App Academy

When I started the pre-course work for AppAcademyI hadn't touched a line of code, but now I'm a software developer.

Yes, the course is HARD. It will be the hardest thing you've ever done, but the system works. If you as an individual, put in the work and... Read More really dedicate yourself for 24 weeks, you will graduate and get a job in the field.

With AppAcademy, I felt like my cost breakdown was something like:
20% Curriculum
30% Support from Teachers
50% Providing a System that kept myself accountable for my learning

That 50% 'system' meant adhering to an assessment system, a strike system for attendances and notes, and the pressures to keeping up with my cohort.

If your question is, "Is AppAcademy is worth it?", you're asking the wrong question. The question should be, "Am I prepared to give what it takes to trust the system and dedicate my LIFE to learning a new career in 24-weeks?"

I started in February 2020 and just graduated the Online Full Stack Software Engineer course. I am currently in the ver start of my job hunt and was completely prepared to do outstanding by the course. The material is great and the instructors are super... Read More knowledgable and just all around awesome. I have made lifelong friends with several of my classmates as well. If you want to change your life and become a software engineer, App Academy is the only choice in my book

App Academy is a rigorous bootcamp for sure. You dive into a lot of content and before you know it 6 months have passed. I was part of their online track and it was by far one of the most difficult thing I have done. You go from console logging "hello... Read More world" to being able to build full stack applications in react/redux and python. I do have to hand it to them for not just teaching me code but how to learn any language or framework. You are put in these environments that really forge your developer skills if you can handle the pressure. Some of the assignments include building a clone (ie netflix or instagram) within a week after learning the technologies a week or two prior. The instructors are AMAZING and if it wasnt for their guidance I would not have been able to finish. Just as a note I never had coding experience before and was able to graduate and am now employed.

Only con is that the curriculum is being improved and we will occasionally get some errors in the readings. The TAs and Instructors do clarify during lecture but for a top bootcamp I would like to see those ironed out in the future. Overall it was worth it and it changed my life!

Coming here from another country, learning English and Programming languages at once is definitely a tough journey for me. It took me a very long time to figure out which program/bootcamp is suitable for me. I was trying to learn how to code with a bunch... Read More of schools however App Academy gave me the best self learning experience. I love the curriculum, high quality videos, the way teachers convey the lecture and support students and how selective App Academy is. Especailly, I WAS TAUGHT TECHNICAL SKILLS (PROGRAMMING) IN PLAIN ENGLISH. Amazing tutors/teams and great curriculumn from App Academy helped me to make my dream come true. Within 6 intensed months learning with App Academy, I turned into a new leaf: from a person who knows nothing became a software engineer. I had been learning and sharpening a lots of both technical skills (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PyThon, Node.js, SQL...) and non-techinal skills such as how to write an attractive resume, cover letter, negotiate when I get a job offer, and so forth.
I highly recommend you going with App Academy.

I came into the curriculum with a basic foundation of coding, however I had no experience in software development and in a mere 6 months I can say that I am much more confident in my ability to produce an application. App Academy not only teaches you... Read More relevant curriculum but (and this is the most important aspect to me) they set you up with the ability to continue self-learning after graduation

Pros
- The support from the TA's and Instructors are nice to have, especially when you aren't grasping a concept.
- 4 projects, consisting of 2 group project and 2 solo projects gives you a lot of experience working with different ideas, people, and technologies.
- Presence of a career coach makes the job search process feel much more structured.
- The focus on mini-projects while your learning really re-enforces the concepts learned for the day
- Learn Python for the online full-stack cohorts instead of Ruby
Cons
- Since I was in a Cohort with a new curriculum some of the material seemed like it was rushed or just not presented in a clear and concise way.

App Academy is the 'fast track' to landing a career in tech. They focus on web design. The curriculum I went through was for Javascript and Python, and using React and Flask frameworks, but they teach you how to get there all the way from the basics of... Read More printing out hello world.

Benefits:
* The latter half of the program teaches the frameworks mentioned above alongside building projects with those frameworks to populate a portfolio on your resume. I was delighted to find that they tackle every aspect of the job search process, since I had effectively no portfolio before a/A.
* Schedule includes weeks to focus entirely on projects and gain skills working on a team, as well as 'half-and-half' weeks to do solo projects and resume crafting, and of course many more weeks spent on new concepts.
* Schedule is very flexible, and instruction team is fair. Assessments may be curved or re-evaluated based on the cohort.
* Every member of app academy (that I interacted with) takes responsibility if something is wrong or needs clarification, fixing, or more time. I don't remember anyone being unapproachable.

Criticisms:
* When students get deferred to another cohort, they simply disappear. I understand it may be embarrassing to defer (although it shouldn't be - life happens, you need more time, it didn't click), but just silently removing them might not be the best solution. I felt the cohort steadily shrinking as people left, and became increasingly stressed that it would happen to me, since we were the first cohort of the year and the students ahead of us had different curriculum and couldn't join us. Most other cohorts will not be in this situation, though, as they will have new students join.
* The 24 week pace isn't as consistent as I'd like. The first 4 weeks are essentially just making sure you passed the free online intro to programming course that they offer, or getting you up to speed if you didn't. It very quickly ramps up, and some weeks have very difficult assessments while other weeks see a class average of 100%. I understand some material is very hard to assess, though - such as learning a new framework or database, where it is more trivia than anything else.

