App Academy

Full disclosure, I'm not the typical bootcamp student because I had lots of previous coding experience and even some development work. Went to a/A because I was doing QA and hated it. My previous experience undoubtedly helped me land a job after the curriculum was completed but a/A helped me gain a lot of skills and knowledge that I was lacking before.

App Academy was the hardest I've ever worked in my life but in a good way. I really felt like I was learning and retaining what we were being taught. Be prepared to work you a$$ off! It's 9-6 every day for 13 weeks and you will spend every moment outside of class studying. Get a haircut before the course starts because you won't have a free minute!

Also be warned that your continued enrollment in the course is subject to a strike system and doing well on coding assessments. The assessments are no joke and we lost about 8 people because of them. I studied every weekend for the assessments and had no regrets on that front. Strikes are for absences and lateness so be on time! People have been dismissed from the course this way.

The curriculum was interesting and my new job has even drawn on what I have learned there so it has definitely been valuable. I really like that they are constantly revising the course to ensure it is up to date and relevant. Almost every day was pair programming on projects which I think is a great way to learn since you don't have to struggle by yourself. One downside to the constant updating is that some of the curriculum is rough around the edges and it often seems like we were only working on a given topic for 2 days at most before we moved on. It's easy to feel overwhelmed but your fellow students and teachers are always there to help you. They have office hours everyday and people often stay late to do homework together if you need it.

It's also great that part of the course is focused on job search and interviewing skills because I never felt like I knew anything about this. It was very helpful to learn about writing resumes and cover letters. The job coach I had was really insightful and I owe him a lot. You'll get lots of whiteboarding practice too which is great because it's so awkward the first time you do it.

I met a lot of nice and interesting people and there's great diversity in the student body. The instructors are really dedicated and a/A recruits TA's from previous cohorts so they are on the same level.

In summary, I really liked the course and I think if you are serious about becoming a developer it's a great choice. Some of the curriculum needed refining but they are constantly improving everything. Lots of support and teachers are great! Be warned that it is INTENSE in every sense of the word.

App Academy’s prep program is exactly as advertised - a comprehensive, well thought out program devised to get you accepted into the top bootcamps. Through refined lectures and problem sets, Alvin and David made sure that I was on track to succeed in my interviews, and understood the content. Not only that, but they were very accessible should I have questions before class, and I would recieve nearly instantaneous responses to my questions through Slack. Following prep, I was accepted to every bootcamp I applied for, most notably App Academy, Hack Reactor, and Fullstack/Grace Hopper, thanks to the amazing support and instruction I received through App Academy’s prep program! 

App Academy has really made me appreciate my decision to commit to web development. If you are considering applying here, you really need to understand where you are and why you are making this commitment. If you don't fully commit, the program is not going to wait for you. If you understand this going in, then App Academy can help you go over the hurdles to become a full-fledged web developer. 

My favorite aspect about this program is that every lesson builds on itself. There will be times that you feel like your behind, but that should motivate you to keep up. Eventually when you reach the end, you will realize how much you really know and how ready you are to move forward with your new career path. 

I would highly recommend this program to anyone.

I attended App Academy in July 2017. Overall, my experience was positive and I think the course gave me the tools I need to get a job as a web developer.

Pros: 
- Great curriculum: The pace is extremely fast and it constantly feels like you're barely keeping up but the structure of the course with the weekly assessments keeps you on track and at the end, you realize you know more that you think you do. 
- Great staff: The Instructors / TAs are available to answer questions throughout the day and they're good at helping you arrive at the right solution to the problem instead of feeding you the answers. 
- Projects: You leave the program with 3 projects on your resume which you've built on your own.

Cons: 
- As the other reviews mention, expect to spend 90+ hours a week doing this. You will have very little time to do anything else. 
- With the speed of the course and the weekly assessments, it can be very easy to fall behind and there's little to no time to catch up. 
- The end of the course can seem a bit rushed as you rush to complete your resume and portfolio and start applying to jobs.

The past few months have been some of the most intense in my entire life. It really is surprising how much material they were able to pack into three months. In a way it's almost too much to tackle at once; it takes a lot of mental and emotional fortitude to get through and really pushed me to my limits. I've made it through, but I came close many times to crashing and burning. Iif I had more time to prep myself mentally I would have waited a few months, but circumstance dictated that I get started as soon as possible. It was worth it in the end, but really difficult.

