Actualize

I knew I needed some structure when learning the fundamentals of software development, so I started taking a look at dozens of different bootcamps. So many of them taught similar languages and had multiple projects that you'd be able to produce. There was one however that stood out from all the others on a couple main aspects, and that was Actualize. Actualize has been one of the greatest learning experiences I have ever had. 

A lot of bootcamps only provide you with maybe an hour a day, 3-4x a week of actual instruction. The rest of the time that you are "in the bootcamp" you are just doing some self learning. Spending the amount of money that a bootcamp costs just to teach yourself isn't helpful. Actualize is devoted to having actual live instruction 5 days a week. You go through some material, watch the instructor code, and then have a challenge to do something similar yourself. It is incredibly effective and I was able to learn & retain so much information in a short period of time. Not to mention the instructors are incredible and very knowledgable - Brian was my cohort instructor and I cannot praise him enough for how well he goes through everything. 

You can also tell that everyone in the class genuinely cares and wants you to succeed. Actualize also has something called "career hacking" which meets every Sunday to go over things related to the job search. Lisa is amazing and helps you get prepared to start tackling interviews and applications pretty much halfway through. The best part - the job hacking is available UNTIL you get your first job. They genuinely care and want you to land that first role!

I can't say enough incredible things about this bootcamp - there isn't another one that compares whatsoever. 

From the beginning, I've pretty much only heard good things about Actualize. Originally, I made a post of LinkedIn asking what bootcamp people would recommend and for a good couple weeks to a month, the only people that replied, were people from Actualize. On top of that, one of the other major reasons I chose them was because of the smaller teacher to student ratio, I believe my class was just about the max at 13 to 2 (Teacher and TA - both specifically for this class). When I was doing my research about other bootcamps, I saw that they had 20:1 or 30:1 and other variations of that so when I saw that Actualize is a much closer/personal experience, that definitely stood out to me. The last thing that stood out to me was the fact that all their teachers were a teacher of some sort before, meaning that they aren't just people who know how to code, they are people who know how to teach and also know how to code.  

I transitioned into web development with zero prior experience, and after graduating, I rate my experience at Actualize to exceed my expectations. I expected a boot camp that would only teach me to code and throw me out into the wild. What makes Actualize an excellent program to me was the help in the transition every step of the way. Will they teach you everything there is to know? No. But I found it more valuable in their mission to teach students by letting them break code, learn from their mistakes, and build a solid foundation to go forward. The instructors and teaching assistants are there whenever you faced an obstacle every day during or after class for the students. They are always patient and willing to help you learn the material.
At Actualize, they understand that the main goal is to land a job in the industry. That's why the first week they introduced weekly job hacking lectures to help in your transition into the tech field. Even after graduating, you're able to still connect with your career advisors for any assistance on landing a job whether it be resume reviewing, announcing job posts, discussing application strategies, or even reviewing job descriptions and compensations. To reiterate, every step along the way, the staff at Actualize is there to help in your transition into the field. 
How well Actualize helps you transition into web development becomes a strong attraction to many others that also decide to make the jump. That means the cohort you meet in class comes from multiple backgrounds with little or no experience and that creates this bond with them knowing that all of you are in this together. As the lectures progress forward, you get the chance to talk and work together with cohorts that helps build a sense of camaraderie when code does or doesn't work. So I think the types of people that boot camps will attract make as much an impact on your experience as the quality of their instructor. I could not recommend a better boot camp after my experience at Actualize.

As someone who was on this very website 5 months ago looking for a bootcamp to throw an exorbitant amount of money at, I understand the difficulty behind trying to pick which reviews to trust, which sound scammy, who just had a bad experience due to their own lack of effort, etc... In the interest of openness and transparency I was asked to write this review, however, that has in no way had an impact on the scores I am giving. I tried to pick an area I could maybe leave a 4 instead of 5 star answer to try and give this review a bit more trustability, but I failed, because in all honesty my experience has been 5 stars all around. My lead instructor Amanda Hale did a phenomenal job of being both engaging and informative. Additionally  Amanda did a terrific job of pushing me to my limits while still offering a helping hand when it was truly necessary. Our 2 teachers assistants were also an amazing help when fixing bugs and both super supportive throughout the process of learning this new skill. The environment was extremely welcoming and over the course of our five months together our cohort became great friends with each other. If I were to criticize a single thing to give this review a bit more validity among the skeptics it would be my personal distaste for Vue.js, again that comes down to preference and it is an incredibly popular framework and useful for the job hunt. Speaking of the job hunt, this bootcamp offers something unique that many other bootcamps do not, Career Services. At any point you can book an appointment with one of Actualize's two fantastic career counselors. due to the small class sizes you get very tailored, personalized help from finding a job, to writing a resume, to leads on different apprenticeships that match you specifically. All in all, highly recommend this bootcamp. 

