AI + Fullstack Engineering

I actually chose Actualize after coming to this website. There were countless 5-star reviews! So many, I didn't believe it so I decided to go further by asking former students on LinkedIn about their experience. To my surprise, the reviews were the same and they all recommended it. I'm so glad I listened to them and decided to enroll. Before this course, I had no prior experience with coding. I now have the confidence to say I feel like I can learn any language, framework, etc. I would highly recommend this boot camp to anyone interested in learning to code. 

I heard about this bootcamp from someone who had completed the course and said that it was great. I did some research and it had a better reputation than most of the other bootcamps I had looked at. I was impressed that it focused heavily on interaction and feedback between students and the small class sizes with two T.A.s. When I read one review about how they hire teachers, teach them to code, and use them as instructors I knew it was the right choice. I have to say it was intimidating during pre-work and the bootcamp itself was very challenging at times. The resources, group discussions, and office hours in addition to one-on-one help really made the learning process a positive experience. It is a bootcamp so it isn't easy but the amount of information that I learned was well worth the time and money.

I chose Actualize because I wanted a short and intensive experience. What I didn't expect was a relaxed environment that I found comfortable to learn in. While we did cover course work quickly, my instructors did not add additional pressure but relieved it. I am very proud of how far I've come in this short time. I'd recommend Actualize to anyone who has already found an interest in coding but found self-learning to be full of stumbling blocks.

Actualize was, in fact, the only bootcamp I applied to after deciding to learn how to code—I found their program on Course Report and sent off an application, telling myself I'd go back and consider other options later.  However, after hearing back from their enrollment team and especially after interviewing with Ricky, I decided to jump into their program.  This is a decision I have not questioned even once in the past four months.  I think the first thing that stands out to me about this school is how relaxed, considerate, and friendly the faculty and program are as a whole, providing extensive feedback and support not only about coding, technical skills, and the process of job searching, but also in regards to emotional well-being and maintaining life-work balance.  My instructor was Amanda, who is both a phenomenal teacher and a real sweetheart; her guidance and instruction was only outmatched by her encouragement, positive attitude, and outstanding ability to coax out the best in her students.  It's hard to overstate how crucial that community aspect was to my experience at Actualize—after only 12 weeks of digital meetings, I find myself feeling close to the people I have studied and worked with here, and am excited to see what they go on to do.  To that end, Actualize also provides excellent guidance in its charmingly-titled "Job Hacking" course, which course I am really grateful to have as a continued part of the education I have received here.  Overall, this is a phenomenal school providing the best in online bootcamp learning; I have already recommended the program to a few friends and will continue to do so any time someone asks me about coding bootcamp.

I settled on coming to Actualize after comparing quite a few bootcamps. The thing that decided it for me was the fact that Actualize hires actual instructors. The instructors know how to teach and put the students first. You don't get some fresh bootcamp grad who will just teach you how to type what they type. You get people that know how to teach.Specific review for Amanda (Instructor) -Amazing instructor(Would never tell her this directly...kidding). She made sure to break down what she was doing in an understandable way, and constantly found ways to make things make sense. You could see her background as a teacher come through in that she made things engaging and fun. She did a great job and I would recommend Actualize solely based on her performance.The Career support is called Job hacking and they are fantastic as well. Sarah is always available to help and helped me polish up my resume so that it wasn't an embarrassing mess. I feel ready for the job hunt and feel like I have got support through the process.

They understand the difference in how adults learn. The course will challenge you and push you to learn while giving you the flexibility to do it in ways that interest you.  They also understand how to build comradery between online students, which makes a huge difference in learning from each other. 

This was the best online course I have taken. Actualize makes it feel like a real classroom setting with real classmates that become friends the instructor was phenomenal to say the least. Had a blast and learned a lot!

I could not speak more highly of Actualize, and my instructor Katherine, who led my evening cohort.  I went into this course worried I’d struggle to stay engaged given that it was 3.5 hours after a full work day, but Katherine was extremely engaging and brought so much energy to the class every single day, it was much easier than I had anticipated.  Structurally, it was a good mix of learning via demos and and actually coding ourselves and working with our classmates.   We had a 9:1 ratio + TAs, which worked well and our questions were always answered. 

