Fullstack Academy

Fullstack Academy can be best described in two words - life changing. For several years, I worked in Technology but in functional fields, while always being interested in and curious about building technology myself. However, I always felt an intimidation towards software development and in all honesty, some skepticism towards programs that seemingly turn you into a developer in a few months. I held on to my fear and doubts for a long time while a few of my friends went through the program and successfully became developers. One day, I decided that I didn't want to regret not trying and took the leap of faith and applied for Fullstack Academy after doing the bootcamp prep course, one of the best decisions I've ever made. I graduated from Fullstack in February this year and went through ...

After looking into many Coding Bootcamps with the motivation of getting more "hands-on" experience so I could make a radical career change, I found at Full Stack everything I was looking for and decided to join. The result: an amazing experience where I got to meet awesome and very smart people, where I got to learn a lot about the most up to date technologies for full stack web development and, where I felt like already working in the field since day 1.

After graduating from Fullstack Academy and successfully landing my first position as a Software Engineer within a month, I was proud of myself for making such a great decision. Fullstack was the best/smartest investment I have ever made. 100% recommended!

Fullstack has been one of the best decisions I made in my life. All the instructors were not only knowledgeable of all the concepts in the curriculum, but they were all very compassionate in helping every student grow their skillset in coding.

Fullstack is split into three separate phases: Foundations, Junior Phase, and Senior Phase. Foundations is 5 weeks long and is primarily self-paced. You are given online video lectures, weekly assignments, and checkpoint tests throughout the course of those five weeks. This phase is primarily self paced and helps reinforce advanced JavaScript concepts like functional programming, recursion, and closure, which will be useful to know in Junior and Senior phase.

Junior phase is 6 weeks long at the Fullstack campus. About half of each day are ...

The instructors are extremely knowledgable and the program is very well organized. I'm amazed at how much I've learned over the 14 weeks onsite and 3 weeks online (in preparation for onsite). I'm not new to software development, but this program offered breadth and depth that I've never experienced on the job or in graduate school.
Workshops and exams were almost always challenging. Emphasis on Test Driven Design and on pair programming was very well done. Individual and group projects were great learning experiences as well. The career success team has set me up for a disciplined and focused job search.
I would recommend this program to anyone interested in going deep on the latest software development technologies.

I still cannot believe how well designed and executed this program is. The curriculum is current and continuously being updated to ensure that it meets market needs and delivers the most cutting edge skill set. This is taken very seriously, so you can trust that what you're learning has been well thought out and planned. The structure of the curriculum itself is conducive to learning a lot in a short amount of time, which is largely driven by a perfect balance between lectures and immediately applying what you learned in workshops both individually and in pairs. In addition, the second half of this program is entirely dedicated to working on multi-day and multi-week projects to reinforce everything you learned prior and build on top of that knowledge. This not only results in knowing th...

Amazing bootcamp. Having come from a computer science background I thought that it would be easy, that was not the case. The courses were well taught, so much so that the students without any computer science background were on par with myself. The people there were also so helpful and amazing. I highly recommend this bootcamp to anyone who is interested in a bootcamp, it is clearly a cut above the rest.

Fullstack was truly an amazing experience and I would recommend it to anyone. Coming in with almost no computer science background, I was worried I wouldn't be able to keep up. The instructional team went above and beyond to ensure that I understood the material and provided every resource I could possibly need to succeed. If you are considering attending a bootcamp, Fullstack should be at the top of your list.

Some of the best 13 weeks ever spent. The instructors are fun, informative, and helpful, and I definitely learned a lot in my time here. I also had a good time and feel it was a time well spent.

I was in the October 2017 cohort. It’s been over 6 months since we graduated the program, and I’ve tracked the progress of almost everyone from my cohort — maybe 50% max have been able to find jobs in the industry with an average salary of around $50-60k/year (estimates taken from Paysa and Glassdoor). The rest have mostly returned to their old jobs or moved in with their parents.

Most of the instructors were people who had gone through the bootcamp themselves and had zero real-world software engineering experience. We spent a majority of the time pair programming i.e., having concepts explained to you by people who understand web development possibly even less than you do.

Most of the few people I know who did manage to get decent jobs either had prior experience or a CS degree...

I've graduated from Fullstack Academy Web Development Fellowship, the program sponsored by NYC Tech Talent Pipeline.

I have an awesome experience with FS, like the most of it graduates and here is why:

Instructors are outstanding. A lot of people complain that instructors in bootcamps are often don't have much experience in real-world development. It's not the case with FS. First of all, because they do have not only experienced but PASSIONATE teachers. I won't speak for everybody, but give a shout out to Corey Greenwald and Dan Soval who were my instructors. Experience in web development multiplied by the natural ability for outstanding public speaking and great desire to teach other people => that's the recipe to engage you in solving the problems every day, every hour, think ab...

Fullstack Academy's part-time Flex immersive was one of the most wonderful, worthwhile, and challenging experiences of my life. While there were some things that could be improved about the course, I can wholeheartedly say that everyone there is dedicated, intelligent, and fantastic. If you're thinking of applying to Fullstack, don't hesitate--you won't regret it!

Application

Applying to Fullstack was fairly straightforward. After filling out an online form and taking an online assessment, I was then contacted for a one-on-one interview with a teaching fellow. The interview consisted of two parts--behavioral and technical. Don't sweat the technical interview. They're not looking for experts, but rather that you have a good grasp of the fundamentals and can handle instruction/feedb...

