Holberton School

Holberton School is in a league of its own when it comes to providing students with the necessary skills to go into software engineering. Not only do you learn computer science fundamentals that most other 'bootcamps' gloss over, but you learn key work... Read More environment skills such as public speaking, project planning, and teamwork. The program is not for the faint of heart. You must truly be ready to work your ass off, because the curriculum moves fast and hard. But if your goal is to become a software engineer in a relatively short period of time, Holberton offers the tools that you need to learn, and to learn how to learn.

Holberton allowed me to transition from working in the public education sector to my current role as jr. software engineer intern. It also allowed me to discover my passion for machine learning. While ML is not offered in the first year of the curriculum, I chose to pursue a final project that was entirely machine learning based. With the time-management and research skills I acquired at Holberton, I was able to have a functioning ML model to present at the end of my first year.

Highly recommend!

Choosing to attend Holberton School was probably the best decision I've ever made in my life. Before attending, I graduated from a prestigious engineering school cum laude with a Chemical Engineering degree and couldn't have felt any less prepared to... Read More enter the job market. After months of applying to numerous companies and coming up short, I ended up working at In-N-Out in the daytime and tutoring high school students at night just to make ends meet. Luckily I had received a full-tuition scholarship and wasn't in debt. I can't imagine how stressful that time would have been if I also had to deal with student loans like so many other college graduates.

When a friend of mine (who also attended Holberton) suggested I apply, I jumped at the opportunity. I had been exposed to a tiny amount of computer science in my undergraduate degree and found it fascinating but thought it was too late for me to switch. Since Holberton is only a 2-year program and is focused almost entirely on software engineering, I knew I wouldn't have to waste an additional 2 years redoing general education requirements before I even touched any software engineering classes. Also, since Holberton is an ISA based model, I knew that I wouldn't need to go into debt and that they were truly invested in my learning since their success as a company was tied to my success in finding a job. The ISA is 17% of your salary for 3.5 years if you make >$40k and is capped at a total of $80k. Since most entry-level engineers in the bay-area start off at around 100k, you'll probably end up paying around $60k in total, which is the cost of only 1 year at a private university. To me, it just made sense to choose Holberton over a traditional educational model: faster, no debt, cheaper, invested in my success.

If that wasn't enough, the best draw of Holberton was that it's a peer-learning, project-based school. That means NO TEACHERS and NO LECTURES! Although some other reviews saw this as a negative, I found this model to be MUCH better than the traditional education approach. In college, I often found that professors just repeated everything that was said in the textbook and never actually added anything of great significance. This made lectures feel like a waste of both my and the professor's time. Also, the only real measure of success was tests, where students would be told ahead of time what topics would be covered and then would immediately forget everything after the tests were over. If the goal of college is to be able to land a job and perform well at it, this model of education fails tremendously because it makes students strive for grades instead of striving to actually learn how to perform well at various tasks. Holberton fixes this model by actually focusing on learning and being able to perform. In a real job, you can't just go to your employer every time you have a question. They will think you're incompetent. By making students actually read and solve problems, Holberton teaches its students how to learn how to learn. If students need help, they're encouraged to first do their due diligence in researching what they're stuck on and then go to their peers just like you would in a real working environment. If a student is really stuck, the staff is super helpful in explaining complex topics that no one else can teach. This forces students to actually think critically about the task at hand and how to solve these tasks. The schools' model is all about empowering its students to take learning into their own hands instead of viewing professors and experts as the gatekeepers of knowledge.

I also felt that the project content and order was beautifully crafted. As a former tutor, I can say one of the most important aspects of teaching is the order in which you introduce various topics. From a high-level view, each project was built on top of the previous one such that you were always using the knowledge learned in previous projects and pushing your understanding even further. The projects not only help to teach students various concepts but also help students learn how to actually implement this knowledge. I found that in my job searches, the ability to actually implement knowledge is what employers are looking for. This project-based model allows students to build a portfolio while learning. This means that by the time students begin to look for jobs, employers are able to see exactly how competent students are at actually performing the tasks required of the position. Students are also able to practice their whiteboarding and interview skills throughout the program during mandatory days. This was invaluable practice that made me feel extremely prepared to go into my real life interviews. Although Holberton didn't have a formal employee to help with interview preparation/job applications at the time of my studies, they have since hired a new employee whose entire focus is on student success.