Where to begin...if you want a Bootcamp that will teach you the fundamentals of coding and computer science this is the one for you! I was recommended to Actualize by a friend and they had nothing but good things to say about the program. I was stuck at a dead-end job feeling like I wasn't going anywhere. I have always been passionate about technology and being a huge gamer I  have always wondered how can people create such amazing programs. Every single thing we use today was programmed by someone and that intrigued me to want to learn more. So I did! Actualize will get you set up at first, by speaking with an admissions advisor, they break down payment and all loan options that are available to you. They are incredibly flexible and work with you and your schedule. You start the program with a 5 week of pre-work where you have an instructor, and a weekly office hours meeting where the instructor breaks down a problem from that week's lesson. This pre-work allows you to learn the fundamentals of Ruby at your own pace and it's enjoyable! After your pre-work, you hop into live classes, and the instructors are phenomenal!! My instructor, Katherine Evans, was hands down the best teacher that I've ever had. She was extremely thorough, broke everything down, and encouraged participation. She and our TA's were always available whenever we needed them and they rock! Actualize is with you every step of the way and they are there to make sure you succeed. Trust that if you choose this program you will not regret it, Jay Wengrow and his team at Actualize will get you to where you want to be! 

I chose Actualize after several weeks of researching coding bootcamps. After narrowing my search down to 4 schools, I settled on Actualize. Throughout the reviews, one theme remained the same about Actualize…Student Focus. Student after student kept commenting about the instructors genuinely cared about the growth and development of the students. And I can say I experienced that personally. My experience at Actualize was phenomenal. The program is not easy by any means, but it is very rewarding and the knowledge you walk away with is abundant.  I would recommend this program to anyone that is seeking a career in software development. 

Katherine Evans, my professor, was a literal angel. She led with confidence and had a very kind and funny demeanor. DJ and Matt, former graduates, were theee best TA's anyone could ask for. My class, the evening cohort, was full of unique, creative, determined individuals looking for a change. This was one of the best experiences of my life and I would recommend it to anyone. You can do this. 

I just finished this Bootcamp today, and I definitely recommend it. Everything about it was exactly what I was looking for, and reviews I read for the course were very accurate, which is what lead me to pick this course in the first place. If you have read older reviews about Actualize, I can vouch for what most of them say.  It was fun, informative, challenging, and all the other things everyone else has said. Joey was my instructor, and he was great. Surprisingly, it was his first time teaching an Actualize class, but he was born for the role.

I just completed the 12-week full time daytime program. I had an excellent experience and I am so happy that I chose Actualize. The live online instruction is the way to go. I did not have any coding background so I was nervous that I would need a lot of personal attention and help to be able to keep up. The curriculum never seemed overwhelming and I felt like I had all the support that I needed. I had access to my instructor and two TAs every day. They created an environment where I was comfortable asking for help and admitting that I didn't know how to do something. My instructor, Joey, who was amazing, laid out the path for me to be a successful developer and I will be forever grateful! The job-hacking career services are also top notch. Sarah and Lisa and are so passionate about what they do and it feels so good knowing they are on your side. I couldn't be happier.

Just finished the bootcamp. Had a great time going through the whole bootcamp. More than I thought I would. Our cohorts instructor made each class session fun and taught very well. Learned more than I thought I would within those 12 weeks. You really dont need any prior coding experience to go through it. They also teach habits you should pick up. On top of the the assistants know a lot and help out. We also have job hacking that will help you get a job.

Choosing to take the Actualize Web Development course was easily the best choice I've made. In 4 months I went from not even knowing basic operators to being able to fully develop a full stack web application. The instructor was by far the greatest teacher I've ever had, friendly, entertaining, and extremely helpful in every way possible. The teaching assistants were also extremely helpful and provided great insight to their own personal experiences. I would 100% recommend this course to anyone who wants to make their start in the development world.

