Fullstack Academy

I applied to Fullstack Academy though the NYC Tech Talent Pipeline for a chance at a fellowship opportunity. With a degree in computer science and the terrible market due to the corona virus, I knew it was going to take a lot more to stand out. That and... Read More in today's age, a CS degree holds little weight compared to practical skill in today's climate. Anyway, I applied, went through a bootcamp to learn the fundamentals of JavaScript. I had to take a midterm and a final to get a shot at the actual curriculum. In the curriculum we learned advanced JS concepts, frontend and backend frameworks and in the final weeks of the program we had 3 incredible projects in our portfolio. From my experience at FS, I can say that if I could do it all over again I'd go down the bootcamp route instead of getting a degree!! Shout out to Fila, a TA at the bootcamp. He has such an amazing way of teaching and would be available on days he was off! Definitely made me want to give back to the community in a more significant way.

I applied to Fullstack on recommendation from a couple of friends who are developers. I had looked into 2 other highly respected bootcamps as well, but was not interested in the hours they offered. Fullstack is 5 days a week 9-6, while the other two were... Read More something like 9-8 M-F and 10-5 or so on Sat. Perhaps they end up covering more at the other schools, but I'm not certain. I knew that I would need to get enough rest, and that I would probably have enough to study on the weekends anyways, which was certainly the case. In addition, I liked that FS has a large alumni base and I felt like I was joining a large network.

The application process was pretty smooth, and included a live pair programming algorithm over Zoom or Skype. I was excited to be accepted, and had to begin the pre-course which was online, at your own pace with weekly deadlines and mini-tests called checkpoints. Most of the pre-course was targeted at improving your javascript skills and didn't include any frameworks or any type of work with stacks. After 3 weeks or so of that, the on-location portion began in NYC. It was exciting to be back in a learning environment, and I had been out of school since 2005. It was also energizing to be surrounded by many other people who were making a career change and were eager to learn. Unfortunately, we were on location for only a week (or two?) because of COVID, but I was extremely pleased at how well everything worked in a remote setting.

The 13 on-location weeks are split into two phases. The first, called junior phase is essentially learning the core stack. Node, Express, Sequelize, React, Redux. Then there is a week off with limited assignments, and a god chance to relax and review. The second phase is essentially putting everything we learned into practice, and prepping for the job hunt. I was surprised at how robust their career coaching was from resume reviews, interview practice, etc. I came out of the program a transformed person, and was fortunate to land a job within 2.5 months of graduating.

I chose Fullstack Academy for my bootcamp because of the emphasis on cultivating a positive community, the highly relevant JavaScript tech stack, and the strength of its reputation and network in NYC. It definitely lived up to my expectations in those... Read More areas. The instructors were super knowledgeable and took our learning and experience seriously. Even though COVID forced the program to be fully remote, by the end it felt like a new family. The curriculum has really nailed the balance of lecture time with solo workshops and paired programming/group work, and there's a good natural progression of building on tools and concepts that really helps a TON of skills and knowledge sink in over a pretty short time. The career success team is a real blessing- they have so much advice to share and really put their all into supporting graduates on their job search. There is so much valuable coaching on networking, professional communication, and career growth, which feels almost like you've taken a whole extra course, which you might not realize or understand the value of when you're deciding to apply to a bootcamp. Bootcamps in general have their downsides and it's no walk in the park to find a junior developer job in these times, but I was pleasantly surprised after graduation by how seriously we are taken by recruiters and companies. As far as I can compare Fullstack to other top-tier bootcamps, I think we got the best of all worlds, with the most time spent on the most relevant and desirable tech stack possible, in a fun environment that challenges you but also deliberately avoids the overly intense and cut-throat atmosphere that I have heard students in other top bootcamps can struggle with. Fullstack should be your choice if you want a positive and engaged social environment while you learn, you're ready to make use of their strong professional network after graduation, and you're going to hold yourself accountable for pushing yourself to get the most out of it without external pressures like being cut from the program if you don't keep up, which is known to happen at other bootcamps.

This program is hand down the best coding academy out there. It provides hands on experience from some of the best professors. With the software provided by Fullstack academy, I was given full resources to learn comfortably. I was able to get a job from... Read More this bootcamp with starting salary of $70,000 from a fortune 500 company.

