Flatiron School

Graduated from Flatiron's NYC Web Development program about 3 months ago and it was definitely one of the best decisions I have ever made. The educational experience and community was incredibly well put together and effective. 

It took me very little time to find a job (although there was plenty of effort on my end for that) and I feel very well equipped in my new work environment from the instruction I received at Flatiron. 

I strongly recommend Flatiron to anyone who is considering this type of program or direction in the future. 

Quitting my job to attend Flatiron was a big decision. I did as much research as I could in advance about bootcamps - attending events, speaking to alums and getting opinions from working developers. It seemed that everyone and everything kept pointing back to Flatiron. On Day 1 I was completely overwhelmed, but by Day 5 I was confident that I was doing the right thing. I couldn't believe how smart and personable my colleagues were. Working in different groups was actually enjoyable, even for an introvert like me. The curriculum was challenging, but the instructors always gauged how overwhelmed the class felt and adjusted the speed accordingly. The career services team is incredibly responsive and willing to support in every way, be it proofreading a thank you email or giving you a pre-interview pep talk. This was one of the most positive experiences of my life and I look forward to my new career!

Pros:

• Highly competent and passionate teaching staff; they really cared about your progress in the class and are experts in their domain
• Optimal balance between class-level and individualized attention
• Excellent cirriculum, tailored well for those without coding experience, and paced well for those who breeze through the material as well as who need a little extra help
• Great culture; students, teachers, and staff are universally kind, smart, and motivated
• Highly involved job placement - this exceeded my expectations, as the placements team was very high touch and passionate about their mission to help students through the job search

Considerations:

• Tuition ($15K for Web Development in Fall 2015) is non-trivial; one should carefully consider whether they are prepared to incur this cost
• Culture, not unexpectedly, is somewhat geeky and soft, but is a nice change of pace for those coming from a stricter work environment

I graduated from Flatiron in 2015, and have been working as a developer since then. The curriculum and caliber of the teachers was amazing - I can't speak highly enough about how great the learning experience was. I've programmed professionally in 6 languages since graduating so I really appreciate that the curriculum focused on programming fundamentals instead of a week here and there on whatever the hot technology of the time is.

My biggest gripe was that I don't live near NYC, so the career team wasn't as much of an asset to me as I had hoped. I did get a job reasonably quickly with their help, but for less money than I had expected. I'm still giving the career team 4/5 stars because I think they did everything they could, and it was more a matter of my expectations being out of line based on advertisements and so forth. That first job was a wonderful job working on really cool projects, and I enjoyed every day of it. After being in the industry for a while I had no problem switching to a different job at a market rate.

I attended Flatiron's web development course in the winter of 2016, and landed my first professional engineering gig a little over a month after graduation. At Flatiron, you are getting a lot more than 3 months of web development instruction. The network of friends and colleagues that directly resulted from my time there has been invaluable in every sense of the word ever since, and I draw on my Flatiron experience daily to inform my career decisions and make myself a better programmer. My head instructor was essentially a complete rock star (we lucked out in that sense, but all of the head instructors at Flatiron are excellent) and he was supported by two stellar TA's. In addition to the lectures and one-on-one guidance that the faculty provides, your actual coursework is the best possible simulacrum of real-world development work that you could hope for. Languages are learned through the completion of test-driven labs, and your work is deployed using git, setting you up to use best practices as soon as you get that first job. I will say that the course is not for everyone, and you have to be absolutely dedicated to the at times very difficult work. The hours are long as well, but enjoyable if you are there because you want to be there. Definitely the best boot camp in New York, and probably the country. 

13 weeks of hard work that paid off in literally 10 days. I landed a job as a software engineer at 10k above the average.
The classes are challenging, exhausting and a serious amount of fun.
The Flatiron community is one of the best I have ever been a part of. 
The support in the job hunt is unparalleled.
Complete the pre-work to decide if programming is for you, but the cost and the work are absolutely worth it if you can put in the 12 weeks. 
It has paid off immensely and put me on a career path I enjoy instead of one I dread.

If you are looking to switch careers and have a passion for coding and problem solving, this is a great option. I went here in 2016 and it was intense, as advertized. But it was really impressive: after even a couple weeks of the course, I was already able to put together pretty decent web applications. About half the course is focused on Ruby and Rails, and about half on JavaScript.

They do a great job of constructing cohorts with a wide range of backgrounds. Everyone got along well and worked hard to learn and produce great applications. I'm still in the job-search process (a month out and interrupted by the holidays), so I can't comment too much on that, but the career services folks have been very supportive so far.

I took this course in 2015 and it was such a great experience for me. I am an entrepreneur and did not take the course to become a developer. My goal was to learn how to make a MVP on my own and I succeeded it. Right after finishing the course, I self-learned Swift on my own and made a full functional iOS MVP with rails. I could even setup my server using Docker. A friend of my asked me if I knew any school that teaches Python but I recommended Flatiron school based on my actual experience. Some people complain about things no matter how hard the school tries their best. At the end of the day, you are the one who learns. You should not over-depend on the school. But if you try hard enough to learn coding at Flatiron school, they will give you what they promise.  

