses in New York, London, Miami, Toronto, and Vancouver. Established in 2012, BrainStation has worked with over 500 instructors from the most innovative brands to develop cutting-edge, real-world digital education. Whether students are looking for career transformation or professional development, BrainStation has a learning option, with full-time diploma programs, part-time certificate courses, and specialized skills training.
BrainStation’s courses and bootcamps offer a collaborative, project-based learning experience, with regularly updated curriculum to ensure professionals gain the most relevant skills in their field. The class structure combines engaging, live instruction with interactive sessions and a hands-on, project-based curriculum. BrainStation also provides a variety of flexible learning options, including a proprietary online classroom and learning environment. This environment lets students attend live lectures, collaborate with fellow professionals, and receive immediate, real-time feedback from instructors – from anywhere in the world.
BrainStation has trained more than 30,000 alumni in over 100 countries across the world. BrainStation’s bootcamps offer personalized career services, including career coaching to help learners meet their career goals. Networking and career-oriented events are also available at BrainStation.
2,336 BrainStation Reviews
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AnonymousProduct Designer • Graduate • User Experience Design Course • VancouverAug 26, 2021Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob AssistanceUX Design Bootcamp
The course was beyond my expectation. I had previous self learned knowledge going into the program, however I was able to strengthen and develop my skills even further from this course! The instructors were extremely supportive and knowledgable, and the lectures were engaging and helpful. The assignments were very successful in preparing us for industry work. BrainStations has a really strong job assistance team, the career success sessions really supported students throughout and after ...The course was beyond my expectation. I had previous self learned knowledge going into the program, however I was able to strengthen and develop my skills even further from this course! The instructors were extremely supportive and knowledgable, and the lectures were engaging and helpful. The assignments were very successful in preparing us for industry work. BrainStations has a really strong job assistance team, the career success sessions really supported students throughout and after the course! 10/10 would recommend!- AnonymousGraduate • Digital Marketing Course • VancouverAug 25, 2021Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Digital Marketing Diploma
I completed the digital marketing diploma at BrainStation in 2020. I loved the program overall. Mel, our instructor was very patient and experience in the field. She answered all the questions and made sure she had enough office hours for more assistance. The program was nice and provided me adequate knowledge. It's good to give you an overview of everything but it would really help if some areas such as data and SEO was a little bit more detailed. Something that would tremendously help ...I completed the digital marketing diploma at BrainStation in 2020. I loved the program overall. Mel, our instructor was very patient and experience in the field. She answered all the questions and made sure she had enough office hours for more assistance. The program was nice and provided me adequate knowledge. It's good to give you an overview of everything but it would really help if some areas such as data and SEO was a little bit more detailed. Something that would tremendously help the process could've been working on real projects in collaboration with businesses to get a grasp of how exactly things work. I got into the course with almost 20-30% knowledge and left with 85-90%.
Really enjoyed the bootcamp and their career support after graduation. - AnonymousData Analyst • Graduate • Full-Time Data Science Bootcamp Online • OnlineAug 25, 2021Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob AssistanceN/A
Data Science Online
TL;DR: Brainstation offers a good curriculum and a great way to spend 12 weeks. With enough effort in your coursework and projects after graduation, Brainstation's bootcamp can be a good way to make the jump into an entry level data analyst role. It is probably not a silver bullet which will instantly get you into a data science role at a top company however.
My Background:
I began my bootcamp search when I was an IT risk consultant at a big four advisory firm with about 2 year...TL;DR: Brainstation offers a good curriculum and a great way to spend 12 weeks. With enough effort in your coursework and projects after graduation, Brainstation's bootcamp can be a good way to make the jump into an entry level data analyst role. It is probably not a silver bullet which will instantly get you into a data science role at a top company however.
My Background:
I began my bootcamp search when I was an IT risk consultant at a big four advisory firm with about 2 years of experience post-university (Bachelors Degree - Business). I was unhappy at work and needed a change so I decided to pursue a data analyst role because data analysis had always interested me in my university courses and work projects. Towards this end, I interviewed for several data analyst positions but found that I just did not have the experience or skills needed to obtain an offer. In an effort to bridge the gap in my skills I decided to leave my job and attend Brainstation's Data Science Bootcamp online.
Before beginning the bootcamp I had worked with sql and python to a limited extent in university courses as well as work projects. I was not a beginner but was not an expert either. That being said there were others in my cohort with essentially zero experience with data analysis tools and they were able to complete the bootcamp, albeit with slightly more difficulty in the early weeks when the learning curve is steepest.
