NYC Data Science Academy

I am Brazilian and I was working in the business area for 7 years in Brazil, analyzing health and safety indicators, incidents, and some other data to try to get insights and drive some business decisions. I didn’t have any coding background and I was lacking advanced statistics knowledge to help me out on finding insights. So, after reading a lot about data science I started a MBA in Big Data and Analytics here in Brazil but this MBA was not exactly what I was looking for. I needed something more practical with more coding challenges and more details (theory and coding) on machine learning models, etc. With that in mind, I started looking for other courses to fulfill my needs. I ended up finding the data science bootcamp at NYC Data Science Academy, quitting my job, stopping my MBA and went to New York to attend the bootcamp. This was the best decision I have ever made.

  Learning how to code in both R and Python is very useful and the way that the bootcamp teaches you theory and the application of machine learning is great. It’s not easy, the pace is very fast, so you really need to focus and study a lot and you will see how much you can learn in only 12 weeks. You will be very busy learning theory and completing exercises everyday, besides projects, coding challenges, labs, machine learning challenges, etc.   The projects are very challenging and very useful to learn and practice what you have learnt by the time of the project. If you do a good job, you will have a good portfolio to present to future employers.   The instructors and the TA’s have different backgrounds, so you can reach them with any subject you are learning. They are very helpful and easy to reach out. The entire team is very hardworking and they push you hard to go deeper and learn more and more.    The environment is great, the students help each other, share what they learnt from other materials and from completing the exercises as well. The facilities are very good, I spent late nights there studying together with other students.   This bootcamp allowed me to change quickly my career. I came back to Brazil after the bootcamp and 2 months later I got the job offer I wanted in a great consulting company. I think if you really want to become a data scientist, this is the place to start. The team is very good in preparing the students for all the steps on interviews, writing a good resume, etc.

I attended the Deep Learning course at the NY Data Science Academy that was taught by Jon Krohn during October 2017 - December 2017. Overall it was exactly what I hoped it would be. It gave me a strong foundation of all the core deep learning concepts. The class was hosted on every other saturday which allowed enough time to fully explore a particular topic between classes. Jon made a particular effort to keep the material simple and explained the concepts intuitely rather than with complicated math. Jon has great understanding of the content and is well prepared for each lesson. I thoroughly enjoyed the class and it has motivated me to pivot my career into deep learning. I would recommend this class to anyone who is passionate about deep learning but don't know where to begin. It is also great for anyone who has worked with some but not all of the deep learning techniques.

TL;DR: The NYCDSA full-time bootcamp is a great way to start a career pivot into data science. The curriculum covers the most important topics in the space; the instructors are accessible and actually care; and you'll get out what you put in.

The first four weeks are python and R basics. These can get a little tedious and heavy on programming, but are important so that you can fly around when doing the more advanced stuff. The next couple are on web scraping, then a few more on machine learning, then some on more advanced topics like distributed computing, time series analysis, and deep learning. 

The 3-hour morning lectures are helpful and touch on the most important issues from a high level. The homework assignments (usually every other day) and projects (4 total) are how you actually retain the information. If you stay on top of these assignments and aren't afraid to ask for help, you'll learn so so much! I thought the first ~8 weeks were thorough and well-paced. I thought the last 4 weeks rushed through a number of advanced topics without enough time to retin the information through projects, homeworks, and other "real world" practice. I'd recommend choosing a few of these topics to really focus on in your projects rather than trying to understand everything from the last 4 weeks just from a high level.

This particular bootcamp has a lot of industry connections. After graduating, the hiring partner cocktail event will lead to a number of interviews with companies looking for entry level people.

Taking this bootcamp (or any other, frankly) provides a stamp of legitimacy on your pivot to data science that you probably couldn't get from just teaching yourself python and doing online coursera courses.

You'll get out what you put in with NYCDSA. Sometimes this means 60 hour weeks right before projects are due.

It's important when learning anything to get the fundamentals right. If you build bad habits, it can become difficult to fix them later on, especially if you have also built many dependencies on those bad habits. This is why when I wanted to start learning about data science, I chose to take this course to help me make the right choices from the very beginning.

