Flatiron School

I attended the 15 week intensive full time software engineering bootcamp at Flatiron. I was part of the Seattle cohort, but because of Covid-19 the program was conducted entirely online. I thought that would be a drawback but it ended up being great.... Read More With no commuting I had more time to dedicate to coding and I was able to fit in a few more to-do's each day, like going for a run or getting an errand done. This program is an amazing way to learn a new skill very quickly. The structure of the program is excellent, and allows for self motivated learning but also provides a lot of much needed direction. I came from the performing arts so I was afraid I would be a fish out of water, but I had no trouble jumping right into the new material. My instructors were truly top tier educators, and really cared about my success. I cant say enough positive things about my experience at Flatiron. I feel it gave me the boost I needed to change my life and launch into a new career with confidence and momentum.

Flatiron School's Online Data Science Immersive was a fast-paced, rigorous and exciting experience throughout which I felt supported by my instructors, cohort, and career coach. I had completed undergraduate and graduate level calc + statistics coursework... Read More prior to starting the program, which absolutely helped to make the pace more manageable throughout the math-heavy modules. I would recommend this program to other graduates who are looking to expand their knowledge of coding and data science methods, and who would benefit from having structure and community throughout their learning journey. If you're willing to put the required work in, you'll leave with a project portfolio, a data science blog, and the skills to continuing building upon your work after you leave Flatiron.

I don't think I can recommend this program enough. I am in awe on how they delivered exactly what they laid out. My teacher was absolutely incredible. She always went above-and-beyond the call of duty, and she was an expert in debugging and resolving... Read More issues even related to our individual computers. She was an excellent teacher, and laid out concepts ideas in a clear, easy to understand way. I love the interface that was created along with the many levels and different ways to support yourself. I learned so much from the peer programming, and although we were online, it was easy to figure out who you could connect with and learn from that way. I also love that we were later split into pods with others that learned similarly, so we could conquer new concepts together each week. I always felt like I was with people who were smarter than I was, and learned exponentially more because of it. I also love that the "Ask A Question" feature was open really early and really late. It was nice to have structure, although we were allowed to be a little bit behind in lessons and a little bit ahead as fit our individual scheduling needs. If I missed a lecture I could go back and review the recording on my own time. I have a young child and I was able to serve my family while I went to school. I learned a ton from the technicians available online as well. I also was so proud of each project I created, because I learned a lot while being forced to figure things out on my own. There was a wealth of online videos to watch to help support the ideas, lessons to pass, and although each project review with a different instructor was a bit nerve wracking, it was the closest thing to an interview at each step of the process. The support I received while at school was also admirable. I took advantage of the Educational Coach while I was at school, which was a huge part of my success. He helped me process through stress and helped me focus on goals, while providing practical solutions to better myself and my overall disposition so I could survive. I was blown away that I had this resource available to me during this time. After I graduated, I also received an amazing amount of support. My Career Coach challenged me and asked difficult questions to help me identify my negative patterns, and walked me through step-by-step instructions on how to improve my connections on Linked In and get my applications noticed. His approaches and techniques were practical, useful and 100% successful. He was extremely helpful in getting a job and improving my gratitude for opportunities in my life. Flatiron School has embraced the future of education in a way that has completely changed my life. I cannot speak highly enough about the school and its organization.

Attending bootcamp gave me guidance and direction when I was trying to resume my career after a gap. Flatiron has great instructors and their lectures were awesome. Coding challenges and projects helped reinforce the concepts. Career services supported... Read More in building resume and tackling interviews. Within 90 days after starting job search , I could land a job as Software Development Engineer II Intern at Audible. i would highly recommend Flatiron to aspiring software engineers. 

Flatiron School gave me the chance to learn in an environment that was very flexible to my learning style. Since the first day, I knew that I was in the right place, both my lead instructor and coach were so helpful, but didn't just throw the answer at... Read More me. They provided me with resources to find answers for myself and let me grow for myself. Now looking back on 2020, attending Flatiron is one of the few things I wouldn't change if I had the change.

I cannot say enough great things about my Flatiron experience. The instructors and staff at Flatiron are top-notch and genuinely care about the success of their students. The curriculum consists of 5 mods (Ruby, Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, React, and a... Read More Final Project). Each mod teaches very relevant skills in the Software Engineering industry. Moreover, in my job search, I found many opportunities where my new skills were often in the required or preferred skills section of job descriptions. Being a Flatiron student requires dedication and hard work, but I promise it’s absolutely worth it! Flatiron also has adapted to virtual learning exceptionally well and creates a strong community among cohorts. I developed strong connections to my cohort mates and have worked with many of them on projects post-graduation. Speaking of post-graduation, Flatiron offers individualized weekly career counseling that has been invaluable during my job search.

