NYC Data Science Academy

After 18 years of specialist experience, I was starting to develop a FOMO with Data Science. After some research and recommendation from a friend who completed this program I decided to enroll. No doubt, this will change my life. It was liberating and... Read More the 6-month investment was well worth the tuition fees. The instructors were experienced, the curriculum was cutting edge and the program 'forced' me to keep pace with my learning and successfully complete it. It was hard, because I have a demanding job on an xVA trading desk at an investment bank but this was a necessary investment in the skills for the future. There is no limit to the applications of Data Science and I encourage more executive-level candidates with strong business experience and some STEM experience to challenge themselves. The alumni network and collaboration with NYC Data Science Academy is strong and look forward to a mutually beneficial networking opportunities. You will not regret this and I suspect that it will open up many doors for your future endeavours.

I did the Interactive Distance Learning (IDL) program in 2020, so keep in mind that my experience was strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. I am a career switcher from the health services industry - this bootcamp got me into the tech industry... Read More 2.5 months after completion of the program and taught me fundamental coding and machine learning skills as well as advanced statistics skills. That said, for the IDL course, because it is relatively self-paced, you get out exactly what you put it. I am highly ambitious and set myself up for success really well. Not everyone does. The content, instruction, mentorship, and community engagement are excellent and only getting better - these people are absolutely well-versed in their fields, care extraordinarily deeply about the success of their students, and are constantly iterating. I gave the program 4 stars because I did feel like there was an institutional bias toward the Remote Live Instruction students - when I was there, those students got access to internships and other resources that IDL students did not even though we pay the same tuition. Perhaps it has changed, but if you want the best chance of being noticed, the Remote Live course is the better choice, while if you need flexibility and are okay with a little less support, IDL is still a fantastic choice. Their career and alumni services are also top-notch, but again, only if you take advantage of all the resources.

Before joining the program, I was a student majoring in Business Analytics. I had a hard time finding a data analyst position and therefore I was thinking maybe I was not qualified for a data-related job yet. My friend recommended this Bootcamp to me... Read More and when I check out the course curriculum I knew this is exactly what I was looking for. The courses are very comprehensive, covering topics including web scraping, data analysis & visualization, machine learning, and big data. I felt so lucky that I got enrolled in this program and I would never regret this choice. Although the content of the courses is challenging, all the instructors are there to help you. I did improve my coding skills a lot through projects and I also added new skills to my profile through courses. I would recommend this Bootcamp to anyone who wants to get into the data science field.

For the better part of the past decade, I worked as a medical researcher both in an academic setting and professionally for a company. While I had a strong foundation in mathematics and statistics, I lacked the rigorous coding, experience with relational... Read More databases, and machine learning knowledge to pivot towards a career in Data Science and business analytics. Before the Bootcamp, I tried teaching myself R through an impersonal, distant online course with limited success. While the experience convinced me that I wanted to make the career leap, the online course did not allow me to ask questions to further my understanding. In Dec 2019, I quit my job, moved to NYC, and enrolled in the NYC Data Science Academy (NYC-DSA). My reason for choosing NYC-DSA was rather easy. While some boot camps offer the option to study data science among other UX, software, or cybersecurity career routes, it was important for me to know that my entire tuition would fund my data science education - that the resources would only support the recruiting of college professors and Ph.D. lecturers, career development professions, and teaching assistants. Secondly, NYC-DSA was one of the only boot camps to provide analytics on previous student cohorts, emphasizing the program's accountability to find the best jobs, not just take my money. Additionally, NYC-DSA had a rigorous but fair selection process to ensure that the cohort had a capable background in mathematics, coding, statistics, and a wide array of professional and educational experiences. The cohort's diversity made the experience particularly valuable as each person could provide insight into how data science is applied in their respective field. Lastly, I chose NYC-DSA because they were the only boot camp that taught both Python and R, in addition to SQL. The ability to learn both languages ensures that students are not limited to certain industries because they only know one language - in fact, my current job frequently requires that I code in both languages. After the 1st day at NYC-DSA, I was not disappointed in my decision to attend NYC-DSA. The instructors were beyond impressive, many with PhDs in Mathematics, Physics, or Statistics, and with professional backgrounds in Biology, Finance, and Marketing. Unlike my previous engineering or college courses, the professors were engaging, frequently made jokes to lighten the mood, and were immediately relatable. The boot camp made an effort on Fridays to provide food and drinks at the end of the day and emphasizes socializing with other students and the instructors themselves (come to find out, they are also people, haha). I decided to attend a coding boot camp because I wanted to educate myself and ultimately change careers. Finishing the boot camp in April 2020, at the beginning of COVID-19, when NYC and the economy shut down, was not easy. In fact, it wasn't easy - NYC-DSA would send out monthly job reports of NYC/SF/etc., showing 50-70% fewer job postings from the year before. Despite that, the career development team at NYC-DSA could not have been more helpful in ensuring that I had the best possible resume, cover letter, and application package for each job listing. For nearly a year, I would meet 1-2x a month with someone at the boot camp to go over my applications and how I could better utilize LinkedIn to network and reach out to recruiters. Several of my job interviews resulted from the lecturers recommending me for a job they heard about. If the boot camp knew I had an interview at a company coming up, they would get me in touch with a current or former employee to better prepare myself for the interview process. After nearly a year and hundreds of job applications, I landed two job offers on the same day for nearly $40k/yr more than my previous salary - largely through the networking I did through the boot camp. The boot camp was hard; it was an excruciating three months of getting to the camp at 9 am, frequently staying until midnight, coming on the weekends, etc. Yet, at the end of the boot camp, I could confidently say that I could not only excel at jobs involving R, Python, SQL, Git, AWS, Shiny, statistics, and machine learning - but that I possess the framework to teach myself other software or techniques. All of it was worth it, thanks to the dedication of the faculty, CEO, and students at the New York City Data Science Academy.