I am writing as the oldest member of my cohort, and I'm pivoting away from a 20 year career in entertainment.The pandemic left my industry closed for 18 months, and I discovered an interest in programming. I was determined to become a programmer by myself, self-taught, and that should be enough to maybe get an entry-level job, so I joined Codecademy.For the next 8 months, I spent 6 days a week, 1.5 hours a day, not trying to just complete the courses, but to digest them and take copious notes. I thought that was my path, but, I knew there was a world of information I was missing that I couldn't even imagine.  How do I ask a question about a topic I can't begin to describe?I came to Course Report in February 2022. The algorithm here puts the most reviewed schools/programs in the top-billed spots, which objectively makes sense.  I sent out applications to a few different schools, but nothing felt like a fit. It wasn't until day 3 of looking that I found Actualize. I hadn't seen it here on Course Report, which puzzled me, so I searched.  Actualize IS on Course Report, and it was consistently ranked higher than every other program I was pursuing. Read that again.  Actualize is higher ranked by students than other, larger schools. If you don't believe me, search right now.  If I'm wrong, I'll eat my hat. That's something the kids say, right?The staff was immeasurably helpful through registration. There is financial assistance available, which may help curb the cost of enrollment.  I would ask you consider that, as the initial price tag is steep.  Having lived it, I would have paid more, which is crazy to say.Once I was accepted, I had a few weeks before pre-work started, and I was humming with anticipation, mostly because I only had word of mouth to go by, and testimonials like this. I had no idea what to expect, and I usually like to walk into new situations a little more prepared, but eventually pre-work began. Also, I signed up for the evening sessions, as I work better at night.  I'm a vampire with a capital "B."If you have taken a course of Codecademy Pro, the pre-work will feel very similar to an "Intro To..." course. It was paced out well for me, but I had an element of familiarity with core concepts across all languages (Strings, Integers, Booleans, Loops, Arrays, Hashes/Dictionaries, Classes, OOP, Functions). This course is designed to help you even if you don't have this foundation. You don't need this foundation, but it helped. To make this clear, I had not taken the Intro to Ruby course, which is the first language you will be taught, but I felt well equipped to begin.I enjoyed my pre-work instructor, Kevin.  Cool guy, good knowledge base, and was fully prepared to admit when he didn't know something.  That's an idea I had to get comfortable with myself.  Ask questions if you have them, friends. You will get as much from any course of study as you put into it. If the instructor doesn't know, they go to your eventual instructors to ask! This program is a populated by a community of people who are coming together to help you learn best.  I get the sense that every cohort (your class) teaches our instructors how to teach the next group better.  It's that passion for teaching well that sets them apart.Expect 20 hours a week of instruction by video for the pre-work window.  Every Thursday was 2 live office hours with Kevin, where he would answer questions about the "homework" from the past week for hour one, and the second hour would go into greater detail about one of the more difficult practice problems of the week.  It's nice to begin to be able to speak to another person about code.  I didn't know how much I wanted that until I got it. The pre-work group is pared down into smaller classes for general instruction.  I think my group went from pre-work 15 students to cohort 7 students.I was lucky enough to have Peter Jang, the full-on Dean of Instruction, as my teacher. This guy has forgotten more about code than I've learned in my first ten months, but not in a bad way. It was actually exciting, because I was finding out keyboard shortcuts, or industry specific jargon, or random conventions on my first day than I hadn't discovered in months of self-teaching.  I was immediately learning the things I didn't know I didn't know, and I rode that high for weeks. I knew I spent my money in the right place on the first day of official instruction, no joke.The evening cohort's schedule (for me, in California) 4:00pm - 7:30p M-Th, 7:00am - 3pm Sun (1 hr lunch). I loved the evenings. 3.5 hours of new information every day was the perfect amount for my brain.  Sunday was a little rough, because 8 (7) hours, but The day is broken into 3 hours of instruction, lunch, one hour of "job-hacking," and then three more hours of instruction.  That last 1.5 is rough on Sunday, but doable.I won't lie, this can be dense stuff.  More often than not, you will be asked to do something before you understand it.  The understanding will come through repetition.  Connections will be made almost subconsciously as you practice you Rails CRUD, but it happened.  Peter uses the two-week paradigm to calming us down: Just remember where you were two weeks ago, and how that foreign concept seemed alien, but now you basically get it.  It's not foolproof, but it was a pretty reliable way of keeping me from spinning out, and I always noticed results.Nervous Nellies, listen up: The program will teach you that working with other people will be integral to your upcoming career. It seems obvious in retrospect, but your job will, most likely, be for someone else's company, updating their code with a group of people whose responsibility is to ensure you are doing your job. I was not looking forward to group anything.  I'm not super confident in my coding, and the last thing I want to do is show it to other people. Guess what? Suck it up, buttercup. Day 2 you are paired off with a fellow student. I don't remember coding that day with a partner, but every class session begins by pairing or grouping students into break-out rooms, and they are given conversation prompts to help break the ice.  Oof. Nothing feels worse than being forced to talk to someone when you don't have any idea who they are.  If the program hadn't forced me out of that comfort zone, I never would have chosen it for myself, and I think they get that, too... Which is why they force you out.They knew better than me, by the way. I only had six fellow cohort members, but I looked forward to catching up with someone after a few days of not speaking. Turns out, I really dig these people.  I would not have learned as much, or been as motivated, if I was left in a corner to do my homework. You may be shaking your head.  I wouldn't have believed me either, but I plan on keeping in touch with some of the folks I really clicked with.Sometimes, no. Often? No. Okay, actually there will never be a time when you know everything about coding. This program effectively teaches its subjects, but the key to a successful CAREER is how well you learn to learn.  I know, I know how it sounds, but Actualize gave me foundational knowledge that I can use that will continue to help me keep learning past the last day.The Job-Hacking portion of the program, masterfully organized by Lisa Tucker,  was my least-understood part of the program before starting. Is it job placement? Nope. It's better? I'd say yes. Along the lines of teaching you how to learn, this portion of the curriculum teaches you how to understand yourself, how to market who you are as a person using specific and proven techniques, but also make yourself as versatile a candidate as you can be. It turns out there's a science to this, and Lisa is a wizard, her staff as well. I'm not where I want to be regarding networking, but I feel very empowered to continue my job search.  You will be applying for jobs before you graduate.  I don't want any of this to discourage you, I'm telling you this because you are about to be handed the keys to a powerful and boundless kindgom, but only if you are committed. If you are prepared to work hard, study hard, and be over-whelmed at least once where your brain just says, "You've got to be kidding me. That's it, I'm leaving," but you still come back, then I recommend Actualize Coding Bootcamp for your instructional dollar.