The upside of being at App Academy is that you know they have your back. The students and TAs are very supportive of one another and will help see you through a multitude of challenges, technical or otherwise. The best part is that this support continues until you've accepted a job offer! Don't be afraid to open up to the TAs; they really are there for you.

•  55 reviews

Great way to learn something new while paying a deferred cost. As with what everyone said, the program gives you the tools to acquire new skills at a blistering pace. The TAs know their stuff, and while you may not realize it as you're going through the program, everything falls into place at the end of it all, when you realize you're able to make things you never thought you could make, while learning the skillset to be able to learn new things on your own.

It's very enjoyable to be able to build applications that we use in our every day lives. You understand the process in how popular websites are made, and you start to respect the amount of work and detail that went into popular websites such as Facebook, YouTube, and Yelp. Now you can create your own if you like!

App Academy was one of the hardest yet most rewarding thing I've ever been through.  I can't say enough about the people who are apart of this bootcamp.  All of the TAs are incredible programmers, who can articulate complex algorithms, theories and concepts in a very understandable way.
The course is fast paced, but laid out in a way that keeps building on what you've learned the days before.  I can't believe it was only 3 months long and now I can build websites, games and understand complex programming and engineering concepts.
It's amazing that after going through this bootcamp, I can switch careers and grow in an industry I love.

I came in with a little bit of programming experience - enough to know a few basic data structures and the difference between HTML and Ruby, but as I soon learned, not very much at all. The amount of information I learned in the first few days combined to be more knowledge than I had about programming previously. The course has a ton of great TA's, so even if you are feeling overwhelmed, there's always someone to talk to for help. Classmates come from all backgrounds and walks of life, but pretty much everyone was the same beginner when sitting down at the computer to pair. Because everyone is there for the same reason (to learn and become developers) everyone is willing to help out each other. 
One warning: the course isn't lying when they say you will spend upwards of 90 hours a week programming. There is plenty of work to do outside of the classroom, and you'll want to do all of it to make sure you don't fall behind. The information is actually quite interesting and the lecture videos are well done, but it will be in your favor to keep on top of the work. 
There's also a great alumni network to help find jobs after the course is officially finished. Because App Academy is one of the few long-lasting coding bootcamps, companies have learned that their graduates are different than other bootcamp graduates and are more willing to give potential employees the time of day. 
Overall, I had a great experience at App Academy. It nurtures a collaborative atmosphere unlike many other places of learning. Come prepared to class each day, get plenty of rest, and there's no reason you too can't succeed at App Academy.

If you are interested in pursuing software development as a career App Academy will definitely get you there. When other reviews point out that it is really hard and intense they are not lying, but they payoff is more than enough to justify it. You get out of it as much as you put into it. There methodology and curriculum is excellent. Everything is finely crafted so students can get as much as possible from every day at App Academy. Each day you'll leave knowing some new tool or skill you did not know that same morning. The immersive nature of the program really goes a long way.

Pros: App Academy teaches you more information than you'd be able to pick up on your own. They consolidate the most important things in the industry, and package them for you to learn within a span of 8 weeks. However, even taking that into consideration, App Academy's greatest asset is the people. By that I mean, the instructors are extremely helpful and knowledgeable, and your fellow cohort members will be extremely hard working which will push you to work hard as well.

Cons: This will take over your life for 2 - 3 months. There are some outliers where some students get through just fine without spending 90+hrs a week, however for the vast majority, I'd say 90+hrs is the norm. Granted, you're learning so much in within that 2-3 month span, it shouldn't be too surprising how much time you're putting in.

I have a tech background including a good deal of time teaching myself programming and I still learned a ton at App Academy. I had no luck at all trying to apply to jobs when teaching myself. I feel that App Academy gave me the discipline to put together a portfolio I can feel proud of. It also filled in the gaps I had in my knowledge.

I suggest anyone applying to learn a bit on their own beforehand. Even with my self taught knowledge the course was very intense. Some people were able to go from a completely unrelated field and thrive but I feel like it is better to get some practice in first.

Overall App Academy was a great experience and I highly recommend them.