The Result:
I was able to leverage my experience in my previous role in combination with my experience at Brainstation to successfully transition into a full time data analyst job with a pay raise. The role and firm are desirable and I am happy with them, but they are not the absolute top tier. Additionally, my role is as a data analyst where I am primarily working on data analysis and presentation rather than working on ML/AI modeling that experienced data scientists would be more focused on. With some years of experience I have no doubt I will be able to move into a true data science role if I desire, but as of right now I would say those roles are out of reach for me. This is something to be aware of, it is unlikely you will jump straight into a true data science role after a bootcamp unless you have significant analytical experience from another area such as academia (many PhDs are able to make the aforementioned jump). I wouldn't say this is an inditement of Brainstation or other bootcamps however, many people with Masters Degrees in statistics or data science similarly have trouble making this jump. I only mention this because salespeople will sometimes sell you on that possibility which I think is unlikely for most people.
If you are reading this you are probably interested in how likely this bootcamp is to get you a job. The answer is: it depends on your prior experience before the bootcamp, as well as the amount of effort you put into the bootcamp and job search. Also there is some luck involved. Of the members of my cohort, the majority (60-70%) currently have jobs in data analyst or data engineer roles there are one or two who have jumped into data science internships as well. Per LinkedIn, the remaining 30-40 percent are still looking.
The Course
A typical week was Monday-Friday with code along classes from 9:30am-12:00pm and 1:00pm-3:30pm. These lectures would have several sessions where we would need to apply what we had learned to exercises on our own. Before and after lectures for about 2 hours TAs would be available to assist you with understanding the lectures or working on the project for that week. Most lectures were done in Jupyter notebooks. This is helpful because I still have the files from my lectures and can easily refer back if needed. This helped me with several of my projects that I have created post graduation.
The coursework went something like this:
-2 weeks of sql and tableau with weekly independent projects.
-2 weeks of python with numpy and pandas practice and 1 project focused on data cleaning and exploratory data analysis.
-2 weeks of Statistics applied using python libraries with 1 project focused on statistical analysis and modeling
-3 weeks of machine learning modeling practice with 1 project focused on modeling and model optimization
- 1 week focused on neural networks
- 1 week of Big data analysis using AWS, hadoop, spark and etc.
- 1 week to focus on your Capstone project with assistance from the education team.
Capstone projects are expected to be completed outside of class time over the course of the 12 week program. In the final week of the program projects are presented to the group. Optionally, you are able to present your capstone project at Demo day to prospective employers and recruiters.
Coursework Verdict.
In general the coursework is interesting and you feel that you learn a lot from the process. I genuinely believe there is not a better way to spend 12 weeks if you objective is learning the subject matter. As with all bootcamps however, it is impossible to learn most of the subject matter in very great depth within such a short period of time. Generally you are learning enough about the the languages, tools and methodologies to be functional and have a foundation for further growth but not deep enough to be much of an expert.
My biggest complain with Brainstation specifically was that sometimes there were not enough hands on assignments outside of class. Brainstation is pretty lecture/code-along heavy which can at times be hard to retain long term. I would have appreciated more mandatory practice assignments to make the coursework stick better. This may be a general issue with bootcamps however as there is only so much time in a week.
In the weeks since beginning my role (at the time of writing this I am about 5 weeks into my new role) I have found that the skills I learned at Brainstation have definitely been valuable. Additionally I feel that I built a foundation of advanced skills that I will be able to develop more with time and experience. While I had experience prior to my bootcamp there were others that with little to no work experience in data analysis that were successfully able to obtain data analyst/data scientist roles at desirable companies.
Online vs In-Person
The covid-19 pandemic forced me to attend the program online. The Brainstation team did a great job managing the online course and keeping us engaged so I don't have any complaints. That being said if you have a chance to do the bootcamp in person I would recommend it. In a virtual setting it is sometimes more difficult build relationships with members of your cohort or education team and at times it can be easy to lose focus in class when you are not physically in a classroom. Others may disagree with this opinion however.
Career Services:
I've heard that the Brainstation job search assistance is good but I personally did not make use of it so I have chosen not to leave a review in that category.
- AnonymousStudent • Full-Time Web Development Bootcamp Online • OnlineAug 24, 2021Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Web Dev
My overall experience with the bootcamp is positive, but there were certain elements that were disappointing. I'm not sure if it was because everything was online, but the teaching was outrageously bad. The head instructor spent the majority of his time debugging and not teaching, which led a lot of the students to not trust the instructor and do research on their own after lectures. The curriculum is fast paced so it made everything worse with improper instruction.
You learn HTML...My overall experience with the bootcamp is positive, but there were certain elements that were disappointing. I'm not sure if it was because everything was online, but the teaching was outrageously bad. The head instructor spent the majority of his time debugging and not teaching, which led a lot of the students to not trust the instructor and do research on their own after lectures. The curriculum is fast paced so it made everything worse with improper instruction.