I chose actualize because of the part-time evening schedule that it offered for live instruction as well as the overall emphasis on educational principles. This was a great experience! The pre-work aspect of the program allowed you to self pace through a variety of tutorials followed by live instruction with emphasis on ruby on rails for the backend and vue js from the front end (plus a variety of other topics). The class size was small and there was much support from the instructor individually. Actualize held true to focus on educational principles and a supportive environment for learning. I would highly recommend this program.

I absolutely loved my time at Actualize. All of the instructors are knowledgable and extremely willing to help. I chose to attend Actualize because it seemed to be a bootcamp that focused more on teaching you how to learn code rather than teaching you code. I feel like even though I've just started, I already know infinitely more than I did 12 weeks ago. I'm excited to continue learning and pursuing this career!  

I am transitioning to a new career as a web developer after my wife took a bootcamp, and I couldn't be happier with Actualize. I got to know my classmates, instructor, and was able to learn so much in so little time while also feeling accountable to the people around me. I had a ton of support both from the career advisor, TAs, and instructor. They truly care about you learning the material and getting the career you want. I would recommend to anyone looking for some guidance.

Actualize is one bootcamp among many with ostensibly comparable curricula. The course currently focuses on Ruby on Rails for backend and Vue.js (Vue 3) for frontend development, though they're always making tweaks and updates to stay current. It's organized very rationally into three sections: pre-work, live instruction, and the job search. Live instruction is typically the 'meat' of what people are looking for in coding bootcamp, often giving less consideration to incoming skill level or the real-life challenge of finding a job after the live course. The staff at Actualize are available to guide and support you all the way through, whether you're coming in with significant coding knowledge or none. Pre-work is self-paced and teaches fundamentals of Ruby programming. Live instruction is taught by one of several lead instructors (who may or may not have some great terrible jokes for the class) with additional TAs available to answer questions, and goes into some level of depth on backend and frontend web development. I was in a cohort of 12 and there was nearly always one TA in class with us, which is a significantly better student-to-teacher ratio than some other programs I researched.Live instruction was somewhat less intensive than I expected, but there's a good deal of suggested/optional homework to both review in-class material and explore topics in more depth, if you have the time and/or energy for it. I'm moving into the job search phase now, which includes specific instruction along with one-on-one support for as long as you need.Sure, I could likely have learned much of this material on my own from various online resources, but if you get overwhelmed with the universe of material that's out there, don't know where to start, need to be held accountable by real human beings or just know you do better in class settings, this might be for you. I can't speak to the full extent of career support at this point, but the knowledge that I will have access to career advisors and the Actualize alumni community for as long as I need, I have a feeling that will be a truly invaluable resource.