Flatiron School

Note: I am still doing the course so I do not feel like I can give a review of the job search help they do provide. I will come back to edit this when I have completed the course.

PROS:
+ Fairly well rounded curriculum
+ Material is covered quickly enough... Read More for those intending to get into Data Science ASAP
+ Plenty of personal assistance is available if needed
+ Free WeWork hotdesk membership for a year

CONS:
- Badly organised
- Some advertised things were not really kept to
- Course material is lacking in a few significant areas
- Course material is really badly written. Never-ending typos, serious mistakes, bad explanations, weird learning route, and some incorrect solutions and examples. Also the easiest stuff is covered too often and the important stuff is insufficiently covered. Also one or two modules involve watching a lot of freely available youtube videos.
- Daily tutorials feel unnecessary and not that helpful

Overall:
I left a good job to enter Data Science and felt a bootcamp would be best for me. I knew people who had gone through Flatiron's Software Development programme with much success so was happy to go into their new data science course. I have some experience with mathsy stuff given my undergrad major and high school work. I am finding this course to be very disappointing and feel very mislead. The course price is just as much as the Software Development one and yet this one seems pretty shitty. Clearly nobody even checked the course material before it was shown to by now hundreds of students. WTF. Instructors say they are working on it and that "it was written by PhDs!" but those must be the worst doctors I know. If I had known how it was going to be going in I would have tried to teach myself with all the free stuff one can find online nowadays and saved myself a lot of time and money. Unfortunately I am caught up in the course curriculum and might still end up paying to see the end of it (if I do not quit first). I encourage anyone considering this course to look up other bootcamps such as General Assembly to see if theirs are any good. If they feel up to it they could alternatively try teaching themselves. If somebody from Flatiron is reading this I WANT MY MONEY BACK.

My situation was a little unique in that I was living and working in DC, but knew I was going to move to Miami soon to be with my new husband. I decided to quit my job, do the in-person immersive program, and then move to Miami and search for jobs there,... Read More and it was the best decision I could have made for my career! Flatiron helped me move from a $50k/yr job to an $80k/yr junior dev role in Miami.

I definitely recommend going into it for the right reasons. Try something technical and see how you like it. Before I applied, I tried Flatiron's free online bootcamp prep course, which is how I discovered I really liked learning about code. Something employers look for is passion for code, so it's important to actually like coding before you start.

During the program: the experience was really amazing. I bonded really well with my cohort (50% male/ 50% female) and got a scholarship for women in tech. The instructors were very understanding, knowledgeable, and always wiling to help and mentor students. They all come from tech backgrounds, so they can tell you what it's like in the industry too. We learned Ruby as a backend language, and JavaScript and React on the frontend. This enabled me to get a freelance job working on the React frontend of a cancer research website. I've found that compared to people who studied CompSci in college, we got a TON of hands-on experience and importantly, we learned how to learn a new language. Both of these skills made me very marketable when it came to the job search.

After the program: The career coaches are very knowledgeable, encouraging, and keep you accountable in your job search. Since I was job searching in a new city, my career coach was a huge resource suggesting lots of job search activities.

Overall, a great experience and the results speak for themselves!

I did the online Full Stack Web Development program at the Flatiron School, and like any online program, it had its positives and negatives. On the positive side, I do think that the school and the instructors genuinely care about the students and helping... Read More them as much as possible. The focus on labs, projects, and practical application was a good approach though I'm sure that there are ways to improve the curriculum which I believe they regularly do. While taking the course, they released a number of additional lessons, edited lessons, etc. It felt like they were constantly trying to stay current and improve what was there. Getting help on the labs were relatively easy through the "Ask a Question" portal, and they did their best to encourage collaboration and helping others. The projects they had me do were immensely helpful in actually understanding the concepts, and they gave me a great portfolio to use when looking for a job. Employers constantly asked about these projects, and they made me feel more confident in my abilities.