I was a twenty-something female liberal arts major struggling to make something of myself in publishing. After dabbling in web design for years without making any real progress, I finally decided to take the leap and turn my hobby into my career by applying to and attending the in-person web immersive program at the Flatiron School in the fall of 2015. 

It was easily the best decision I've ever made. The Flatiron School doesn't just teach you how to code; they teach you how to think like a programmer and to love every second of it. The instructors are passionate and truly care about outcomes. It's easy to see that they go above and beyond to help students out, throughout the program and even during the job search.  

The curriculum is probably the best I've seen online, and I went through a bunch of free programs before I decided to enroll at Flatiron. What I like most about Learn is that it doesn't hold your hand through everything; it challenges you and teaches you how to struggle because that's what life is like as a developer, just a series of problems that you need to figure out how to solve. 

What I also loved was the collaborative and supportive community at Flatiron. There was a good male/female ratio, and nearly everyone in the class was friendly and nice. During my time there, I made some great friends with whom I'm still in regular contact. When I was considering other bootcamps, it was the community at Flatiron that really sold me. They also do a lot of community-building events and activities, which breaks up the day and reminds you to be a human, even as you're furiously trying to solve labs.

Within two months of graduating, I was employed as a junior software developer. The career services team was there to support me throughout my search and they helped me get the best results for me, including helping me negotiate salary and accept and decline offers. 

I will also add that this is a tough program. When you go to Flatiron, expect to learn at a breakneck pace and to challenge yourself beyond what you ever thought was possible. It's an enormous sacrifice for three months, and you will not do well unless you commit 110%. That means working probably 12 hours a day, every day, over weekends. For me, it was totally worth it. A few alumni I've spoken with have told me that Flatiron saved their lives. Now, a year later, I can say with confidence that I feel the same way.

I attended Flatiron School's web development program in the earlier days. I was able to learn Ruby on Rails and adopt a modern, open source / iterative approach to software development. The program was a lot of work, but working on projects with classmates was a huge eye opener. Self study doesn't prepare you for git conflicts, work prioritization discussions, and other aspects of working in a team. The course was definitely something where people got as much or as little as they put into it. If you didn't work hard on learning & understanding different concepts, you were the only one impacted by understanding less.

Job placement is a tricky subject, since every student's interview process was different. I was able to get a fulltime software position through the school, but I felt that looking for job opportunities was on my shoulders (and would have liked more help from the school).

I would recommend Flatiron School as a starting point for your programming education. It provides decent handholding to get up and running, but as with any 3 month course, there is not that much room for deep depth in any particular subject.

I attended Flatiron School in the Fall of 2013 with zero prior technical experience. The three months I spent there were without question the most intellectually productive of my life. To be successful, you need to work hard and challenge yourself - this isn't about a diploma or graduation - what you put into the program is exactly what you'll get out of it. The school does a great job of setting you up for success, with excellent curriculum and interview training. Give it your all, and you'll see the outcomes you want.

The bootcamp was the best I could have hoped for. Helped me transition into software development career in no time. Completed the program, had an offer within a month and started working within two. A year before enrolling in Flatiron, I would have never imaged that I'd be doing what I'm doing now. But about the program, what separates Flatiron from other is the Learn.co platform. By the end of the course you would have done over 150 labs in getting concepts across. To me this more hands on approach is much better than lots of reading, day long lectures or even online videos. Having others around you working towards the same goal is an amazing experience and you learn from each other.

Pros:
- Lots of hands on training through labs. 
- Friendly and always willing to help instructors.
- Team projects that help you learn to work with others and learn from them as well.
- Job placement assistance.
-  Amazing community.
-  Free coffee/tea!

Final note - Bootcamps aren't magic. You don't go in and just come out automatically with a job. You get what you put into it. Putting in the minimum, just coming in at 9am leaving at 6pm and not studying over the weekends you'll get the minimum results.

I attended the Flatiron school in the fall of 2015 and can wholeheartedly recommend the program. I had been interested in a career in web development for several years at that point but despite taking night classes in Computer Science at a local college and trying various online coding programs (such as codeacademy) I was still struggling to make the transition into a new career and unsure of how to continue fitting all these additional courses around my busy work hours. I eventually applied to the Flatiron School for the full time web development bootcamp. For me, the ability to learn how to code with in person teachers and with the support of students going through the same program was invaluable. Its always heard to gain the amount of knowledge needed for beginning a career as a programmer in such a short amount of time but I feel that the Flatiron School balanced teaching the essentials to help us establish a solid foundation, as well as gave me the tools to continue learning and growing as a developer in my first job out of the program. Additionally, thanks to the career placements program and the final week of interviews I was hired fairly quickly after graduation in a job I love and am still working in today. I can enthusiastically recommend this program to anyone who is looking to change careers into web development.

Flatiron School completely changed my life- in less than a year I went from nothing to employed developer. I didn't have any technical background but had tried a bunch of online courses and moocs before joining. They were good but never helped me put it together. The learning experience on Learn was amazing - it finally halped me put everything together. The community was also incredible- interacting with other students made learning a lot more fun.