I graduated from Flatiron School's software engineering immersive program in December 2020. Due to pandemic the program transitioned from on-campus to remote learning. We had to be on Zoom every day 9 to 6. Our day would start with a group discussion... Read More summarizing yesterdays lessons, we would then move on to pair-programming, then there would be a lecture and then we would finish the day with working on labs. I came to the bootcamp with zero programing knowledge and in four months graduated as a full-stack developer totally confident in what I've learnt. Honestly I was a bit skeptical before I've started this program, I couldn't understand how one can learn so much in such a short time. But the program is super intense and the curriculum requires you to learn and practice new concepts every single day. Every new skill you are taught comes with it's own labs which require you to use the skill until it becomes second nature. I like that Flatiron teaches you not only specific languages and frameworks, but they teach you how to learn, which is a great skill to have in life in general and certainly an important skill for a software developer. A word about instructors; the instructors we had were top-notch, super knowledgeable and helpful, and could explain complex, unfamiliar technical concepts in a way which anyone could understand. Our instructors were super supportive and they motivated us to keep going. The school's support does not end at graduation. Everyone is assigned a career coach who supports you for next 6 months and helps you during your job search.

Attending Flatiron Immersive Software Engineering Course was such a wonderful experience. Before I started I had a hard time grasping the concepts of software design and programming in general. I entered the course on campus, which made me feel at home... Read More and accepted every day. The course content and the way the teachers explained the concepts were very easy to grasp. Flatiron did a wonderful job of not only teaching but giving you the feel of daily control flow at a typical company, from solo to team project, to stand-ups and stand-downs. Ending it all off Flatiron career coaching was a wonderful experience helping me sharpen my skills to be a better candidate in a new career. I am very excited to start a new lease on life.

Oh boy...where do I begin.

My recruiter was Madison Delaney and I would sometimes go weeks without hearing back from her. You can't call Flatiron and get a single person on the phone...always goes to voicemail. I'd constantly have to follow up, and it... Read More was overall an unpleasant, unprofessional start from the get-go. That should have been the first red-flag.

I payed for the in-person program and received the online program. Flatiron still refuses to refund the difference after months of going back and forth with them. No points awarded for ethically. Here's 600 other Flatiron students who are upset about the situtation that Flatiron still ignores and refuses to address publicly.
https://www.change.org/p/flatiron-school-in-person-students-flatiron-school-in-person-students-partial-tuition-refund-effort

On another note, Flatiron's instructors always seemed busy. When in need of assistance, more often than not, you're told to google the problem instead. Why did you pay the tuition then...I don't know. Where is the money going towards...I don't know.
Flatiron is quite big on asking for feedback, and I sure provided a lot of feedback during my time there. For the most part they don't seem to follow up on too many of them...or at least mine.

The instructors are all very nice, many of them are hired right after graduating so they aren't as experienced as the lead instructors. You very rarely get any attention from the lead instructor and even other instructors, so you're on your own for the most part.
The aloted rough schedule they advertise on their website is misleading and false. Your division of the day will mostly result with you being on your own googling answers and teaching yourself. There's a lot of BS in the schedule, like attendance for a half hour, surveys for an hour, "stand-downs" for an hour, "feelings" for an hour, etc... After doing the math, 16% of our day was actually entirely unaccounted for and pair programming was at a minimal percentage. I would have thought they'd be extra careful to not have any false advertising because they lost a lawsuit for $375,000 for having false salary and placement statistics advertised on there website.

Upon finishing the program, I feel cheated out of $17,000. The money-back guarantee sounds nice, but in actuality most people are either ineligible or opt-out and I'm uncertain why. Flatiron even leaked everybody’s personal data in a mass email and it doesn't look like anybody has received the money-back guarantee.

CSS is not taught - maybe it's just touched upon. They do a decent job with Ruby and React, but discourage you from learning Redux. You can graduate this program not knowing CSS, a single algorithm, or have a personal portfolio page. That's a big red flag.

Career services will follow up with you often which is nice, no complaints about that. They do leave everything up to you and it's mostly hands off on their part.

I do believe that at one point in time they used to be good. I came into this program looking to love it, but they definitely left a bad taste in my mouth and that's wildly unfortunate. There are way better alternatives from my understanding - even just teaching yourself is a better alternative...you can do it, don't be discouraged! Udemy looks like they have some great full stack courses for $20. I'd do that if I could go back in time.