I would say that I got exactly what I came for. Tony is a very good instructor. He is able to express complicated concepts in an understandable way, and I would definitely say that now I understand enough about the Python ecosystem that I could start learning on my own if I wanted. 

I spent my undergraduate years focusing on the life sciences without much formal educational background in programming and advanced statistics. While working as a data analyst my first few years out of college, I gained practical coding experience in R, picking up general programming and modeling experience - even still, I lacked the underlying foundation needed to understand and implement more complex machine learning for my projects at work.

The NYCDSA online bootcamp was the perfect blend of machine learning theory and practical, hands-on projects helping to solidify the lecture concepts. The overall experience was intense: I worked full-time at my day job and spent most of my free time (~30 hours/week) keeping up with lectures, course projects and career development - but got out an incredible learning experience, which helped me to perform more advanced projects at my current job and ultimately to find a new full-time data science role. My TA, meeting with me at least weekly, along with my online cohort of 4 other students, held us all accountable for staying on track with course deadlines and project work. This accountability was a crucial component in keeping us motivated throughout the 5 months; other online programs fail to do this and suffer student dropout as a result.

Another invaluable outcome of the program is the portfolio of projects (~5), which NYCDSA greatly emphasizes and helps groom. I used these as a demonstration of my experience (both from a coding standpoint on GitHub, and data storytelling standpoint, on the NYCDSA blog) in almost all job applications. While one does not need to attend a bootcamp in order to create a project portfolio, NYCDSA makes sure to curate and grade the assignments so as to demonstrate in the portfolio an important mix of technical skillsets sought in the job market, and holds its students to higher standards of work quality than they might hold themselves.

I came to NYCDSA immediately after graduating from college with a bachelors in math and finance. I had been struggling with passing quantitative interviews due to my lack of programming skills. The New York City Data Science Academy helped out sooo much on that end by constantly keeping us busy with lectures, homework, and projects. I was very surprised at how quickly I was able to learn programming in Python and pass assessments and interviews for a number of top hedge funds. There is no way I would've been able to learn as much as I did in as short amount of a time anywhere else. On top of that, having instructors, TAs, and a team devoted to helping me develop the skils and connections I needed was invaluable. After graduating from the bootcamp, I completed a project in Python for a quantitative investment firm, impressed them, and got the job. I'm so glad I came to NYCDSA to build the skills I needed for a career I'm truly passionate about. 

I came into NYC Data Science with experience working as a data analyst at several companies and active data consulting work.

At NYDSA, I wanted to spend three months solidifying my existing skillset as data analyst and learning areas that I did not know much about like machine learning and big data.  In my jobs, I had previously worked with both Python and R, and appreciated the value of both languages. I also liked that NYDSA wasn't part of some big cookie cutter data science bootcamp chain. 

For the first month of NYCDSA when we covered topics like data wrangling, visualization, shiny, and web scraping,  it was mostly review for me. That being said, I learned some new tools and tricks, and was able to work on some interesting projects with some help with from our great teachers. I also got to meet and learn from a lot of interesting classmates. The students at NYDSA come from a wide variety of backgrounds, from PHDs to straight out of bachelors programs, and are definitiely part of the value of the program. 

After watching me instruct classmates on web scraping, which I had a lot of experience with before the bootcamp, NYCDSA asked me if I wanted to record web scraping lectures for their online data science bootcamp. I agreed to record them and got to have some experience teaching while I was still a student in the bootcamp, which both solidied my skills and helped me earn back some of tuition. 

During the machine learning and big data portion of the bootcamp, I was exposed to lots of new material and learned a lot. While I still have a lot to learn, I now have a good understanding of different machine learning models and techniques, and some of the big data technologies. 

One month after the bootcamp ended, I started working full-time at a consulting company that I was consulting for during the bootcamp. With my experience in the program, I was able to negotiate better terms on my contract with the company. In addition, I have been doing some additional data science consulting on the side (one project referred by NYCDSA) and the skills learned at NYDSA have benefited me in all my work. 