I was starting with simple test about any programming language usage. After that I've got an invitation to attend one week JavaScript course for free. Then it was preparation to the course at home and final exam to get started bootcamp junior phase. The... Read More process was so excited that I did not think a lot and made a start.
The advantages of this course are very talented teachers, with many years experience in the industry. Smart Curriculum, it means you step by step learn how to make things starting from front-end and ends of back-end. You will try to get some technologies by yourself and make a project on it. You will aware about additional tools for developers that helps to host and control you work. Data structures and algorithms is a big plus as well.

Fullstack academy gave me a chance to become a software Engineer. The Grace Hopper program is great even for people who never had experience with software engineering. They will help you to create your resume and navigate you find your first software... Read More engineer role. Highly recommend.

I first joined Fullstack Academy's bootcamp prep course which is only $99 and I also received a complete refund for completing the course. My bootcamp prep instructor Sarah was super passionate and she explained all Javascript in clear logic which was... Read More super helpful. After completing the prep course, I became close friend with Sarah and a couple of other students at Fullstack Academy. I got a sense of their supportive culture and decided to enroll in their full-time immersive course.
After being admitted, I took 2 month to study as much as I can on my own before I started the full-time course. I started the course in July 2019 and the three months period was really intense but not unbearable. For the six weeks junior phase, you get to learn new concepts on a daily basis. You will have lectures in the morning and workshops(pair programming) in the afternoon. I normally had some time to relax and exercise after dinner every day but I did continue to study over the weekend. Each week, you would also have to take a checkpoint test to check your understanding of that week's study.
After the junior phase, you will take a week off to relax and refresh yourself, which I found really helpful. Then you enter another six weeks of senior phase. You will build two group projects and one solo projects, which I found was really fun. You also got to build closer relationship with your group members. Each cohort would also have social chairs that organizes activities for us to get to know each other better such as happy hours on Friday. Each week, you would also have ample opportunities and channels to express your concerns about the course, instructors, or your peer.
Upon graduation, I was also offered a 3-month paid teaching fellow position. While helping mentor the next cohort, I also got to sit in all the lectures again which definitely helped solidify my grasp of all the concepts. I also took the time to learn more about algorithm and data structure on my own. After that, I attended the launch day organized by Fullstack academy.
After leaving the school, I continued to apply for jobs, practicing algorithms and building projects. All my interviewed were obtained through Fullstack's network and I finally got a pretty good offer from a big company this May.
I want to thank Ben for being a passionate instructor and supportive friend. I want to thank my career coach Natalie for always being there for me and practicing all the behavioral questions with me. I want to thank many others at Fullstack Academy that made my transition from a person with zero tech background to a full-stack software engineer POSSIBLE!

I came into this course with very limited coding skills and couldn't afford to pay Fullstack's tuition for their other programs so I decided to enroll in the WDF program. The curriculum is exactly the same as the Software Engineering Immersive and Grace... Read More Hopper program but is completely free! The instructors and teaching fellows were literally the best and truly cared about all the students and made sure we understood the materials. Our teaching fellows went above and beyond for us and on many occasions stayed after class to work with us if we had any material we were still unsure about. After graduation our career counselor was constantly in touch with us to make sure our job search was going well and providing us with any support we needed.
Overall, Fullstack Academy is a phenomenal bootcamp and worth the investment. The skills we learned are very in-demand and provide a solid foundation for applying to entry-level software engineering roles.

I would have never thought a 17 week bootcamp can make such a big impact on my life. I’ve come from being a man with zero Infosec experience to working as a federal contractor.

Pros: Great teachers, Great staff, Great curriculum, a very friendly and caring... Read More environment , career success guidance from an expert

Cons : None for me

The coding instructors for the program were fantastic. However, the support offered by the career success team was very disappointing. My cohort was scheduled to have 2 career fairs, both of which were cancelled with little notice and with a broken promise... Read More of rescheduling. It was my career counselor's last year with Fullstack and it was apparent by how 'checked out' they were. Students could request individual assistance (which was difficult to ascertain) but there was no structured curriculum about job hunting. Learning how to job hunt and interview for coding positions was the main appeal to me and it was disappointing to be snubbed.