Blaizing Academy

 

Course: Intro to iOS- Crash course-style learning, good for introducing a person to a lot of information at once in a short period of time. Very knowledged/skilled instructors that teach practice instead of just theory in a field-submersive environment, where the student is always in the code doing it themselves. Instructors not only teach, but work it in their career and have years (some with decades) of experience in programming and the business of it.

Welcoming environment for beginners like me- never felt out of place. Definitely worth looking into!

When Eleven Fifty says "In just seven days, we teach you new real-world skills that you can build upon immediately", they mean it!

I had never attended a bootcamp before and I wasn't sure what to expect of that learning format. I was wondering if the long days were going to be too long. As it turns out, I was excited about what I was learning the whole time! Every hour I was learning something new, adding it to what we were working on, and watching the actual apps I was writing come to life!

I blogged about the whole adventure, if you'd like to see what it was like in more detail.

In the end, I've added a marketable skill and I am currently working on apps to send to the App Store!

The immersion method of teaching at Eleven Fifty was new to me but I felt that it was effective.  Seeing real cod being created with explanation as to why it is being created helped a ton.  The instructors were very patient and gave understandable explanations to how and why something works.  Having an open syllabus was nice in case we had to take a step back.  I walked away with a solid understanding of java script and reference to look at while I create my next JS application.  Looking forward to my next steps in JS and what I will be creating!

Amentities at Eleven Fifty are nice.  Meals are provided for students and there are assigned breaks to allow your mind to refresh for the evening portion.  All of the staff at the boot camp are accomodating and friendly.  The facilty and teaching lab/theater is very comfortable, you feel like your at home beacause you attend the course at a beautiful home.   

Eleven Fifty is the school for you if you are ready to dive right in to a new language. I took their 7-day immersive iOS course and it is THE definition of a crash course. Each moment was spent learning and developing with not a second wasted, except for the delicious meals! 

The days were long but you are most definitely getting what you pay for. Terrance was my instructor and I would not change one thing about his style of teaching. I am a "doer" and learn better from doing the actions myself. I was able to code right along with Terrance as he projected his screen for the whole class to see. I felt like I was fully capable of developing my own app using Swift after completing the course. 

Attending the iOS course at Eleven Fifty was a great experience and will be my first choice when I need to learn a new language!

The Java for Web was a great course in a great environment. You really do get to learn in an environment where they care about you and make you feel welcome. They are there to help you learn and make sure you are on track for knowing what is important. This class focused in on basic understand of Java the first two days, then you went all into learning Spring for Java the rest of the week. The class is more hands on then lecture which was great for us. The instructor was always on hand to help and answer questions.

From what I've read, developer bootcamps often run for weeks and cost appropriately escalated sums of money. I say that taking a week-long course in-residence at Eleven Fifty Academy in the Indianapolis area is the sweet-spot of boot-camping. I don't think I would have opted, at this point in my life, for weeks of do-nothing-else intensity at a huge money outlay. Having gone through the Intro to iOS Development in Swift programming language, naturally using Apple's Xcode integrated development environment, with Parse.com used for backend and Twitter and Facebook APIs to effect authentication, and using my own Mac Book Pro proved to be amazingly skill-elevating and eye-opening. Frankly, it felt like a virtual brain transplant, or my dormant programmer's brain re-awakening. I had been a lapsed developer, and still think of myself as a computer scientist, among other things, so my perspective may be a bit niche. However, everyone around taking the course with me, whatever their background, appeared to have the same take on the course: eminently enjoyable, supportive, and most importantly, effective.  I am sure much of that come about directly from the instructor Terrence Kunstek, who does a brilliant and brilliantly friendly job. In no small part the environment of Scott A. Jones' "palatial estate" ($1 to Indiana Business Daily), and the truly awesome catering orchestrated by Greg Abes, and the not too shabby extracurricular activities offered us, the students, had all combined to make this a wonderful, life-changing experience. The people at the long bootcamps are equally competent, one hopes, and supportive, and all that, but frankly, it is not something I am in any position to find out on my own. I will take the Advanced iOS class at the first opportunity available to me, because not to do so feels now like leaving a construction half-finished.  Whether you too are a lapsed developer or a greenhorn suffused with trepidation, or a completely sure of yourself in-between, whoever you are, this teaching/learning thing that Eleven Fifty Academy is well worth your time and resources.