Overall, I felt that I learned more in just the first week of Holberton than I learned in an entire semester of a computer science course in college. The community at Holberton went above and beyond anything I could have imagined. The school stressed collaboration over competition and there is a true sense of "nobody left behind". Students across all cohorts are always willing to help each other and I've made some of my best friends through the program. After only a year of studies, I was able to land a job as a Jr. Software Engineer! I would not be where I am today without Holberton.

I’m currently a software engineer intern and former Cohort 5 student. I had no prior computer science background and studied math and science in college. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my experience throughout the program and felt well-prepared for my... Read More current position, because Holberton admittedly does a good job of simulating the tech workplace environment.

A typical day at Holberton: First, you come in and pick your favorite spot to work. Once you’ve settled down, you’ll log onto the school’s intranet and find a project assigned to you for that day. Your only task is to complete that project by the given deadline. There are suggested readings linked in the project page and your old reliable friend Google. Given these tools, you are expected to solve the mandatory problems usually by the end of the day depending on the project. What I like about this structure is that it’s similar to what you’d expect in the tech industry: your supervisor assigns a ticket for you to complete (a new feature, a bug fix, improvement to an existing algorithm, etc.) and you’re expected to complete the task mostly on your own by using your existing knowledge and the Internet. Of course, you can ask your mentor questions but most times they’ll be busy, and so you must learn how to learn on your own and become a Google master (key skill!).

Following project days are Peer Learning Days (PLDs) where students are assigned to groups to review the project. This day is dedicated to filling any gaps in conceptual understanding on topics covered in the project. I recommend to take these days seriously because as a non-traditional computer science student, you’ll be missing the CS theory that will allow you to build a solid foundation in the industry and essentially help you learn new technologies/skills at a faster pace (key skill!). Also, most technical interviewers will ask questions that test your understanding of CS theory so it’s best to prepare for that early on. That’s why you need to be proactive and aggressive about addressing any questions you have after every project.

There are other mandatory days like Reefinery which incorporate mock interviews conducted by your peers. You’ll encounter popular tech interview questions in areas ranging from soft skills to system design to whiteboarding algorithms.

It’s also important that you know how to work with other people, as you’ll likely be working in teams as a software engineer. There are a handful of group projects (2-3 people) in the program that involve cooperating with your partner to complete a larger task. Just a heads up: you’re going to get close with your fellow cohortmates and naturally become each other’s cheerleaders, since you’ll be working with them during a good chunk of your day.

#regrets: Not doing practice interview questions and side projects on weekends. Even just 1-2 algorithms or 1-2 hours of side projects per week would have been reasonable because that way it doesn’t even seem like extra work. For example, if you finish a project early, squeeze in another algorithm or two. Or, on a chill Saturday morning, work on a solo project that you enjoy and can potentially showcase in your resume later on. Basically, do an extra something in moderation to consolidate what you learn in school. If you start this habit early in the program, you’ll be so thankful when the 7-9th month comes around and people start studying and job hunting intensively -- you’ll already be less stressed and well-oiled to jump into interviews.

Pro-tip: Always whiteboard before you code. It’s important to gather your thoughts and determine an approach to the problem before anything else. That’s the hard part. After you have an approach, coding will just be translating your algorithm so that a computer can understand and implement it. Also, go to the gym. It’s good for you.

People who should apply: self-motivated, eager-to-learn, well-balanced, critically thinking, collaborative, independent, persevering individuals who like to find ways to work efficiently.

I have been attending Holberton for approximately 4 and a half months. Over the first three months, we learned in depth about C and bash for low-level development and fundamental computer science concepts. Those three months were perhaps the most valuable.... Read More We are getting into more high-level programming now. I would say Holberton's curriculum is excellent, with a focus on pushing you to become great at the interview process. That is another area they are unique; allowing you to practice interviews from week one definitely is going to give me a leg up in the hiring process once I complete the first year. I feel that they truly fit as much content as they can in the nine months.

The only problem I have with the school is personally I joined it as an exclusive software engineering school after they advertised a shocking 2.9% acceptance rate. It has since been removed from the site and they have rebranded to the software engineering school that anyone in the world can go to. Both of these are great and there is a major need for either. Bottom line it is a very good school, but I do feel mislead by the 'promised exclusivity' only to have two campuses open in Columbia and one across the states in New Haven, and primarily be lied to about acceptance rate. As I said, great content and a great program, but it is not exclusive so if you are looking for credentials so to speak, rather than an education, I wouldn't say this is the place. Then again is any boot camp the place for credentials? Holberton definitely sets itself apart in offering a longer course than most boot camps.

