Fullstack Academy

Fullstack's curriculum is pretty great and very up to date. Fullstack gives you a solid foundation for modern web development careers. Every project was jam packed with essential programming concepts, which was overwhelming at first, but it was useful to return to these projects during the studying phase of my job search. I also felt that my instructors were genuinely interested in web development and also in teaching. Fullstack is very high quaility bootcamp and you cant go wrong if you choose it. 

pros:
1. full-stack JavaScript-focused curriculum with strong emphasis on React.js was a perfect fit for jobs in the NYC market;
2. amazing, committed instructors;
3. project-based and collaborative (pair-programming throughout) was a plus in interviews;
4. Career Services helped me negotiate a higher salary

cons:
1. not enough emphasis on becoming proficient at writing tests (e.g. Jest, Mocha, etc.), and
2. Career Services was great at the negotiation phase, but they seem to be too busy to give too much individualized focus before that point

general advice:
1. Computer Science fundamentals is extremely important, but only so much of it can be taught in a 4 month program - make sure you study algorithms and web fundamentals on your own after graduation;
2. I probably was under-qualified for admission into this extremely rigorous program, which meant that I was constantly trying to catch up. I didn't really hit my stride until a month or two after graduation as I continued practicing on my own. Do your best to take advantage of free resources prior to the bootcamp (such as FreeCodeCamp)

I attended Fullstack as a Summer of Code student. I was weary of attending at first since I am already a computer science student, and thought it may be "overkill." But it was worth it in the end because I learned so many valuable skillsets that I would have not encountered otherwise. The interview prep support was also tremendous, and I really enjoyed learning and working with others who are equally motivated. Shoutout to Kate who was a wonderful mentor and teacher throughout my Senior phase! If you are weary about price/experience, just now that this is such a worthwhile experience and I feel way more confident in my programming abilities now. If I had any criticism, it would be that specific internship support wasn't available, but I got enough out of the job support that it didn't make a huge difference for me. 

Foundations was incredibly challenging. Junior phase was very challenging. Senior phase was challenging. Everything got easier over time because your confidence improved and your understanding of the context of what you were learning improved, and your skills for learning improved. At the beginning we all kept telling each other and ourselves, "trust the process." It got easier to trust over time. We got a lot closer than I thought we'd be able to over a remote platform, but it really felt like we were all hanging out every day. I made friends that I still talk to all the time. The instructors are not equal, but they're all very competent and helpful. Everyone in the tech world that I talked to after the program was thoroughly impressed by my knowledge and experience from Fullstack. I felt great during interviews and ended up with 2 offers. It's not all perfect, you've got to advocate for yourself and take initiative to get out of the program what you need from it. At the end of the day I really had fun in the program and I'm literally making more than double what I was in my last profession (with a master's degree) with no prior tech education or experience. What more is there?

For me, leaving my career and starting this bootcamp was a huge risk. It would mean spending most of my savings to continue to live in NYC will not working, not working for the first time in 12 years which grated on my psyche and not being sure I would get a job quickly... if at all in this field. 

Grace Hopper was well worth it. You can tell from the get-go that it's a mutual investment because of the tuition policy but it's more than that. I do have some criticism regarding my cohort in particular and the lack of consistency of instruction - but we still did learn a substantial amount. 

In terms of instruction - the curriculum is clearly tried and tested and is being iterated on consistently which is key. It does require a lot of self-direction and motivation but.. it's a bootcamp so that's to be expected. I was disappointed by the fact that we didn't have consistent instructors (only had one for quite a few weeks) and that I don't feel the instruction was always very strong. You can be an amazing engineer without knowing how to communicate that to other people. Instructors need to be able to communicate that to other people and stay organized. 

One thing I can't say was awesome enough was the career success team. Again - you need to stay on top of your own stuff - but they will support you really well (at least my counselor did). She was responsive and no-nonsense and made it very clear that the goal was to get you a job that you could thrive in for a while to come. My resume and linkedin and negotiation skills have never been better. At hiring day, I met so many companies that followed through with interviews and got and accepted my first offer within a month. And if that hadn't been the right offer for me, they would've helped me come to terms with rejecting the offer and making a plan for how to get a better one. 

Moral of the story: if you're thinking about it seriously, do it. It'll be worth it. 

I would definitely recommend attending Grace Hopper! Overall, I had a great experience and was able to find a job as a software engineer fairly quickly after graduating.

In doing boot camp research, I found that Grace Hopper/Fullstack's curriculum was the most robust and industry applicable of NYC boot camps. Also, the fact that it's the only all-women boot camp on the east coast (I'm pretty sure) was a huge selling point for me.

The curriculum was very thorough and delivered very very fast-paced. Not everyone makes it from the first half of the program to the second (project based) half. Even more stressful than the huge influx of information were the presentation-based projects. I definitely appreciated them, because it made it easier to talk about different technologies confidently. I hope they continue having that as an integral part of their curriculum.