 

Eleven Fifty is like no other school out there. I took the 2-day Into to Computer Programming Course, and what a great experience. Coming in, I was nervous because I had no knowledge of coding whatsoever. But the instructor started with the absolute basics and worked up to higher concepts. The weekend class just introduces you to the bare bones of coding (specifically javascript), but it made me want to come back for more.

What's more, everybody who works there makes it their goal to ensure you not only learn a ton, but that you also have a great time and feel at home. You walk around the house in slippers or socks, have your choice of snacks any time, and on the breaks you can take advantage of the pool table, fireplace, or many other amenities.

If you want to learn about coding, you couldn't find a better investment than Eleven Fifty!

I took the weekend Intro to Computer Programming course at Eleven Fifty and couldn't be happier! The instruction was phenomenal and very hands on, I was typing my own code and editing images and actually understanding what was being taught. I felt comfortable asking questions at times when I didn't fully grasp certain concepts, but the course itself moved at pace that kept me from feeling like I was drowning.

I couldn't be happier with Eleven Fifty and the investment I made in this class. I will certainly be returning for more advanced classes in the future!

I enrolled at Eleven Fifty because they offered a bootcamp that was 7 days versus the typical 6-8 week course.  Being that it was to take place at the home of Tech Entrepreneur Scott Jones, I figured it had to be worthwhile.  Well, it was.  I went from not knowing ANYTHING about iOS development to now having the ability to understand the basics of app development.  There is still more to learn after this course and will definitely be back to take the advanced course.  Terrence was my instructor for iOS and he is a very experienced and knowledgeable developer that was willing to share all his knowledge about iOS development and more.  We learned syntax, swift, xcode, parse and also learned how to submit an app for approval by the app store.  During the course we developed 3 apps from scratch (using some already provided code for some sections which we reviewed in detail so we understood it).  The entire staff was quite helpful and I would certainly recommend this course to anyone serious about app development.

I took this course a week ago, and I am now proficient at building apps. They definitely give you the building blocks to go out and build your own app once the course is over. Even though the course runs 12 hours a day, you do not get burnt out because they have well-placed breaks and the material is extremely interesting. We built a note app, a Snapchat copycat app, and a Tindr copycat app. Anybody of any age who wants to learn how to build apps should definitely attend this school. The instructors and staff are extremely great too and are willing to help you through all of your struggles and are also very accomodating. Plus, the food was catered in from some delicious restaraunts.  

First things first, the admissions process was hectic and clumsy. High pressure sales pitches. Little to no communication if you have questions about the program or financing. The instructors were great. The curriculum was great. The career services department literally did not exist. The company was going through some sort of transition (they laid off something like 60% of their workforce). Even after they hired someone for career services (about 3 weeks before I graduated, I had little to no interaction with them. The job field is not at all like they convey. There are plenty of jobs, but even entry level positions usually require some IT experience, if not specifically networking or security. 

Pros: Great instructors and course materials, resources for learning outside of class

Cons: Lots of information very quickly, Hard to keep up at times
Admissions process was hectic and high pressure, lack of communication
Career services were non-existent, lack of communication

I completed the web development course through EFA and would advise you to look elsewhere if you want to learn how to code. 

The staff at EFA embraces the drinking from a fire hydrant learning method. This is ineffective. Humans don't learn well by trying to absorb a bunch of information in a short amount of time. It's why your middle school teachers told you not to procrastinate and wait until the last minute to do an assignment/study. Unless EFA students have prior coding experience or an unusual ability to learn a large amount of new information quickly you are not going to get it. This method is not wise for learning period let along something as complex as coding. 

