| | Garrett Simpson | Word of caution -- I came in already knowing the basics of html, css, ruby, and rails. I also got a job 3 weeks after finishing, first in my cohort. These are not typical stats -- usually about half of a cohort has an offer after three months. But the course material is on point, and if you put your head down and grind for three months, you will get into the software industry, and App Academy will give you the tools to do so. |
| | Kenneth Chen | I took the bootcamp prep course in NYC in April when it first launched here and it was a fun experience. Our instructor, Fred, guided us through all the fundamentals of JavaScript; we even covered some material that a good number of bootcamps don't require us to know about beforehand. Fred is as efficient as a programming instructor can be. He takes the time to answer all our questions, but, at the same time, makes sure we go through each lecture fast enough so that we have time to work on the assignments ourselves. While we're working on our assignments, he comes around and checks on our progress, and helps those who are struggling or have questions.
Bootcamp prep classes are 2 hours a day, Monday to Friday for a month. That means that you can do it while working. I wasn't, but several of my classmates, at the time, were. You should be aware, however, that to do well in it, you're going to need to dedicate another hour or two to it. I spent an average of 4-5 hours a day on it, completing assignments and reading the lecture notes beforehand.
Other things that might be of particular interest: (1) You're free to use either Windows, OSX, or Linux. (I used Windows.) However, FYI most coding bootcamps require a Mac for their full stack web development courses. (2) You might be wondering, why does the prep course teach JavaScript? That's because most bootcamps let (or require) you to interview in JavaScript. (3) The course has an online discussion forum, set up via a website called Piazza. Since the course itself runs in parallel with the bootcamp prep courses in other areas, you can ask for help from other bootcamp prep instructors and students from across the nation. (The course was only set up in SF and NY when I took it, but it now seems like more locations have opened.) (4) If you're taking this course to get into App Academy's full stack web development course, you get to skip the pre-challenge and move straight to a 45-min technical interview.
Overall, the bootcamp prep course is a big investment, but it will increase your chances of getting in a top bootcamp. I worked through the practice exercises for the technical interview for App Academy's full stack web development course, and I believe that I was able to solve all of them due to the fact that I had acquired the logical thinking required through constant coding at Bootcamp Prep. Reading about how to program is one thing, but doing it is another. The bootcamp prep course will give you the practice you need to begin thinking like a programmer. |
| | Axel L. | AppAcademy conducted a 3 week in-depth JavaScript cohort in February to prepare students with the technical knowledge needed to be successfully enrolled at a coding bootcamp. I enrolled in their first incarnation of this course and was excited to turn my passion into tangible skills. After the first 3 days it was apparent that my skills were growing at a rate I hadn't had while I was self-teaching for months. By the end of the second week I was already confident I could pass any entrance exam or interview at a bootcamp. Then both of my instructors (Anthony and Winnie) conducted multiple mock coding interviews and helped us apply to any bootcamp(s) we were interested in. I was accepted into three bootcamps (HackReactor, AppAcademy, CodingDojo) within a month of completing this course. I decided to go with AppAcademy and without a doubt I would not be where I am today without this course. |
| | | Pros: Paid out of salary, hence only a small upfront layout ($5k, and they're flexible if that's difficult, though it wasn't for me).
Good coverage of basics of Rails; I was there before they switched to React, but the Backbone.JS we did was also solid and useful. Included a lot of useful tooling advice to get a fast setup going.
Also, the algorithms minicurriculum and whiteboarding pair exercises were helpful practice for interviews, though as a former math major I did not really need either.
Cons: For job search, you're pretty much totally on your own. Their network is laughably small, and the advice given was mediocre, limited and unhelpful. I've talked to the people they've hired to beef that up since, and I'm pretty sure it's gotten worse. Imagine the worst stereotype of a high school guidance counselor; they've got several, and they're all alums who couldn't find a job at all and weren't technically skilled enough to be considered for instructors of the proper curriculum.
