12-Weeks In-Person/ Remote Live Data Science with Machine Learning Bootcamp

I had been in the 12 week data science bootcamp last year summer, which changed my view to myself about leaning data science. It was a big challenge for me at that time as I had little programming experience. Although the course was extremely intensive, the tutors and TAs were very helpful and encourage us to find a way to achieve the goal. Also, I believe that the course are very comprehansive and good for someone who really wanna find  a related job in Data Science industry. Now I am studying Master of Data science in University of Rochester. My experience in the 3 month bootcamp, defenitely increased my chance to be admiited. I would like to say thanks to all of them who helped me at that time and make me ever stronger. 

I can’t begin to describe how inclusive, rigorous, and rewarding is New York City Data Science Academy’s Data Science Boot Camp. It is inclusive in the sense that those applicants it admits are not exclusively from among statisticians, mathematicians, and computer scientists. Professionals from other disciplines who recognize and appreciate the importance of a more structured, quantitative approach to business comprise a significant component of each boot camp cycle, providing context, breadth of experience, and real-world application to the data science discipline. In turn, they benefit from the experience and capabilities of their classmates specializing in more technical disciplines.

The boot camp program is rigorous in that it demands broad competence not just in a single language. While competing programs may focus exclusively on developing competence narrowly in R or Python, the NYCDSA boot camp demands that its recruits master both. This gives those who complete the program greater flexibility, as they can appreciate the strengths of each language and invoke one or the other as best suits the task at hand.

Apart from the new skills obtained, the NYCDSA boot camp is rewarding in other key respects. The curriculum is grounded in teamwork, giving participants a greater appreciation of how to build and manage teams in a business context. This team-based approach also fosters friendships among classmates who, as in a military boot camp, become battle buddies as they overcome the significant business and technical challenges they confront. The resulting camaraderie produces a very strong alumni support network that provides boot camp graduates with long-term opportunities for professional growth and advancement.

The NYCDSA boot camp provided me with the precise set of skills I sought, allowing me to continue my career on a higher plane and enrich the value I provide to my clients in their pursuit of market share and increased profits. I am incredibly grateful and appreciative of the opportunities which NYCDSA’s boot camp has afforded me, both personally and professionally.

Overall: 

100% YES!!! I wholeheartedly recommend NYC Data Science Academy! If you want to switch into data science, the bootcamp will help you land your dream job. I got an internship offer shortly after the end of bootcamp(~2.5 weeks) through the bootcamp’s hiring partner event, and recently became a full-time data scientist at the same company. All of this would not have been possible without the help of NYCDSA!

Full Review

When I was reading through bootcamp reviews, I personally thought it was more helpful to find people of similar background as mine and see how well they fared.  For instance, knowing that people with only bachelors degree attended NYCDSA and got data scientist jobs helped to not only inspire me, but also to set realistic expectations on what type of jobs I could get and how long it could take. So here is a blurb about myself:

TL-DR; 

Bachelors degree In math and economics
<1 yr of work experience
Limited exposure to R/SQL/Big Data tools prior to the bootcamp(Does using a select statement in SQL count?)
Prior experience coding in C and basic Python through an intro level computer science course in college. No exposure to data packages in Python. 

Prior to coming into the bootcamp, I asked myself: “Is the bootcamp worth the $16,000 investment?” Is it going to give me enough skills to find a job as a data scientist?”. If you read my introduction, the ultimate answer is an obvious YES! Below, I am listing the top 7 reasons why I think NYDSCA was a worth investment for me:

Top-notch job assistance:  From teaching how to craft your resume to preparing for technical interviews, Vivian and Chris did an excellent job at explaining what interviewing for data scientist positions was like. This “soft skill” portion was really important for me since I wasn’t accustomed to interviewing for technical roles. Thank you Vivian for always pushing me to become a better data scientist! Thank you Chris for all the earnest advices on job hunting!

Connections of the bootcamp: As I mentioned earlier, I got my job through the bootcamp’s hiring partner event. Being able to take advantage of the wide network of employers definitely made “getting the foot in the door” much easier

Learning both R and Python: I wanted to learn both as I knew it would help me cover my bases and be prepared for most data science-related jobs. 

Transforming me into a confident coder: having learned coding through a class in college and a bit of self-learning, I knew I needed to improve my skills if I ever wanted to land a serious job as a data scientist. The pre-work material along with projects were really helpful in that sense

Structured curriculum: There is a lot of thought put into the structure of each class. It was very nice to have all materials that I needed to learn organized for me so that my only worry was to learn.  

Instructors: They deserve their own section as most staff have been teaching for quite a few cohorts. They are all very knowledgeable and approachable. Special shoutout to Zeyu for being an amazing TA and always offering helpful guidance through my projects!

Projects: Each project covers an essential area of data science-data visualization, web scraping, machine learning - and I learned so much through them. The projects were also essential to build my data science portfolio and showcase my skillset to employers.

