Actualize

Bootcamp is great. Instructors are very helpful and are willing to help students. The CEO also really cares about the business and the students within it. He definitley goes the extra mile to help students as much as he can. Quality education and touches on a lot of subjects that help students dive right in to the web development world. Coming in with previous development experience, Actualize helped solidify my knowledge and made me a much more confident programmer. I actually scored a job a couple weeks after graduation and I probably wouldn't have landed the job without the skills and confidence that I had received from Actualize.

This truly is an amazing program. Starting with the pre-work, the instructors go in-depth and are able to explain the fundamentals of coding. During the in-class course, the instructors are able to walk us through the lesson topics and help us understand it. There was also a section where the instructors, and Jay (the CEO/ founder) came in to help us improve our resume, expand our network, spruce up our LinkedIn profile, along with many other things.Personally, the instructors at Actualize are what made Actualize the best decision I have made in a long time. They really do care with how you do before, during, and after the course. I even had a few "Touch Base" e-mails just to see how I was doing. They invest so much in all of their students, which makes the experience much more personable and unique to an individual. Which was everything I could have asked for and more in a coding bootcamp. 

Like many bootcamp graduates, I began my coding journey in the world of online learning (via Codecademy and Treehouse), and was immediately hooked. While these online resources proved to be excellent introductions into the world of software and web development, and served to affirm my interest in potentially pursuing my new passion as a career, their medium was inherently limiting. I realized after a short while of online tutorials that I would have to look more seriously into a comprehensive learning platform that would provide the tools for me to become a developer. After an extensive search and application process to many “bootcamps” throughout the US, I decided to attend Actualize, and couldn’t be happier with my decision.

 

What sets Actualize apart is their commitment to teaching excellence, and, as a corollary, the curriculum that emphasizes deep conceptual learning of web development topics.  While many bootcamps promote their teaching, Actualize sets the standard in pedagogy with its instructors, all of whom have backgrounds in both education and computer science. The instructors are, accordingly, excellent: Peter Jang made learning web development engaging and fun, and his teaching style provided clarity and insight on difficult concepts and topics. The curriculum, which comprehensively covers and introduces an invaluable set of topics- data structures and algorithms, APIs, databases, web frameworks, authentication and authorization, to name a few- prepared me extremely well for my new career as developer. If you have made the decision to attend a bootcamp and understand what it takes to become a successful developer, then I recommend Actualize without hesitation.

Great curriculum and instructors!  I really enjoyed my experience, and have been able to successfully switch careers in less than 6 months.

I had been considering doing a coding bootcamp for about a year, but had never pulled the trigger because it seemed like such a large and overwhelming decision.  I decided to take the plunge with Actualize because it was a part-time program, so I was able to keep my job while taking the course in the evenings. 

I also liked that they placed a strong emphasis on hiring instructors and TAs with a teaching background, so I wasn't worried about not being able to understand the concepts.  The instructor (Peter) taught the course in a very easy to digest manner, and each new concept built on what we'd learned previously.  He also took the time to meet with students before class if they needed extra help understanding the concepts we learned in class.  By the end of the program, I was able to build a fully-functioning web app, read and understand code that others have written, and apply my knowledge to learn new concepts with ease. 

There was also a "job-hacking" portion of the curriculum in which we learned how to network our way into a job offer.  Additionally, we had a career advisor, Taylor, who was available to answer any job-related questions we had.  With his help (and the help of all the job-hacking skills Jay taught us), I was able to secure a job offer about a month after finishing the program.  I highly recommend Actualize to anyone interested in switching to a career in software development!   

I started to play with coding a little bit a few years back, and about 6 months ago I had a moment of inspiration to jump into it full time. After researching every bootcamp in Chicago, I determined Actualize was the right choice for me.

WOW sooooooooo much information to learn to get started in this field, so so much information and yet Josh taught it to us in such a way that I was able to retain it, and reimplement everything when I needed to. I highly recommend anyone to at a minimum come and check it out and meet everyone so you can get a good feel for if this is the right school for you.

