NYC Data Science Academy

I took the online Data Science Bootcamp during the Fall Cohort of 2020. You start with a R and Python best-practices course, then move-on to Machine-Learning in R and Python. You will do three different projects, including a Capstone that provides opportunity... Read More to work with industry partners of the academy. Overall: The instructors were experts in the field. Questions were addressed very well and the instructors had an obvious passion for the field and educating the next-generation of professionals. Curriculum: I would NOT consider this curriculum to be distilled. It is DENSE. Machine learning is a very technical mathematical field and the curriculum provides theory deep-dives. The reality is that you will not really retain or master most of it. However, you are able to access lecture videos/materials through your student portal beyond graduation. For this, the burden is on the student to dive-deeper into the theory to understand the caveats and rigorous esoteric theory behind the black-box models. Job Support: A post-bootcamp study plan is provided, that includes coding challenges, case-studies, and more advantageous programming topics like time-complexity analysis. There are also weekly optional check-ins provided for alumni, where there are occasional guests that come to present coding-challenge approaches or company highlights. You also have a number of "Mentor one-on-ones" that you can utilize post-graduation. The quality of instruction, mentor support, and networking opportunities make this a worthy investment. I am very satisfied with my choice.

I recently completed the in person Data Science Bootcamp with M/L. I chose NYCDSA as they were the only accredited program offering in-person classes at the time and teach Python, R, and SQL. I thought the quality of content and instruction were thorough... Read More and rigorous, incorporating first principles / math foundations behind the core concepts (their main instructor was excellent). There was a new lecture and a homework assignment nearly everyday. Some aspects of it were a little disorganized but I attribute this to the fast pace of the program. I came from a Biochemistry background and felt the program was challenging - expect to consistently put in additional hours after classes to keep up and after graduation to secure a job offer. Four months after graduation, I received two job offers, one of them from the school's network of hiring partners that was willing to sponsor a temporary work visa. I had prior data analytics experience, but no direct data science experience, so it is possible to secure a data science role after graduation. Overall I think the Data Science + ML program was well worth the investment. It helped me launch a new career path and was an experience that facilitated professional, intellectual, and personal growth. Classmates were also awesome so that was a bonus! If you have been contemplating enrolling in a data science bootcamp, are wanting to make a career switch, and are ready to put in the work, I highly recommend NYCDSA.

Coming from a traditional education background, I was skeptical about the usefulness of any boot camp for transitioning into the data science industry. In addition, the boot camp is pricey, making one think long and hard about joining, especially in the... Read More current economy. Thus it was a tough decision to attend NYC DSA, but so far, I'm glad that I did. I would say that there are three key advantages that NYC DSA has over its competitors: (i) The quality of the curriculum, (ii) Essentially unlimited access to dedicated mentors throughout the program and for the first few months after it, and (iii) Intimate knowledge of the NYC job market. The third point merits particular mention. Vivian has a large network in NYC, gets job postings from companies wanting to hire recent grads, and takes a personal interest in students' success after graduation. This was critical for me getting a job in the data science industry shortly after graduating. Yes, to do a full-time boot camp, you have to be able to put everything on hold for a few months and devote 60+ hours a week to working on projects you can put on your resume. If you are reading this, you probably love learning, though, so that part would not scare you. The financial aspect is significant, but if you've decided to go into data science in NYC, and you take time to reach your objective into consideration, it's probably one of the more cost-effective ways to make the change.

I chose NYCDSA after having completed a few of the weekend course offerings, one in R and one in Python. I was impressed by the deep expertise of the instructors and the skills I gained. But in the end I wanted to go deeper. I shopped around a bit, but... Read More it felt clear to me that NYCDSA had a comparative advantage with data science training relative to other bootcamps that tend to focus on training software developers. The network of graduates is also expansive and helpful for finding a job afterward. I had a background in social science research with training in economics. But I struggled to excel in coding on my own and thought an intensive training program would get me moving in the right direction. The curriculum was wide ranging and fairly deep. We did not always walk through the deeper mathematics behind each and every model, but we did often cover a good deal of the math and gained a firm grasp of the intuition. We learned things ranging from Docker to Linux to Git, to SQL, R, and Python. We went deepest with Python but certainly learned enough R to use it and learn more advanced topics quickly. We covered lots of supervised and unsupervised methods. A lot of time was spent on lectures, which included hands on exercises. But we also had challenging homework assignments, labs, and exams. I think getting up to speed with the actual code is easier for someone with no coding background than learning the stats and the models having had no exposure to stats or modeling prior. I fell somewhere in the middle on both, but still found everything to be rigorous and challenging. The post-bootcamp curriculum and study plan is also very helpful, as is the very hands on job search support. Although I didn't end up needing to lean in too much with those items because I found a job much more quickly than I expected. The people who run the bootcamp have a lot of technical expertise and a lot of experience running the program. That said, when I joined they had just begun to transition from fully live to a hybrid model. This came with a good number of logistical issues and some staff turnover. Some of the materials were not readily available and some of the scheduling got mixed up on a few different occasions. Communication with administrators was not always as fast or as clear as I would have liked. Sometimes students could solve issues on their own, and this is good practice for people working with data. But there were other times where we really needed administrators to sort something out and it took longer than we would have liked. I say this because the program moves very quickly and it is all you can do to just keep swimming and get as much done as you can. All that considered, I did find that the folks running the program went out of their way to check in on you personally and offer support and guidance and encouragement. That meant a lot and helped me get through it. Another positive experience was the projects. They are really important for putting the tools to use. For my final project I worked with a teammate on a real world project for a data science startup in the NYC area. It was about 2-3 weeks of work where we worked closely with the chief data officer (who was a past graduate as well). This experience was incredibly helpful. In the end I budgeted 3 months for my job search and felt like I was behind with the search because I was wrapping up projects and trying to build my online portfolio. It just so happened that a past program graduate who taught at NYCDSA just started at a company that was looking to hire other people and they invited me to apply. I ended up getting a Data Analyst job on a Data Insights team for a marketing firm. I think the offer and the substance of the work feel a bit more along the lines of a junior data scientist role (I say this based on the interviews because I haven't started yet). I was really happy with it and since it was a fast growing company with nice people, I went for it.