If you made it all the way to the end, thank you reading this review! All in all, NYCDSA was great!! It worked perfectly for me as it gave me the skills (both technical and soft) I needed to land a data scientist job.  BE PREPARED TO WORK HARD. Treat both the bootcamp and job hunting as a full-time job and you will be rewarded. :)

I attended the January-March 2017 boot camp of the New York Data Science Academy. It was the most densely packed and learning filled 3 month period of my life. NYCDSA has the right balance of theory and practise built into their curriculum.

Projects were fun and challenging. Instructors and TA's with expertise in both coding and statistics were available round the clock. I personally asked for assistance on many topics and was more than satisfied with the help. Staff's knowledge about theory and real world applications blew my mind.

Perhaps, the best part about NYCDSA is working with fellow students who are as passionate, knowledgeable and hard working as you are. Highly recommended.

Honestly one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Yes it’s a reasonably difficult course, but if you are truly interested in data science you enjoy every second of it. Like anything, you get out what you put in. If you’re ready to work as hard as you need to in order to master this wealth of knowledge in 12 weeks, this course is 100% for you.

The instructors and TAs are excellent, all accomplished data scientists with a wealth of skill and knowledge. The resources, from slides to code examples and practice questions, are things I will continue to use throughout my career as a data scientist. There is ALWAYS more to learn in the field of data science.

If you’re thinking about going because you simply want a pay raise, then don’t. The course is relatively difficult, and if you aren’t willing to put in the work to master everything you need to land a job, then you won’t get a job. Simple as that.

However, if you are committed to becoming an expert data science, the job support here is immense. There are mock interviews, code interview practice questions, linkedin workshops, presentations from hiring companies and data scientists etc…I myself recently accepted a dream offer from a company I was connected with through the bootcamp.

You likely won’t get a job immediately, it’ll take awhile and a lot of interview practice. It took me about 3 months. If you haven’t mastered the skills you need to be a data scientist, then you don’t have the skills to pass through the interview process. But again, if you are committed there is no shortage of resources made available to you. If you do not succeed here, it is because you did not put as much effort into them as they did into you.

Finally, an underrated part of the experience is the other students. Some of my best friends in the city I met through the bootcamp, and we still go out for drinks all the time. The course not only provides you with knowledge, but connections. It’s a room full of intelligent, driven and entrepreneurial people. You could expect nothing less.

If you want to be a data scientist, and more importantly you have the drive to learn and succeed, you’ll thrive here. Simple as that.

This is a highly intensive program with immediate returns. If you want to turbocharge your career progression in the world of data analytics, this is without a doubt the best decision you can make. However, this isn't a free pass into the field of data science; if you do not have the passion or are not willing to put in the work, it will be a waste of your time and money.

Prior to enrolling in this program, my major consideration was: If I skip the program and use the free resources online, would I be able to learn this stuff on my own?

Naturally, this was the path I initially pursued. But with a full time job, even if you put 2 hours aside each day to learn on your own, there will be days where you are too drained and lack motivation. Leaving my employer and investing in this program kept my accountability up and allowed me to gain new skills in 12 weeks that would have otherwise taken months or years of consecutive study. The content in the program is not secret sauce. Things you learn here can be found for free online. But in this generation, what can't be found for free online? Where this program shines is the extremely bright instructors and peers that you get to interact with on a daily basis. There were countless times during the lectures in machine learning where I was lost. If this was a MOOC, I would probably be replaying the video for the 7th time and then hopelessly closing the tab. At NYCDSA, you have access to some of the most talented and extremely patient resources (with the credentials to back it up) to help you until you understand what's going on.

The instructors are there for your to utilize, but you need to take action on your own. If you get the instructors engaged, their passion for data science is very contagious, and you will learn a lot just by bouncing ideas off each other and actively problem solving. This will be extremely advantageous for your projects. Please don't sit idle and let the instructors debug your code, you will learn nothing except how to press ctrl + enter.

In regards to job assistance, NYCDSA is a great way to expand and grow your network. Vivian and Chris both have deep connections to the data science employers in the NYC area. Although the company I am now employed at wasn't a result of the school's networking, I have gotten many interviews and employers reaching out to me solely due to Vivian and Chris. At the end of the day, getting a job requires putting in the work. Do not expect to come out of the program with employers throwing themselves at you for simply having NYCDSA on your resume.

Vivian and Chris provide great support to help you improve your job search experience, but they will not baby you. There are 40+ students they need to support. If you need help your best bet is to reach out instead of waiting around for Viv and Chris to ask you if you're okay.

My overall rating is 4 stars due to the course pacing. Whether this was an effect of too many/ too diverse of a class, or change in instructor(s), There were a handful of lectures that went too far over the scheduled time. For some of the later lectures in the program, there was a pattern of discontinuation of lectures. This was difficult to manage especially if it occured over a weekend. For example, if a Friday lecture ran over time, it would carry over to the next morning session on Monday. I would have much rather prefered a continued lecture in the afternoon while the material was fresh in my head. Although this was my personal experience, rest assured that Vivian and Chris are constantly improving the student experience and something like this is probably already being worked on.