I did find a job eventually, unrelated to the 200 applications sent they recommend; I went to a few meetups, and happened to salvage a bad one by talking to someone who'd asked for job seekers and hadn't actually had anyone speak up. Then again, I was underprepared for the job and couldn't hold it. |
| | Tony | Prior to App Academy, I have been learning coding on my own through various online resources. It was nice that I was able to go at my own pace and learn what I wanted to, but after some time, I knew that I wanted to accelerate my learning and find a position as a software engineer. Hence, after researching and reading many reviews, I applied to App Academy. After completing the technical interview with App Academy, I was accepted into the March cohort. I completed the 4 week prep work that was required prior to starting, and went in enthusiastic and ready to learn.
For me, the course was a load of fun. From Monday - Friday, from 9 - 6 (with a 1 hour 15 minute lunch break and a 15 minute break), it was all about learning and coding. My personal schedule was to wake up at 6:00 AM, get to App Academy by 7:30 - 8:00 AM, and review the readings / homework assignment before class started at 9:00. After 6:00, I would look over the solution for the day's work, and prepare for the next day. I would usually go to bed by 10:30 PM, with the latest being 11:00 PM, as I believed getting enough sleep was the key to me being able to focus throughout the immense workload that App Academy entails. However, everyone in my cohort was different, so what worked for me might not have worked for someone else. Finding the balance and schedule that worked for me was key to keeping my momentum going and not get burnt out. The good news is, it was only for 3 months, so even though it was tough every day, it didn't continue for years. I did enjoy learning and coding constantly, and it was amazing how much I learned at the end of the curriculum, with a full-stack project that I am pretty damn proud of. I would actually look forward to Mondays, as it was another day to continue to grow my skill set and build cool things.
The most stressful part was probably the assessments. The policy at App Academy is that you are only allowed to fail 1 out of the 6 given. If you fail two, you are released from the program. That's why it is important to keep on top of the material, and make sure you have a deep understanding of the concepts that are taught. They do provide practice assessments that closely follow the actual assessment, though they are different, so you can't just memorize the practice assessment. It is highly recommended that you take the month-long prep work that is given before the start of the main course seriously, as everything from the curriculum builds on top of it.
The part I enjoyed least was the job searching process. While App Academy does provide lectures about algorithms for technical interview questions, I found it very difficult to get through the resume screening to even get a chance for a phone screen. My other classmates had more success than me though, so I might have just been an unusual case. They tell you it's a numbers game, and that you have to apply to many to get a few hits. It was tiring and demoralizing, but I eventually got through it and landed a job. I would recommend saving enough money to last you not only the 3 months of the main curriculum, but also for the job search process as well, as the amount of time it takes to find a job is uncertain.
Overall, I really enjoyed my experience at App Academy. You are surrounded by motivated and talented individuals, and everyone is working together to get through it. You are challenged to learn a crap load of information everyday, and you will be amazed at what you can achieve in a short amount of time. Without App Academy, I would not have been confident to even apply to software engineering jobs. |
| | David Kim | The course that I took before making it to every coding bootcamp I applied to was the Bootcamp Prep offered by App Academy.
Going into this course I didn't do it because I wanted to raise my chances of getting into other bootcamps, I did it because I had applied to App Academy once already and with their strict no redo policy, this was a way for me to apply once again. The first time applied, I had tried to learn things on my own. My journey shortly ended after the second basic coding challenge. This sort of gives you a picture of how much coding experience I had going into the Prep course(not enough).
My results after finishing the month long prep course changed a lot of things for me. Not only was I applying to other bootcamps I was getting into all of them. I got accepted into all of the bootcamps I applied to, and I applied to all of the hard ones including the notoriously competitive App Academy and Hack Reactor.
The details of the course can be found on their website so I won't go into that here. The reason I say this course is all about you is because you have one month to get into the bootcamp of your dreams, put your all into it. If you're looking for a bootcamp prep course, I am assuming you already am ready to commit some 3 months of your life to flip it upside down. The same idea applies to this course, you have 1 month to make those 3 months a reality. Those 3 months bootcamps that you dreamt of, you can have your pick of the litter and make it your reality.