Holberton School fosters effective learning of full-stack web development in a supportive, enjoyable, and career-building environment.

I am a student at Holberton currently half-way through the Year 1 curriculum. Already, I have learned just so much, and... Read More every day, I look forward to learning more.

I do not intend to dismiss the traditional education system; I myself am a product of it, and a successful one at that. Yet, Holberton School achieves one thing (among many) very well that I believe holds back student success in colleges and universities - removal of inter-student competition. At Holberton School, there are no grades. Rather, the emphasis is on understanding of the material you study. And not just individual understanding, but collective understanding.

Holberton School flips the script on effective education. By eliminating grades, studying becomes not a matter of memorizing material for the sake of short-term performance, but a practice in true critical thinking. The school encourages you to question everything. Why does this work? How does this work? Why this over that? Every project is provided with corresponding learning objectives where such questions are essential. These learning objectives are not mandatory per se - there are no grades after all - but failure to develop true understanding of the programming concepts and skills you study makes it difficult to succeed over the course of the program.

Projects themselves are offered in such a way that you can go about the curriculum however best suits your individual learning preferences. Projects are released on a school intranet. They must be completed by a deadline, and are checked with completion scores (for the sake of ensuring student progress), but beyond that, can be completed according to your schedule. There are no classes or lectures; instead, projects include links to all the references and material necessary to learn and code programs. From there, you have access to any additional help or resources you need through the school framework, a philosophy involving independent research skills and peer assistance. Holberton School is attended by and employs people of many skill-sets, of many tech specializations - if someone does not know the answer to a question, they know someone who does.

Even at the point where you do feel that you personally understand a topic, where you can comfortably code a program off the top of your head, you are not quite finished. At Holberton, you are not truly proficient in a topic if you cannot explain and teach it to others. This is where the peer-learning model comes into play. Every week, we participate in peer-learning days, where we gather in groups to collectively understand what we've learned, and reefineries, mock student-to-student interviews that force you to work through programming concepts and problems based on the skills you've gained up to that point. Such mandatory days enforce peer-to-peer learning, but you learn the most by collaborating with others at the school on a daily basis.

The emphasis on learning, adaptable curriculum format, and development of research skills make Holberton's model effective, and enjoyable. I do not simply learn a lot about software development at Holberton - I love how I learn it. The school is one big group of people collectively striving toward becoming the best possible software developers they can be. This environment is non-competitive, supportive, and friendly.

Of course, all this would be meaningless if not for an expansive and thorough curriculum, and Holberton does not disappoint. The Year 1 curriclum provides a complete full-stack web development education. Only halfway through Year 1, I can comfortably work in shell scripting as well as both functional and object-oriented programming with either low- or high-level languages. I have worked in Bash, C, and Python and look forward to applying HTML, CSS and more to web application projects soon. I have already coded complex programs including a Linux shell and bytecode interpreter, both independently and with partners. On top of the web development material, I have been exposed to game development and machine learning - topics I could choose to pursue in specialized Year 2 curriculum. And regardless of the language, I have become practiced in independent research and learning skills which I could readily apply to learning any coding framework I might need in the future - a technical skill-set arguably more important in the every-evolving workspace that is the tech industry.

It is important to note your personal goals and investment when considering going into software development, or attending a coding school. Holberton School is not a job guarantee. It will not hold your hand and walk you through the curriculum. And it will not give you any official certification. None of this is the school's intention, and it does not advertise itself this way. Instead, Holberton School is just that - a school. The goal at Holberton is to provide students a complete education in software development, to give them the best possible skill-set to succeed in the tech industry, and to provide them the opportunities necessary toward applying those skill-sets in long-lasting careers. This is accomplished in a condensed time frame - two years - and the program is correspondingly intensive. Success at Holberton may not be measured in grades, but requires a dedication and commitment to investing time and struggle into developing a strong programming skill-set.

Do not attend Holberton School with the goal of achieving a tech job in the shortest time frame possible. Rather, attend Holberton School because you are passionate about coding and working in tech, because you believe in learning, and because you strive toward self-improvement. For these reasons, few schools will provide an environment as personally enjoyable and permanently effective as Holberton.

The Holberton School offers anyone who's excited about software engineering (and willing to work really hard) a chance to reinvent their life for the better. Before attending the Holberton School, I completed my freshman year at Santa Clara University.... Read More I was frustrated by the lack of hands on and experimental learning. It felt like high school - where students where more focused on absorbing information quickly for high stakes exams than actually understanding things. The Holberton School is the opposite. It's a unique space where all your peers are there because they want to learn. You get to solve problems together, build cool things, and ultimately be the master of your own education. For me, overall, the first four months have been great. My advice to you is - don't wait. If you want to apply - dive in. Go for it. It's worth it 100%.