TL;DR: come in with a passion, put in the effort, there is much to be gained

I am Data Scientist at Anheuser Busch today and I am going to share my experience with finding the right school and struggle that I faced.

Search for Schools:

It was hard to choose the right school for Data Science just by being online, I had recently graduated as a robotics and automation engineer and all my programming skills were result of self-education, In late August I was selected for the Interview process at New York Data Science Academy and General Assembly.

                                          I first came to New York Data Science academy and I was interviewed by one instructor and one Business person, I never met them after that day so I don’t remember their names now, they asked me a series of programming questions, pretty basics some were based on the online application I filled and later some on my knowledge of statistics, it seemed to go well but at the end of the interview I was rejected.

                  The reason was I was not ready for the bootcamp, they had previously seen other student promise that they can learn quickly but what ended up happening was they left the bootcamp in middle, I was upset cause I really wanted to do it, but I also knew I was in a hurry, they suggested to take it slow and come for next cohort so I will not just be able to survive the bootcamp but also learn and really take something valuable from the camp. 

                 I later went to General Assembly and attended their interview and introductory session, they had a much larger location, also a big conference room, I really like the place, I was provided an instructor who gave me a brief understanding of the course and what it would feel like. A week later I had my interview with Lally M, I had filled and application online but I never answered any programming questions, Lally was very nice and asked me few general questions, and also gave me few advices but all and all she did not really bothered if I was ready for the cohert, at the end of the interview she said I can join this cohort. 

Prework:

                  It’s obvious what I did next,  I left the option of General Assembly and prepared on my own for next 3 months, I met Vivan personally In November she is the Co-founder of New York Data Science Academy, she gave me access to a online learning and testing platform which is called the prework for the bootcamp, it covered all the basics of Python and R.

During the Bootcamp:

My Bootcamp started on 09th January 2017, I felt very confident during the bootcamp, I remember Chris said on the very first day "There are very few things in life that will give you a chance to have absolute devotion", in the beginning we were introduced to all the subjects again for first week, so even if you did not do prework you would not suffer entirely but I would suggest do your prework well.

                             Things started to get serious as soon as second week finished and it did not stop after that, we had classes from 9:30 AM to 3:00-4:00 PM, after which there was homework at the end of each day, added to it we had to do our first project, also I had to study for the subjects I learnt in the class, also I had to keep my LinkedIn and resume up to date, also you better keep going to networking events, all in one day with you getting enough sleep and food to have the same energy the next day.

Curriculum:

1) Introduction to R and Python , Unix (which helps in big data part)

2) Machine Learning - (a) Importing Data (b) Foundation of statistical Methods (c) Missing value and Imputation (d) Simple Linear Regression (e) Multiple Linear Regression (f) Generalized Linear Model and kNN Model (g) Regularization and Cross Validation (e) Tree Models, Bagging , Boosting , Random Forest (f) SVM (g) Time Series Analysis (h) Cross-Validation (i) Bootstraping (j) Feature Selection (k) Regularizartion (l) Hyperperameter Tunning (m) SVM (n) Tree Models (o) Association Rule (p) Naive Bayes (q) Principal Component Analysis (r) Clustering (s) Unsupervised Learning (t) XGBOOST (u) Tensorflow (v) Netral Network (w) Concolutional Neural Nets.

3) Big Data - (a) Hadoop (b) pig (c) hive (d) nosql (e) Apache Spark (f) DATAiku(platform) (g) DataBricks(platform) (h) Virtual Environment - Docker.

Project:

1) Try to solve real life problems in your Projects, you will have the freedom to choose your projects, choose them wisely. I had a chance to do one of the Kaggle project, it helped me learn from some of the best Data Scientist in the world and if I did not understand something in any project, the teaching assistants came to rescue.

2) You will do 4 to 5 projects including Capstone, finish them well, do not leave any part mid way, submit your code on Github and you will be told to write blogs on the platform provided by the academy, write them well.

Job Assistence:

1) Mock Interview sessions - Coding Test, theory of Machine Learning Test.

2) Resume Writing Session - Resumen writing, cover letter, Job status sheets, email - cold warm, Meeting Letter, thank you notes.

3) General Prep Session - Photo Shoot, Linkedin, In house Meetups, In house video recording during project presentation.

4) Interviews - Hiring Event, Introduction to Employers, Referal.

The Bootcamp:

The bootcamp changed my life as I am no longer the same person I was before January, even though 50% students in my batch had a PhD, 46% had a Masters and many years of job experience, I was among the 4% Undergraduate category who luckily got here, but this played in my favour as I learnt a lot from my peers, I truly came out a Star in my own eyes, I would like to give the credit to Vivan and Chris as a host in my Ex Home, who were supportive at the end of each day, coming up to you and checking on  you if you are still doing okay, the reason I finished all my projects in Flying colours was my Teaching Assistants, who stayed back every day till 7:00PM sometimes and came back in at 8:30 AM, yet managed to stay active on Slack during the night during, I would also like to thank my peers with who I learned many Industry Skills and Best Practices, during my group projects I was led by a Math PhD Mr. Domingos, who now works at google, I had a chance to grow enormously on his team.