I thought the instructors were a great mix of people in the industry and people who graduated from GH or Fullstack themselves. They seemed genuinely invested in your success, which is not something you hear about a lot of boot camps.

The culture at Grace Hopper was amazing. I loved how they emphasized collaboration over competition. For the most part, they seem to choose students who are easy to work with. I came out of the program with a lot of new friends.

Their career service team is really aggressive, in a good way. They are really great at what they do, which made it less stressful to find a job after graduating.

Overall, I had a great experience at Grace Hopper, and would recommend it to any woman looking to change their career.

My experience at Fullstack Academy was truly remarkable. I had an amazing time at Fullstack and it redefined my career goals as my job search was more successful than I ever could have hoped. The technical foundation you are provided with truly is enough to obtain a job at a top company. The quality of other students was very high and it was truly special to learn alongside so many interesting people who had succeeded in many different areas and industries. I could not reccommend Fullstack more highly. The only caveat I would note is that the expereince is what you make of it and it is not magic. You must be willing to put in the work to fully reap the benefits of this amazing program

Fullstack was not just a great bootcamp experience, but one of the best educational experiences of my life. The team of instructors does a great job creating a sense of community. The curriculum is incredibly thorough, and by the senior phase of the program I could not believe the kinds of projects we were producing. I think the only downside was that the instructors are incredibly capable and experienced programmers, but they don't have much teaching experience. Overall, FSA is a great program that really produces job-ready graduates.

Going to Fullstack was one of the best decisions I ever made. 

There's a lot of things that come into play when you're transitioning to a new career, especially in the tech field. 

A purely educational course isn't enough. Anyone can take an online video course in their pj's at home and learn the same material I learned at Fullstack. 

What you get is a community of people who you'll potentially know and make life-time friends with, who are all going through the same experience as you. Also you'll get staff who are invested in you, supportive, and who know what it's like to be in the tech industry. Staff that wants to know what you're up to months later, that helps you with a job interview a year after you graduate, and staff that basically just wants to see you suceed. 

Not becuase there's something in it for them, but becuase they honestly want to see people at their true potential.

I had virutally no previous experience in coding before I attended Fullstack (other than what I needed to know to pass the application) and I won't lie, getting a job wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. But I've learned so much at Fullstack, and continue to learn becuase of the skills they taught me. And becuase of that, a year after graduating, I'm in a position I never thought I'd be, earning more thant I ever thought I could. It's ignited this passion in me and I'm positive that flame was started by the spirit of the Fullstack staff. 

If you're in the New York area and are looking to attend a bootcamp to become a web developer, this is where you want to go. 

First of all, I can definitely say that Fullstack provided me with everything, and more, to land a coding job and be a successful coder. A power-packed curriculum taught by brilliant profs, plus an extensive and innovative course on having great coding interviews, landed me a job very soon after graduation. But many other coding schools can teach you similar things. What sets Fullstack apart is the sheer personal attention and supportive, friendly environment they create. I'm still in touch with so many alumni and the team at the campus and everyone looks out for each other. It's not one of those schools that spits you out, lands you a job, and forgets you, in other words. You're always a part of it. If that's what you're looking for I highly recommend it.

I don't have much to add here to all the great reviews.  I had a great time in the program and really enjoyed every aspect of it.  

My favorite parts:

- The other people in my cohort were all super-sharp.  You could tell in admissions that Fullstack isn't messing around when they let in people for the program.

- The curriculum is really fun and up-to-date. They were shifting to React and Redux and I really liked how they presented it.  I've done lots of online tutorials and found that Fullstack's curriculum really is well-presented.

- The instructors are some really cool people.  I felt they were supportive and always had good insight into how to do something better.

Some things I wished I would have known before the program:

- The job search is tough - they keep telling you that but when you do it, it's a lot of "nos" all the time.  You have to really get used to that - I wish I had kept up more with my cohortmates and kept working together afterwards.

- They have a cool set of classes on Saturdays around CS topics.  I liked them but you feel a bit burned out going to class 6 days a week.  They should consider making those more optional.

- Sometimes you get to choose who you get to work with like on the final project.  That can be rough if you don't get along with your team and our cohort had some teams that seemed to have drama.

All in all - Fullstack helped me do what I set out to do - I'm sitting in a new programming job now and it's amazing - I really can't believe how far I've come in the last six months.  If you're willing to put in the work then this is a fun and fast path to a new coding career.

I had very high hopes for Fullstack. I took their techincal test and got through to the interview. After that, things rapidly declined and I became very frustrated with their team.

After the second interview I took their bootcamp prep course, which was poorly organized. The lessons were straightforward enough but MANY of the example questions did not match the lectures in terms of content and those that did, were on a completly different level than the lecture examples. The TAs that assisted each session had no clue what was going on. The instructors themselves were recent graduates- and while their efforts were commendable, they couldn't quite make up for the awful course. Not to mention the course is $3k. Hack Reactor offers a prep course for $800, and they are on par in terms of rigor! I would not recommend FS!!

