App Academy

Definitely a full-time commitment. Coursework really pushed you to learn a ton of new things in a short amount of time. If diving head-first into programming and making a big life change is your goal, this is a good place to learn quickly, even if it sometimes feels like being thrown into the deep end. Made a lot of good friends. Heavy emphasis on paired programming. Assessment policy is very strict and there is more to learn than there is time in the day -- expect it to feel stressful and be ok with not being able to finish everything.

I can attest that App Academy works: I went in knowing only what I dimly remembered from intro comp sci back in college, and I’m about to start my first job as a software engineer.

I’d say the greatest strengths of the program are the challenge, the support, and the accountability. The principal three-month curriculum is incredibly intense—expect 60-hour weeks at absolute minimum—but it takes you through the skills and concepts you need to know and forces you to put in the necessary work to really learn them. The instructors and TAs, though they can occasionally be overwhelmed (many are graduates of the course), are always on hand to offer helpful feedback that’s often critical to bringing together your understanding of a concept. It’s all about putting you in a structure that incentivizes you to actually put in the work, and this continues even after graduation, as you get individualized coaching and reporting tools that make sure you regularly apply to jobs and continue working on projects and coding challenges. This is especially valuable because the job search can take time—around three months in my case—and you’ll absolutely have more to learn after you graduate. Twelve weeks can’t cover every nuance of software engineering.

As far as downsides, the instruction is sometimes shaky, as I said above, though years in business have polished the curriculum to the point where you’ll usually have pre-prepared resources to help you out if worst comes to worst. Your continued participation in the course depends on you passing the regular assessments, which is a major source of stress even if you have a handle on the material and prepare well. The assessments themselves also can feel more like tests of memorization than genuine reflections of how much you’ve learned. Last but not least, despite App Academy’s stated (and admirable) goal of bringing people from more diverse backgrounds into the tech industry, most of the classes seem to be overwhelmingly male, even more so than the industry as a whole. That won’t be an issue for everybody, but it’s worth mentioning.

Still, I have no regrets. It was an extremely valuable learning experience for me and, obviously, it got me a job.

App Academy is often described as drinking from a fire hose in the sense that it gives more information than is possible to absorb. As a result, the curriculum is quite challenging and it is normal to feel lost and behind, but students rapidly learn an absurd amount.  The TAs are extremely helpful and nice, and the projects are amazing for building your portfolio and learning. However, the current assessments could be improved since a large part of passing them is just pure memorization. Furthermore, a large part of the curriculum is Ruby which isn't as relevant in the current job market as other languages such as Python.

Overall I would say I learned a lot but the assessments are rough if you come in with 0 coding experience. I had to spend over 100 hours a week studying and I feel like I barely got through the assessment material, and most students still have to spend extra time polishing their projects, doing leetcode, and learning more skills before applying for jobs. 3 months to get employed in coding starting from not knowing anything really isn't enough time to get you to employable but I would say App Academy is probably the best option for those thinking of pursuing the bootcamp option, if they can handle the stress. Our attrition rate was 16.4% which isn't too high but I felt like some of the people that got dismissed were trying their hardest and still couldn't make it through

App Academy is an intense program, especially if you are doing the in-person course. Make sure you understand what you are signing up for. You can expect to spend at least 90 hours a week there and if you take your foot off the pedal during the program, it becomes really easy to fall into a vicious cycle of doom and gloom.

That being said, I enjoyed learning not only how to code in the leading languages and frameworks out there today but also how to develop a sense for different coding cultures found in industry. I also can’t thank the instructors enough for their dedication and support. They go above and beyond to teach you the tools and mindset to succeed. I genuinely feel that everyone who makes it through the curriculum comes out with a sound foundation in all aspects of software engineering, from pair programming and debugging code to whiteboarding and solving algorithms. Not to mention that this will be the best opportunity to connect with and make lifelong friends in the industry.

One thing I do have to add is that a/A probably still has a lot of room to improve on both structuring the latter parts of the curriculum and stabilizing the volatility of the staff size from month to month. Unfortunately, our cohort had the pleasure of facing the peak of a staff shortage right as the regular curriculum ended, which I think curbed a lot of the momentum going into capstone projects.

