Actualize

I heard about this bootcamp from someone who had completed the course and said that it was great. I did some research and it had a better reputation than most of the other bootcamps I had looked at. I was impressed that it focused heavily on interaction and feedback between students and the small class sizes with two T.A.s. When I read one review about how they hire teachers, teach them to code, and use them as instructors I knew it was the right choice. I have to say it was intimidating during pre-work and the bootcamp itself was very challenging at times. The resources, group discussions, and office hours in addition to one-on-one help really made the learning process a positive experience. It is a bootcamp so it isn't easy but the amount of information that I learned was well worth the time and money.

Actualize was, in fact, the only bootcamp I applied to after deciding to learn how to code—I found their program on Course Report and sent off an application, telling myself I'd go back and consider other options later.  However, after hearing back from their enrollment team and especially after interviewing with Ricky, I decided to jump into their program.  This is a decision I have not questioned even once in the past four months.  I think the first thing that stands out to me about this school is how relaxed, considerate, and friendly the faculty and program are as a whole, providing extensive feedback and support not only about coding, technical skills, and the process of job searching, but also in regards to emotional well-being and maintaining life-work balance.  My instructor was Amanda, who is both a phenomenal teacher and a real sweetheart; her guidance and instruction was only outmatched by her encouragement, positive attitude, and outstanding ability to coax out the best in her students.  It's hard to overstate how crucial that community aspect was to my experience at Actualize—after only 12 weeks of digital meetings, I find myself feeling close to the people I have studied and worked with here, and am excited to see what they go on to do.  To that end, Actualize also provides excellent guidance in its charmingly-titled "Job Hacking" course, which course I am really grateful to have as a continued part of the education I have received here.  

Overall, this is a phenomenal school providing the best in online bootcamp learning; I have already recommended the program to a few friends and will continue to do so any time someone asks me about coding bootcamp.

I settled on coming to Actualize after comparing quite a few bootcamps. The thing that decided it for me was the fact that Actualize hires actual instructors. The instructors know how to teach and put the students first. You don't get some fresh bootcamp grad who will just teach you how to type what they type. You get people that know how to teach.

Specific review for Amanda (Instructor) -
Amazing instructor(Would never tell her this directly...kidding). She made sure to break down what she was doing in an understandable way, and constantly found ways to make things make sense. You could see her background as a teacher come through in that she made things engaging and fun. She did a great job and I would recommend Actualize solely based on her performance.

The Career support is called Job hacking and they are fantastic as well. Sarah is always available to help and helped me polish up my resume so that it wasn't an embarrassing mess. I feel ready for the job hunt and feel like I have got support through the process.

I could not speak more highly of Actualize, and my instructor Katherine, who led my evening cohort.  I went into this course worried I’d struggle to stay engaged given that it was 3.5 hours after a full work day, but Katherine was extremely engaging and brought so much energy to the class every single day, it was much easier than I had anticipated.  Structurally, it was a good mix of learning via demos and and actually coding ourselves and working with our classmates.   We had a 9:1 ratio + TAs, which worked well and our questions were always answered. 

Where to begin...if you want a Bootcamp that will teach you the fundamentals of coding and computer science this is the one for you! I was recommended to Actualize by a friend and they had nothing but good things to say about the program. I was stuck at a dead-end job feeling like I wasn't going anywhere. I have always been passionate about technology and being a huge gamer I  have always wondered how can people create such amazing programs. Every single thing we use today was programmed by someone and that intrigued me to want to learn more. So I did! Actualize will get you set up at first, by speaking with an admissions advisor, they break down payment and all loan options that are available to you. They are incredibly flexible and work with you and your schedule. You start the program with a 5 week of pre-work where you have an instructor, and a weekly office hours meeting where the instructor breaks down a problem from that week's lesson. This pre-work allows you to learn the fundamentals of Ruby at your own pace and it's enjoyable! After your pre-work, you hop into live classes, and the instructors are phenomenal!! My instructor, Katherine Evans, was hands down the best teacher that I've ever had. She was extremely thorough, broke everything down, and encouraged participation. She and our TA's were always available whenever we needed them and they rock! Actualize is with you every step of the way and they are there to make sure you succeed. Trust that if you choose this program you will not regret it, Jay Wengrow and his team at Actualize will get you to where you want to be! 

After months and months of researching for coding bootcamps, reading reviews online (reddit, on here, etc.) I could not decide on one based on how polarizing the reviews were for almost every major bootcamp out there. But after being on Course Report one day and somehow landing on Actualize, I was highly impressed by the reviews from previous students and TAs. After researching Actualize more and interviewing with them, I decided to commit. I signed up for the full time bootcamp and it was a great decision! The format of the bootcamp kind of moves a bit fast in the beginning (especially as someone with very low previous coding knowledge), but with the resources they provide it helps you accommodate quite quickly. The office hours, the practice during class, the one on ones with your instructor, all begin helping you feel more comfortable with coding each day as you move forward through the bootcamp. 

I know there are sooo many different bootcamps out there with different formats, curriculums, etc., but this one worked for me and would definitely recommend it to anyone out there ready to get their feet wet with web development and coding. My instructor and TAs helped us form good coding habits all bootcamp long for our success moving forward. You definitely will not learn everything you need to learn in 12 weeks about full stack web development, but it was enough structure and motivation for me to individually continue moving forward. You get the resources to continue learning, practice coding, and begin searching for careers in software development after the 12 weeks. They will help you find a job to if you are truly committed! 

I just finished this Bootcamp today, and I definitely recommend it. Everything about it was exactly what I was looking for, and reviews I read for the course were very accurate, which is what lead me to pick this course in the first place. If you have read older reviews about Actualize, I can vouch for what most of them say.  It was fun, informative, challenging, and all the other things everyone else has said. Joey was my instructor, and he was great. Surprisingly, it was his first time teaching an Actualize class, but he was born for the role.

I had a fantastic experience with Actualize. I came into the course with next to zero coding knowledge and learned far more than I expected, every day. It became so much fun to learn new languages and algorithms I genuinely didn't want to stop at the end of each day. By the end of the course I was more than confident I could take on professional roles and pickup new methods and systems with relative ease. The capstone project was so much fun! The teacher (who absolutely loved to make the worst jokes possible - but usually the good worst jokes) always reminded us of how far we'd come in such a short time, and created a environment of comfort where we could talk to him, the TAs, and the other students without feeling judged. We were all in the same boat, even if we all felt like others were light years ahead (they weren't). In addition to the massive amount of coding I learned, the entire cohort itself was a wonderful learning experience. The career advisors are extremely helpful, you can really see how much they want you to succeed as an individual, I'm so glad I ended up choosing Actualize over the other several dozen bootcamps I checked out.