Austin Coding Academy

 

I love Austin Coding Academy.  I just finished the front end intro course and had an overwhelmingly positive experience.  The teacher, Erik, is a hilarious guy who is also great at his job.  He presents the subject matter in a way that's easy to understand.  Jake, the TA, is a super nice guy who is always willing to help.  Erik’s classes were very organized and well thought out.  In class, we learned about one subject a day.  We’d do a few exercises with Erik together and then were left on our own for homework.  Mondays had smaller homework assignments and Wednesdays had bigger homework assignments.  Office hours are there if you need help.  Teachers and TAs always responded to emails.  Class moved at a pace that was just right for me.  I felt challenged by the work but never like it was beyond my capabilities.  I felt confident walking into it and out of it.  I also never felt overloaded by the homework or study requirements.   I felt I had time to focus on my responsibilities outside of class.  I dedicated, at least, ten hours a week to study without problems.

What I loved most about ACA is that they're doing education in a different way.  I came to ACA after some difficult years in college as a disabilities student.  I made a very serious decision to drop out and find some other way to start a career.  I tried learning to code on my own for a while, but it wasn’t easy without teachers and some structure in place.  I walked into ACA half-thinking I would have the exact same downward spiral as I did when I was in college.  Instead, I walked out with the best learning experience of my life.  At ACA, your work is assessed rather than graded.  If you don't understand something, it's not the end of the world.  Their priority is helping you learn.  I really think that made all the difference.  It made learning a truly positive experience rather than one based on negative motivation.  Most people with my issues have low rates of high school and college graduation.  Most go into adulthood never finding full-time employment and financial independence.  It has meant the world to me walk away from just one class at ACA knowing I can start to put that fear behind me and knowing that dropping out of college wasn’t the biggest mistake of my life.  Now I have a real skill and I can make a real career that pays while doing something I love.  My friends and family have never been happier for me.

I took one star off just for the little things they’re dealing with as a new company.  They could be a little more organized and communicative.  Office hours are sort of required and I'd appreciate more flexibility there.  It would also be nice to see more women working at ACA.  As I point out these things, I cannot go without saying that the founders and teachers clearly are always trying to work out any kinks in the system and that matters so much.  They’re invested in student opinion (anonymous surveys, discussion), doing what’s best for the students, and changing stuff when they see it needs changing.  

I would highly recommend ACA.  It’s absolutely worth the money.  It cost me a lot less than college and I walked out with a lot more.  I also had a lot of fun.  I’m looking forward to taking the intermediate class.

Since the pandemic, Austin Coding Academy has really gone downhill. Last-minute schedule changes and overall disorganization have become the norm. It feels like they still haven’t figured things out, and it's been pretty disappointing.

The neglect toward students is obvious. I’ve seen students who can barely code getting moved along in the program.

Most of the positive reviews are from before these changes. The place used to have a great reputation, but now it's just not the same. Until they sort things out, I wouldn't recommend Austin Coding Academy. There are other coding bootcamps out there with much better reputations and outcomes for a similar price.

The advanced class (working with Mongo, Express, React and Node ) instructor did a phenomenal job of guiding us along the way while teaching you to be independent and job-ready.  In addition, the career services team is an exceptional asset to the program, as they give you personal feedback on your resume/cover letters/etc. to be job search ready. Thanks to their help and the modern curriculum, I accepted a job offer less than a month after graduation! This program is tough, but anyone willing to work hard will be successful.

I have a lot of great things to say about ACA, but want to leave an honest review for other individuals like myself who are looking to take courses in coding. 

First off the entire factulty and staff is awesome. If you're looking for 1:1 attention this is the place for you. They make sure every issue, question, and conern is addressed. 

I've taken all three classes. The intro class was fantastic. Learned a ton, the instructor and the TA were great too. They really did everything they could to make sure we were learning the material. 

The intermediate and advanced class, I can't say the same thing. This is where things went south for me in this program.

The hardest part that I found about going through ACA is that they put way too much emphasis on you actually understanding what is going on in the prework. They expect you to go into class understanding everything. For myself, without a technical/coding background the prework to me was very confusing in itself. By the time you start your first class they expect you to be an expert on prework and jump right into the material. For people with a coding background, I'm sure that's great because you're probably looking to take this class to expand what you already know and don't want to sit around waiting for a beginner like myself to get up to speed. But for someone like myself who knew nothing, I didn't understand anything a lot of the concepts and was already behind on the first day of class. I was playing catch up the entire time. I ended up having to pay for tutors and online material to teach me the basic fundamentals that ACA assumed you understood from the prework. My understanding was that my tuition money was going to actually go towards an instructor teaching me fundamentals, but it wasn't. 

For me, this method of teaching wasn't what I needed. I needed to start from nothing and build up from there with an actual instructor, not from a free codeschool class. I honestly learned more for Udemy and my tutor than I did from ACA. 

For those of you who already have a good background with coding, then I would highly suggest this course. Everyone I was in class with that already had a good background in it loved the classes and were really succesful in learning everything. 

Hope this review helps!