At the end of the cohort we all graduate in flying colours, it was very emotional day, thank fully we all are still in touch, I strongly suggest to make meaningful relationships during the cohort, after the school, you constantly have doubts and questions, like after job interviews, during your projects in the company, your colleagues will help you understand and overcome these doubts. 

After the cohort we had our official Hiring day just a week later on 5th April 2017, I managed to meet 12 - 15 different companies, out of which the one I had a heavy interest in was IBM (who would not). Later I got a referral from IBM and I am currently Interviewing as a Data Scientist for IBM advance Global Analytical Team. I was trained to crack these interviews and trained to speak and write during the bootcamp, so I would do pretty well. One more advice will be to take this week and go through all the lectures once again and not give in the temptation to rest or relax. 

I got my offer after 15 days of the bootcamp but for many it can take few months. At the end I would say 3 months of bootcamp can only prepare you to understand the science behind the scenes and provide capacity to be a more analytical person, but to be a good Data Scientist, I still study everyday, learn about ongoing research and connect with knowlegeable people.

Bottom line: the bootcamp is a swindle, cheat, and ripoff. Save yourself the frustration.

If I could turn back time, I would not have wasted $16,000+ on tuition and moving to NYC. My money would have been better spent at an accredited program. The whole operation seems glued together like a popsicle stick diorama...it was like a total free-for-all. No rules, structure, or guidance. The few rules in place were hardly ever enforced (homework deadlines? grading? feedback? none). We were left to fend for ourselves with barely any help. I learned more from other students who had previous experience than any of the instructors, most of whom listed on the website had nothing to do with the bootcamp at all. I agree with some of the other posters...Vivian will accept anyone to make a buck. Some people in my cohort had backgrounds so far from data science I wonder how they got accepted in the first place (fashion? what? ok...).

Someone said this earlier. Vivian accepts anyone and everyone. This really hurt the bootcamp because we spent the first month learning how to code! That's insane!! This bootcamp was more of an introduction to coding than anything. There was a bootcamp employee who wasn't accepting unqualified people, but she either quit or was fired.

Vivian is all talk. She barely remembers most of the things she says, and the things she says are conflicting. In the first week, she promised everyone would be "senior data scientist" and shouldn't accept anything less. At the end, she said the opposite. I'm a month into job searching after the bootcamp, and I haven't been able to get interviews. I'll have to go back to what I was doing before the bootcamp, same as other people. Even most people from the last few cohorts are still looking for jobs.

Please don't join this bootcamp. It was a waste of $16000. I can't believe I paid that. I'm furious. I feel cheated. Give me my money back...going to have to report Vivian and this bootcamp.

I started working in the financial industry in 1998 and have had roles in IT spanning development and production support. I attended the NYC Data Science Academy bootcamp during a three month sabbatical from work and it was a worthwhile investment. I have gone back to work to a new and challenging role that allows me to apply my new found skills (such as data exploration, visualization, and analysis for decision making) as a production support manager for an ultra low latency and algorithmic trading platform at a top financial institution.

What did it take for me to achieve success at the bootcamp?

My three months at the academy was intense. I had a strong support system at home and at the school. My instructors and TAs were smart, caring and invested in my development every step of the way. Delivering on five different projects that stretch your knowledge of Data Science and Machine Learning fundamentals, Python and R programming, through daily classroom and homework practice was exhausting yet rewarding because you were not alone through the journey. As an early riser, the academy facilities were available to me starting at 7AM daily.

My advice for a strong finish.

I strongly advise that you complete the prep work provided by the academy by the time you start the bootcamp. The amount of work expected to be completed during the three-month journey is not an easy feat; however, the projects you are exposed to, the knowledge you gain and the practical experience you collect through individual and team projects is indispensable and can be quickly applied upon your return to work. Going into the bootcamp I felt uncomfortable thinking of myself as a potential Data Scientist. Leaving the bootcamp I am comfortable with the fundamentals of Data Science and the application of hypothesis testing to data problems. I am not a Data Science unicorn, hence, I rely on my new found strengths and maximize the talents within my team to investigate and find solutions to technical problems.

1.12 weeks' course with machine learning, spark, hadoop helped me solve almost technical interview questions. Also introduce several latest and popular topic, such as NLP, Deeplearning (CNN) and tensor flow. 

2. This bootcamp faces people with different backgrounds, who can choose between "how to use machine learning" and "how to implement the machine learning(more math). TAs helped a lot if you wanna learn more advanced level.

3. Chris and Vivian helped prepare resume and the interview practice, and the hiring partner event was very helpful to present myself to the hiring managers directly. 

Great appreciate!