There were three students that stood out to me in the course, myself included. One thing we had in common was that we did not have other time commitments. This does not mean you need to drop everything just yet. The course I took was part time accessible for a reason.
The curriculum covered everything I was being tested on and more. As long as you grasp concepts and can write code accordingly, you will be in great shape. I assume the tests will only get harder as the years go by but I know App Academy is an adaptive school and I wouldn't be surprised if they adapt their curriculum as the times change.
The "Job Support" is what I consider to be their application support. Coming out of this prep course you apply to bootcamps, not jobs, but I consider this to be the equivalent. It was good. There were extra materials to work on and mock interviews to be scheduled.
I can't vouch for any other bootcamp prep courses. Even if the curriculum is the same, the experience could be completely different. I went to App Academy's Bootcamp Prep Course and I hit the jackpot. Things click for me. I'm not a wiz, remember I failed after the second basic coding challenge, never mind the technical interview, but after the course I killed it all.
I'm confident that this course can do a lot for a lot of other people. Just give it your all because it's all about you. |
| | | Pros.... you don't have to pay until you get a job is good for some people. The office is nice and centrally located. The ratio of TAs to students is good. Some of the projects are very interesting and unique to A/A (you get to create your own object relational mapper for example). They do cover data structures and algorithms which are important for interviews.
Cons... Their "money-back" guarantee contract is actually ridiculous. You only don't have to pay tuition if you search for an entire year after the program is over and don't find a job (you aren't allowed to hold even part-time work in your previous position for that entire year).
They test their students every week and kick out the students who don't perform well, so this inflates their statistics on percentage of students who find a job vs other bootcamps who don't kick out students. Plus it makes everyone way stressed out. Even so, their time to placement is way too long (after 3 months, ~50% of grads are employed), compare that to Hack Reactor's stats of 80%!).
They have terrible post-graduation job support that mostly involves pushing students to bulk-spam companies. Basically, forget about picking where you want to work, just get an offer anywhere that will give you one because let's face it, we're in a coding bootcamp bubble. There are now way more bootcamp graduates than there are openings for junior-level software engineers in SF and most employers don't think A/A graduates are any better/different from Dev Bootcamp/General Assembly/Coding Dojo, etc grads. All students are required to submit 200+ applications to companies.
TAs are 99% recently graduated students who did well in the course but have no work experience as software engineers or experience finding jobs in this field. |
| | | I attended App Academy mid/late 2015 when they were in their older, market street, location.
I remember getting to class around 8:30 every day and leaving around 9PM every night, and spending pretty much all of my weekends in the offices.
Pros:
I didn't bother trying to cook, I felt that there wasn't enough time for anything except program. so I bought food from neighboring restaurants twice a day.
the curriculum generally get you ready for the assessments, which typically helps you understand what you're gonna be doing in the work force.
The staff was very supportive and helpful during the expected(9 to 6) and non-expected hours. Always willing to help.
Cons:
After my co-hort, Three of my favorite staff members's contracts with a/A have ended(or they decided to leave, I'm not sure which). The staff who teaches/helps teach rotate per co-hort as they generally hire students after they graduate.
My cohort was the largest cohort at the time. and there wasn't enough staff members to accomodate with all of the students at times. once in a while we would be waiting for someone to help us out longer than we would expect usual.
They're in a newer location(in the financial district) of San Francisco. While it does look nicer and accomodates for more students.
The job search curriculum was fairly new when I finished my course as well. At the time, the person in charge only had one other staff member. They've grown since.
Every issue I've had with a/A has been addressed in the cohorts after me. They hired some of my classmates as new teaching staff, the cohort after ours was a little smaller(they've grown now I bet, it's been almost a year). One of my classmates was even also hired to be part of the job search curriculum. so everythings moving! |
| | | I graduated from App Academy in December of 2014, and definitely feel like attending was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I now work at an awesome company working on really cool problems as a full stack engineer.
My background: I had taken a couple of college C.S. classes and I had a degree in analytic philosophy. I'd done codeacademy and tried a couple small projects, but I was having trouble making the leap to employment-level skills.