Final jurisdiction:
I had graduated from uni without much of a portfolio, and without the ability to pass coding interviews despite my degree. In my opinion, the curriculum should be a little more polished and probably focus more on algorithms and react (the most important, most recurring subjects). As for me, I don't regret my time spent here at all, and I got a lot out of it.

- Drew

It was a great experience with app Academy. Everybody is so helpful and friendly. I enjoyed everyday with a/a, and I learned many things from everybody, it was an amazing experience and I m so proud to be part of it.
I really appreciate that they offer... Read More support for the job search as well.

There are definitely many pros and cons to the program. It can be very emotional at times, but there are strong resources and a community to rely on. It is definitely fast-paced and work-load intensive, however it is manageable with strong mentality and... Read More using the resources given to you. My tip to anyone thinking about coming in or already in, communicate with your other cohort members and TAs if you ever need help or are feeling low. Everybody is in with the same goal and TAs were in your position before this, so do not feel like you will be hindering anybody. Without being able to ask for help or communicate well with my group, I do not think I would have been able to get through it or enjoy it as much as I did.
Now for the cons, the pace and expectations can feel or be a bit unforgiving and relenting considering what is at stake. I know it is those same stakes that help everyone take the program very seriously, but it would be nice to know that there is a fall back plan for anyone who may have a valid reasoning for missing a week and not have to feel like they have to dropout . It is getting better and if you communicate well enough you can get back, but the workload is a bit worrisome in that case. Long story short, be communicative and ask for help whenever you need it, use the resources around you!

As someone who was debating between attending App Academy or another bootcamp, I ultimately do not regret my decision to enroll with App Academy. There were several unknown factors at the time of my decision making (such as not knowing if in-person learning... Read More would become available at any point during the cohort), and I think I made the best decision I could with the knowledge I had at that point in time. With that said, there are several factors that I'd like to stress for others who may be making similar considerations:

PROS:
- This program will, at the end of the day, accomplish its goal of teaching you how to code. Or at the very least, will help equip you to continue learning more on your own after the bootcamp is over
- It's recognized as one of the top bootcamps, which is significant since bootcamps can have a stigma associated with them in the actual workplace
- The TAs seem to genuinely want everyone to succeed, and the fact that they are all former students makes them more empathetic to the pressure on current students

CONS:
- Curriculum or general operating procedures don't seem as polished as they could be. Several of the recorded video lectures towards the middle of the curriculum seem more dated, which didn't instill the highest sense of confidence in the product that App Academy provides
- Intense focus on passing assessments. As other reviews mention, the foundation of the curriculum is based on weekly (and towards the end, bi-weekly) assessments. Failing any of the fundamentals assessments (weeks 1 and 2) results in being deferred to another cohort, and failing any 2 of the 6 remaining assessments results in dismissal. While this certainly keeps students on their toes, it also results in prioritizing just passing the assessment over understanding the concepts, especially if you don't have any prior CS knowledge
- Pair-programming for hours every day, especially over Zoom, is taxing. Pair programming is clearly a huge part of the App Academy experience, but as one of the first cohorts that was taught the in-person curriculum entirely over Zoom, it would have been preferable to see App Academy try to be more creative in addressing specific needs of an online experience

All in all, if you're looking for a way to accelerate your journey into becoming a software engineer, feel that you have a good support system, and are ready to work really hard, a bootcamp might be the right choice for you.

Honestly, I was convinced at the beginning that App Academy wasn’t for me. I’m a weirdo-artsy Latina with a ton of family commitments and chronic illness/disabilities that I knew would make the “valorization of working 90 hours a week” bootcamp model... Read More a huge challenge for me. I contemplated dropping out from the very first week, because without a technical background and with a glitching computer I wouldn’t afford to upgrade, I felt like the “hot mess” of the class. Coding definitely doesn’t come naturally to me— every exam was a struggle because of my anxiety issues.
Given all of this, I never expected that I would graduate this program feeling so proud and glad I stuck with it, and feeling so passionate about coding now! My TAs were incredibly supportive and there for me even as I had way more questions than it felt the average student had, and they spent hours of their time outside of formal class time to help me with material, give me pep talks, and just in general didn’t view me as an expendable number in a cutthroat environment the way I worried doing an intensive bootcamp would be like. One of my good friends died in the middle of my doing this bootcamp, and I never could have kept going to graduation if instructors and fellow students hadn’t been there for me on both a human and a programming level so consistently.
I reveal all this info about myself because there are tons of reviews that talk about the curriculum, specifics of the frameworks they use, etc. I wanted my review to speak to someone who might be reading this and see themselves in my description of myself— not sure they can fit in in the coding/techie world, or handle a high intensity bootcamp. I won’t sugarcoat what a challenge a/A was, but I am SO, SO grateful I stuck with it, and definitely recommend App Academy, its instructors, and its community vibe that was so welcoming to this anxious new programmer! App academy’s material is really well structured too, so I feel like I’m in a good position to keep learning and improving my skills along multiple axes with all the material being a student gives you access to forever. Excited to keep learning forever :)