After finishing their bootcamp prep I did the reassesment and their admissions team ignored it. The message they give to applications is that they are disorganized and don't care. It is exteremely frustrating to 'work' with them. They are VERY SLOW to respond if they do at all. Additionally, their cohorts have burgeoned to about 40 students each, and they have not been able to handle that expansion well. Previous reviewers/graduates have not experienced the new FS, which is falling very short of their reputation.

Deciding among a handful of competitive coding bootcamps was a really difficult decision, but I'm thrilled I chose to attend Fullstack Academy. The whole staff has done an incredible job of creating a culture of curiosity and collaboration in which students grow an unbelievable amount in just a few months. The program is definitely not designed for people who haven't already learned the basics on their own or through a beginner course, or who aren't committed to really pushing themselves day in and day out for an extended period of time. For anyone looking for something more than simple online tutorials to help them get to the next level though, it's hard to imagine a better option than Fullstack.

The curriculum at Fullstack is constantly evolving based on student and employer feedback to stay up to date and to get better with every cohort. The fact that they teach full-stack JavaScript is an important difference, since it allows you to learn a single language deeply without suffering from the context switching of having to learn a couple languages at once, and also because JavaScript has a great online community and a huge, growing ecosystem built around it. The best thing by far about Fullstack though is the people. I was consistently amazed not only by the intelligence of the other students in my cohort, but also by the lack of ego, competitiveness, or negativity. Spending so much time surrounded by brilliant, motivated people helped push me to grow at a pace I couldn't have achieved otherwise. My cohort's instructors were also some of the best teachers I've ever had in any context. They're incredibly smart, knowledgeable people who are clearly passionate about what they teach, and probably even more passionate about teaching. I was always highly satisfied with the level of support I got from everyone on the staff, and I felt comfortable asking whenever I needed help with anything.

If you're considering Fullstack, try to talk to someone who's been through the program to get a better sense of what the day to day is like and how they feel about their experience now. Going through the immersive program has undoubtedly been one of the best, most rewarding experiences I've enjoyed in my whole life, and I'm so grateful I found it.

The course curriculum is great. Within the time provided I learned quite a bit about MEAN stack development. Being in the flex class I had the feeling they were having issues scaling up. 

After every cohort they will hire a handful of TAs to help out - unfortunately the majority will only be around to support the full-time class. As a flex-immersive student you will be missing out on extra activities, CS Saturdays, a few CTO lectures, and communications. 

Flex came across as a bit disorganized at times. Sometimes forgetting to schedule a TA to help, little to no handholding, and not being allowed to use campus facilities outside of our normally scheduled class-time. This last piece was particularly stressful during capstone phase. Speaking to students in the FT cohort, no such decree against coming to campus outside of normal hours was given. 

Another major difference between FT and Flex. TAs will act as a project manager and code reviewer for each capstone team. For someone just starting out- this is extremely valuable.

Job support is okay. If you don't find a job at the first hiring day, don't expect much help after. You'll not be able to come to future hiring days. Occasionally you'll get a check in to see how the job search is going, with much of the framework for what you need to do  provided. Speaking to GH alumni, the job support experience sounds very different. Perhaps this is because rather then being paid up front, they get a cut of the first year salary.

In summary, the course work was great, and the teachers helpful. However, if you want the full experience - go with fulltime and avoid flex. If you are already very confident of your ability- flex is viable. Perhaps you are already a developer? If so, flex seems to be a great stepping stone into a new tech stack. 

I did Fullstack's flex program (nights and weekends) and would not recommend it.

I would recommend Fullstack Academy.

• The instructors are great. They're all knowlegable and nice folks.
• You're learning node. Node.js is, in my opinion, a better language to learn than ruby on rails, which a lot of other bootcamps teach. Node does a better job of handling single-page-applications, which is where tech is headed. Also, if you know node, you know both frontend and backend.
• The cirriculum is good. It's not great, but I doubt any of the other options are better, unless you spend the time to go and get a degree. There is only so much you can learn in three months (or 6 months part time).

That being said, avoid the flex program. I did the flex program, and I felt like the red-headed stepchild of FSA.

• First of all, you don't get as much. There is less classroom time than the fulltime program. They tell you that you're supposed to review on your own of the off days, but if you're doing flex you probably have a job (and a life) and don't have a lot of extra time.
• There are significantly fewer resources available to you, simply because everybody has gone home. By the time you get there, the instructors/staff have already put in 9+ hours and are ready to leave. So you don't have the ability to get that extra insight/different viewpoint.
• There are a lot of great things that FSA offers, like guest lectures and hackathons, but they all happen during the day. If you can make it, great, but if you have a job you're outta luck
• They just don't cover as much. This goes back to the classroom hours. I heard from a graduate who went on to be a teaching fellow that the fulltime class went deeper into the material because they had the time to really jump in.
• And they charge you the same amount. If I had paid less for the flex, I wouldn't be upset because I would have gotten what I paid for. But no, it's that same hefty price tag for a fraction of the experience.

TLDR: Fullstack good; flex program bad.