When I was applying to boot camps, I did so simultaneously, to about 4 different boot camps. One of them accepted me right off the bat and I knew they were the wrong choiced. Others asked me to accomplish things in coding challenges that were far beyond my skill level without offering any instruction or legitimate curriculum. 

With App Academy, the application process was very challenging, but you are given every opportunity to succeed via their resources. Also, the actual challenges they give you are algorithm challenges, very similar to whiteboarding questions you may get when you interview for a Developer position. This is in contrast to other challenges that ask you to build a Rails Twilio application or some other project that is very practical in nature. 

Yes, building an application is a great way of finding out whether someone is a good programmer, but it tells you nothing of their potential. However, if you teach someone some basic programming principles and data structures: what is a string? an array? etc. and then ask them to solve a question that uses those data structures, it is a much better way to guage someones potential by seeing if they are capable of applying what they are learning. Building a full application is much too difficult a task to ask of a newbie without spelling out every step and at that point, you may as well just write the code for them.

So aside from the deffered tuition (which is nice), the application process is what got me hooked on App Academy.

Once you get in, first the first few weeks all you want to do is survive. You will be kicked out if you fail two exams. The first people to go are people who can't type (it's painful to watch them type with only their index fingers) and people who don't speak English as their first language. That's not to say that everyone who doesn't speak English as their first language will fail, not what I am saying. However, the sheer amount of information that will be thrown at you is mind numbing and every lick of it is in English. If there is no language barrier, you still only absorb ~75-85% of what you are taught. If there is a language barrier, that percentage drops. This makes it difficult to keep up in a very fast paced environment. I noticed the people who spoke English as a second language and did well in the class either had prior coding experience or were just insanely sedulous and dedicated to the craft. It can be done, but it is certainly harder.

Once you make it past the survival phase, which is after the fourth assessment (say week 4), then you start to think, "Ok, I don't want to just survive anymore, I want to excel." This is where the course gets really exciting because you begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. You start to think about things like a programmer. You get re-programmed. That's what this program does to you, it programs you to be a programmer (you like what I did there?).

If you're smart, you may be wondering, "Well what are some flaws, some bad things about App Academy". The one thing I can point to, which I got over once I bought into the program is this: you are not attending a/A to create a startup when you graduate. I have a ton of ideas for startups, yes, but if it's one thing I learned during my time at a/A, it's that programming is very hard and it will take time (and more importantly, work experience) for you to be good. The goal of an a/A graduate is to get a job, not to start a company with a cool new application that revolutionizes an industry. Get a job, pay us back, get some experience, and then go start a company. That is the message and to be honest, I agree with it. Now some other bootcamps, like Full Stack Academy, have avenues for students to pursue their startup aspirations. This is a luxury that only a school who is already paid can afford. At a/A, they don't make money unless you do and most startups don't make money, they cost money (trust me, I know firsthand). 

Now, if they don't get paid unless you do, that means they have a vested interest in your getting paid. This system of deffered tuition is one that Milton Friedman espoused in his book Free To Choose. He devised this as a way to pay for education without the government paying for it, but admitted it would be very difficult to implement. Well, App Academy implemented and guess what, it works! The curriculum kicks ass. It is laid out in such a way that each topic builds on the next and moves very quickly so that every week your knowledge grows exponentially. I'm not going to go into specifics on the curriculum, the website does that. But I will say that I remember thinking often, "Wow, this curriculum is so good." Thank Ned Ruggeri et al!

In summary, and this has been a long review, I highly recommend App Academy.

I was in the NYC May 2017 cohort, and was lucky enough to make it through to the end. I came in with a bit of development experience, but App Academy helped me take it to the next level. To simplify things, I'll boil it down to a few pros/cons that I felt to be true after my three month adventure.

Pros: 
- you will be surrounded by very smart people with impressive and diverse backgrounds 
- lots of pair programming (something you can't do alone in the basement)
- a/A wants you to succeed since they're making an investment in you from day one
- streamlined yet intense curriculum that will set you up for a job afterwards
- tuition model means you don't have to pay upfront

Cons:
- As mentioned by many others, your social life will be nonexistent during the course
- You don't get much freedom in terms of what you do/learn in the main course
- If you're not meeting bare expectations, you'll be asked to leave
- Stress. Lots of stress.