You learn HTML/CSS basics then move into JavaScript and React. The JavaScript portion I'd say is the most important and good understanding of the language is what gets you hired but they don't go deep into it as much, esp in regards to async/await functions. For React, for some nonsensical reason they do not teach hooks. Every single job I've applied for utilizes hooks and requires knowledge of them. Other bootcamps my friends have attended teach hooks. If you want to learn hooks during BrainStation, you have to learn them on your own at your own time.
The collaborative 'hackathon' is a complete waste of time. It is NOT how hackathons are normally run and you end up wasting time with other disciplines that have no idea what they are doing. The only positive things that came out of BrainStation were the people in my cohort and the TA's who understand your pain and help you work around the course material. - AnonymousGraduate • Web Development • VancouverAug 24, 2021Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Web Development Bootcamp (Full-Time)
I, like many here, made the decision to pursue a career in a new field. When I decided that Web Development was going to be the path of choice, I had read about the many bootcamps available. It was quite daunting to decide on which bootcamp was going to be the best fit for me and my future career in this field! However, through research of the curriculum, common industry tech stacks and reviews of each particular school, I landed on BrainStation as being the best choice. I am definitely ...I, like many here, made the decision to pursue a career in a new field. When I decided that Web Development was going to be the path of choice, I had read about the many bootcamps available. It was quite daunting to decide on which bootcamp was going to be the best fit for me and my future career in this field! However, through research of the curriculum, common industry tech stacks and reviews of each particular school, I landed on BrainStation as being the best choice. I am definitely glad I did because BrainStation was excellent! The course material was great and relevant to the current industry in many cases, the Instructors and TAs were top notch and always willing to help, and the Career Success team was there the whole way to help prep you for the inevitable job hunt. A bootcamp is definitely a path that you only get out as much as you put in. It is hard work but if you come ready to apply yourself and be successful, BrainStation will provide you with the tools and education necessary to help accelerate you into your career of choice. Overall, I am very happy with my decision to attend BrainStation! - AnonymousGraduate • Digital Marketing Course Online • OnlineAug 12, 2021Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Digital Marketing Course
A 10-week part-time program that covers the fundamentals of digital marketing. - AnonymousGraduate • Web Development Bootcamp • TorontoAug 09, 2021Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Junior Developer
Overall my experience was good! The instructors were knowledgeable, friendly, and available. They are very invested in your success. The course load is heavy and will require a lot of your time. - Anonymous- • Student • User Interface Design • TorontoJun 01, 2021Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob AssistanceN/A
Great online UX/UI course to motivate you to learn more!
The course in UX and UI Certificate Course in BrainStation has been super great to set up my base in UX/UI Design and really apply them in a short amount of time. The instructors are always ready to help you and keep you engaged.
Would really recommend if you want to learn the base of UX/UI and put it into immediate practice (its especially helpful getting feedback from your peers and instructors in the course!)
Its all online as well, so super easy to get to and make sure its ...The course in UX and UI Certificate Course in BrainStation has been super great to set up my base in UX/UI Design and really apply them in a short amount of time. The instructors are always ready to help you and keep you engaged.
Would really recommend if you want to learn the base of UX/UI and put it into immediate practice (its especially helpful getting feedback from your peers and instructors in the course!)
Its all online as well, so super easy to get to and make sure its a time that works for you! - AnonymousGraduateApr 29, 2021Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
This is a good course
It's a good class but stressful. The only thing I can say is keep going you got it - AnonymousStudent • Full-Time User Experience Design Bootcamp Online • OnlineApr 01, 2021Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Get out what you put in
I really enjoyed my time here. I have come from a field where I thought I wouldn't have any applicable skills. The TA's and Educators helped changed my perspective on this, they helped me understand that is my journey, that I am only applying my skills differently.
The course content moves fast, what do you expect? it is a 12 week program and you are coming from 0 - don't expect depth into everything, take notes on what interests you, dive into that before class, ask questions in...I really enjoyed my time here. I have come from a field where I thought I wouldn't have any applicable skills. The TA's and Educators helped changed my perspective on this, they helped me understand that is my journey, that I am only applying my skills differently.
The course content moves fast, what do you expect? it is a 12 week program and you are coming from 0 - don't expect depth into everything, take notes on what interests you, dive into that before class, ask questions in open studio, YOU have to put something in. This course is not made for someone who wants their handheld throughout, if you don't understand something what have you done to try and understand? do you stand their and just ask for help saying you can't do it? I don't think this program is for you then.