If you invest your time in the program, you will get three months of data science learning with awesome teachers who know their stuff and are willing to help you through any learning hurdles. As someone who has and continues to learn most of this stuff on my own, three months with expert teachers definitely accelerated my learning pace. So if you want to spend three months learning a lot of data science, I would recommend you sign up 

I have had a very positive experience during and after completion of the NYC Data Science Academy's Full-Time Data Science BootCamp. I chose this particular school because they were the most transparent (the full - and very rigirous ciriculum is available on their website) and the depth and breadth of interview questions from the Data Science Academy convinced me that they take this very seriously - and that this would be a very difficult but rewarding 12 weeks.

To start from the beginning. the application process of the time was rather straightforward - a web application, a short programming assignment, and an interview. Although I didn't have much familiarity with Python or R and had been working in the retail wealth management industry for the past 3 years, my educational background is a B.S. in Mathematics and a minor in Computer Science and was considered sufficicient for me to be accepted into the program. In hindsight, I think the most important prerequisite (outside of the base math/computer knowledge) is having passion for data/programming/AI/statistics/etc then the potential difficultiy of the content becomes secondary to your desire to learn and improve.

The Data Science Academy did a terrific job selecting the studens - the main commonality being the passion and desire to learn a lot of difficult content in a short amount of time.

The program is project oriented - both individual and group projects. There is a good deal of flexibility about the project topic/content so each student ends up with a unique portfolio of ~4 projects (and corresponding presentations/blog posts).

For example, I did an EDA (Exploratory Data Analysis) project and created an interactive webapp using R and Shiny based on data for a particular anti-poverty initiative from a large mulitinational charity. This webapp visualized the breakdown in demographics, geography, and other metrics to help that organization identify trends in the data and better allocate their resources going forward.

The other projects I worked on utilized a wide array of popular datascience tools and techniques, my personal favorites: web scraping (big fan of Selenium + BeautifulSoup ), natural language processing, visualizations, and machine learning.  There are a few technical resources available that not all students take adavantage of, those are the various linux servers and hadoop/spark clusters available. During the machine learning project, each time I ran my ensemble of models it woud incapacitate my laptop for ~30hours. I soon discovered the value of using a high powered remote server for number crunching - and polished my linux/BASH scripting skills in the process.

The staff and instructuors are very thoughtful about keeping an environment condusive to learning. Every Friday there would be a Q&A session with the staff where they would ask the students their thoughts on the pace of this week's ciriculum along with other questions/issues. I mentioned that the hand sanitizer dispensar was empty, they listened and had it filled the next week.

The instructors are great. The lecture sessions can run on a bit long, but they are finely tuned machines, packed with a ton of great content and example code. They are accessible on slack and answer frequently answered my coding questions at odd hours of the evening. As the content grew in difficulty, it was very obvious that each instructor has mastered the topic of their lecture - I never felt dissapointed with their answers to my questions.

The atmosphere was condusive to learning, everyone was open to helping each with homework/project coding questions if asked. I was pleased with the sense of comradary among the students as opposed to the toxic competitive environments I've seen at some traditional higher education institutions.

The Raspberry Pi computers have been a personal interes of mine, and one of my projects usilng a Pi 3 caught the attention of the managent staff at the Academy. He saw some good potential, and put me in touch with their PR contact, two months later my project gets publised online and in print  - https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/issues/61/ (page 13).

Towrds the end of the BootCamp their staff put me directly in contact with several managers/exeutives at business hiring data science personell. I had much better job application results when I leveraged their network as opposed to a cold application. Althought it took a few months after graduating, the Data Science Academy put me in contact with my future employer.

Currently I'm working with the title Data Science Contractor for a Data Science Consultancy. I am extremely happy with the work I'm doing. Every day I get to work on interesting conceptual puzzles and work with Amazon and Google's cloud computing and big data tools. Our work is primarily done in Python, BASH, and SQL, and the NYC Data Science Academy really helped me prepare for the various technical and statistiacal challenges in this profession.

