App Academy

I was not sure what to expect when I signed up for App Academy.  I was always into computers and tech but never saw myself programming anything.  I did a lot of reviews on courses and wanted to get the most out of my time and chose App Academy with a 24 week program.  6 months is a long time to put in and the work is challenging and will consume many many hours of your life.

The course is fast paced with an evolving curriculum and has assessments on Mondays that require you to get an 80% to keep moving forward in your cohort.  If you do not get an 80 on the assessment you are deferred back 1 month to relearn.  During the course you will pair up with people for daily coursework and make some good friends along the way.  Overall it was a good experience for a fresh start for this guy!  I am looking forward to going forward with my new skills and creating something great!

Last year I decided to make a career change, and I researched several bootcamps and attended their zoom info sessions. I felt like App Academy offered the best product and decided to apply for the online 6-month coding bootcamp. After finishing, I don't have any regrets :) The curriculum is thorough and the teachers/staff are professional and competent. The facts that they have an income share agreement, have been around for years, and are still growing are testaments to the effectiveness of their program. I feel confident in my abilities to code and to get a good job. Good luck in your decision process!

Before you sign up, this isn't a golden ticket to a 6-figure salary on a silver platter after graduation. This program provides you the foundation needed to succeed, what you get out of the program will depend on you. 

Some things that are a guarantee is:
-Be frustrated during this journey, you will feel the urge to quit because learning is not always easy. 
-You will meet great & awful people, welcome to the club.
-Prepare to be working 12+ hours a day, including weekends to meet the deadlines. Even after graduation. 
-You will learn to be a better coder and communicator 

Suggestions for App Academy:
1) Focus on more industry-relevant technologies. Java? Python? More data structure & algorithms?
2) Get more partnerships with companies, show companies that your bootcamp graduates are capable.
3) More post-graduate assistance.
4) Parts of the curriculum felt rushed and other times too slow, the timing of the curriculum needs to be improved.
5) Most curriculum videos are severely outdated and lackluster
6) Not all instructors have professional experience

Instructors are knowledgeable, helpful, responsive and always available (even in weekends if necessary). They pay attention to the needs of the class, supply an incredible amount of extra material and make a real effort to give more explanation if they see a lack of understanding.  Fellow students are smart and helpful as well. I enjoyed working with them all. This is an honest and supportive learning environment. The experience with the staff handling administrative matters is also good, they do their best to help you. Since I could go straight to a job at the end of the course I have marginal experience with career coaching, but that was also impressive. During the course count on a 80-90 hour/week work, about 15 tests and four projects that need to be completed, two individually, two in groups. The projects are all very good opportunities to cement in the material. This is not an accredited institution, there is no possibility to get any benefit for the tuition in your personal income tax. Now that I know how it works, I would not hesitate to take it.

 App Academy is a fast paced, challenging, web development course that claims it can teach people to code with no prior experience. I attended the bootcamp in June of 2020. Here are my thoughts.

Pros:
-Lots of help.
-Friendly staff.
-Has a current curriculum because it always updates.
-You pair program a lot, a necessary skill for team based tech jobs.
-The staff works extremely hard to make sure you understand the material.
-They help you find a job after graduating.
-Lots of payment plans/options for people, for example the deferred tuition.

Cons:
-Expensive
-Not enough coverage on data structures and algorithms.

You can make the argument that the price is worth what you get out of it. Similarly, you educations depends on you being willing to put in a lot in order to get a lot out of it. In a way you dictate the experience you have here. I enjoyed my time here. The welcoming environment was nice, and the teachers spent countless hours teaching you how to solve problems, rather than just pointing to solutions. If you genuinely want to learn and have the drive to survive the 6 month long program, you will learn a lot of information. In addition to the price the lack of data structures and algorithm teaching is in part the draw back of all boot camps, there simply is not enough time to teach you everything. They make an effort on this front however, by teaching you how to teach yourself. So by then end of it if you don't know something, you can easily find out how to do it. 

Oh man, just finished up the curriculum and currently getting ready to apply for jobs. Here are the pros and cons of my experience:

Pros:
- The curriculum is extensive, everything you need is explained in full details in articles, reiterated in videos and then the TAs would go over examples to make sure the concepts are understood.
- There are projects to do every single day, which makes learning much more hands-on.
- The staff are very easy to talk to and are available when needed.

Cons:
- The curriculum can use some proofreading, typos are everywhere and as a former designer, they all jump out to me.

Really not many negative things I can think of about my experience. It really has been a pleasant experience for me. With that said, it really is an intensive bootcamp. LOTS of materials to digest within a short amount of time, which takes a toll on personal life. So plan accordingly.