The structure and content of the App Acadaemy curriculum is top notch. They know exactly what is useful and what is not. For example - not useful: rote memorization of code. Useful: learning how to think logically, approach problems with the intention of creating an elegant algorithm, and how to read documentation and quickly pick up new skills. That being said, the tools you learn are also really useful tools to know how to use: they focus on ruby/rails, sql/active record, and javascript/react (when I took the course, it was backbone).
The quality of instruction is incredibly high, and you spend most of your time (probably 80% of the day) actually coding and working on problems. I really liked that, as I definitely learn better by doing, and most of the best learning moments were working with TA's who could explain a concept in practice after getting stuck on a specific part of a problem.
After the course, they have good resources to help you apply and interview for positions. It's still a lot of work, but it's really valuable to hear what actually matters on a resume or cover letter, what interviewers are actually looking for, etc.
I now work at a really cool company, working on stuff way more interesting than anywhere else I've ever worked, and getting paid like 3x more than I was at my old job. I'm using the ruby/rails and js I learned at App Academy, but I'm also using React on the front end, as well as Scala/C++ on the backend. So don't let anyone tell you that you're only qualified in the language you know.
Two quick caveats: 1) This is not a place for people who want to figure out if they'll enjoy software engineering. You have to be committed and ready to work really hard from the beginning. 2) This is not a place for people who have trouble self-motivating. 80-90 hours per week is not a joke, and a lot of that is forcing yourself to work through really complicated readings and problems. After graduating, you won't be handed a job, but you'll have the skills to get a great job if you work hard and keep practicing. But if you're likely to burn out easily or need someone else to push, maybe this isn't the best place for you.
tl;dr:
Great program that will teach you the skills and mindset to be a software engineer anywhere if you're already motivated and willing to work for it. |
| | | Pros:
- Well-managed culture, which fostered cooperation rather than competition
- Extremely supportive network, easy to get help, especially from alumni
- Curriculum is constantly updated to account for new industry trends
- Deferred, scaling tuition structure is extremely appealing (pay based on what you earn)
- Assessment structure ensures that students don't fall behind; from my experience, while the best students across top bootcamps are comparable, App Academy's 'worst' students are far better than the 'worst' students from other boot camps
Cons:
- Availability of resources drastically dropped in the last third of the program ("job search curriculum"); internal tools for this portion of the curriculum were surprisingly poorly designed given the nature of the boot camp
- Severe limitation of TA availability at times during practical coding sessions (being improved with reorganization and increased hiring)
- Drastically differing lecture quality (some were on par with my best college professors, others were absolutely useless -- fortunately in the minority)
- Algorithms curriculum is disorganized and not as helpful as it could be
- Assessments are too easy to perfect score, meaning the margin of error for passing is very low. Thus, students who fail seem to do so most often from dev env problems or anxiety vs. not understanding the material. Assessments should be made harder, with an easier passing score, to account for ceiling effects and to present a more accurate mean / median.
Other Notes:
- More effort can be done to address burnout. Due to the fast pace and challenging nature of the work, many students stop to take a breather once the pressure is off... and never start again. Not listed as a 'con' because this honestly should be the students' responsibility over App Academy, but it is an area where App Academy can make a large impact. App Academy can organize group projects, accountability groups for job seekers, etc.
- Algorithms curriculum received a major upgrade around when I left; from what I can see, there is much more of a formalized structure now |
| | | The program aligns the incentives of the student and institution perfectly with it's deferred tuition payment model. The school is highly motivated to teach the student only the most useful and applicable skills for finding a job as a software engineer as they do not get paid unless the student is placed. The student is highly motivated to learn because if they fail assessments they are dismissed from the program. The result of the program structure is very strong, motivated, driven students that are truly ready to enter the job market. I highly recommend the program to anyone interested in breaking into the market as a web developer / software engineer. |
| | | Pros:
- Well thought-out curriculum
- Learn best practices and fundamentals
- Your incentives are lined up with App Academy's
- Good job search resources, if you take advantage of them
- Very good placement rate at great companies with high salaries
Cons:
- Job search is what you make of it - the resources are there for you, but you have to put in a lot of effort yourself |
| | Leah D. | Looking back after 6 months at my new programming job, I'm impressed with how well the App Academy curriculum prepared me for my daily work. I highly recommend this program for an intensive transition into programming and support getting a job in the field. |
| | Noah | I had a fantastic experience with app academy. It is certainly a stressful few months, but ultimately, it was very much worth it. Not only did the program help me change careers in a very short time, I was able to land a job after a relatively short time with a good salary, working with an organization whose mission and culture match my values.
