App Academy

App Academy Curriculums are so awesome. You can not only learn about software but also practice for job searching. These curriculums are always updated with new materials.  Pair programming is the best part. You will understand faster and deeper when pair with a lot of partners. But it is quite intensive because you have to spend over 90 hours to program and study. Although this experience will provide you best skills for your career.

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It's a rough course and curriculum, but you get what you put in. Passing assessments and such does not mean you are geared towards success. It's going be difficult even past the 12 weeks of curriculum that they advertise, but they offer full support to everyone who has successfully passed the course and in job hunting. App Academy gives you a very strong foundation to work off of, but you still need to go that extra mile to be successful. Despite the challenging curriculum, it is a fair curriculum if you take the bootcamp seriously and treat as more than just a full-time job.

​Not for the faint of heart or limited of drive, but if you're looking for a program to teach you a whole lot about coding in not a lot of time, you could certainly do a lot worse. The staff is technically minded and eager to help and the deferred payment model aligns company goals with your success, but the hours are long and the processes can be exceedingly grueling at times. If you are considering a coding boot camp, put App Academy up at the top of that list.

If you are looking to get into a bootcamp but want to work on your coding skills first, I can also recommend their bootcamp prep course (either online or in-person). It will provide you some good coding fundamentals that will definitely give you a leg up, wherever you end up (it certainly did for me).

App Academy was a really great experience. It's crazy to think how much I've learned in so little time. I learned more in the first couple weeks here than i did in months of learning on my own. It is very pair-programming focused, which really helps you develop the ability to talk about code and effectively communicate your technical thoughts. The people here are all awesome too.

App Academy really focuses on the skills you need to become a front-end developer. There is not a ton of theory taught, it is more applications based. The skills you will learn here are still very relevant for all of web-development, but just know you will be learning more front-end skills. 

By the end of your time here, you really will be able to build your own applications, and do things you never thought you'd be able to 10 weeks prior. It is not easy, but if you like coding, it is honestly fun. Being able to geek out all day with other people rather than at home struggling to figure things out alone makes this a great experience. Just make sure when you start here you are prepared to put a ton of work in so that you can get the most out of it!

This program is a lot of work. A standard day consists of a lecture in the morning, pair programming with new material during the day, and studying for the next day's material at night. There are weekly assessments, which if you fail two, you may be asked to leave the program. As such weekends are spent primarily studying for those assessments. A lot of the curriculum is provided as reading material or videos which you solo study over night.

This program isn't for everyone and if the above doesn't sound right for you, then this may not be the program for you.

If the above does sound good and you're willing to put in the time and effort, then App Academy is the best way to become a software developer. The curriculum is up-to-date and relevant for the industry, TAs and fellow students are available for support and assistance, and a/A provides an environment that allows you to focus on learning the material. If I'd tried to learn all of this on my own it would have taken me far more time and there's no way I would have been able to stay this focused on the material.  

Overall attending App Academy was a great decision for myself and I appreciate everything I was able to learn in such a short amount of time.

Going into App Academy, I heard good things about it, but I was not sure how it would impact me for the future. 12 weeks later, and I could see why App Academy is one of the best bootcamps in America. They have such a structured curriculum and great organization that feels top notch. From the lectures to content that they provide to the TA's that help out, a/A had something for me whenever I needed help.

So if you any of you have any different opinions about considering this place, I would say try it! I am glad I switched careers and going into development. It's not for the light hearted, and I would recommend that you should only do this if you have a passion for this field. It won't be easy, but in the end, you will thank yourself later. 

tldr: It's worth if you're willing to put in the work. The curriculum and TA's are pretty top notch. You will learn a LOT in a short period of time.

There are many reviews here already, so I'll do a FAQ thing for some of the questions I had when I was applying.

1. Is it really 90 hours per week worth of work?
Yep, at least for many of us. People's experiences here range from never programmed before app academy to having actual software development experience (rare). But I think it's safe to say for the majority of us, it took up all of our time during the week and (for me) weekends.

2. How to succeed?
Work hard. Come study in the office if you can, that way you can ask other people questions. Ask questions from TA's, your cohort-mates, etc.. Ask questions.

3. What are the students' backgrounds?
Most people fall in between professionals looking for a career change, or people straight out of college who decided they didn't want anything to do with their major. Everyone who made it through are extremely hard-working and smart.

4. What do you mean "made it through"?
You can be dismissed by failing too many assessments. It does put a tremendous amount of stress on the students, however, I feel like I wouldn't have been as motivated as I was without the assessment stress. I do wish they would change the assessment structure to be more project-like though.

5. Can I learn this stuff on my own? Aren't there tons of free material online for this?
Extremely difficult, impossible in this short amount of time (for me at least). The free resources that I used seemed to go from doing for loops to "hey now go make a project". It's very easy to run into a bug or a question that you can't figure out when learning on your own. It's also very easy to give up. You won't have TA's to ask questions or give you feedback. When I was trying to learn this on my own, it was like running through a wall. At least at a/A, you got like 60 other people running through the same wall with you and the TA's to help.

This is a great course to take if you'd like extra preparation before applying to the various programming bootcamps out there, but it's especially helpful when applying to App Academy.

The course is structured so that you get a sense of what the fullstack immersive program is like. There are assessments every Monday and Friday, and pair programming is a big part of the curriculum; you are given problem sets to work on with a newly assigned partner almost everyday. App Academy's immersive program is heavily pair-programming oriented, which is something that I really look forward to, so I love the fact that Bootcamp Prep gave us a sense of what that will be like. 

I would also recommend this course to anyone who just wants to learn the fundamentals of the JavaScript programming language. The course is four weeks long, and by the very end you will feel comfortable enough with your knowledge of JS to take what you've learned and apply it elsewhere. 

I participated in the Boot Camp Prep course by App Academy. I had no coding experience before I started the program. Now, I am on my way to learning javascript and hopefully gaining admission to a highly selective coding Bootcamp.

Instructors, Alvin and Chase were very helpful and even stayed after class to answer questions from students.  They care about their students and want us to be successful. The course moves fast and major effort is required for success.

Access to AppAcademy is limited outside of class time, so it is importaint that students find a distraction free place to study and reliable internet while taking the course.  The money back guarantee makes me feel safe to learn a valuable new skill.