However, like other students have already said, it is what you make of it, especially with online programs. It is self taught and self led so that has its own set of challenges. You definitely have to be self motivated so if that is something that you struggle with, you may want to do an in-person class setting. Another area of weakness they had was support for the projects which I've actually talked with them about in trying to improve for the future. When I went through the program, there was only one instructor for each section project so one person had to handle anyone who was currently working on that project which made it nearly impossible to get much help from them during the project. Some instructors were extremely helpful, and I had one that was borderline nonexistent in terms of responsiveness. Hopefully they'll fix that in the future and make it a little easier to get help when that channel fails during projects. There were study groups that we could attend, but they were meant to be led by students' questions and sometimes that was a struggle (sometimes we didn't know what questions to ask- we just weren't as comfortable with that particularly subject material). I do think they've been extremely open to feedback though, and I've had multiple people talk to me about how they can improve and how Flatiron can improve.

In terms of after the course, I thought my career coach was excellent. The coaching I got completely changed my perspective on networking, and I just had a coworker call me a "master networker" because of the things I did with Flatiron after graduation. I was always open with my coach about the ups and downs of job hunting, and I really feel like I was given the push I needed to put in the work and find an absolutely incredible job. (They also helped me draft anything I was nervous about sending ahead of time, and they help you practice with mock interviews.) Some days I can't believe that I work where I do, and I wouldn't be here without Flatiron so I'm pretty grateful. I don't know if you'd get quite as lucky as I did with my awesome career coach, but when my first coach ended up leaving (her husband got a job across the country), my next coach was just as great so I'm pretty confident that they have incredible career coaches if you're willing to work with them and be open.

Overall, the program has its ups and downs, but it led me to where I am now, so for that, I'm really grateful that I went to the Flatiron School.

My cohort was one of the beginning cohorts for the new data science program at flatiron. The structure of the program was lacking, but the content wasn't. We learned so much in a short amount of time. I was able to get exposed to the field of data science... Read More and learn the python language and machine learning and did couple projects in deep learning. I think bootcamps like flatiron are really great for those that don't want to or can't go to the traditional school and pay so much in student loans. There is a caveat however; because this is data science, it relies on math, and the most relevant subjects are calc. 1, probability and statistics. Everyone learns at their own pace, but not knowing these fundamentals might make the learning curve even harder. This is not to discourage you, the program exposes you to the fundamentals, but it would be easier if you know them beforehand. I was skeptical about the job placement but it was honestly so great. I was able to have about 10 interviews through them and placed at a job through EP. I would recommend flatiron if you do want to switch careers or get a practical sense of DS in industry.

Prior to enrolling in Flatiron School's Online Data Science Bootcamp, I had been studying data science on my own for some time. I used other online resources studying R, but it was difficult to know what I should be learning. Sometimes I would go too... Read More deep into a rarely used algorithm or I would just spend a lot of time finding/deciding which resource to use. So in the end, I decided to sign up for Flatiron School's Online Data Science Bootcamp to provide the structure and organization that I was lacking. Overall, I would say it was a positive experience:

PROS:
+ You learn how to implement an algorithm on your own from scratch in Python before they introduce you to professional implementations. This really helps you understand the underlying mechanisms and what's going on, instead of just plugging things in
+ Instructor support was always available whenever I needed it in dedicated Slack channels
+ Portfolio reviews for the non-technical business stakeholders provided valuable experience in learning how to communicate to people outside of the data science field
+ Provided a pretty comprehensive overview of data science skills
+ End-of-module projects were great for building up a portfolio
+ Career coach was great and provided lots of great feedback on my resume and interviewing

CONS:
- A lot of typos and grammatical errors in the lessons which made it difficult to understand sometimes
- The platform would break sometimes, but this was only a minor inconvenience, because you could always access it from Github
- The technical review for portfolio projects wasn't as rigorous as I thought it would be, and I was rarely asked to justify and explain my choices
- Not as much content for more advanced data science/machine learning concepts compared to the first few modules, where it was much more detailed and comprehensive

During the last month, I also began looking for jobs on my own and approximately two weeks after I graduated, I received an Data Scientist internship at a fintech.