Overall:

I will recommend this bootcamp to anyone who is eager to learn and have great passion towards data science. Before I attended the bootcamp, I received my master degree in marketing from school. I did not have a lot of math and coding background back then. With my passion towards data science, I decided to take a deep dive and applied for the NYCDSA’s 12 weeks bootcamp. Due to my limited coding background, they did not accept me at the beginning, instead, they provided one month prep course for me to get prepared for the bootcamp. I attended the September cohort after the prep course. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made. With the extensive knowledge and training, and great support in job assistance, I am able to land my dream job in 2 months after bootcamp.

Curriculum:

The curriculum is very well designed. I did a lot of research before I applied for this bootcamp. NYCDSA is the only program that covered data science in both R and python, big data processing tools such as Hadoop, Spark at once. I am really glad that I started my journey in data science with them, so my foundation in data science is much stronger now than I was when taking online classes by myself before. The curriculum will also help you to develop a portfolio for job hunting, however, you are the one who decide how much effort you want to put in and how far you want to go. 

Instructors:

The instructors and TAs are the best part of the bootcamp. You will never receive this kind of learning experience through online courses. They are all very knowledgeable in computer science, statistics, and machine learning. They are so passionate, and so willing to help each student. There were so many times that they stayed after 7pm, came in during weekends, answered slacks questions at 11pm to provide extra helps. They are far more than just instructors and TAs, but also supportive friends after I finished the program.

Job assistance:

I got hired by a major ad agency as a data scientist within two months of completing the bootcamp.

The hiring team put the best effort to help their students. They hosted awesome hiring partners event, which the students got to make connections and talk to some great companies, such as IBM, citi bank, Mindshare, Publicis and so on. During my job hunting process, Vivian tried her best to provide any connections with the companies that I really wanted to get in. I also received a lot of helps and mentorship from Chris. The way he helped me to prepare for net-working and interviews are very strategic, systematic, and effective. I learned so much and I won’t get this far without him. You can learn all the hard skills anywhere else, but this kind of support and mentorship is hard to find even if you have a lot of money.

They provide as many helps as they can, but you have to be proactive and eager to learn to take everything in! 

This bootcamp is no longer the great place it used to be. Vivian Zhang (the crazy CEO) has made the curriculum into a joke, and you waste a lot of time on nonsense apps like shiny, blog posts because she thinks that's what employers want. It is not. No one in the industry pays attention to the things she believes they do, which is 1 reason why it has been so difficult to place all candidates in a job. Do not believe for 1 minute she will help you get a job. Only your true qualifications will help with that. 

Her TAs are wonderful and brilliant. It is not their fault that she bulldozes their efforts. But she has complete control of the camp. 

It is very difficult to watch her cheapen the brand of what started out so great, and single-handedly destroy the hard work of everyone who works for her.

She let in people to the camp who were completely unqualified to be there, including non-STEM bachelors, or MBAs with no technical background whatsoever, who were a huge burden on the class. If you are a STEM phd, you had better go to Insight or Ivy Data Science if you want an intensive course in ML and statistics. "Data science" is a marketing phrase for analytics. If you do not have a technical background, you should know that the 16,000$ package Vivian is selling you is too good to be true. You cannot be made a data scientist in 3 months, and there is no way she will be able to place you in a data science job. Most people from cohorts 5 and above are still looking for jobs months afterwards. The ones that do find jobs 6 months-1 year afterwards, do so without any help from Vivian.

I work for a media company that is transitioning to Python. They were made aware of Vivians reputation and decided to send all their data analysts for corporate training in Metis. I was asked for my recommendation and I have to agree that the quality of teaching is better at Metis, since Vivian has fired most of her good teachers, and the median quality of students can be terrible, since she lets in who ever applies, regardless of their technical skills. I also spoke to several prospective students who told me they pulled out of DSA because they heard that Vivian was letting in anybody who wanted to become a data scientist, even business analysts, and was unable to get most people a permanent job. She lists "internships" as permanent jobs, and cannot support the candidate when those internships terminate. The people in my office who know Vivian do not think that DSA looks good on my resume mainly because they think "she is trying to industrialize data scientists like a factory".

She also expanded the bootcamp from 20 students to 80 students, which should be a good indication of the quality you can expect.

Some things Vivian has done:

