App Academy

App Academy is designed to push you to your limit and has you riding the line of being overwhelmed and advanced fast-paced learning. I really enjoyed my time with the TA's and my classmates. The TA's are very competent and helpful. If you're self-motivated... Read More and have a focused and directed mindset to become a software engineer/developer, I highly recommend App Academy.

App Academy's full stack web development course is tough, but perfect for anyone who wants to seriously boost their code knowledge. TA's and fellow students were always eager to offer assistance, and the curriculum really teaches a student how to learn.... Read More

Pros:
+ The course is designed well and is an incredibly effective way to learn a lot about coding and web development in a short amount of time. I entered App Academy with no coding experience or technical background, and graduated with a ton of practical... Read More skills.
+ Amazing Teaching Assistants. All the technical staff at AA know their stuff and want you to succeed.

Pro/Con:
+ Whether this is a pro or con depends on what motivates you, but the possibility of dismissal for failing two assessments adds a significant amount of stress. For me, this stress made the program more effective. I would keep studying for tests long after I was 'ready' for them, which lead to a greater mastery of the material.

I feel like saying that I enjoyed my time here would label me as a masochist, but yes.. I did enjoy my time here. I was looking into getting into coding, but didn't know where to start and what stacks to learn, so I decided to give App Academy's 16 week... Read More Full-Stack web development course a shot since I've heard of all these good reviews, and so far, I'm not disappointed. To get in, first you have to pass their interviews. After you get in, things start a little slow, for the first week, but then speeds up really fast. Especially after the first two weeks, which is the foundations part of the curriculum, after which, the real meat of the course starts to show and the pace picks up even more. It's extremely vigorous, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. If you manage to pass all their assessments you'll be rewarded with newfound knowledge in programming and the ability to build cool apps. After completing the course you enter your Career quest, in which you will be provided a Career Coach who will coach you on applying for jobs and interviewing. All in all it's been a great experience that leaves you feeling fulfilled, and I'm also impressed and how they turned this in-person course to an online one.

Pros: Teaches you all the things you really need to know. Teacher assistants are really useful and the projects they provide for you to do are helpful. The teaching strategy is to repeat concepts until it's cemented in your memory, which I believe is... Read More rather effective.
Cons: They stop giving you meaningful assistance when it comes to your personal projects at the end of the bootcamp. You're pretty much on your own, but of course you have your fellow students as resources but they're also trying to complete their own projects. They claim that the independence on the projects is to emulate your experience outside the bootcamp (without Teacher Assistants).

In 16 weeks at App Academy, you will be thrown in lots of Computer Science concepts over various programming languages in addition to job searching toolsets. After going through about 3 months of intense learning, you will be tasked with projects to do... Read More that will demonstrate your knowledge. From my experience, those projects were fun and the knowledge has helped me to figure out additional technologies to incorporate into my projects! Even though this journey through this bootcamp has been challenging, it is worth it in the end. Aside from the amazing material you get, you also will get to meet amazing cohort-mates from various backgrounds. Overall be prepared and be serious, which I can't emphasize enough, to put in lots of work to understanding and practicing those computer science concepts.

Pros:
- The instructional material were up-to-date, fun, and challenging.
- Really helpful instructors to help you understand Computer Science concepts.
- Plentiful of help for your job search

Cons:
- Some Computer Science concepts taught (either in lecture or in instructional material) are hard to understand or not self-explanatory.
- Some lectures felt rushed and weren't paced well to flesh out concepts clearly.
- The transition from programming projects to job searching was awkward. Felt uncomfortable just suddenly switching from technical to nontechnical work.

Tips I could give:
- Try to learn some new programming languages/concepts ahead of time (even better if before the bootcamp). I highly suggest learning Python.
- Have a set schedule as you do not want to overwork yourself, especially when you're going to be studying new concepts daily.
- Be prepared to be expected to learn new concepts instantly.

I made the push to join App Academy after feeling lost and overwhelmed with all the free programs online. The "online" course is very current with the technologies they teach, and curriculum is always taking feedback from students and staff to find ways... Read More to improve. Since the start COVID-19 there's been a huge influx of new students, so I can't speak on the way things will progress... what I can say is that my instructional staff was clearly very passionate about the material and did everything they could to see students succeed. Be prepared to really commit the full 40+ hours a week for classes and self-study. I do wish more time was spent on learning data structures and algorithms, but what you do learn is very job-oriented. There is also a dedicated team of staff that will coach you through your job search!

pros:
- Great structured material
- Engaging learning experience
- Tests are easy
- App Academy is really invested in you to succeed
cons:
- Requires 70+ hour weeks
- Tests are tedious and do not reflect well on you understanding of the material
- Very little... Read More focus on Data Structures and Algorithms
- JavaScript portion of the curriculum is virtually nonexistent
- Understaffed

As a student, I felt that I only scratched the surface of each topic, then did my best (with my pair-programming partner) to apply the knowledge on daily projects. During the initial week-long full stack projects, I didn't have a clear idea on how to... Read More start. However, my Principle Instructor (Ian) and the TA's (Javier, Dean) were always there and extremely helpful in guiding me in the right direction and helping to debug. By the time the capstone project came around, I felt equipped to develop a full stack project -- to the extent that I taught myself a whole new framework in just a few days to use in my project. a/A simplifies complex topics across the full stack into simple, but not always digestible pieces. You will spend only a few days on topics that are taught over a semester in college. At times, you are likely to be overwhelmed by the pace. On the flip-side, you are also likely to be too immersed to even think about it. It may feel like you are being rushed to cram new material each day, but you would be surprised to realize how much you are actually learning under the hood. In addition to the basic knowledge, you are learning how to learn new technologies quickly and effectively. This resourcefulness is probably the most valuable return on your investment of time, money and effort. My thoughts upon completion of the program: I thought I was running a marathon, but it turns out I was being taught how to tie my shoes really well for five months. The marathon has only just started.

pros:
they bet on you with income sharing
there are instructors to help (within reason)
good breath of material
career support
they force you to learn
great for people who want to learn and feel confident they can do it

cons:
It might feel expensive after you... Read More finish
at times you might feel overwhelmed if you don't have any tech background. but still doable. be ready to sacrifice something.
sometimes the curriculum feels rushed or disjointed