I couldn't be happier with my decision.

I attended the Spring 2017 Cohort of the data science bootcamp at the NYC Data Science Academy. Originally I had read up about the program in 2015 but did not feel prepared to quit my job and take a leap into a full-time bootcamp. I spent about 2 years preparing myself by taking courses online (mostly through coursera) to build up my Python and R skills. Part of me was hoping that coursera courses would be enough to land a job as a Data Scientist or even as a Data Analyst, however that was not the case. Finally in January of 2017 I felt a bit more confident to apply to the bootcamp, and once accepted I decided to officially make the switch into a career in data science. 

The bootcamp curriculum is very intensive and cannot be taken lightly. A majority of my fellow students were in a similar situation where they quit their jobs, and invested a great deal of time and money considering that this program is not cheap. Keeping that in mind it's very important to understand that this is not a golden ticket to a better paying job. Simply showing up every day will not be enough to get the most out of your investment while attending this program. 

Before the Bootcamp:

The pre-work which is part-time and can be completed online or in person is very important as it serves as a preview of the first couple of weeks of the program. If you complete all of the pre-work (which I highly suggest) the first few weeks of the bootcamp might seem to be full of redundant information and make you question your decision to pay for a very expensive course which is teaching you things you already know. Don't worry too much about that because that is just the calm before the storm as things pick up very quickly as you approach the end of the first month. It's also much better to spend the first few weeks mastering the basics by going over things you know as compared to jumping into the deep end by learning everything for the first time on Day 1 of the bootcamp. Take advantage of this "down time" to master the basics and prepare yourself for what's to come because once you get to machine learning things start to get very serious. 

The pre-work mostly covers Python and R programming which are vital skills to have in order to make it through the program. If you can have a basic understand of Python and R before the bootcamp it will only help you because just like anything else the more you do it the better you get at it. The pre-work doesn't include SQL which I believe is very important to have at least a general understanding of the basics. It also doesn't unclude linear algebra or statistics which are also extremely important especially if you have been out of school for a while. You do not have to master any of these (Python, R, SQL, linear algebra, or basic statistics) before the bootcamp but having a basic understanding will help a great deal. 

During the Bootcamp:

During the 12 weeks every day involves learning new information, and that is why it is extremely important to keep up with the homework to review what you have learned. The projects are also very helpful to link everything together. The projects are a great opportunity to showcase your data science skills and you should pick topics which are relevant to industries you are interested in. Make sure you can explain every aspect of your project because you will be asked questions about them during interviews. 

The staff is extremely helpful and will take the time needed to help you with anything you need to keep you moving forward so do not hesitate to pull an instructor or TA aside to ask questions. The program is not perfect and the staff is constantly working to improve the curriculum. Pulse check on Friday afternoons is a great opportunity to voice your concerns (which my cohort took full advantage of) and speak your mind of what you find helpful and what can be improved. This is not only helpful to you and your cohort, but also for future cohorts.   

After the Bootcamp:

Once you make it through the 12 weeks the learning does not stop, because you will feel that there is much you still do not feel confident about. This is an unfortunately do to the fact that during the limited amount of time (12 weeks) there is a great deal of breadth of materials covered but it's impossible to go into great depth on each topic. This is when your show of commitment comes into play where you have to review concepts which you do not feel confident about. Reviewing the material is helpful, and completing coding challenges through HackerRank also helps. The recommended textbook is another great resource (ISLR) which should ideally be read before or during the bootamp. I unfortunately waited until after to read the text which is great for reviewing the machine learning concepts. There are many resources available to help review. I found some very helpful YouTube videos other other textbooks to review machine learning concepts I did not feel confident about. This will obviously vary from person to person depending on your learning style. You can choose to spend time reviewing everything, or focus on mastering concepts which are relevant to jobs your are applying to. 