Lied by saying her acceptance rate for students is 10%. It is 100%. Maybe even 200%, if you consider all the people she tries to recruit. Do you know someone who want to be a data scientist? Tell them to send their 5000$ deposit!!
Fired her main lecturer and dedicated TAs, but not before working them like slaves.
Turned shiny app, visualization, web development and A/B testing into parts of the curriculum because she heard from 1 employer that they like it. It has nothing to do with "data science". She will just throw everything at a wall and see what sticks
Focus first on the jobs for chinese, american, or PHD students to improve her job ratio. The way she makes ''tailored recommendations'' is to put all 100 students CVs into a ZIP file, email this zip file to HR/the HIRING MANAGER and ask if there are any jobs for people in the 'awesome' 5GB of cvs she is sending. With many exclamation points!!! 
is so aggressive with employers and contacts that she scares them away. See 4.
If you want to work in finance she will tell you that finance is dead in New york and no one is hiring in there anymore. You should work for a start up instead, preferably one on her list
If you are coming from outside New York she will send you back there and let you find a job on your own
Her main advice is: send your CV to 10 companies every day on linkedin and hope someone replies. This advice costs approx. $16,000. Do you want a mock interview from someone not from the same company you applied for? That will cost $50.
If you do get a job, be prepared for an awkward phone call about how you should hire data scientists from her when you join your company
Even if you are not interested in the job, she will sign you up to interview with everyone in Manhattan that she knows. Do you know this self employed guy Ben Reid or Snakes and ladders? Let them interview you for a job you don't want just for fun. Ben loves interviewing! 
If you are a scientist, this is probably the worst one of all. The way Vivian prepares students for interviews is by having them memorize thousands of interview questions, categorized by company. This does two things: hide a lack of deep understanding with shallow memorization, and fool interviewers into thinking that a candidate who has memorized the entire interviewbook is more qualified than one who hasnt. It is as close to cheating as you can get, and the most obvious manifestation of the data science mass industrialization and over saturation: forget about understanding deep scientific concepts, just make sure you know what your interviewer will ask you before the interview. She is a shameless cheater.
This is related to 11. If you are Chinese, Vivian will prep you before and after for the interviews. If not, she will tell you that giving you answers to interview questions is "unfair to other students."

I attended the 3 month Data Science bootcamp. It was a valuable experience: the staff are very knowledgeable and helpful, Christopher Peter Makris is a genius, and you learn a lot of practical skills. However, if you are not American or Chinese, do not expect Vivian to lift a finger and help find you a job. She will make a lot of false promises but she won't deliver.

She also has a talent for firing all of her staff, including the most hard working and talented ones. She is crazy and has a terrible reputation.

Preface:

I attended the July cohort and was then a Data Science in Residence at the NYCDSA prior to accepting an offer for a Data Scientist role at a consulting firm based in NYC. I will do my best in this review to be as straightforward about my experience and address a lot of questions I had prior to the program and have understood a lot of incoming students to have had through prepping them for the program. 

My Overall Opinion:

Lets start with this: get over your hesitation, take a leap of faith, and you surely will not regret your decision to attend the NYC Data Science Academy 12 Week Bootcamp. Whatever reservations you have, you are not alone; almost all graduates have felt that prior to attending the program. You may be wondering about if this program will really teach me the necessary skills to get a job, am I prepared enough for this, will the program be rigorous enough, and most pivotally; is this the right decision for me? I cannot speak for you, but I can attest to my own experience and I graduated this program with no regrets, soak in a waterfall of new knowledge and skills, and have walked away a smarter, more capable, more confident professional now employed Data Scientist in field. The program is amazing, and the instructors are passionate, and you will learn a lot, but that also being said, you get as much as you put in and the first step is trusting in yourself to join and commit to the three rigorous and insightful months ahead of you. 

My Background:

Prior to attending NYCDSA, I was a software engineer at a large shipping company for almost 2 years focusing primarily on front end development. Before that I attending another bootcamp called Hack Reactor, similar to NYCDSA, to study software engineering and javascript. It was growing interest in machine learning, the success of my experience at Hack Reactor and the thirst for that similar immersive and intensive program that led to me to the NYC Data Science Academy. In another life, I graduated from NYU with a degree in Music Business.

Common Questions:

Do you need a masters or a background in a quantitative field?

The answer is no. No, you do not need a masters degree or professional experience in a quantitative field. During my cohort, I thought some of the best and most creative presentations and chosen topics by students were from some that had no prior coding or heavy math experience. That being said, coming in with a math or software engineering background will definitely allow you to vamp up your projects flashiness and you may have an easier time understanding some of the formulas associated with the advanced machine learning algorithms. 

Will I get a job from this program? What are the job stats? etc.. 

Although I can't attest to job stats, I received my first offer less than 6 weeks after the program ended. I met the firm at the Career Day at the end of the program. Vivian, the CEO of NYCDSA, is the job placement tsar and wizard and without her and her relationships with so many great firms there would not be as many companies at the career day as there are: Spotify, JP Morgan Chase, MindShare, etc.. Vivian will do every in her power to connect you with your dream job. That being said, getting an offer is entirely on you. You must have great visual and complex projects, you must interview well, and you must be actively job seeking and cultivating relationships on your own. Vivian and the team will do everything they can to prepare you and connect you with your dream job, but you need to show up with the bus fair to ride the bus. I cannot stress this enough. 

How does this compare to other bootcamps?

I am actually in a unique position to answer this question. A few years prior to graduating NYCDSA, I graduated Hack Reactor, which is a similar 12 week bootcamp, but for software engineering. Prior to that I took web development course at General Assembly, Coursera Machine Learning courses, Harvard Extension School’s Intro to Data Science class to name a few. Needless to say, I’m hungry for knowledge and a challenge. I can’t speak to the other Data Science bootcamps out there like Metis or Galvanize, but I can say that there is nothing like 3 months of learning something at a such a rapid pace. The sum of its parts is greater than the whole and you can spend years learning on your own secondary to whatever else you are doing or you can jump in the deep end. I did before with Hack Reactor and walked away amazed and the same held true for NYCDSA. 

