App Academy

I started App Academy in the midst of Covid-19. I never had a chance to step foot in the actual building. To be honest, that scared me a lot at first. I though I needed the in person support I would have gotten if I went in. After taking the leap of faith... Read More into app academy I am actually very thankful it was online. Saving 2 hours of commute a day was a huge positive for me, especially when you're going to need to be putting in so much work outside of the classroom. The road was far from easy; and as I write this review I am about to start the job search and don't know where that will take me next. The ride has been fun thus far, and although there were many stressful nights, I am very happy I took the chance at app academy. I truly beleive that anyone who has the will to put in the work, can, and will, do great.

App Academy during Covid has been a giant disappointment. The TA's are lazy and uninformed -- the instructors mostly have no prior teaching experience and many are past graduates who were unable to land a "real" coding job after going through App Academy... Read More themselves. The "structure" of the course (If you can even call it that) is a highly technical lecture for 3-4 hours and then free time to work on problems while asking sullen and underinformed TAs for help. For this, App Academy demands $30k and will charge you about $160/day. This works out to almost $40/hour to have an unmotivated "instructor" who can't get a job as a developer push information at you for 3-4 hours a day. This is what they call "teaching" -- a criminal use of the word. If you can't keep up with the too-fast pace, unhelpful TAs, and unmotivated instructors who have no idea how to teach, you'll be kicked out of the course for a month to be "deferred" to the next cohort. No help or extra instruction whatsoever is given. You are just dropped, floundering, and App Academy washes their hands of you until you repeat with a group of fresh-faced fools with big dreams of high salaries. If you defer 3 times, App Academy kicks you out for their own lack of instruction and you are immediately forced to pay thousands of dollars for the sub-par "learning" you never managed to do. App Academy will happily blame you, the student, and maintain the party line that it is YOUR fault they can't teach while going after you for money. This course is worth AT MOST $5k. $30k is highway robbery. Please do not waste your time and money on this course, the same material is available elsewhere online for free.

Once I decided to take the leap into a bootcamp, after many recommendations by current software engineers, and also, not having the funds to go back to school for another Bachelor's, I found App Academy my very first day of searching. With every step... Read More of the enrollment process, every person that I interacted with was genuinely excited for me and offering words of encouragement. Fast-forward to the last few weeks of my program, in the midst of designing and building a solo capstone project, that encouragement and support never faltered. I was fortunate enough to have an amazing cohort of peers that helped each other learn through pair programming and extra study sessions, incredibly talented staff of TA's, Module Instructors, and outstanding APTM and PTM. This was by far the most challenging thing I've every completed, but it was the most rewarding.

Pros: Feel like I graduated with a solid foundation without having to spend 2+ years going back to college. Meet amazing, talented, peers that were as passionate and hardworking. Built portfolio pieces that I can showcase during interviews. App Academy... Read More continues to support you through learning and preparation even after you graduate. Cons: Wish program was longer.

This program is great! It has a modern curriculum that teaches everything from programming basics to full stack web development. If you have programming experience, the start of the program is an opportunity to freshen up some basic skills and get some... Read More reps in before things pick up. If you don't, the start of the program could be overwhelming, but with the deferral system, you should have an opportunity to nail down any concepts that you are struggling with. I would recommend going on a site like Codecademy and completing some basic Javascript and potentially Python courses before spending $$$ on this program. If you are confident in those lessons and your ability to continue growing in the field, I would definitely attend this bootcamp.

Overall, I am thrilled to have found App Academy. I am switching careers from a 17-year career in woodworking and carpentry to software engineer, yeah big switch, right! This course is challenging and very informative and I have learned a lot. Probably... Read More the biggest drawback to doing the online open version of this course is the lack of ability to connect easily with other students and learn from everyone. However, I am not generally someone that needs constant companionship so that isn't really a big concern for me. If the rest of the course goes as well as the last month, I see no problems with reaching my goals and finding a path forward in a new career.

For me having no coding experience and a degree in psychology I was unsure how I could ever get into the tech industry. Through this program I feel like I know enough to get my foot in the door so to speak. Personally I enjoyed having a rigorous schedule... Read More and having the whole day basically planned out for me. In all honesty the 6 months really flew by and I have some great projects, and lifelong friends by the end of it.

App Academy is known as one of the best coding bootcamps in the world, and for good reason. I feel that the word 'bootcamp' is kind of a misnomer so much as aA is a fully-fledged college. It covers a wide variety of topics in a short amount of time, yet... Read More it never feels like it is rushing you. The curriculum is paced in a way that helps you really understand the fundamentals of the topics before moving in spite of the high level of speed and progression the curriculum takes you through. However, do not think that this 6 month program will teach you EVERYTHING about coding. What it does is teach you everything you need to know to CONTINUE learning about software engineering. And this is far more important in my opinion because software engineers are philosophers; the moment we stop learning, we are no longer software engineers.

If you're looking to quickly move from zero to full knowledge of full stack application development, look no further than App Academy. In six short months, you're taught all relevant topics and fully prepared for the job search ahead. It isn't for the... Read More faint of heart, but if you're ready to commit, it's a great program to get yourself immersed and ready for a new career.

App Academy was hard. It crams a lot of knowledge into you very quickly, favoring repetition to lock in concepts. And it just kind of works! This was the best choice I've ever made. I understand the Full Stack, and love what I'm doing. The cons are obvious.... Read More It's STRESSFUL, and CONSUMING. But 100% worth it.