Job Hunt:

The NYC Data Science Academy is there for you during your job hunt. They will help you fix your resume which helped me go from getting no replies for jobs that I would apply to before the bootcamp, to having 10 phone interviews lined up within 2-3 weeks of finishing the program. The hiring partner event is a great opportunity to connect with prospective employers. Mock interviews are available to help work on interviewing skills. I had my mock interview 2 days before my actual interview, and it was a previous graduate who is currently working as a data scientist. His advice helped to boost my confidence and within a few days of my actual interview I received an offer. 

Take Home Message:

Overall it was a great experience for me and I do not regret the sacrifices I made to attend the program. If you are interested in this program please give it your best and keep in mind that at the end of the day the burden is on you. You are the one who has the most to lose if you do not take full advantage of this opportunity. There is a great deal of self-studying involved before, during, and after the program. The more dedication and effort you put into your journey to become a data scientist, the more likely it will result in a positive outcome. You might hear back from some of the jobs that you apply to, you might not hear back from most of them. Not all interviews will go well but with each failure you will learn what needs to be improved. My advice is that if you are motivated and dedicated to start a career in data science, and willing to put in the required work then this 12 week data science bootcamp at the NYC Data Science Academy is the right choice for you. 

It is one of my best decisions to attend NYC Data Science Academy. During the bootcamp, I gained more confidence in programming. The coding skills taught are always on trend. Followed by the schedule of the bootcamp, I smoothly transferred my career path into data science. I do not only learned R, Python with corresponding practical, popular libraries in industrial applications but also acquired the ability in quickly learning new skills. NYC Data Science Academy provides students a good platform to communicate computer programming, machine learning algorithms, and its applications. Instructors and TAs are always helpful and patient for students to overcome difficulties in the study and provide supports. At the same time, students could have a blog platform with editing help to present projects. Interview skill development and career advice from Chris and Vivian are powerful to develop students as strong competitors in the job market. I really appreciate the knowledge, skills, and support I acquired from NYC Data Science Academy. I highly recommend NYC Data Science Academy to anyone who is interested in this career.

Long story short --

I have a PhD in computational geoscience and worked as a geophysicist in Houston for five years. I joined NYCDSA for the 12-week bootcamp, and worked as hard as I could. I was hired after my first interview, with an offer in hand within two weeks post graduation. NYCDSA has helped me achieve this smooth transition into a brand new field in just 3.5 months.

How I made the decision to join --

1) The time commitment is right: I was willing to put in a few months of my time through well-designed highly-intensive training, rather than spending a year or so to learn on my own. I do not want to go through a one-to-two-year data science master's program, considering a) I have a computational PhD degree, and b) although many data science theories have been long established, data science platforms and tools are evolving fast.

2) Word-of-Mouth: I have friends in New York working in the data domain recommending this academy over other data science training offerings. "richer content", "up-to-date material", "good instructors" are among the key words that I recall.

3) A balanced focus on teaching and job service: I have interviewed with a few different data science bootcamps. Many of them gave me a feeling that they want me to be 90% ready for a data scientist role coming in, and they are only willing to do the 10% polishing to get me "sold". NYCDSA convinced me with their road map that they will first focus on teaching the content that they are proud of, then switch gear near the end to the job search part. They shared their online pre-work content with me, so I could get ready. I was impressed by the quality of the recorded lectures and coding platform, which further boosted my faith in the academy.

Experience at the bootcamp --

1) The content

The teaching material is well developed and feels fresh. They keep polishing the core content and introduce many newly developed "jump start" sessions along the way. You are well informed about what's new out there while learning all the fundamentals.

2) The instructors

They have a stable teaching team here. Unlike many other camps which keep losing instructors and hiring recently graduated trainees as instructors, NYCDSA has a stable team. The majority of them started working here from years ago when the 12-week bootcamp was initiated.

They are a knowledgeable, friendly and hardworking group of people, with finance, math, computer science, physics background. When they are not teaching, they either help the students or work together on their side projects. It is smooth to learn from people you respect and admire.

3) The fellow campers

A vast majority of the students here have or are working on a graduate STEM degree, with a solid quantitative background. Many also bring in years of experience from finance, health care, software engineering, marketing or other fields. What they all share is a strong will to perform and succeed in data science.