I'm a graduate of FSA and it was one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my life. The program isn't just designed to teach you to become a (better) developer, it's also designed to help you become a better teammate, public speaker, life-long learner, and leader.

I came into the program already having some experience with web development and I needed help advancing my career. Even though I had some experience already, I still needed to do a some JS studying before getting accepted. They offer a JavaScript prep course that many people in my cohort took and it worked well for them so if you don't have a coding background already, I would highly recommend that. If there's one thing I give FSA a lot of credit for is that they do a very good job at testing/interviewing ca...

I attended the Fullstack Immersive Program in October 2017 at the Chicago campus. I came from a strong interest in wanting to learn how to code but no actual practical experience. Before joining Fullstack, my background was in psychology and then a year of sales experience. My strongest recommendation for anyone even remotely interested in joining the immersive program is to attend an information session that they host each month or so. For me, that was the point where I fully decided I wanted to make the jump and pursue applying because it made my perspective on the whole concept much more real. Rather than just being “something with great reviews that I read online”, I actually got to meet the people who run the program, ask questions, and walk inside the campus area.

I si...

II was a part of WDF Fullstack Academy Bootcamp for a period of almost 6 months and when I look back at my journey it still feels unreal sometimes because the growth I have achieved and the amount of knowledge I have gained in such a short period is something I had been aspiring to achieve for a long time. 

I found my interest for programming during my undergrad and I knew I wanted to pursue it as my career but I faced a lot of hurdles along the way and could not pave a path by myself through online courses and self study. My husband told me about bootcamps and how they provide you with the skillset needed in the job market today in a short interval of time. During my search for bootcamps, I stumbled across many options, all promising to offer the best learning experience and future c...

I have a background as a professional musician and I made websites throughout my music career. I decided to go all-in and teach myself computer science fundamentals. I fell in love with programming and eventually decided that I wanted to learn web development as fast as possible. I did a lot of research and decided to attend Fullstack Academy. (I also considered the Hack Reactor remote program.) I was hesitant to attend any bootcamp - they're expensive, especially considering you won't be working during and after the program while you search for a job. It wound up exceeding my expectations and I'm so happy that I attended!

I've written a handful of posts about my experiences before, at, and after attending Fullstack Academy here: https://scraggo.github.io/

In a nutshell:

- You ...

I recently graduated from the FSA program in NYC. Before joining fullstack, I have no experience in coding. I wrote my first line of code in June 2017 while I was taking online prep course to get ready for FSA's interview. 

The program at FSA is amazing, awesome, full of fun, and a lot of hard work. I would like to give a shout out to the instructors - Geoff and Omri. They are both very knowledgeable in the course curriculum and are extremely supportive and thorough to explain concepts to us. I have taken numerous online tutorials and I don't think any tutors that I had online can compare to these two dedicated instructors. That really sets apart Fullstack from any other bootcamps. Once you go Geoff and Omri, you can never go back!!

Towards the end of the program, there is a huge ...

So the big question, is it worth it? Definitely. 100%. I was actually a bit nervous because it's a lot of money to put into a for-profit school. But as someone who holds a CS degree, what you get from Fullstack Academy is far more than a piece of paper.

The first thing I want to say is I think bootcamps are underrated. In general, many of the things taught in Computer Science tend to be too theoretical and divorced from what actually happens in the industry. That is not to say that a CS degree is useless. But Fullstack Academy keeps up with the industry and teaches technologies that employers are looking for. It's like an alumni that came to campus to speak who does actual hiring said. Bootcamp graduates hit the ground running.

The second thing is that the community is just amazin...

I recently graduated Fullstack Academy, the full-time immersive cohort in NYC. I highly reommend this program to anyone who is interested. Below are my thoughts.

A quick background, I was a finance major who felt like software engineering was an important skill to understand to stay relevant and valuable in the job search. However, I was skeptical of bootcamps - can I really learn to code in 3 months?? Will an employer ever actually hire someone with 3 months of coding knowledge? Seemed too good to be true.

However, when I got to FSA, I was impressed at the skill level of the instructors. I went to a good high-school and college, yet the instructors at FSA were by far the best instructors of any educational institution I had ever learned at. They take incredibly complex concepts a...

I graduated from college with a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics and knew that I needed another practical skill to make me more marketable. I lacked any internship experience from college since I had switched majors. I had heard about software engineering bootcamps that would be beneficial for people who were interested in code and a career in technology. I knew how to code through some of my coursework but I hadn't done any real development so I knew I needed to get ready for a coding exam (such as the Fullstack entrance exam).

I spent a month learning JS through free resources I found online including some free bootcamp prep sites. I applied to a few bootcamps and decided on Fullstack from the reviews I read and the experience I had during the coding interview. I can definitively...

pros:
1. full-stack JavaScript-focused curriculum with strong emphasis on React.js was a perfect fit for jobs in the NYC market;
2. amazing, committed instructors;
3. project-based and collaborative (pair-programming throughout) was a plus in interviews;
4. Career Services helped me negotiate a higher salary

cons:
1. not enough emphasis on becoming proficient at writing tests (e.g. Jest, Mocha, etc.), and
2. Career Services was great at the negotiation phase, but they seem to be too busy to give too much individualized focus before that point

general advice:
1. Computer Science fundamentals is extremely important, but only so much of it can be taught in a 4 month program - make sure you study algorithms and web fundamentals on your own after graduation;
2. I probably was u...