I am a student from batch 5 at Holberton School’s San Francisco campus. Our batch started in January of 2018, and finished the 9 months on-site intensive training in October 2018. By the end of November, I was accepted to have the opportunity to be employed... Read More as a software engineer intern at Holberton School.
In less than one year of training, I went from being an individual who has never written code on a whiteboard, to a professional being entrusted to maintain and develop features for the very web applications which were the conduit for my education. My experience at Holberton has been very fruitful, and I believe it has been and will be fruitful for others. I hope to share a bit about the model of Holberton to help prospective students make a more informed decision to determine if Holberton is a good fit for them.
Holberton’s education program is based on a project-based peer learning model. In order to facilitate the students’ education, Holberton implemented several practices/systems: the Framework, the automated Checker, Peer Learning Days (PLD), and Refineries.
During project completion, you are presented the learning Framework to follow as a guideline in your learning. It is the methodology that is taught as a means to find solutions to technical issues in completing projects.
The majority of the projects are graded automatically by Holberton’s Checker system, which tests the efficacy of your scripts/programs, as well as programming style.
Upon project completion, there are mandatory days where you are required to come on-site to participate in the Peer Learning Days, where you spend the entire work-day discussing the project with your peers, and Refineries, where students conduct mock interviews with each other, usually quizzing each other the topics that have been covered thus far.
All these practices serve to facilitate the peer learning aspects of the program. They are under continuous development and reinforce Holberton School’s other main objectives which are to teach students how to learn, and to aid in soft skill development.
When completing the projects, there is often a minimum of resources provided. This is usually intentional -- over the course of 9 months, the projects are structured so that students will spend a lot of time trying to learn how to learn new materials. Once Googling has failed to yield clues toward solutions, asking a fellow peer is the next option. Being able to articulate issues and programming concepts to different persons, and being able to listen and diagnose some else’s codebase, are all real-world skills that I feel like Holberton School facilitates much more effectively than is possible in online programs.
Learning in a peer environment can be uncomfortable at times. Because one has to strive for solution by oneself first, it can be daunting sometimes to determine when is the appropriate time to ask for assistance. With a project assigned, and a deadline quickly approaching, in a work environment, it is sometimes more responsible to ask for assistance rather than try to spend the time to learn. However, with learning being the objective, one has the weigh if she needs to spend more time learning how to learn (i.e. reading and Googling more), or if one should try to ask for assistance to overcome a mental block. Also, since there is no central authority such as an instructor, peer learning sometimes skews the learning towards groupthink. I’ve seen whole batches of students attempt a task in a sub-optimal way seemingly because that is what everyone else is doing. These effects of the peer learning model can slow the rate at which a student learns the technical aspects of software engineering.
However, uncomfortable it may be, these are the very circumstances that a peer learning environment creates which allow for the individuals to further develop one’s soft skills. All these situations: discerning when to ask for help, trying to intuit the optimal solution amidst the crowd that is doing the opposite, remaining humble to listen to another’s methodology that may be contrary to your own, etc. These are all positions that one will find herself in any workplace. Peer learning places students together where unsupervised interpersonal interaction is required, and disagreements are bound to happen. It’s difficult to observe and measure growth in these soft skills, but the opportunities to practice appropriately responding to these situations in a low-risk setting are ample at Holberton.
Correspondingly, Holberton School’s strength is in its community. Students rely upon and interact with their batch-mates to learn from, and to learn through teaching. There are students to encounter from all different backgrounds within one’s own batch, and from other batches. Through regular required interaction with each other, through laughter and sometimes tears, you will have the opportunity to develop lasting professional relationships and friendships.
Holberton itself is a startup -- not everything and everyone is completely polished. Like all startups, the ambition is great, but yet the available resources to achieve them are strained. There are typos in the curriculum, and policies and products are being continually revisited and revamped. However, the curriculum works. Students are being educated, and many are getting employment. The staff is completely behind their work of creating high-quality education to the many -- I am inspired by the amount of effort that is put forth by all the staff to create the systems, resources, environment, and procedures to facilitate the learning process and to expand to reach more students.
In the end, here are my recommendations for prospective students: If your goal is to be employed as quickly as possible, and you know what specialization you wish to have, then it makes more sense to attend a bootcamp that will familiarize one with specific technologies and projects to showcase that particular proficiency so that one can become marketable more quickly than Holberton’s timeline.
If your goals are to work in academic environments, a more rigorous understanding of computer science theory and degrees are necessary. Obtaining a traditional education at a university will be a more suitable means for that.
I was looking for a program that would help prepare me for a lifelong career in the tech industry. I was interested in programs that would allow me to have face-to-face interactions with peers to develop accountability because, even though it is the most economical option, I knew that I could not succeed with a self-study program since I lacked the intrinsic discipline. But even if I could, I’m still not sure I would have chosen a self-paced solo study program. With all the information out there, it’s difficult to cut through the noise and determine what is important to learn, and I also wanted to improve my learning and soft skills. I was fortunate to find Holberton School, as it was a program that is bold enough to take the time to instruct foundational technical concepts common to all programming environments, and it was a place that allowed me to immerse myself in the collaborative environment and develop the teamwork skills that I feel are necessary to succeed in the workplace.
If you also want to spend the next chapter of your life learning how to learn in a place that will allow you to learn how to work with others as you practice the craft of software engineering, then I hope you consider Holberton School.
P.S.
A question I often encounter when talking to prospective students is: can I work while going to school? The answer is yes, you can, but I advise against it. It is possible to work around the mandatory days, days when you are required to be a school from 9-3 PM. I have batch-mates who worked nights and/or weekends. But as a rule, the 9-months on-site is designed to be embarked as a sole commitment. The classmates I know who held full-time or part-time jobs while working generally wish they could have had more time and energy to study. I understand that one of the greatest barriers to entry for prospective students is developing a financial situation where one can live for a minimum of 9 months (usually more) without employment. There has been progress in the development of scholarship programs, but at the time of writing, there is not enough supply to meet all the need. If you are very interested in the program, but are struggling to figure out the financials, I would then ask one to be very honest with themselves: Have you been very successful at maintaining two or more full-time commitments in the past? If so, then it could be an option worth considering. But every account I heard from students who went through the 9-month on-site training while working stated that it was difficult.

