Overall, I think that Fullstack Academy is a very good coding bootcamp, and I am glad that I attended. Fullstack is considered one of the best bootcamps, and I am glad that they have a fairly strict application process, so they only let in people who have at least a decent amount of coding knowledge. I did a large amount of self-studying before attending Fullstack, probably more so than most other students. I am glad that I did, because then I was able to get the most out of the Fullstack instruction and experience. I thought the instructors and instruction was overall quite good, although there were a few times where I thought it could be a bit better/the instructors could explain things a bit more clearly. Again though, it's tough, because bootcamps have to cram so much material in in such a short period of time. This goes back to my point about preparation and self-studying before attending the bootcamp - I think it's really helpful if you have a good base of knowledge, and have at least looked a bit at the topics and technologies that will be on the syllabus, so you are not completely lost when they introduce some of the topics. In some ways, I think this is a flaw of coding bootcamps in general - it's impossible to teach someone everything they need to know to get a job in tech in 4 months or so. One will have to do a lot of studying before attending, work hard while attending, and probably work a bit after graduation to sure up knowledge/skills in some areas. And ultimately, my other point is that coding bootcamps can be great, but in the end, you can (almost) teach yourself all of this stuff. There are so many resources available online at this point that are either free or very cheap. Is this expensive bootcamp worth it? - it could be, but I would say try to self-study a lot before attending, so you get the most possible out of it. My other slight criticism of Fullstack Academy is that I felt that the size of the class was pretty large. I think my cohort started off being around 37-40 people. Throughout the course, a few people did end up dropping out (and then a few people were held back into the next cohort, since they didn't do that well in the "junior phase", so they didn't get to go to "senior phase"). However, even though the cohort was large, the instructors and teaching fellows nevertheless did a good job of providing individual instruction where needed. In the end, I have a very positive review of Fullstack Academy. Could instruction have been a bit better in a few areas? - probably, but overall it was quite good. Was the cohort size a little big? - yes, somewhat, but not outrageously big and I still felt I was able to get enough help. Can you just teach yourself most of this stuff? yes, for the most part, but Fullstack helped me to get better in a few areas, and the senior phase stuff (working on a team, career services) I thought were very valuable to me. Ultimately, I am a success story, because after graduating (and then after about 3 more months of doing a bit more self-studying and applying to jobs) I got a high-paying software engineer job at a major company. | 