App Academy

App Academy was a great experience. It is an intense program and requires you to put in a lot of work. If you put in the time and effort you will succeed. The TA's are very knowledgeable and helpful. I am not a fan of the assessments because they did require a lot of memorizing vs actual understanding of the subject. However, they are implementing changes to address this issue. My overall experience in App Academy was great, I had a lot of fun and learned a lot!

App Academy is an intensive 16 week bootcamp that focuses on teaching you Ruby on Rails, React, and Javascript. What I think App Academy does well is teaching you the basics of coding. From never having coding experience to building a fully functional website in 4 months. But you have to be ready to learn. There is so much material it's impossible to do everything and thankfully the TAs are always there to help you. There's assessments every week to keep you on your toes but if you study you should be fine. After you finish the curriculum you spend time with career coaches that you guide you to finding a job which is really nice! Overall, a great experience and game changer.

The reason I choose to attend App Academy over other bootcamps is because of its proven success in regards to job outcomes. I am writing this review one day before the last day of the cohort, therefore I do not yet know when and where I will land a job. In terms of the actual program, I will begin by saying that it is VERY intense and I noticed that the students that excelled the most were not necessarily born geniuses but the ones that were willing to dedicate 100% of their time and effort into the cohort. They were not only focused during the routine 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. day but were also studying every day until 10 p.m. including weekends. Your work and effort inputted will be the direct result of the results your achieve in the program. So my advice to anyone that will be attending AA is that you should seriously commit 100% of your time to learning the material. I believe that the program is definitely worth it and it is a life changing experience.

App Academy is not for the faint of heart. If you don’t like rules and tests and mandatory attendance, then it may not be for you. Be ready to give up your entire social life and any hobbies for 3-4 months so you can spend every waking moment studying, or else you will fail out of the program. You'll be spending all day in a stuffy room with no windows and blinding fluorescent lights that will give you migraines.   That being said, the fast pace and strict requirements give you no choice but to stay focused and learn more than you thought was possible. There are some amazing TAs who are extremely knowledgeable and genuinely care about helping the students learn and grow.   We spent a lot of time doing pair programming, which is a great way to learn if you like thinking out loud and working through problems with a partner. I didn’t get as much out of the lectures we had almost every day for the first two months. It’s really hard to pay attention while sitting in a dark room staring at a power point for 3 hours straight.   Thankfully, they’re always collecting feedback so they can keep improving the program.   All in all, if you want to learn software development and you need help with motivation and direction, App Academy is an excellent choice. 

I'm writing this review for a hoodie and everything written here is my personal experience.

Cons:
It's really expensive to live in SF and have no income.
It's stressful and demands a lot of your time. Don't expect to have much free time if you want to do well.
Assessments sucks . It feels like you're only studying to pass them and it's sucks to see people fail and get kicked out.
Pair programming can suck at times but it's part of the learning process.
The curriculum is a bit outdated and instructions can be very unclear.

Pros:
You're surrounded by smart hardworking people who you'll quickly befriend.
You learn a lot in a very short amount of time and it's fun doing it.
The curriculum is quickly being updated and the TA's are really supportive.
It beats going to college for 4 years to get a computer science degree.

Take away:
I think it was worth it for the skills that I learned.
I came in knowing nothing and I can definitely build my own web apps now that I've gone through it, and I have.
A bootcamp is only the first step. If you have the motivation to see it through to the end you'll be fine.

My experience at App Academy was great. I'm really glad I decided to make the time commitment and learn about software development.

With so much material to learn in such a short amount of time, it can be stressful and demanding. Be prepared to sacrifice your time and parts of your social life for a rigorous 3+ month course. But don't get me wrong, it is incredibly fulfilling and rewarding knowing you were able to get through the program and learn so much in such a short period of time.

The best part about the bootcamp are the TAs. They are all veyr knowledgable and qualified, but more importantly, they are all genuinely great people who are always willing to help.

As long as you have a desire to learn and are willing to work hard, you will be successful at App Academy

My time at app academy is coming to an end, and I'm glad I went through the program. I had debated for a while whether or not to actually do it since it is a bit of a risk to quit a job and commit to being unemployed for 4+ month, but now that I'm on the other side of it I'm glad I did it. It was pretty stressful during the program, but there is a ton of support if you are able/willing to put the time in. I had other  commitments outside of this class that I couldn't/didn't want to put on hold, which made it difficult to put in the time needed, but even with that I think it is doable. 

One other note: I think you need to somewhat enjoy coding to be able to get through it. The promise of a good job gets you far, but if you really don't like it you will burn out hard, and this class is too fast paced to have a slump that lasts more than a few days.