The best part was definitely the staff. The instructors are amazing and the career services team is incredible- I'm not sure I would have gotten a job without their support.

Flatiron School changed my life. Literally. I am a graduate of the second semester of students from the Flatiron School. Prior to my semester I had absolutely ZERO technical background. I graduated from a liberal arts college and was an English Literature major and a French Literature minor. I love to read and write and play sports and do other creative work (like bake and do crafts projects). I dove into coding because I wanted to be able to work for an online blog or magazine from an editorial capacity, and have more on my resume than just being able to write content.

I felt so supported during my time at Flatiron School, and in the years since I've graduated. I went from not knowing what terminal was, to building full scale Ruby on Rails apps in just three months. I made friends that I will have for the rest of my life, and I learned a skill that made me desirable a desirable candidate in the workplace.

When I graduated from Flatiron School, I spent six weeks interviewing. I went through up to four rounds of interviews with companies, but ended up with more than one offer, and the ability to negociate the terms of my employment. Flatiron offered me resume help, technical interview support and training, as well general support and introductions to companies to set up my interviews. The read and reviewed every single email I sent to every single company. The team at Flatiron was that invested in my future. 

In the years since graduating, Flatiron has continued to help me navigate the job market, from advice on negociating salaries to continued introductions to companies beyond just my first job. In fact, it was because of Flatiron that I was able to interview for my current position as Lead Ad Developer at New York Magazine. 

It is crazy to feel so emotionally tied to a company, but without Flatiron, I literally don't know what I would be doing with my life.

Everything went fine in the applicatioin process until they found out I was over 40. Then they were very rude and condescending towards me. So much for diversity. All their talk of bieng able to teach anyone to code is just marketing hype. They are more interested in being politicaly correct and catering to females and minorities as they are given preferential treatement in the applicaiton process. Being over 40 I am definitely an underepresented minority but they clearly discriminate against age. I ended up teaching myself by taking udemy courses and Udacity at a fraction of the cost and now after 6 months of experience am making 85k as a fullstack web developer in the New York City Area. So save yourself some money and humilitaion and stay away from these hypocrites and teach yourself online.

My take on the Flatiron School

I was a student at The Flatiron School for their immersive iOS program and I do not recommend this school.  I had to make sure I graduated before I left this review because if they found out that I wrote a negative review while I was a student, there would have been retribution against me and they would have made my life miserable.

The job placement numbers are complete BS

They make misleading statements about job placements.  Perhaps I am naive, but I believed the numbers I got from the Flatiron reps and what I found on Course Report were accurate.  The Flatiron School reports that 95 % of their grads are hired in technical roles with 120 days and report an average salary of $74, 447.  This couldn’t be further from the truth!   They suggested I even try to find some entry level position even if it was at minimum wage.  I couldn’t believe this.  I really felt that I was lied to. I still am in touch with several of my cohort mates and many of them are still looking for work, 6 months after graduating. As another reviewer noted – “2 weeks before the end of the program, they pretty much tell you to take whatever job you can get, even if it's free or minimum wage”.

The iOS program

Their main program is Web development and Ruby on Rails and you can tell that their web cohort receives a lot more attention than the iOS guys. Their iOS curriculum is also not well thought out and rushes through the topics without going into any depth which I realized when I started interviewing. And their teachers lack professional experience. Code reviews is another thing that this school lacks. Keep these also in mind if you’re considering their iOS bootcamp. So in my opinion all this was definitely not worth the 15k that I spent.

I really enjoyed the free Intro to Ruby course they use as a preview for the full $1500/mo course. Actually, that price changed three times in the 3 months I was a "Learner" (it was initially $1000/mo, then split into $500 or $1000, then raised to $1500). 

The Slack community is enjoyable with fun and hard working people chatting throughout the day. And the Flatiron founder Avi was quite active.

Unlike the free course, there are no video lectures for each lesson in the full version, it's all text. After a few hundred of those, I got the feeling like this was basically a very expensive version of Code School/Codecademy/etc. When I had questions, the TA chat response time was around 30 minutes, which was way longer than it was in the free course (5 minutes tops, usually instant). Also, there are only 6 times were your code will be reviewed by someone. That's a terrible value and you will not feel confident that you are writing solid code even if you're passing the tests.

The worst part is that the slower you go, the more it'll cost. Also, just as others have posted here, the general advice they have is for you to take the first job you're offered regardless of the pay. Even paid internships. If you dig deeper into their Jobs Report, you'll find that the awesome numbers they report for salary and placement are for folks who received full time jobs, but many students don't, thus they aren't included as to not bring down the numbers. If you're like me, who has a family to support, a temporary, lowly paid internship is not what I envisioned when investing in the program.

I really wanted to love this program. My heart was set on completing it after interacting with the Slack community. I ignored my common sense when I learned that there would only be 6 code reviews. I ignored my common sense when I saw that the full version contained no video lectures and I was just reading GitHub Readme's that seemed similar to free content I'd found elsewhere online. I was blinded by my hope for a high salary and a better life.

That blindness cost me big bucks. I hope you will take this review to heart and let your common sense prevail.