I feel honored to have worked with a few of them on the group projects. We helped each other not just during the bootcamp, but also during the job search period. I am convinced that it is a great professional and personal network to be in, for the long future after our time at the academy.

4) The career service

NYCDSA organizes hiring events for each cohort. You will see quite a few Fortune 500 companies coming to the event, as well as promising start-ups. The NYSDSA career team verify the job vacancies, collect details about the hiring teams, and prepare cohort members individually for a successful outcome (resume, LinkedIn, GitHub, blog posts, interview skills, and many other aspects.) They also utilize their own personal network to get interview opportunities when they see a great match.

They keep supporting and motivating the students during the course of job search. There are rooms set aside for graduates to come back to and work on things. Here you get daily check-in's from the instructing team and helpful discussion with fellow cohort members. I have been enjoying this cozy and welcoming space often, and plan to keep gaining knowledge and energy from this ideally located data science hub.

Advice for future students --

1) Complete the pre-work, have an initial plan for the projects coming in.
2) Work hard during the bootcamp, be curious and independent. Treat it as a 3-month internship.
3) Plan to jump right into job hunting effort right after.
4) When working with wonderful teammates, make sure to deliver your parts; after achieving your goals, remind yourself that you have been kindly helped along the way.

Closing comments --

It has been a great investment. With the guidance, help, and support from NYCDSA, my job preparation and search time frame has been shortened by at least 3-6 months. For people with solid STEM background and strong desire to work in Data Science, this bootcamp should be a challenging and rewarding journey. I would continue to cherish the relationship I have built with my mentors and friends met during Cohort 9 at the academy. I wish them well.

Going to NYC Data Science Academy is a decision I don’t regret for a second. These were ones of the most challenging 3 months but well worth it. I learnt a lot and got a lot of support that I would not have gotten anywhere else.

As long as you are ready to put in a lot of sweat, hours and effort, you will be successful and do extremely well because you will always get the support of the TAs, staff and fellow students. You are surrounded by a bunch of smart people and TAs who are here to support you and help you grow. 

The fact that NYC DSA selects students with a Masters or PhD degree is a big plus because you end up working with people from whom you can learn tremendously. Their experience and background make the bootcamp that much more interesting.

The curriculum is solid and half of it is dedicated to machine learning. Some bootcamps only dedicate a few weeks to machine learning which does not make sense to me given that it is the core of a data science position. The curriculum keeps evolving based on the feedback the students give every week during the pulse check. 

I believe that you won’t have any difficulty finding a data science position after attending the bootcamp as long as you have the drive and treat the bootcamp and your job hunting as a full time job. 

Also, NYC DSA offers a lot of help in your job hunting. The last 3 weeks of the bootcamp are dedicated to helping you with your job hunt (don’t worry you’ll still be working on your data science skillset in the meantime with probably the toughest classes of the bootcamp happening at that time too…). You’ll receive a lot of support to find a job from the staff and they will prepare you for interviews.

All in all, get ready to work hard and if you do, this will be one of the best decisions you will ever make to advance your career in data science

I had been in the 12 week data science bootcamp last year summer, which changed my view to myself about leaning data science. It was a big challenge for me at that time as I had little programming experience. Although the course was extremely intensive, the tutors and TAs were very helpful and encourage us to find a way to achieve the goal. Also, I believe that the course are very comprehansive and good for someone who really wanna find  a related job in Data Science industry. Now I am studying Master of Data science in University of Rochester. My experience in the 3 month bootcamp, defenitely increased my chance to be admiited. I would like to say thanks to all of them who helped me at that time and make me ever stronger. 

Overall: 

100% YES!!! I wholeheartedly recommend NYC Data Science Academy! If you want to switch into data science, the bootcamp will help you land your dream job. I got an internship offer shortly after the end of bootcamp(~2.5 weeks) through the bootcamp’s hiring partner event, and recently became a full-time data scientist at the same company. All of this would not have been possible without the help of NYCDSA!