Actualize is a great bootcamp, especially for this with little previous coding experience. They focus on teaching you how to teach yourself, which is extremely important in programming, and one of the main reasons I chose Actualize. The other main reason I chose this program was because they had been offering it online way before COVID, which was a huge plus - they definitely have the right structure in place. My only caveat, being someone who had a decent amount of previous coding experience, is that there were times where I didn't feel as challenged as I would have liked. Other than that, Actualize did a great job in giving me a solid foundation to further my programming abilities.

I cannot recommend this program highly enough. From the great instruction to the TA's to the Job hacking crew, everything is set up to help you be successful. Our instructor Amanda was amazing! She is so much fun, but also pushed us every day out of our comfort zone. You could always tell she truly cared about us as students and wanted us to succeed. She believed in all of us and was encouraging through the process. We had great TA's to help us as well. Meg and Jonathan did an outstanding job as support.

Bootcamp is very challenging and demanding. I was impressed by the lessons as we learned a great deal about both back end and front end software engineering. Actualize set me on a good path to continue my learning after bootcamp as well. I really appreciated the dedication to job hacking. Actualize helped us update our resumes, fix our linked in profiles, and connect with others in the industry. We did a lot of practice for tech interviews and were encouraged to start applying for jobs and put our resumes out there.

Many bootcamps have you work on a capstone project in a group, but at Actualize, we did our own project from start to finish. Although we had many opportunities to pair or mob program, I thought it was really important that we built our own app from the ground up. It gave me a much better understanding of the whole process and how the parts fit together. 
I truly appreciate all of the support, encouragement, and top notch instruction that we received. If you are looking for a bootcamp, look no further! I did look into other programs, but Actualize let me sit in on a class, they have Mac's that you can borrow so you don't have to invest in one, and they truly support their students!

I chose Actualize because after reaching out to a few different bootcamps they were the only ones to actually reach out to me and put me in touch with an actual person and after talking to the admissions manager I knew this was the place for me. My experience seriously could not have been better Amanda was an amazing teacher and was more than happy to help and teach you all of the stuff you are going to need to make a true run into the software development industry. From my classmates and the T.A.s everyone was super helpful and it makes you realize that you are all in this together and that you are all working towards the same goal and everyone is more than willing to jump in and help you with anything you may need. I would recommend this bootcamp to anyone that wants an actual in depth course on how to learn about learning software development and in the 12 weeks you are more than capable of building a full stack app and present it in a way that you know everything that you are talking about not just a bunch of vague nonsense. I would also say anyone that isn't happy where they are at that this is a great jumping off point for a new career I spent 15 years at my last job and had to leave and when struggling to figure out what I wanted to do for the rest of my life I am glad I went this way and chose in my opinion the best coding bootcamp out there.

After transitioning out of the concrete industry, Actualize gave me all the tools I needed to succeed in the tech field. Their curriculum is fast paced and covers a wide variety of information, but you never feel left behind. Due to the small class size, experienced instructors, and multiple great TA's, there is always a support structure to fall back on if you need it. If you're interested in a full-stack experience that will challenge you as well as teach you, then I couldn't recommend Actualize enough.

 I came across Actualize as I was making a career change from sales. Not only does it provide great instructors but the staff genuinely cares about their students and their growth. This course consists of a dozen of exercises/problems each week, a video explaining how to solve the problem, and then a section for you to solve the problem. The course is set up to learn new topics each week, and you get plenty of practice in class and in homework assignments. Moreover, there was a strong sense of community and we all quickly became comfortable with one another and trusted one another in the learning process. 

Like so many of the other reviews posted here, I want to reiterate what a fantastic bootcamp this is having just graduated from it myself. 

With an excellent, well-rounded curriculum that runs for around five months, followed by their job assistance program called "Job Hacking," students genuinely have all the support they need to not only learn full stack web development, but to reinvent their resumes and professional lives. 

I attended the most recent in-person cohort at their Chicago office. Peter, the head instructor, led this cohort. He did a fantastic job teaching us, and was always willing to take us through anything we needed help with step by step. 