I am a graduate of the first online cohort at Actualize. What's unique about their online course is that it is actually live. I had the full live experience from the comfort of my home (read garage), complete with pair programming and team collaboration. The tech team had it all running smoothly with screen sharing and video all seamlessly recreating the in-classroom experience.

One reason I chose Actualize was because their instuctors, besides being experienced engineers, are also experienced teachers. My instructor Brian was great. He understood what the students were confused about and really knew how to explain things. He also pushed us to debug our code on our own and discover thing ourselves which is half of what being a developer is about.

Overall my experience was great and anyone looking for a real live class with quality instruction but doesn't want to spend an hour and a half traveling downtown in name-your-city should certainly check out Actualize.

Originally, leaving my review right after I completed the course, I didn't give Actualize five stars for Job assistance. However, I landed a paying internship less than a week after graduating and as I continued searching for a regular entry level position I was really impressed with how the team at actualize made themselves available with help in improving my personal brand and navigating different situations that came up whether it was dealing with recruiters or how to prepare for an interview with a particular company. I think they deserve an A+ for job assistance and that's even for a student like me who took the online course and is easy to forget about after the course is over.

Prior to attending Actualize, I was a project manager in the construction management industry, with no coding experience. While my job was stable, I was feeling stuck because I have a heart for technology and I yearned for a chance to get my foot in the door to the tech world. If you are working full-time, cannot afford to quit your job to attend classes, and like me, have a heart for technology and want to make a change in your life, I would absolutely recommend Actualize without reservation.

At Actualize, in addition to teaching you the core skills to become a full stack web developer, they made coding fun! Attending coding bootcamp is no magic pill of transformation, you have to stay committed and constently put in the work and research. It could easily become overwhelming and intimidating. Jay, Josh, and the TAs, are coding professionals who are empathic, funny, and engaging, and are on a mission to help you understand and to discover the most of your learning potential! These four months of classes has been the most challenging yet rewarding learning experience of my life, and I am very thankful for it. 

As a recent graduate (July of 2017), I'd recommend Actualize to anyone who is thinking about atttending coding bootcamp. 

I became interested on coding back in middle school on a TI-85. It wasn't until I met Jay and Peter almost 20 years later the I realized that I could and would make programming my career. Jay, Peter, and Josh have constructed a great program here in Chicago and I wouldn't be where I am today without the deconstruction of explanation of web app frameworks that I recieved. I cannot express enough how much this program and the support within has meant to changing my life. 

If you spend your days tinkering and surfing online coding resources, please look into one of Jay's tutorials at 1871 here in Chicago

I know it sounds lame, but you can do this. If you just need the classroom experience to kick it into full gear, please investigate this program. 
 

Actualize gets you from zero to coding in 17 weeks. There's a little over a month of pre-work which is paced well, so that you're familiar with the Ruby language and core concepts on day one of in-person (online) classes. The pre-work is self guided, so video tutorials with accompanying assignments which are submitted daily. Once class begins, the pace escalates quickly. By week 12 you are building full-stack applications on your own. That said, you will get out of it what you put in, and realistically your journey in coding is really just beginning upon graduation. I was an extreme beginner, and extremely skeptical that I could learn to code in only a few months. I can say with confidence that they truly foster all skill levels and have laid out a course that accommodates beginners. Actualize offers a legit course with legit teachers who have a curriculum designed to get you started, setting the foundation for you to have success in software development, but you will have to continue to do the work, both in coding and in what Actualize terms "Job Hacking" after you graduate. I'll see how I feel in 6 months. A lot of work ahead but I do feel good about what I need to do to land a gig as a software developer. I'll say what anyone scanning these ratings wants to see: Actualize is NOT A SCAM. It's a legitimate school with a solid curriculum and a clever way of distillating a lot of information into compact course, with a decent amount of career services, mentorship and technical resources to get you hired. 

Whether you are beginner or intermediate, you will learn a ton and solidify any previous coding experience you have. If you are a beginner, you will build a solid foundation. The curriculum and instruction is excellent. They really did take the time to figure out the best way to teach the material and it was not casually compiled together like a lot of online courses. I have seen beginner coders in my class succeed but having some coding experience before you join will enrich your learning.