​App Academy was the best decision I made and it was such an amazing experience. I graduated college with a Biology degree and was planning to go to physical therapy school, but my grades and GRE scores were not competitive enough, so I felt stuck. I was looking for a career change and that's how I found App Academy.

I strongly suggest learning how to code a bit to see if you like it! I ended up finding it more enjoyable to learn than studying for my GREs. I've never coded before and I had no CS or SWE friends, but I followed my instincts and decided to apply to App Academy. 

For the interview process, I checked out the resources provided by App Academy to prepare for the coding challenges and found them helpful for getting a good start. I went through every possible interview round there was.. first it was a timed coding challenge which I passed, but decided to attend their Jumpstart program where you have the chance to be accepted straight into the program if you pass their assessments (Which I highly encourage if you can make it out to SF for two weeks - just email them for more information about it). Unfortunately, I didn't pass Jumpstart, so I returned to SoCal and continued with my interview process. I went through a live coding test, a homework assignment, a timed test, another live coding test, and then finally making it to the behavioral interview before receiving the acceptance email.

Program:
- If you are thinking about doing a career shift and have zero coding experience, know that it's possible but you will have to put in a lot of work to learn the material and not fall behind. App Academy will be difficult. They move at a really fast pace and it will be hard to keep up if you fall behind.
- Be prepared to have no life outside of coding for 3 months. Because they're also open on the weekends, I went to a/A every single day during the program. Take advantage of the study area since they have computers, a restroom, and a kitchen! Why go to a coffee shop and struggle to find open seats :) There were nights where I dreamt about code, went to sleep thinking about code, and woke up thinking about code. 
- Don't feel down if you see that those around you are doing a lot better than you, a lot of times I realized that those around me have either coded before, taken CS classes, or have prior experience. 
- Make sure to study well for the assessments, they are timed so make sure to practice taking them over and over and over again if you don't do well under pressure.
- Staff/TA was great! They split everyone into smaller groups, so there's a good amount of TAs per group. We had weekly circle time where we went around in a circle and talked about our week which I really liked.

Job Search:
- My biggest challenge was to study algorithms, data structures, and mostly CS concepts since I did not have that background, but just study consistently the areas you feel you're weak at and practice. Set up a good routine and schedule for yourself. Resources provided by a/A
- Constantly check in with your coach! Meet up with your cohort mates to study and keep up the momentum to applying for jobs. Support each other.
- Buy yourself a whiteboard to practice writing out problems. Be comfortable talking about yourself and your projects (it's going to get repetitive)
- I wanted to wait until I received a job offer to leave a review... so I am happy to say that after 4 months of job searching, I received an offer from a company I am super excited to work for! Thank you App Academy! 

I attended App Academy this past winter, and it was a great program start to finish. Some background on me - I was coming from a software background building ads in Flash. I never had any organized instruction in software, so I pretty much only learned what I dealt with on a day to day basis. After a few years, Flash was almost dead, and I knew I had to get my skillset more in line with the current tech ecosystem. 

I enrolled in App Academy, and start to finish it was an awesome experience. They had the right mix of lectures, well-written readings, and actual coding. Every day you'd be paired with a new partner, and then at night you'd have readings and homework to buff up your skills. It was a TON of work, but it was so busy and interesting that it never felt frustrating or overwhelming. It was just a matter of telling all your friends "I can't hang out for a couple months," and then putting the time in. That's a tall order I'm sure, but I think it was worth it. I swear at one point during a break, I felt my brain tingling from all the thinking I had been doing.

Anyway, they taught a wonderful full stack curriculum that left me well prepared for coding challenges and interviews. It took me a while, but my new job is paying me 30,000 more than my previous software job. App Academy is an intense program, but for me it was one of the most personally rewarding decisions I ever made.

I am currently studying at App Academy. I think I have made a great choice. 
Curriculum:
The Curriculum is great and intense. Every night you will have homework and readings. Each morning you will have lectures and each afternoon you will do pair coding. Most of the time you won't complete the daily project
There will be 6 assessments and at least three large projects during the cohort. 
It's not a joke of drinking from the fire hydrant.  There is more and more stress every day.
No one is super confident through the whole cohort.   or understand everything  App Academy teaches you.  At some point, you will feel behind. The TAs will tell you it's normal.  You should believe it. At least I do. 
Do your best to learn everything. Use all your time to work hard on it and believe you could make it through.