 

Full Review

When I was reading through bootcamp reviews, I personally thought it was more helpful to find people of similar background as mine and see how well they fared.  For instance, knowing that people with only bachelors degree attended NYCDSA and got data scientist jobs helped to not only inspire me, but also to set realistic expectations on what type of jobs I could get and how long it could take. So here is a blurb about myself:

 

TL-DR; 

• Bachelors degree In math and economics
• <1 yr of work experience
• Limited exposure to R/SQL/Big Data tools prior to the bootcamp(Does using a select statement in SQL count?)
• Prior experience coding in C and basic Python through an intro level computer science course in college. No exposure to data packages in Python. 

 

Prior to coming into the bootcamp, I asked myself: “Is the bootcamp worth the $16,000 investment?” Is it going to give me enough skills to find a job as a data scientist?”. If you read my introduction, the ultimate answer is an obvious YES! Below, I am listing the top 7 reasons why I think NYDSCA was a worth investment for me:

1. Top-notch job assistance:  From teaching how to craft your resume to preparing for technical interviews, Vivian and Chris did an excellent job at explaining what interviewing for data scientist positions was like. This “soft skill” portion was really important for me since I wasn’t accustomed to interviewing for technical roles. Thank you Vivian for always pushing me to become a better data scientist! Thank you Chris for all the earnest advices on job hunting!
2. Connections of the bootcamp: As I mentioned earlier, I got my job through the bootcamp’s hiring partner event. Being able to take advantage of the wide network of employers definitely made “getting the foot in the door” much easier
3. Learning both R and Python: I wanted to learn both as I knew it would help me cover my bases and be prepared for most data science-related jobs. 
4. Transforming me into a confident coder: having learned coding through a class in college and a bit of self-learning, I knew I needed to improve my skills if I ever wanted to land a serious job as a data scientist. The pre-work material along with projects were really helpful in that sense
5. Structured curriculum: There is a lot of thought put into the structure of each class. It was very nice to have all materials that I needed to learn organized for me so that my only worry was to learn.  
6. Instructors: They deserve their own section as most staff have been teaching for quite a few cohorts. They are all very knowledgeable and approachable. Special shoutout to Zeyu for being an amazing TA and always offering helpful guidance through my projects!
7. Projects: Each project covers an essential area of data science-data visualization, web scraping, machine learning - and I learned so much through them. The projects were also essential to build my data science portfolio and showcase my skillset to employers.

If you made it all the way to the end, thank you reading this review! All in all, NYCDSA was great!! It worked perfectly for me as it gave me the skills (both technical and soft) I needed to land a data scientist job.  BE PREPARED TO WORK HARD. Treat both the bootcamp and job hunting as a full-time job and you will be rewarded. :)

I attended the January-March 2017 boot camp of the New York Data Science Academy. It was the most densely packed and learning filled 3 month period of my life. NYCDSA has the right balance of theory and practise built into their curriculum.

Projects were fun and challenging. Instructors and TA's with expertise in both coding and statistics were available round the clock. I personally asked for assistance on many topics and was more than satisfied with the help. Staff's knowledge about theory and real world applications blew my mind.

Perhaps, the best part about NYCDSA is working with fellow students who are as passionate, knowledgeable and hard working as you are. Highly recommended.

Honestly one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Yes it’s a reasonably difficult course, but if you are truly interested in data science you enjoy every second of it. Like anything, you get out what you put in. If you’re ready to work as hard as you need to in order to master this wealth of knowledge in 12 weeks, this course is 100% for you.

The instructors and TAs are excellent, all accomplished data scientists with a wealth of skill and knowledge. The resources, from slides to code examples and practice questions, are things I will continue to use throughout my career as a data scientist. There is ALWAYS more to learn in the field of data science.

If you’re thinking about going because you simply want a pay raise, then don’t. The course is relatively difficult, and if you aren’t willing to put in the work to master everything you need to land a job, then you won’t get a job. Simple as that.

However, if you are committed to becoming an expert data science, the job support here is immense. There are mock interviews, code interview practice questions, linkedin workshops, presentations from hiring companies and data scientists etc…I myself recently accepted a dream offer from a company I was connected with through the bootcamp.

