| | Aaron Festinger | NYC Data Science Academy was my first choice because of my interest in data science, and their reputation as the best data science program. They did not disappoint.
As a recently separated veteran with a master's degree in physics, I was looking for a way to renew my credentials for employment in the technology sector. A friend of mine told me about his successful full-stack engineering boot camp experience and subsequent employment, so I began doing some research. I did not know what data science was, at the time, but I read about it on Course Report, and it seemed like a perfect fit for me, so I signed up.
NYCDSA is exactly as advertised: an intensive program on data science methodology aimed at students from a wide variety of backgrounds. With my background in physics, math, and C++ and Java coding, I felt that the Python and R syntax taught at NYCDSA was not too difficult. Other students were less prepared but often did okay anyhow. The course began with Python and R syntax for handling and visualizing data, and then continued with machine learning methods in both languages as well. SQL and Docker were also covered, but rather briefly. At the end of the course, deep learning and Tensorflow were introduced, as well as Spark and Hadoop. I would have preferred that more time be dedicated to those topics, but this is a three-month boot camp, so time is limited. Nevertheless, given the allotted time, I feel that I have achieved an incredible amount, and I'm very happy with my experience. Boot camp is not cheap in either time or money, but this one was well worth both. I intend to continue building on the knowledge, experience, portfolio, and network that I have accumulated at NYCDSA as a professional data scientist. |