I recently graduated from the NYC Data Science Academy online part time bootcamp program and can attest to a very positive experience with Vivian and team. In case helpful for future students considering this bootcamp program, here is a breakdown of different... Read More considerations concerning my experience at NYCDSA: 1. Why I picked NYCDSA NYCDSA appeared to be the only bootcamp program that taught both Python and R at the time I was considering enrolling in a data science bootcamp program, which I expected would provide the best optionality in terms of choosing a data science framework both best fit for me and best fit for the industry I would want to integrate both graduation, as the public sector / academia generally lean towards R while private sector and tech industry broadly generally lean towards Python. The NYCDSA curriculum further appeared well structured and paced for someone in my position just learning how to code and getting a first exposure to data science concepts. 2. Overall Experience Vivian & team create an incredible learning environment with in-depth & concise lectures providing detailed overviews of multiple essential data science frameworks such as Python, R, SQL, Docker, AWS, Hadoop and Spark. The team further goes above and beyond for students during the job placement process, such as for instance making themselves available to answer student questions on personal projects and case studies, promoting student projects to recruiters and alumni on their LinkedIn page or providing students with opportunities to present projects to recruiters and alumni. The mentor meeting credit system connecting students to alumni in 1-on-1 30min or 1-hour sessions is especially well designed for students just getting started in data science and provides good opportunities to ask questions and review any material with an industry professional. Overall the lectures are well-taught and provide concise overviews of the analytical frameworks and knowledge necessary to perform in a professional data science environment, while the hands-on labs and projects do a great job of providing students the opportunity to practice learned coding skills. 3. Skills learned The bootcamp does a great job of providing ample opportunities to practice coding skills through projects and labs and I was able to develop strong proficiency in Python, SQL, R and Docker through these various projects, coming from a mostly non-coding undergraduate background, which I was able to apply directly after graduating working as an intern with a tech startup and finally in a full-time data scientist capacity at a large financial services firm. 4. Post-graduation plans I received a data scientist job offer at a large financial services company three months after graduating from the bootcamp after initially working as an intern at a data science startup and could not be happier with the outcome. Vivian and team are truly special and I could not be more thankful for an amazing experience over the course of the past few months.

In short, the bootcamp excels on the curriculum, providing guidance, and career services. I found this bootcamp online, and I decided to go for this one because of the curriculum and the feel of it during the assessment process - they sounded like they... Read More knew what they were doing! They provided valuable feedback on the areas I needed to improve. I have a math degree and was already a Sr. Data Analyst, but wanted to move a step forward in my career by learning Data Science and Machine Learning. What I liked is that the coursework is tailored to each person depending on their experience, strengths and weaknesses. I went for the part time program since I was also working, and I am not going to lie, it is challenging! But worth it. Throughout the bootcamp I learned of many DS/ML concepts that are widely applied across different roles and companies, the projects assigned were the best way to apply and practice the things learned, and I eventually was able to apply them in my own job. They also offer TA sessions that are very helpful to review on the parts that seem confusing. One thing to note is that because of the extensive material taught condensed in a short period of time, studying extra materials is needed in order to get the most out of the bootcamp. Upon graduation, there are helpful resources on landing the next job - mock interviews, career advising, and networking. I landed a job at The Trade Desk as a Business Intelligence Analyst thanks to the stories I was able to tell of the projects I worked on in the bootcamp, the projects I worked on my previous role with the bootcamp knowledge, and with the various mock interviews (I was very bad at interviewing).