I chose app academy over other bootcamps because of its tuition structure and its selectiveness, knowing that I would be surrounded by the sharpest peers and colleagues that I could learn with, and the latter was the most important reason in retrospect. My cohort was exceptional -- I had less programming experience than many of my peers, but the curriculum moves so fast that students of all backgrounds were constantly challenged and engaged. Sometimes the speed and quantity of assessments felt overwhelming, but it is necessary if you want to learn something as complex as the fundamentals of web development in such a short period of time.
I'm sure everyone reading this has looked at app academy's website and read other reviews, so I won't get into the hiring stats, salaries, etc., other than to say that my cohort's experience with the job hunt certainly lived up to all of the advertising. Instead, I want to focus on something that I didn't expect before joining app academy, and that is the culture of instruction. App Academy promotes itself as a rigorous program with great stats, but doesn't necessarily advertise culture, and this made me nervous going into the program (I really liked some other bootcamps' focus on culture). I was extremely happily surprised when I joined app academy -- even if the focus on promoting a positive culture isn't part of the brand, the instructors at app academy did an incredible job fostering positive conversation, promoting inclusiveness during a stressful period, and I can see that they've continued to hire some of the brightest and most empathetic communicators from succeeding cohorts. This was hugely important, but many of the reviews that I read before joining app academy just focused on the challenge and the job hunt. The instructors are top notch developers and generally great individuals.
Even though I was coming into app academy from a grad school, I was continually amazed at the pace and rigor of the learning experience. I would wholeheartedly recommend this program. |
| | Dave | About two years ago I was feeling stuck and bored in a career as a microbiologist. I had picked up programming as a hobby and found that I really enjoyed it, but I had no idea how to turn it into a job. Around that time, programming "bootcamps" entered my radar, seemingly presenting a viable means to make the switch. After some research, I decided a/A was the one for me, largely due to the pricing structure and an excellent review from a friend of a friend that had recently attended. Let me go off on a tangent here and rave about the pricing structure. If you're not aware, App Academy charges nothing up front (although there is a deposit). You don't pay anything until you get a job and then once you do get a job, you pay a percentage of your salary. This unique model is incredibly fair, allows someone like myself who couldn't afford other bootcamps to attend, and says a lot about what a/A offers. With this model, a/A would completely fail if what they were offering was anything less than high quality.
The application process was very challenging and took a bit longer than I expected. The process includes interviews and several coding challenges but you are not penalized for the time it takes to get through it all. a/A even provides a whole bunch of rich materials that, with enough review and practice, should be sufficient enough for one to get through the challenges. This says a lot about a/A's integrity and accessibility. a/A has high acceptance standards, but if you are willing to put in the work there's a good chance you'll get in, and a/A wants to help you be successful in doing so. In fact, I didn't pass the last coding challenge, but since I was close to a solution I was given more material to go through and a second chance.
a/A kicked off at full speed. I was expecting the program to be challenging and a whole lot of work, and I experienced exactly that. Days typically consisted of a "lecture" in the early morning led by the instructors where we went over the previous days assignments, went through demos, had a Q&A etc. Then we jumped into the days assignments which would take up most of the rest of the afternoon and often the evening. Most days we pair programmed, which was much more fun (and less lonely) than my programming journey had been up until this point. Seeing others' approaches to problems was also very insightful. At night we were expected to go over the solutions to the days problems and do the reading for the following day. We had nearly weekly programming assessments that were often very difficult, primarily due to not being able to use any resources. I hated the assessments due to the stress they brought me, but they did force us to develop a deep understanding of key concepts. However, even with regular stresses and working upwards of 100 hours a week, my time at a/A was very enjoyable. The instructors were incredible resources (I wish I took more advantage of this) and I made a ton of great friends. I have no shortage of fond memories from this period of my life and I was pretty bummed to see it end.