In response to the previous review:

Their acceptance rate that was advertised has been taken down from their website because they changed business models (without communicating this externally to prospective students) and it is a source of frustration... Read More for many students. At one point for early cohorts their acceptance rate was somewhere around 3% but I believe they had pressure from investors to scale up their model so they decided to take anyone that could pass their simple test knowing that some % of people are going to quit and they will still have to pay them due to the ISA. This is INCREDIBLE SHADY of the founder to do since they have information on the attrition rate that they do not share publicly. So yes, they definitely take advantage of people to some degree. I would look in the mirror and do an honest evaluation of your intelligence/motivation level before coming here because it is a grueling technical curriculum and if you are just simply not bright or willing to put in the work you will throw in the towel and be stuck paying a company and be disgruntled and leave biased one sided reviews. That is the reality of the school and they do a great job explaining that IMHO.

"They have no teachers or coaches, so lots of time is wasted googling things" -- This is plain ridiculous because the school CLEARLY explains this to students and when you work as a software engineer you are expected to learn things on your own. This person is just clearly entitled and was not cut out for the career from the very beginning.

"since everyone in your cohort is beginners" -- This is not the case. There are many students that have a background. Some students have CS degrees or left their CS program to come here and other students have built apps prior to joining. The experience is really diverse.

"During peer learning days, they expect students to self organize - so it's not any different than hanging out with friends and doing free online courses." -- This is somewhat accurate since some of the PLD (peer learning days) are a waste of time but there are some PLD's that are great days. It's honestly hit or miss and that's a result of the model. Again, you can't expect a perfect model for everyone.

"In my experience, the school wasn't a productive place to be" -- I would absolutely agree with this point. The facility is beautiful and they did an excellent job creating an environment where people from different backgrounds feel welcome but if you are someone who is ADD/ADHD/Aspergers I would suggest not working from the campus during non-mandatory days as there are tons of stimulus that will get in the way.

"The curriculum and resources are weak - everything is a google link!" -- That's the point. YOU are supposed to take responsibility and search the internet for resources. That is what you are expected to do on the job. Again this reeks of entitlement and poor resourcefulness. It's not the schools job to teach you how to be resourceful.

"what's really happening is that we often learn something for one day, only to never to use it again - end up forgetting a lot of things" -- This is no different than a university my friend. If you wanted to learn extensions of a topic YOU should take responsibility for not making the effort to build side projects on your own time. This is not the schools fault.