Perhaps the biggest takeaway I got from all this was not necessarily becoming a pro developer after only five or so months, but learning how to teach myself how to code so as to be prepared for a fulfilling career. 

Though it may be hard to believe, this bootcamp really lives up to the hype.    

Going to this camp has been a great experience for me, I feel like I learned so much in such a short period of time. This course is quite intense but once you graduate you will feel confident that you can start applying for entry level positions in software development. I came into it with zero coding experience and the pacing of the class, while fast, did not leave me falling behind by any means. I highly recommend this to anyone who has tried to learn to code on their own and felt as though there was just too much to learn and got lost in the mess of it all. Actualize provides a structure curriculum that is tried and true. 

I had the opportunity to recently attend the in person cohort for Actualize's Coding Bootcamp in Chicago. With no prior experience in coding, I wasn't sure what to fully expect. I appreciated the instructor being upfront and honest about what the class was going to provide in a 16 week period. We focused on the fundamentals and basics of coding while learning how to learn to code. I believe this is a huge factor in being successful in the software development industry. It is constantly changing and with the help of Actualize's program and curriculum, I honestly believe I have been set up the best way possible to be successful in my job search now and many years after. The instructor also made sure every student had the resources and time needed outside of class to learn and get the help they needed. 

I chose Actualize because it was a full-time, full-stack bootcamp that is about 5 months long. 5 weeks of pre-work, that is self-paced and 12 weeks of virtual class that you attend every day. I was drawn by the fact that in a very short time, you were able to learn these skills. I appreciate that everyone at Actualize makes you feel very welcomed and cared for and they want to make sure you have a positive experience. The mental toll the bootcamp will take is talked about immediately and I love that. I would recommend Actualize to anyone that is looking to fast track their career into coding, but make sure you are ready for a rollercoaster ride and you really dedicate yourself.

I chose Actualize because of their commitment to the human side of career transitioning, and it really went above and beyond! Instructors are contactable at (almost) any time, the job search assistance is stellar, there really isn't any more you can ask for in terms of learning a new skill and finding your way into its industry. 

They do a fantastic job of treating you as a person who deserves to succeed and take as many steps required to get you where you want to be.  The level of support you receive as a student both in and beyond the course really makes a huge difference in giving you the confidence to get out of your comfort zone and into the world! 

First off..If you read through these reviews you will see so much positive feedback that it makes you think that there is no way these are true. Well, I'm here to tell you...It's all true! From the first phone call with Ricky to my amazing instructor Dani..there are so many great people that just want to see you succeed. I loved the small class size and the fact that Dani always had time for me if I needed help or just wanted to chat. Their career support is incredible. Yes it's true they don't offer any type of career guarantee but honestly, why should they? It's up to you the student to use the tools and knowledge that they instill in you to make it happen. They have amazing job Hacking resources and the career counselors are so great at what they do. Sarah was amazing at helping me be prepared to tackle the job hunt and also always someone that I could talk to about any life stuff that was affecting my learning. Overall this was an amazing experience that I would recommend to anyone looking to jump into tech.. 10/10 would do it again!!

Changing careers can be terrifying, especially if you've been in one for a long time with an extensive formal education. I was feeling very unfulfilled in mine though, and I wanted to try something different. I didn't have the means to spend another 4 years in college though, so I was very excited that coding bootcamp was a thing, because programming is what I wanted to learn. Its an intimidating field to try to go into, but I really like how Actualize taught you how to learn other programming languages. The bootcamp made me feel like even though I still don't know much at all, I can learn it quickly and I know how to go about doing that. My instructor was so great. She was super high energy all the time and very positive, so class was always entertaining and it was easy to stay focused. Its very clear that she, along with the career counselors really do care about the students and how they do when they are done. I never felt like just another number they were trying to add on to their good stats. My prework instructor was equally helpful in the journey. They were both abundantly available when I needed extra help. At the end of this experience, I am impressed with what I have learned in just a few short months and the project I was able to turn out, and I dont think I could've have accomplished that at just any bootcamp. I feel like I have enough knowledge in each area of programming that I can easily go out and expand that knowledge to get the right career. I also am really impressed with the job assistance resources, and it was one of the main reasons I chose this bootcamp. They really do want to make sure that you take your new knowledge and get the coding job that you want. The counselors definitely know their stuff on everything from resumes to networking to interviews. I would highly recommend this bootcamp to anyone who thinks they would like to be a programmer. It was money and time very well spent!