All in all, this was undoubtedly the most rewarding learning experiences I've had. If a/A suddenly introduces an advanced-level course tomorrow, I would not hesitate to do this all again.

I was very skeptical about attending App Academy, let alone any coding boot camp for that matter. I read into it quite a bit on places like Reddit but decided to finally take the plunge. aA's policy is not for the faint of heart and they will not, for a second, take it easy on you. It is indeed a rigorous course. What makes them unique is their deferred tuition model, which may surprise a lot of people. The fact that they allow students to not pay a dollar until they land a job in software development is very impressive, and shows they are truly invested in your job search. Some tips: Make sure you make all of the life preparations needed to truly immerse yourself in the program: Let all your loved ones, significant others, friends/family know you will be committing close to 100 hours a week (trust me, it is that much) on this. Solidify housing as close to the campus as possible, preferably for the full year, but at minimum those 3 months needed. The commute from other cities is a true time-suck. Remember, you can only fail 1 of the 6 assessments. The 2nd time you fail, you will be required to pass the retake. If you fail that, you are dismissed; If you pass, you must pass the rest of the assessments to stay. I will not lie, this place is not at all perfect. Course material, daily instructions/prompts need to be updated by the curriculum staff and can be vague, so it is up to you to get help from TAs as much as possible. Don't be afraid of being annoying.

App Academy is one of the top coding bootcamp in SF bay area.

More than 95% of the graduates find jobs with average salary of $100k.

Above statements were good enough for me to join this bootcamp. To enroll, I had to take a technical interview and a non-technical interview. A technical interview was difficult as I did not have any background in coding. So I took the Jumpstart course that they provide for free for some of the students who applied. 

When you get accepted, there is a foundation course, which is 4 week long, and it says it is a basic course, but it was not so basic for me. Starting from day 1 of 5th week (technically, this is the first week in person) we had pair-programming which helped me a lot on understanding different perspective and approaches of the peers.

 

 

I was not so sure about App Academy's curriculum and their system until I began my cohort.  I heard from at least 3 different sources that it will require 80 to 100 hours a week dedication to succeed.  It is absolutely true.  The curriculum is designed so that students will never feel comfortable or relaxed.  There will always be something to work on.  Students are mostly forced to move on to the next material regardless of finishing the current project.  That being said, students have to use their own time to go back to the materials that they are unclear about.  This can be overwhelming and exhausting.  There is no hand-holding guide through the materials.  I kid you not, it will be tough, it will be hard.  Be ready to learn, be ready to dedicate yourself, but it will be rewarding after all.

If I had to, I would join App Academy again. I got to learn a ton of skills needed to begin a career as a software engineer. The intense 12-week program included hands-on projects and interesting programming concepts.  W used a variety of technologies and programming languages such as ruby on rails, javascript, react/redux, and the MERN stack to name a few. It's possible to go through the program without previous programming knowledge, but be prepared to put in a ton of ours and give up weekends during the program.

I came to a/A with a lot of apprehension and fear of failing and being failed by this bootcamp, but I have to say - it was one of the best (and spontaneous) decisions I've ever made for myself. Most things they advertise are true: you will be worked to the bone and you will have a great time. I have never worked harder in my life than in the past 12 weeks that I have been here, but more importantly I felt fulfilled while working. And even though I may have learned all this material on my own, the support network (from cohortmates, to alumns and job search coaches) is something that makes this bootcamp worth it on its own. However, I do wish that they would provide more attention to us after being switched from regular curriculum to projects/job search curriculum.  We all did feel a bit abandoned when the new cohort came in.

App academy does not kid around when they say they're an intensive program. You put in a lot of work as a student and even more after you've finished. Be prepared to give up weekends for a few months. That being said, it is an amazing experience and I learned so much. App academy places a lot of importance on pair programming and learning concepts rather than finishing homework. It amazed me that I was able to finish projects that full-time software developers couldn't even finish. I'm not a risk taker, so it took me a year to make sure that I really wanted to do this and switch fields. I highly recommend this to people who are looking for a change.