I remembered a year ago going from websites to websites, reading reviews after reviews and finally stopped at NYC Data Science Academy. One of the reasons I decided to go with NYC was the ability to learn R. Today, I will consider this the last one because... Read More NYC offered me way more than that: Incredible curriculum, instructors, mentorship and mostly job search skills and interviews best practices. One of the best decision I ever made so I will strongly recommend this program to anyone looking for a Data Science/Data Engineering bootcamp.

In my mind, there is no such thing as a perfect bootcamp but NYCDSA got as close to perfect as it can get for me, which is why I gave it a 4 star. The curriculum is the most comprehensive of all the data science bootcamps available and covers topics that... Read More are the most practical for job search. What students learn at schools are often not used in real world settings. NYCDSA gets this so its curriculum focuses on skillsets that graduates can apply directly at work but also offers materials for those who want to take an extra step and learn about non-practical aspects of data science. Instructors are all well qualified to teach and mostly do a great job but the only thing I would say is the pace of learning could be overwhelming for some students if they don't take the time to review the materials before and after each class. Doing the homework, which is optional, reinforces the learning. This three pronged approach of lectures, homeworks, and projects positions the students well for a data related job post graduation if they put in the work to complete all of them. Lastly, the career team does a fantastic job guiding the students through the job search process. The team knows what works and what doesn't, so as long as students follow the guidelines, the prospect of finding a data related job is very high (bootcamp has statistics on this). Overall, I'm very satisfied with the experience and would recommend the program to anyone who's looking for a new career path or looking to add a new skillset.

Before my NYC Data Science Academy Bootcamp Experience, I was a high school mathematics teacher. In order to make informed pedagogical decisions, I increasingly relied upon data collection and data analysis. This sparked my interest in data science. Since... Read More I enrolled in the Summer Session of the Bootcamp, I was able to continue to receive my teacher salary for most of the 12-weeks. After making the decision to enroll in a bootcamp, New York City Data Science Academy quickly became my top choice for the following reasons: Multiple Languages (Python and R) I appreciated the emphasis on learning both Python and R. When searching for a position, this increased the number of jobs I was qualified for, and I used both Python and R during the Technical Assessments of my job search. Pre- and Post-Bootcamp Support From my research, I was convinced I would be supported before and after my bootcamp experience...which was true! Pre-Bootcamp I had no previous programming experience, so I enrolled in 2 helpful introductory courses at the NYC Data Science Academy, one for Python and one for R. The price for these classes was subtracted from my Bootcamp tuition. Post-Bootcamp During the final Capstone Project, many students elect to work with outside businesses that partner with the NYCDSA. The company I worked with offered my team an additional 2-month, post-bootcamp data science internship. This was a great learning opportunity, plus a great addition to the resume! Months after my bootcamp ended, I was able to participate in a free, 2-week intensive, marketing-focused workshop led by NYCDSA Bootcamp Founder Vivian Zhang (open to any graduated bootcamp student). The workshop was filled with marketing domain knowledge and practical applications. In addition, I was also able to schedule over 10 meetings with NYCDSA Career Support, Bootcamp Alumni, and Bootcamp Faculty, allowing me to brainstorm and prepare for my data scientist & data analyst interviews. I am very glad I chose to join the NYC Data Science Academy Community. I just landed my first job as a Data Analyst, and I believe my Bootcamp Experience was worth every penny.

This bootcamp was suggested to me by my friend. She has done very well after completing the program. I'm a bit different to her. She has a math degree and my background is in languages and business. Also, I have zero experience in Data Science or programming... Read More as a whole. The curriculum allows to build the foundation first. It's not done slowly, the program is quite intense. Somehow I found myself forgetting I knew so little and understanding the course material. The three months wouldn't end and I think you just live longer during that time as you hardly ever sleep. But ultimately it's worth the long nights as you do learn a lot. After the bootcamp you're given post bootcamp challenges to lock in the knowledge. Don't skip them, they are very helpful. Also, there're helpful one-hour sessions to guide your through your job search. I find them particularly useful.