I did extensive research before committing to App Academy, and there are three main reasons I chose it and WOULD CHOOSE IT AGAIN:

1. a/A has an income sharing agreement, so they are intrinsically motivated to get you hired, and every piece of the program is motivated by this. In short, your goals and theirs are aligned as long as you are committed. Speaking of alignment, you really will be paired with a coach for your entire job search, and you'll have the support of your classmates, assuming you connected well with them throughout the program. In sum, a/A offers tremendous researches to aid in your search, in addition to the thorough prep in the last couple weeks of the program.

2. a/A is assessment-driven and engineering-focussed, meaning they don't carry dead weight—and more to the point, they do not have a reputation for allowing dead weight or for graduating "web devs" who don't really know how software works. You learn multiple languages. You learn algorithms and data structures. You build 2 solo projects and 2 group projects. It's intense. But... You are allowed up to 3 deferments. This is designed to give you the chance to have more time if you are struggling, and it also means that at a certain point, the unmotivated/less capable will be significantly challenged. That challenging is good for your skill and reputation as a potential a/A grad, so as long as you can keep up this is a plus. I found the rigor was typically held in good tension with empathetic instructors who want to support you well through what they know to be a high-paced 24 weeks.

3. People! Students I reached out to prior to choosing a/A generally had great things to say about their experience. Reach out to a/A grads on LinkedIn who live near you, and you'll likely find the same. But what makes this difference? For me, it's the people. I had the best lead instructor I could've imagined, and the TAs are generally of good quality as well. While every company likely has some instructors that fall below the curve, I really can say the instruction I received was personable, encouraging, and technically substantial. (There are some instructors that occasionally guest lectured for my cohort, and I liked them as well.) And the students? Amazing! I genuinely made a good handful of friends, and we voluntarily check in with each other as we each look for jobs. Yes, every class will have that person looking for a quick way to money, but even so they get weeded out or have a change of heart. And how can you not make friends when the average day consists of several hours pair-programming?

I've harped on about the strengths of App Academy. What are the weaknesses? I give the curriculum 3 stars—maybe 3.5 if that's allowed. But I actually really liked the curriculum, particularly the structure, pace, and topics, as well as the video instructors. a/A even updated it earlier in the year, so even recent language developments are covered. So why 3 stars? Simple: the videos are typically paired with homework in the form of article-style readings to be done the night before their topics are covered, and while many of the readings were fine, just as many were riddled with grammatical errors and unclear phrasing. Additionally, occasionally the code-along videos involved deprecation issues, leading to avoidable, class-wide encounters with bugs. While the deprecation issues are understandable, the lack of writing quality is not (aside from the classic engineering stereotypes that come to mind). 

None of these curriculum issues are reasons not to choose a/A. In fact, I bet every bootcamp faces these same challenges when it comes to keeping curriculum current and polished. These reasons do, however, provide for a point of growth on the part of App Academy, and I know they are aware of this and constantly improving, welcoming your constant feedback. You are, after all, required to provide it daily, and in my experience they take it really seriously. What makes this ultimately excusable for now is that students always have ample opportunity to ask questions on every single lecture topic, so you are always supported as you seek to master content. There wasn't a single topic for which I wasn't provided a live Q & A. Ask away!

A small but earnest point should be made before concluding. You really must take into account the length of job search and the possibility of deferment when thinking about how you will support yourself during the bootcamp. For many, 24 weeks is already a stretch. You've got to ask yourself if you could be income-less for a year. While your career coach will understand if after the 24 weeks you feel that you simply must get a part time job, this will provide a ton of stress if you don't consider your "worst cases" before starting the bootcamp. This goes for any bootcamp, and even though I bet a/A's placement pace is relatively high compared with other programs  (on average roughly 6 months after graduating), you simply can't afford to make a poor choice when it comes to your finances.

Ultimately, joining App Academy was likely the best choice I could've made in a year nothing went to plan. The ISA means they have skin in the game and are aligned with your goal of jump-starting your career. The rigorous, assessment-driven structure means you will actually become something by the time you are done. And the people are worth the cost of the late hours, tears, grit, and (deferred) money. While the curriculum can be improved in its delivery, it really just might make a software engineer out of you!

Pros:
-Great curriculum taught by competent and (mostly) empathetic instructors who want you to succeed.
-If you can pass the curriculum as well as are giving a true "best of yourself" effort then you will learn to program.
-Resources are plentiful during the course
-Don't pay a dime until you get a job.

Cons:
- During job search technical resources are very much limited and watered down compared to help you received during curriculum.
- Although there are few, I did encounter instructors that I felt were chosen for their ability to program rather than their ability to teach and program.
- Terrible system of conduct and accountability. There has to be a better way to handle plagiarism. Everyone who programs grabs info from stackoverflow etc.