"In the few interviews I've managed to get (out of hundreds of applications), they all say my experience looks poor" -- Because your experience is poor along with your attitude. This is not the schools fault.

"The kinds of students that get jobs have had interesting careers, technical degrees, bachelors, are underrepresented in tech (better chance of getting an apprenticeship), or maybe even already have a CS degree" -- The school will facilitate introductions for jobs but if you are a weak software engineer (which is the case for the last reviewer) the school cannot force the company to hire you just because you spent 10 months at Holberton. That is not how the world works.

If I'm being honest this school has a wonderful curriculum that many novice programmers will struggle to grasp in its entirety in a short time and the school has misled information (intentionally or non-intentionally remains to be seen) to prospective students. I would say that much of the staff are incredibly rude and think they are superior to students even though many of them have laughable CV's.

The arrogant attitude from the staff stems from having to put up with some students that they should not have accepted in the first place (consequences of not actually making the school highly exclusive as initially planned) and the fact that San Francisco is just a rude city to begin with and is littered with selfish people that just want to make money. I won't get into deep detail of the factor that many of the staff bring their French culture with them which brings a great approach to education but also a standoffish and arrogant attitude (this is important to get used to in an industry that forces you to assimilate to diverse background and many immigrants).

The mentors that you see on the website are hardly involved in the school and you should expect to meet maybe a half dozen (if that) of them in your time at Holberton. Additionally, the founder will make many excuses for the lack of mentor time and blame the students but in reality this issue stems from the staff misleading information to the public to gain students and questionable ethics.

If you are a straight white male you will have to put up with some pretty uneducated opinions and idealogies but that is par for the industry as a whole so just keep your mouth shut when it comes to this stuff at the school. They have a mural that they paid a lot of money for (basically just copied the idea from Facebook) that is supposed to celebrate diversity but they basically have all genders and races besides white men and women in the mural which basically contradicts the entire point of diversity and inclusion.

I would come here if you want to learn a lot and can find a job on your own but I would stay far away from this place if you are sensitive to some questionable ethics and/or cannot deal with San Francisco's hyper liberal culture.

Holberton is simply the best school for learning how to learn. The approach they take to teach you is the right one. They don't hold your hand and they don't tell you what to do. You have to manage your own time and decide what you want to learn. They... Read More have their main curriculum you complete and mandatory exerices you have to do and form there the world is your oyster. There are many different ways to solve a problem and many different approaches, they will make you find the edge cases yourself and ask your peers for help more often than you might think. Setting up a environment where everyone feels like they are a part of something great. Everyday you learn something new and on the day that you don't you get to learn more about your batch peers and spend time in SF surrounded by tech and conferences you can attend to for free (Holberton gives free passes to lots of them). From Fireside chats with senior engineers working at Netflix and Instacart coming to speak to students about their experiences all the way to the knowledgeable Guillaume that is there to challenge you and answer all the abstract questions you might have. Its one of the best places ever to learn anything tech related and I cannot commend it enough. One of the best decisions I have ever made.

As a current student at Holberton School, I can’t rave enough about this place. The founders have established an almost perfect environment to learn how to be a software engineer. The school is located blocks away from Yahoo, Slack, LinkedIn, Salesforce,... Read More and many many more of some of the best tech companies I chose Holberton over a four year CS degree because I felt like it was the better value both financially and time-wise. No money upfront means the school is truly committed to making sure that every student has the real-world skills necessary to compete in today’s job market. After 4 months of study, I’m very pleased with my decision.
Holberton school’s list of mentors is impressive. They represent a range of tech companies both in and out of the San Francisco area. They are accessible and active in all things Holberton. As a student, I genuinely feel that Holberton’s mentors care about helping students succeed. In 3 short months, I’ve met a number of them and attended conferences, meetups, and events through mentor invites.
The curriculum is challenging. You will learn and be given support when extra help is needed. The peer learning model is excellent for learning how to work as a team and how to support your peers. This skill set can be used anywhere in life
While studying at Holberton you will be consumed with learning software engineering. In 9 short months, you will learn a wealth of information. I’ve been told the Holberton curriculum equates to a four year CS degree and it feels like it. You will learn how to learn fast, prioritize your time, and juggle tasks in a safe environment.
You will learn more than just code. You will learn about systems, best practice, business, public speaking, and networking.
The only bad thing about Holberton is the vast amount of information you are exposed to and expected to assimilate. It can feel overwhelming but definitely prepares you for a challenging software engineer job.