I can't recommend App Academy enough. I had a great time, the program is of the highest quality, and I couldn't be happier with the results I got. 3 months at App Academy (plus a few months in preparation) got me into a career that I'm very happy to be in and my income has doubled. How can you beat that? Also, 6 months after completion my debt to a/A was completely fulfilled. I graduated from college six years ago and I don't even want to get into how much of that student debt remains. If you're seriously interested in programming as a profession, make a/A your first consideration. |
| | | Pros:
* very focused culture
* everything they say on their website is true
Cons:
* they didn't originally mention a down payment
* they didn't mention that the last ~2 weeks is job hunting and not coding (this is more explicit now) |
| | Minh Nguyen | Summary: Worth it. You can learn this stuff on your own, but it will take much, much longer, and it will be harder to convince employers that you have the requisite skills. While App Academy (and bootcamps) are unknown to some employers, most have heard of the concept and are more willing to take a chance on you than if you have no coding-related experiences on your resume.
Pros:
- Instructors/curriculum: The quality of instruction was really high. The readings were up-to-date and very clearly written/easy to read. The assignments were challenging and effective at getting you to understand more thoroughly what you were introduced to via the readings. The instructor is basically the bulk of what you're paying for -- they are generally great at debugging your code and some are very good at explaining complex concepts. I think it would've taken me many more months to learn the same materials on my own by digging through resources on the internet.
- Peers: You'd be surrounded by peers who are smart and passionate about tech. I definitely learned a lot by pairing with different people and picking up their good habits. It's also a network that you can hang on to after graduation.
Cons:
- Job assistance: This was the weakest part of the program when I attended. I think the job curriculum (how to write resumes, how to interview, build your portfolio, network, etc.) was much less structured and more under-staffed than the coding part of the program. I believe this has changed since my cohort (they hired more people and tweaked the curriculum) but I can't comment on how well that's going. There's also ongoing efforts to create a network of alumni, which I think will be the most helpful for future job applicants. |
| | Brian | Pros:
* they taught a lot really quickly and really well -- they're the reason I'm employed now
* lots of opportunities to ask for help from smart TAs
* information was delivered really well in manageable chunks
Cons:
* wasn't clear that they asked for a deposit up front
* when I took the course, the backbone curriculum was a little weak (but that's probably changed)
* mostly left alone during the job search period -- I think they could have been a little more supportive |
| | | App Academy was an excellent and life changing experience for me. Sure there are some things that weren't perfect, but in the grand scheme of things, they are doing some really amazing stuff.
But prepare to work your ass off for up to 6 months, possibly more, during the program and probably even more during the job search. It is not a golden ticket into a job, but a helpful foot in the door of the industry, and the fastest possible way to go from zero to being able to write and understand code.
As far as outcome, I got a job as a Full Stack Software Engineer at $105K, and it took me about 1.5 months out of the program to land the job. |
| | | I was a graduate student in a humanities field, scraping by on ~15k a year to qualify for a professor position that I never really wanted and wouldn't have been prepared for. (Let alone could have gotten in the state the jobs market is in with academia).
I heard about AppAcademy back in the beginning, paid my $3k deposit and moved to New York, and worked my ass off for 12 weeks drinking copious amounts of coffee and learning to code. From the first day of coding to the last day of negotiating my final job offer, a/A was behind me all the way (although I did have to tap into a couple other networks to get hired at a place I liked).
Now I make ~120k a year doing something I'm good at. AppAcademy was and is completely brilliant for making its tuition dependent on first year's wages -- the incentives to create the right curriculum and provide the right support and totally aligned, and it really shows. |