I looked into several NYC bootcamps before deciding on NYC Data Science Academy. I chose this school because of all the good reviews and they focused solely on Data Science unlike the other bootcamps. It was a great experience with a knowledgeable teacher.... Read More The classes and homework problems focused on real world business applications. I definitely recommend this school for anyone interested in Data Science or Data Analytics.

Well run and informative data science course, teaching about R language. How to use it, the main packages (dplyr, tidyr) and how to visualize the data using functions like ggplot and shiny. Overall I found this class to be very informative, my fellow... Read More class mates very helpful and the instructor very friendly. Would highly recommend.

The experience in NYC Data Science Academy was life changing for me. Prior to NYC data science academy, I was a Business Analyst at an insuretech firm where I had almost none exposure to coding, programming, not to mention machine learning. The instructors... Read More are extremely professional and helpful. I was able to get hired in 3 months after graduation! If you come from a background that is barely related to data science, programming or statistics, this bootcamp will get you started on a career for a data scientist. Other than technical skills, the bootcamp will also provide you with an approachable platform for job opportunities. If you are looking for a job in data, then this bootcamp will be a perfect fit for you. Both Vivian and Courtney are available at all times for job support and it is truly a fantastic experience.

Let’s get straight to the point: if you decide to build a career path to the world of Data Science, NYC Data Science Academy is the best option. Why? I’m glad you ask and that’s why I’m back here to share some experience from the perspective of 12-week... Read More DS Camp alumni, and help resolve your concerns because I had the same doubt 6 years ago. Back in 2016, although one close friend already provided a 5-star recommendation of NYC Data Science Academy, it was still a big decision for me to fly all the way from the west coast to New York to spend the whole summer in the camp. At that time, there were online education websites like Coursera and Udacity, and similar data camps like Metis, General Assembly, etc. I browsed online day and night and called all of them to compare, but NYC DS Academy stood out. I had a 1-hour call with one of the instructors and the founder Vivian, what impressed me most was their professionalism, diligence and confidence in empowering students to become a real and competitive data scientist in the job market even with tons of data graduates from top-university data science/analytics master programs every year. Why? I’m glad you ask again. The camp is teaching well-rounded DS theories in a well-structured and systematic way within a much shorter but extremely intensive time. Believe me you will receive the most valuable and effective data science learning materials and instructions in Python, R, Statistics, ML, etc. The camp is training you to be a work-ready data scientist with hands-on experience in delivering a huge business impact in a company. Believe me you will work on industry-level data challenges instead of some textbook homework only. Those experiences are what top-company recruiters and hiring managers are eager to find, not to mention the career networking events Vivian hosted at the end of the bootcamp. Today I work for a top unicorn with a good amount of salary and solid data science skills gained from the camp. This education still helps every day in empowering my career growth. From time to time, I’m still reading the slides saved on my laptop 6 years ago. The 12 weeks in the camp are so worthwhile, because when it comes to shopping for data education, NYC DS Academy is the Costco not the Dollar Tree. You invest the $17K+ entry tuition and the hard work, and you earn the best data learning products within the shortest time and 10X salaries for tomorrow. Oh, one more thing … Did I mention that 80%+ of my classmates already earned master’s or Ph.D. degrees before the camp? That’s how selective the bootcamp is and how strong your data teammates will be.

I made the choice to participate in the 3-month intensive bootcamp back in the summer of 2016 at NYC Data Science Academy, after an uneasy career decision to switch from chemical engineering to the burgeoning field of data science. The journey begins... Read More with Google Search. The brand stood out in search results so I paid a visit physically then. To be frank, I was a little concerned if I was able to go through the bootcamp as I was fresh out of school and have little exposure at school in data science. However, I have strong determination and instinct that data science is what I need to make my career. Vivan’s friendliness, professionalism, and sympathy left me with a great impression so I registered in 2 days. When looking back, I wish I have joined the earlier cohort so I did not have wasted my time self-learning data science cluelessly. The 3-month at the bootcamp was one of the best times in my life. I was immersed in a learning environment that refresh my understanding of data science and challenged me every single day. Teachers and TAs worked very hard to make the learning experience seamless and they keep evolving. New algorithms and tools in data science come every single day. As a result, some of the topics I learned 6 years ago might not apply today now. But I would say the biggest asset I gained from the bootcamp was a group of self-driven peers who took data science seriously, willing to spend a dedicated 3-month in an immersive bootcamp. The same passion for data science makes us together. We learned from each other and shared the tears and joys in the projects and job hunting. Some of my peers become my best friends in the data science career. We often shared with each other the experience we learned from the work and the data science uncharted territories.

I'd gladly recommend NYC Data Science Academy's 12 week Data Science with Machine Learning course. I took this course in the Fall of 2021 and got a job offer as a data analyst just 2.5 months after graduating. The teaching is high quality and the tutors... Read More are always available and ready to help. Vivian, Courtney, Royce, and so many others were incredibly helpful. After I graduated, they continued to provide assistance during the job hunting phase. From resume reviews to practice technical interviews, from salary negotiations to general feedback, they continued to be an invaluable resource for me during that stressful time.