I think coming into this program with a good work ethic; if you are so privileged to be able to focus solely on this course and not need to work during, I would highly suggest telling anyone you know that you are unavailable for 3 months. Put your time in, when class is over, try and do what they said. Take time to learn the programs, make up ways to do things, there is no right answer, your process is the answer. did it work? great did it fail? great how did you do it, explain that.
I think they could do a better job connecting students to working professionals for small group sessions being able to ask about transitions etc - early on in the course. This would help allow students to begin to structure their time around building better portfolios or starting to reach out to recruiters or whatever earlier.
I think I'm rambling, the program is a lot of work. I am privileged, I did not work during the course. I spent 3-4 hours before class everyday working on assignments, reading about course content that I struggled with, I read a lot and I made a lot of bad work. But I did learn from it. I would have made a bad project by the time class started, then during a lab in class where you'd have time to work on something, I could make something that was 1% better, guess what? after 3 months I can make something that is 1% better than that now. Yes the course has some shortcomings, but you can't get access to this sort of content, I've done Udemy courses, I've done youtube courses, nothing holds you to it like a big cheque does to this school. I think the mentality has to be - how bad do you want a job upon graduation? - AnonymousGraduate • Data Analytics Course • TorontoMar 05, 2021Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Fun, insightful and good basis for further learning
This 10 week data analytics course covered all the right topics and tools, taking you through key Excel skills, SQL and Tableau. The curriculum was great, I wish a little less time was spent on Excel and more time on the features of Tableau. The instructors were knowledgeable and helpful, though I wish there was more opportunity to collaborate with other students rather than it being lecture style due to taking the class online. Would of appreciated more guidance on the assignment struct...This 10 week data analytics course covered all the right topics and tools, taking you through key Excel skills, SQL and Tableau. The curriculum was great, I wish a little less time was spent on Excel and more time on the features of Tableau. The instructors were knowledgeable and helpful, though I wish there was more opportunity to collaborate with other students rather than it being lecture style due to taking the class online. Would of appreciated more guidance on the assignment structure, but understand it wasn't graded, so it was fun to see how everyone interpreted it and got creative. - AnonymousJunior Web Developer • Graduate • Web Development Bootcamp • TorontoFeb 16, 2021Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Web Development Diploma
Full stack web development - React and Node.js
BrainStation Alumni Outcomes
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BrainStation Alumni Reviews Summary
Based on 2,000+ BrainStation alumni reviews on Course Report, students often highlight the quality of the curriculum, experienced instructors, and effective career support services. Particularly, the Full-Time Software Engineering and Data Science Bootcamps are frequently commended. One reviewer says, "The program was challenging but extremely rewarding, offering real-world projects that truly enhanced my skills." However, some students noted the high cost of courses as a consideration.
Overall Experience
4.7
Instructors
4.8
Curriculum
4.5
Job Assistance
4.2
More Information
Guarantees Job
Job Assistance
Includes Housing
Offers Corporate Training
Accepts GI Bill
Licensing
PBSS - New York, United States, CIE - Florida, United States, PCC - Ontario, Canada, PTIB - British Columbia, Canada
Awards
Recent BrainStation News
By Jess Feldman
By Jess Feldman
By Jess Feldman
FAQs
How much does BrainStation cost?
BrainStation costs around $16,500. On the lower end, some BrainStation courses like Social Media Marketing Course cost $2,450.
What courses does BrainStation teach?
BrainStation offers courses like Artificial Intelligence Course Online, Data Analytics Course, Data Analytics Course Online, Data Science Bootcamp and 26 more.
Where does BrainStation have campuses?
BrainStation has in-person campuses in London, Miami, New York City, Toronto, and Vancouver. BrainStation also has a remote classroom so students can learn online.
Is BrainStation worth it?
BrainStation hasn't shared alumni outcomes yet, but one way to determine if a bootcamp is worth it is by reading alumni reviews. 2,336 BrainStation alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed BrainStation on Course Report - you should start there!
Is BrainStation legit?
We let alumni answer that question. 2,336 BrainStation alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed BrainStation and rate their overall experience a 4.66 out of 5.
Does BrainStation offer scholarships or accept the GI Bill?
Right now, it doesn't look like BrainStation offers scholarships or accepts the GI Bill. We're always adding to the list of schools that do offer Exclusive Course Report Scholarships and a list of the bootcamps that accept the GI Bill.
Can I read BrainStation reviews?
You can read 2,336 reviews of BrainStation on Course Report! BrainStation alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed BrainStation and rate their overall experience a 4.66 out of 5.
Is BrainStation accredited?
PBSS - New York, United States, CIE - Florida, United States, PCC - Ontario, Canada, PTIB - British Columbia, Canada