This is a review for the online Data Science bootcamp full time. The admission process was fairly easy; first, a video chat with someone from admissions and enrollments and then a technical interview, for this second interview they assume you have already... Read More gone through the preparation course, heads up: this is a free course open to anyone, and after you finished it they ask you to review it, so a lot of the reviews out there are from people who have NOT actually gone through the full program.
During the program it really depends of the instructor and the cohort, in my case there was nothing about the community feeling that they advertise, the instructors are nice but don’t expect much individual help unless you ask in the slack channel. Oh, and don’t even think about joining campus communities if you happen to live close to one, the campus directors will treat you as an outsider-space invader.
The material was difficult to follow, they introduce new concepts and finish with “don’t worry you will learn more on this later”, so the topics shift back and fort. The instructor never reviews the labs and you don’t get a grade or an official statement about the outcome of your projects. All notebooks are on Github and they encourage you to open issues if you find them; I found issues on every single notebook but as a full time student I really don’t want to spend time telling them about the issues they should have reviewed and updated before deploying the notebook. It struck me as a little bit odd that one of the labs was exactly the same as it appeared in a website that I happened to land while searching more about that topic; I’m not a lawyer but it got me thinking about where they source the materials from and how much of this is original content.
When you are approaching the end of the program, a career coach comes along with a bunch of more Jupyter notebooks about how to set up your resume, linkedIn profile, attend meetups, etc. Is not like they have a list of places asking for placements, they just push you to apply to every single job post that includes the words data and analysis; I myself have not yet landed a job. (I will update the review later on this as I still have a couple of months left before reimbursement, if that happens to be the case)

PROS
- A lot of material and resources, they do a good job putting together all related topics.
- The platform is easy to navigate.
- Instructors and coaches are nice.
- WeWork hotdesk membership for one year.
- Good education coaches.
CONS
- Almost every single notebook has misspellings, incomplete or poorly redacted paragraphs.
- Some lab solutions are completely wrong.
- No feedback on labs as they don’t get reviewed.
- You learn online but you learn alone.
- No information if a project is passed or not.
- Career services are not a staffing company; they just ask you to apply yourself for as many jobs as you find.

In conclusion, be prepared as you will go through probably 2 years of college in 5 months + one month for the capstone project.

I did the online Full-Stack Web Development course. During my time in the course, I thought I was doing a good job. I was getting great feedback on all of my projects and was told I was moving along at a good pace. All my issues really started around... Read More job-search time. I'll start by admitting that I could have done more in terms of staying up to date with JavaScript. I wasn't fully aware of how much additional preparation and JavaScript practice is needed outside of FlatIron in order to be ready for a technical interview. I figured anything pertinent to a job interview would have been included in the course curriculum, when in-fact, there are additional FlatIron courses they suggest you take once completing the program to complete simultaneously with your job search. If you want a decent job after graduating, these extra courses and learning some computer science theory on your own are not something you can blow off.

However, I am still unbelievably disappointed with the quality of career services. Before I finished FlatIron, I told my career coach that I was moving to Los Angeles and would only be looking for jobs on the West Coast. Despite emphasizing this to my career coach multiple times, every meeting I had with her began with her saying, "oh! I didn't know you were moving to LA" or "so at what point do you think you'll move back East? We've got some career fairs in New York or DC with companies that would like to hire our grads on the spot!" Basically...DO NOT TAKE THIS COURSE UNLESS YOU INTEND ON LIVING / WORKING IN NY or DC. Maybe this is obvious to most people because their main campuses are in DC and NY, however, if you're attracted to FlatIron School because of their high reviews on websites like this one, know that its for the in-person NY program where the overwhelming majority of students work in NY after. Based off of some other reviews I've read from people outside the Northeast, I don't think I'm alone in this sentiment.

Participated in the first Data Science cohort. It started off strong, but quickly fell apart after the first module, when the material shifted from standard coding techniques that were adapted from the webdev course to more data/math focused topics. Our... Read More teacher was under-qualified to be teaching us Data Science, and we received essentially zero feedback on our coursework throughout the 15 week program. I honestly do not believe the curriculum was ready for launch, it felt way too rushed. Numerous topics advertised as part of the course were skipped or rushed through. Some of the labs and lectures were riddled with errors, and often we were not provided lecture notes or videos as promised. The 3rd module consisted of watching youtube videos 50% of the time - didn't really need to pay $15k for that.