Inside Tips:

Pick good project topics. Your projects will be portfolio to potential employers and if your project outshines the other students, employers will take notice. 

Pick good project team mates. I didn't have a poor experience with anyone I worked with, but it goes without saying that if you pick bright, easy to work with project partners, you'll be able to build a better end product.

If you don’t know how to code in R or Python and have no prior experience code - Learn now. Codeschool.com is an excellent introductory resource. 

DO NOT think you will have a social life. This is only 3 months of your life, but 3 very important months, so give it your all and don't expect to get as much out of it if you don't.

Comments to the Academy:

Scaling the program will require more job assistance personnel.

Increasing the amount of coding done in the program may be beneficial as most jobs now require coding every day and are rarely purely theoretically

Additional content on computer vision would be fun

More TAs and one on one knowledge quizzes (like done as a group at the end of the course)

*MY BACKGROUND:
I had a Master in Business Analytics before joining NYCDSA, with a knowledge of programming and data science/machine learning. Though I knew how to make graphs and build models with R and Python, and knew some concepts learned from the online course on EDX and Coursera, this bootcamp was still truly helpful for me.

My goal was to explore more deeply the big data techniques including Hadoop and Spark and get a chance to review data science and machine learning stuff in a systemic way. This bootcamp gave me almost everything I desired, with so many unexpected benefits.

It was seriously life-changing for me. I achieved something that would otherwise never be possible had I just stuck with online courses. Read on for more detail.

*COURSES:
All the courses were well-designed. They covered everything I needed in my data science journey. Some might wonder why I chose to spend money on this bootcamp to learn something that seems available online. The reason for me was that I feel my time is quite valuable. For me, the efficiency really matters. Rather than spending an hour searching for the right function or parameter and ending up being confused, I wanted to have professionals help me going through the relevant resources systemically. I also found that when confused by problems after the fact, I would open the slides, code, and my repo for that topic instead of having to jump online and wade through Stack Overflow. 

What’s more, the curriculum covered topics such as Unix, Bash, Git and version control, which seem necessary for a data scientist/programmer but which I never paid attention to when I was teaching myself.

*INSTRUCTORS AND TEAM:
They are so great. Everyone is kind and willing to help you and share their experience and approach with you. In my humble opinion, there is a huge difference between teaching yourself programming or machine learning and learning with instructors and advice. Especially when you are putting things into practice. I saved tons of time.  The NYC Data team is really curious and love to try new techniques with the students.  

They are a caring bunch, and it was great to become friends with the people who participated in and ran the program.

*JOB PLACEMENT:
I got hired by Aetna as a data science analyst within three months of completing the Bootcamp.

The job search is intense but Vivian and the hiring team were always there trying their best to help us. There is a room set aside for graduates to work in when on the job hunt, which made for easy access to staff.   During the Bootcamp, we had several courses about how to sell yourself which was especially important for people who are new to the U.S. job market. From teaching you how to impress your interviewer to helping research relevant details about a target company, the hiring team was very dedicated to providing the necessary support to help me succeed. Also, Vivian seemed to have a contact at almost every company I wanted to apply to, which was a real plus.

I’m glad I made the decision to do this, it was worth it for me.

This bootcamp differentiates itself in its teaching of the important theory and statistics. Christopher Peter Makris does an exceptional job of boiling down complex topics into understandable concepts without sacrificing rigor. If CPM is there, you'll learn a lot. I left with a real love of statistics and machine learning theory.

Without him, there isn't much offered here that you couldn't get on Coursera. The job placement is helpful if Vivian decides she can help you. She basically helps the PhDs get good jobs so she can post the success story, but doesn't spend as much time helping the younger students get admittedly less sexy jobs. 

I recommend this bootcamp to anyone who wants to transition into the field of Data Science. Before this bootcamp I was a process engineer for a large North American steel company. With the rate of growth in the technology industry, I knew it was time to transition to a new career, and I could have not chosen a better place to do so than NYC Data Science Academy.
Instructors:
The Instructors were amazing. Chris is extremely knowledgable in statistics, and his passion for teaching really shines through. With every lecture, he not only shows mastery of the material but also the best way to teach complex materials to a class of non-programmers.
Luke goes above and beyond to describe the theory behind the algorithms. His work ethic is shown through the countless hours he has stayed to review lessons with students and belief in continuous improvement.
The TAs (Shu, Zeyu) were immense help, and had very good knowledge of big data applications (Hadoop ecosystem, front end work, SQL database design, etc.)
Curriculum:
The bootcamp offers a good basis for understanding prediction models and when to use which types of algorithms. There just isn't enough time to cover all aspects of statistics and the many branches of prediction models. Both R and Python are taught here, which allows for great flexibility. While this bootcamp is rigorous, self discipline is required to fully delve into algorithms and build impressive products for your portfolio (natural language processing, image recognition, recommendation engines, etc. ; these advanced topics are covered briefly but enough for you to take the reins). All in all I believe the bootcamp set me on the right foot into the industry.
Job Assistance:
While there is some assistance, the majority of the legwork work is still on the student to be duly diligent - sending out applications, getting interviews, networking and working their way up towards their dream job. There is no easy formula for this, and you MUST continue learning (Algorithms, data architecture, and more advanced ML topics etc. ; network to find out what people in your ideal companies expect you to know) and reviewing material even after the bootcamp to prepare for interviews. 