You likely won’t get a job immediately, it’ll take awhile and a lot of interview practice. It took me about 3 months. If you haven’t mastered the skills you need to be a data scientist, then you don’t have the skills to pass through the interview process. But again, if you are committed there is no shortage of resources made available to you. If you do not succeed here, it is because you did not put as much effort into them as they did into you.

Finally, an underrated part of the experience is the other students. Some of my best friends in the city I met through the bootcamp, and we still go out for drinks all the time. The course not only provides you with knowledge, but connections. It’s a room full of intelligent, driven and entrepreneurial people. You could expect nothing less.

If you want to be a data scientist, and more importantly you have the drive to learn and succeed, you’ll thrive here. Simple as that.

This course was the best thing to ever happen to me. In 20 weeks (4: pre work, 12: course, 4 job hunt) I went from someone who couldn't write 'Hello World' in python to a full blown Data Scientist, making six figures, with multiple companies vying for my interest. 

What you should know:

You will get as much out of this course as you put in. I had many, many days where I was working well past midnight and back in class by 9:30am. You learn how to learn, which is THE skill required for any coding job. The curriculum is intensive, and a lot of times I couldn't totally complete the homework without checking for answers from my peers, and that's okay! In the real world, much of your job will be interacting and working with a team. 

Course:
Go every day, work hard, finish the projects on time, and hold yourself accountable. The lecturers do a great job, but ultimately when you're 24+ years old, nobody is going to spoon feed you. The homework is great, but when you try to put everything you've learned together into a well rounded project (there are 4-5 projects), that is when you really understand what is going on. Throw yourself full bore into the projects, and take pride in your work. 90% of what I learned, no exaggeration, was in the 3-5 days before projects were due. Its one thing to figure out homework by looking at the example sets, and a different thing entirely to apply those concepts to a data set with different structure and goals. If you are proud of your projects at the end, you will get a job. Period.

Job Hunt:

The job is the ultimate goal for 99% of people entering the camp. Unfortunately, there is some confusion about how the search will work. For one, you will not be "given" a job. For most people, the job search will take 1.5-3 months. Vivian has excellent contacts but she also has 40+ students. In order to guarantee yourself a job, you need to approach the process like a data science project. For me, I did "easy apply"s on LinkedIn, 50 a day. These take literally 15 seconds each. I then selected 15 companies a day with a more formal interview process, and sent them a variation of a pre-written cover letter. For my top picks, I tried to find a hiring manager or data scientist on the team, and add them on LinkedIn. I put my name on AngelList, and got many companies reaching out. I humbled myself and told everyone I was more interested in a great learning position, not a great salary. I iteratively changed my own interview methods, including voice tone, inflections, negotiations, honesty levels, until I found a balance that worked for me. You cannot just apply and hope. That is not a method.

Basically, the bootcamp is the first big step. The second big step is learning how to apply and interview. Many people send out 5-10 applications to their top picks (who are often everyone else's top picks as well) and then sit on their hands and wonder why they haven't gotten a job. When entering a new field, you have to make concessions about your salary and place of work, in order to reap the rewards down the line. Also, without multiple options, you will not be able to negotiate because you'll feel this is your only chance. BROADEN YOUR HORIZONS!

 

Overall:

The camp was the best decision I ever made. I read a book called Design Your Life, which basically said take how you want your life to be, then decide what is necessary to get it there.

I wanted to live in NYC, with a six figure job, working in an office with low stress, and love what I do. NYCDSA made all of that possible. If you have gotten a degree that isn't taking you where you want to be, but you know you're smart and can work hard, I strongly urge you to apply to NYCDSA today. 

I really enjoyed this bootcamp. I came into this looking to switch careers from teaching math, with little knowledge of data science, and have completed the program really excited about my new career. The curriculum really helps you to understand what you will be doing and the mentors are extremely helpful and available whenever you get stuck and need help. I felt supported 100% the entire way. I also was lucky to have the opportunity to get a little hands on experience for my capstone, which I very much appreciated!