The career guidance was misleading, we were told our guidance counselor would be randomly selected, yet 10 of 12 students received the same coach. The career team always seemed like they placed their personal interests ahead of mine.

I enjoyed the culture of Flatiron School, and have nothing but the best to say about my classmates. I feel like the program was rushed, misleadingly advertised, and did not really prepare me for a job in Data Science.

As an aside, I recommend actually sifting through these reviews before signing up - many of them are from people who have only completed the free bootcamp prep. I was asked to write a review before starting the class but refused because I thought that was misleading.

Flatiron School was a once in a lifetime experience that changed my life. I challenged myself everyday and met a ton of ambitious and intelligent individuals (instructors, mentors and classmates) who I now call friends and most importantly, I walked away... Read More with a profoundly valuable skill: the ability to turn ideas into reality through programming.

I WORKED EXTREMELY HARD AND WAS CHALLENGED!!!

On average, I spent 10–16 hours a day (~75–80 hours/week, including weekends) dedicated to code. I sat in lectures, watched lecture videos and programming videos, worked on labs, wrote blog posts, and built my own projects. Many times during the week I still found myself on campus past 12AM and during the final weeks of Flatiron School in building my final portfolio project, I still found myself on campus past 2AM especially on the weekends. And honestly the only reason why I didn’t stay later was the support of my family, friends and instructors who requested that I take care of my health and not burn out (seriously take care of your health…). But when I got home, I still wrote code. Truth be told, no one should ever tell you that programming is easy because it isn’t. It’s very invigorating and challenging; like really hard. It’s mind-bending work and you constantly have to hold a million different puzzle pieces in your brain in order to solve the problem. There will be days where I go to bed thinking about how to solve the problem and feeling defeated while other days where I felt like I was the champion of the world. Programming, with its instant feedback loop, will constantly play with your emotions. But when things click and you “figure” it out, you will feel a sense of accomplishment like no other. It really is ADDICTING.

The instructors at Flatiron School were all absolutely phenomenal; highly intelligent, humble and experienced individuals who genuinely want you to succeed and do well. Up to this day they still reach out to me and check up on me to make sure that I am doing well and very excited for me when I chose the software engineer role that I wanted.

The career services at Flatiron School stand out among any other Bootcamps in the world and work hard to get you leads and interviews and the job that you want!

TLDR: The curriculum is excellent, but their website makes it seem like they will work with _any_ schedule for the part time online bootcamp, and that's simply not the case.

Pros:
- Great curriculum and materials - I learned a ton!
- Really nice platform.... Read More
- Nice staff and instructors.

Cons:
- Not the exact tech stack I was hoping to learn (yes, I know this is a bit nitpicky, but we are talking about spending twenty thousand dollars here).
- I live and work a full time job on the West Coast, and the school is located on the East Coast, as are, apparently, all of the staff. You are required to attend most of the live events in order to graduate. I told every single staff member I interacted with in what time zone I am located (PST), and what my work schedule was (standard 9-5 M-F with a one hour commute each way), but they scheduled literally every single event while I was still at work or commuting home, including the weekly one-on-one 'mentor' sessions.
- When I kept repeating that the times don't work for me, a frequent suggestion was "do it during your lunch break." I'm paying over grand per month, but you don't have any staff that can end their week on Saturday or start their week on Sunday?
- I tried it out for a few weeks, but I just ended up feeling stressed out trying to meet the
- It was only after I requested withdrawal from the course that suddenly they seemed really "flexible."

I ended up withdrawing from the course for the reasons stated above.
I would gladly attend again if they offered courses where all the (required) live sessions were scheduled on weekends.

As a last note, they had just been bought out by WeWork, so may have been undergoing some structural/staffing changes behind the scenes I was unaware of during this time.