Attending the NYC Data Science Academy 12-week Data Science Bootcamp was one of the best decisions I have made. It was instructive and rewarding. It provided a speedy career transition and enabled me to get a job within two months of graduation as a Machine Learning Data Engineer at Capital One. I will summarize my background and describe my experience at the bootcamp and why I recommend it highly.

I have a PhD in materials science, which is a blend of math, chemistry and physics. I had programmed models and simulations in Matlab, but have no formal computer science education. I switched to management consulting after the PhD to apply my analytical skills in the business world and quickly realized there is a great need for data analysis at companies. After taking the complete Data Science Specialization on Coursera, I knew I wanted to switch to data science and found the NYCDSA bootcamp to be the most comprehensive, teaching R, Python, and Big Data technologies.

I recommend this bootcamp for three reasons: quality of teachers and materials, structure, and networking, both at the bootcamp and in job placement.

It takes a lot of knowledge, experience, and hard work to distill complicated and complex topics and communicate them in a simple and understandable way. The materials presented in this bootcamp were presented that way. When I can understand statistical concepts which I had tried to understand for a long time in a matter of minutes, it means the quality of teaching and materials are excellent. During the job search, I also realized that the correct balance between breadth and depth had been selected to give us a very solid foundation on which to start a job in data science.

The teachers were exceptional. Their passion and dedication to the students were visible from day one. This was shown again and again in how hard they worked to constantly improve and expand lecture materials to how much support they gave to each individual’s success outside of class. Having them as teachers was an honor.

The structure of the bootcamp allowed an incredible amount of materials to be covered in a short amount of time. Particularly, it used both R and Python for statistical concepts and machine learning. In addition, we learned about many other tools in extra sessions designed to round out our knowledge. Big Data technologies such as Hadoop, Hive, and Spark were covered toward the end of the bootcamp. Spark was asked for often in interviews, and familiarity with it was helpful. Having five projects under your belt is exactly what you need when interviewing. I always had an example I could use to answer questions. The value of this is not to be underestimated.

Lastly, the opportunity to network was incredible. You are beginning your data science career having forged strong bonds with 35 other incredibly intelligent and inspiring people who go to work at great companies. The value of those friendships and the ability to create a strong network at the beginning of your data science career will become evident a couple years down the road.

I was fortunate enough to meet and give a presentation to managers at Spotify, at Meetups, and get connected to many hiring partners. Vivian, the founder, is a strong proponent and has an incredible network. She seemed to have a contact at almost every company I wanted to apply to. Her one-on-one evaluation of interview performance with me was very helpful. She and the rest of the staff are very dedicated to each student’s success, being clear in their purpose that this experience will change both you and your family’s lives for the better. Their hearts are in it and their dedication is clear.

If you are considering this bootcamp to get more into data science, it is exactly the accelerator you need to get your career in this field off the ground. I cannot recommend it enough.

My background is in Data Engineering and Analytics and I have been consulting for the Banking and Financial Services clients. I strongly believe that Machine Learning is the key to the Artificial Intelligence and decided to embrace this emerging trend and immerse myself in the field of Data Science.

Although there are several Data Science bootcamps that are available, NYC Data Science Academy stood out for me because of their curriculum and the strong portfolio of projects they help and empower the students to build. The portfolio of projects, Github code and the corresponding blog posts definitely help make a good impression with the interviewer and showcase the great work accomplished during the 12 week period at the academy.
It has been a truly amazing learning experience for me and definitely worth the investment that helped me advance to my next stage of career growth.

To begin with, the curriculum is quite comprehensive covering all the important Machine Learning algorithms and their fundamentals, detailed working of the algorithm,assumptions, diagnostics, pros and cons. There are regular homework exercises that allows the students to apply the knowledge that they learned in the class and solidify their understanding of the concepts. The class was very diverse and represented students who hailed from various backgrounds - Finance to Engineering to Medical sciences.

I would like to highight the quality of instructors here: All the instructors were extremely professional, technically strong and quite articulate in explaining the concepts. They were also available after hours and helped clarify the questions pertaining to homework, projects and software installation.

Regarding career development, Vivian and her team have made great efforts to help the students reach out to hiring managers and have arranged internal referrals at the firms. The Academy also provides a strong support system for the students as they start looking out for career opportunities as a Data Scientist. 

At the end of the day, You'll form great relationships not only with the instructors but with other talented students as well as everybody learns together about this exciting field. If you are thinking about uplifting your career to a whole new level and set your feet into the fantastic world of Data Science, I strongly recommend NYC Data Science Academy.