One of the appeals of attending a live, interactive school is access to instructors who can help you where you need it. EFA spends a lot of time telling students how they need to be able to figure stuff out on their own as a developer. While this is true students are paying a lot of money to attend. As a student I was not looking for someone to simply tell me the answer but I was expecting someone to help me figure out what i'm not understanding. That largely did not happen. Instead what you will often get as "help" is a link to some article to read online. After spending an hour on a problem and not getting it I thought $15K would get you a little more help than a "here is a link, go figure it out yourself" response. Oftentimes that is what you get. If EFA wants to maintain this level of help than I would expect a significantly less tuition amount because their program is more inline with a self paced / figure things out yourself program that is a fraction of what EFA charges.

The instructors themselves vary in quality. They are sometimes recent EFA graduates themselves with no coding experience beyond being an EFA student. The same goes for assistants. It's disappointing when you realize there is superior educational content on YouTube compared to what students pay EFA thousands for.

All this isn't to say that there are never EFA graduates who land developer roles. There are simply not that many of them especially compared to the number of students that complete the EFA program. EFA will tell you that a certain percentage of their graduates get jobs in the tech space but many of them become EFA employees or get non developer roles for a tech company. You certainly don't need EFA to land a job in software support or sales so don't believe the spin they put on the jobs their graduates get.

EFA has their fair share of cheerleaders pumping up the school. The truth is that it is way overpriced. Even if it was free you don't need to try and learn everything required to land a junior developer role in 3 or 6 months. You are naive if you think the masses can do it. Realize that it's ok to take your time with it. There are countless other resources online that are both superior in educational quality and significantly less expensive than EFA.

I decided to do the part time web development bootcamp after months of self-teaching and research. I needed an environment where there were teachers were knowledgeable and readily available to help, as well as a structured learning schedule to get the best out of the experience. I found that and more with Eleven Fifty. Not only was the learning environment a great one, but the curriculum was perfect. Also I was able to get real experience building my own projects both individually and in a team setting. Also the network I built was helpful in navigating the job search as well as just having support throughout the course and after. The career services does their best to help land a job after which was big for me. Overall, Eleven Fifty is a great experience I would definitely recommend to anyone looking to make that change or learn that new skill.

After I had applied to Eleven Fifty Academy and spoken with a representative, a staff member arranged for me to have an admission meeting with Alex on July 23rd on Zoom at 6:30 PM EST … he never showed up (I waited for 30 minutes). Consequently, I rescheduled an appointment for August 5th at 3:30 PM EST … once again, he never showed up. So, I called and left a message on his personal office phone; he never called me back. 

Mind you, I was told by Eleven Fifty staff members that Alex was well informed on July 23rd, and on August 5th that he had an appointment with me. 

Alex Volyk, if you did not want to speak to me or did not have adequate time on your schedule then you should have been honest about it from the beginning. Instead, you opted to waste my time.

Disclaimer - I had left 5 stars for Instructors and Curriculum in the rating section because Course Report wouldn't allow me to choose Not Applicable for those categories. 

I really enjoyed my time there and think it paid off. I landed a developer job just a couple months after graduation. There's still so much I have to learn but I feel Eleven Fifty did a good job of giving us a solid base to grow from. I learned a lot of useful tools that prepared me for the role I was eventually hired for.

There was really only one criticism I could think of. I think the instructors need to complete the cohort they started with. We had Lawrence leave relatively early and I do think it made a bit of a difference. Becky was great but it was definitely a transition in a program where time is already short. I know most of the instructors want to move onto outside developer jobs but it can make it tough to keep learning well when an instructor leaves. I don't know if you could have a contract stating an instructor has to finish teaching a program they start. When I signed up, I didn't know instructors could leave partway through the program and I do think that matters. You have excellent instructors and it'd be nice to learn from one main instructor across your program.

I took an iOS Bootcamp in 2014 with Eleven Fifty Academy. We were using Swift, and created three apps during the course. The instructors were great, and really made sure everyone was understanding the curriculum. I felt extremely comfortable and confident after. When I returned to school, I definitely had a leg up to my peers with my coding experience. I graduated with a computer science major, but don't think I had a course at my college that compared to what I learned in this bootcamp.