General Assembly

TLDR,
The bottom line is I could never recommend GA or their software engineering immersive because the course for me was just teachers and all running around like chickens with there heads cut off.

Pros,
- You meet other classmates doing the same thing... Read More

Cons,
- Very little support
- No real hiring potential by going through GA vs anywhere else (Like other students got a job at said company and the employers thought it was a great hire and would love to hire more GA graduates, thats not really much of a thing)
- Teachers don't answers questions. (big one in my opinion because I joined the bootcamp to learn and understand what's going on not just be some attack dog that can only do what's in front of them)
- Recordings of the class were all deleted two months after the course when they explicitly said they would up for 6 months.
- All the teachers are burnouts from other parts of the industry and it's not a good atmosphere
- Constant surveys you have to fill out for them, 2-3+ a day sometimes.
- The class is only really 9 weeks long because 3 of those weeks are taken off to work on your own and make a project, were you get almost no help.
- Costs 15k
- Job support is pretty much non existent unless your have a specific question
- They say they don't do grades, but they do. They grade all your stuff like 9 out of 10 etc. and even one day in class a girl was having loads of problems with what we were going over so she asked for help and the teacher was just like na I have to go grade projects.
- Also the teachers are late a lot, have babies in class etc. (this was almost an everyday thing and maybe they're just not paying there employees enough if they can't afford babysitters?) and it just makes everything so much more stressful then it needs to be.

General Assembly created a very easy-to-follow workflow for the classes. It was a very 'hands-on' approach, where we could put into practice all we learned. A very good comprehensive course, yet easy to follow. The instructors were phenomenal! Since they... Read More are real professionals working with the topics on a daily basis, they could give us a real insight into the professional day-by-day scenarios and examples. They were always available for that extra support as well. I'm really pleased with this course!

I completed General Assembly's Software Engineering Immersive remote option recently and would highly recommend the program! I learned so much in just 12 weeks and felt that it was worth the time and effort. The curriculum was well-organized and relevant,... Read More and the instructors did a great job of explaining concepts and challenging us appropriately. The instructors were also incredibly friendly and helpful with learning the content and introducing us to the broader culture of software engineering. If I could go back, I would absolutely take the class again!

Pros: There are a lot of pros that you will receive from this course. I learned a great deal of knowledge about software engineering and becoming a web dev. I had no prior experience to anything related in this field but GA made me feel comfortable in... Read More the way the shared and taught all in information in this class. They taught the basics first then built up from there. Cons: The only con I felt while taking this course is sometimes it took me a little longer to grasp some of the concepts than other and since you are learning something new everyday things can begin to pile up when you aren't understanding a concept but eventually you review and go over though concepts so much that you learn it along the way.

I initially started the course in order to become a more competitive Frontend Web Developer. The class was well structured and provided great resources for me to review and practice React. The class was pretty fast-paced because there's a lot to cover... Read More but the instructor did a great job in focusing on the things that were essential to learning a strong React foundation.

My front end web development course with Esin, and Hou Chia was great. It was very interactive and easy to follow the lessons, the homework and study ratio was great. I enjoyed learning new things with new people and over zoom and slack. I didn’t have... Read More any negative experiences in this class, it was all positive. That is the main reason I am returning to General Assembly to take another course. The Admissions team is very attentive and responds to all your questions very quickly as well.

They clearly don't know how to work during the pandemic (I very much hope that they didn't operate like this before Covid...).

I went to an open evening in November 2019. They absolutely sold it to me then- dedicated tutors who were 'veterans' in the industry,... Read More a curriculum which reflects trends in the tech industry as well as money back if you don't land a job. ALL OF WHICH ARE LIES.

Teachers seem to get annoyed when students asked too many questions or were challenging. But would often say 'please ask me questions so you can make the most out of your money'. During one full week project, the teachers wouldn't even come on zoom calls to help us debug our code and told us off again for not asking for help.

The last module - Python, Django and PostgreSQL should be omitted from the programme as it only reflects how well students can copy and paste code to fulfil a project with a backend in a different language. They clearly only do this to bulk out their technologies and languages taught during the course. The teacher barely even knew Python and was googling most the answers. Some students were even correcting them. Otherwise, surely they should get a data science instructor to each us fundamentals in Python. General Assembly's excuse to that is by week 10 there's no shame in googling for the answer as that's also industry standard. And I completely agree, but at £9,000 you would expect the tutor to be knowledgable in that language.

Another massive joke is that we had to deploy two of our big projects by ourselves with absolute MINIMAL help. After the course finished Herkou was no longer supporting the backend to one of our projects. We've not heard from the instructor how to redeploy. This proves that once you've finished there's no support. How can they charge £9000 and not help with the most inciting thing - deployed projects.

I was fed lies when I reached out to a higher up to voice my dissatisfaction, and the person always turned the conversation around to ask how they could help support me. Their answer was because I was apparently one of the top students, they thought I was doing ok, but to make me feel better and gain more support I would have 1-1 with the lead instructor to help me improve. This meeting never happened.

They make you jump through so many hoops to become 'job seeker ready' by then a lot of people drop out so aren't accounted in their outcomes statistics. You're pretty much on your own when it comes to the job search, and nowhere in the contract does it clearly state after x amount of days you can ask for your money back.

I attended General Assembly's UXDI program remotely and overall it was a great program. However, a lot of opportunities will be missed through remote versus in person. Of course COVID is unavoidable and GA wanted to ensure everyone's safety, but the same... Read More offerings were promised as in person. Not necessarily! A lot of the networking opportunities weren't possible or incorporated as well as getting panelists from experts in the field. I met a lot of amazing people and learned so much and grew immensely since the start. It's a lot of hard work but I don't regret coming to GA. If you need to have that hands on experience, especially because it's UX design, consider waiting for restrictions to be lifted for in person classes. Or go to a different school for much cheaper!

Graduated from General Assembly Software Engineering curriculum which isn't on 12 weeks but 9.
Why? Because you have 3 x 1 project week where the interaction with GA educational team is nearly none existant.
Their curruciculum covers the basics but do not... Read More go in depth.
They are promoting their affiliation with the Adecco Group which does not provide any job nor operational support, whatsoever.
General Assembly Outcomes program is completely useless - you will be on your own when it comes to your job searches.
This program will simply help you design a Resume and explain the same information over and over again: waste of time and obselete.
The overall experience isn't worth such investment, at all.
I sincerly regret going with them.

I wish I could give it 1 star. This is a bit over due. But I signed up for GA classes last year around the same time , to be more specific UX/UI classes. I went through great depths to take a loan out through them hoping these classes are going to build... Read More my future. To be more specific I have already gotten my bachelor prior to these classes and I signed up for UX/UI courses. The course was so so terrible and the instructors were horrible. The theoretical parts of the class did not cover any of the necessary information you need to succeed in the course nor this field. The technical part of the class was taught so miserably by instructors that couldn't open up the software tool (Sketch) and one of the instructor assistance deleted my project that I worked on for weeks. I stayed in the class for couple weeks hoping I would gain some sort of skill and be able to land a decent job, but that hope was quickly let down when the instructors repeatedly set our salary exceptions extremely down. I was told that I should expect the maximum salary of 70k which is insanely low. Long story short, I dropped out and only was able to get very little refund for my money. I dedicated a full month teaching everything to myself online through, youtube, Udemy, and books and other sources and I was able to land a job shortly after with a salary twice as promised by these unqualified instructors. So, STAY AWAY. DON'T GO UNDER DEBT. you will be able to find a job even without the disgraceful certificate of GA.