App Academy

As the title reaffirms, App Academy is a bootcamp and will live up to the word's definition. You will be challenged day-in, day-out, and will frequently need to step out of your comfort zone - especially if you are like me and coming in from a non-CS/technical background. But you will also learn to embrace the structure and come to appreciate the way the curriculum is designed to optimize the amount you learn in such a short timeframe. While you'll mostly never feel entirely comfortable with any topic introduced before you're required to move on, the way everything compounds will eventually help you fill in these gaps and paint the bigger picture. And no matter what you do, you must NOT neglect sleep for any reason - you will not have time to make it up and it will deter your ability to learn and you will quickly dig yourself a hole you'll find hard to climb out of.

App Academy's rigorous and challenging curriculum will probably be nothing like any other educational experiences you've had, and it's certainly not for everyone. But it will also be one of the most rewarding experiences you'll attain in terms of personal and professional (98% placed!) growth. They've also employed a team of passionate teaching assistants that are fully invested in seeing every student emerge successful. I know they certainly were instrumental in mine.

I have some programming experience before I went to App Academy. And I thought I can pretty much finish all of the assignments and projects with ease. App Academy showed me how wrong I was after the second week. They gave you so much to learn it is simply not possible to learn it all unless you are really really smart. And they have a way of pushing your ability beyond what you think you can accomplish. The program is definitely not for everyone because of of the pressure they put on you and the amount of time you have to commit in order to finish

It's reputation for a demanding schedule yet quality curriculum might even be understated. The most valuable lessons I've learned were time management, keeping calm under pressure, and, most of all, learning how to fail. There have been many times when I've been disappointed in myself for not completing a daily project, and even a larger one, but the TAs have been so supportive and encouraging that I've learned to leave regrets behind for greater things ahead.

The TAs they've gotten are extremely helpful and understanding; most of them have gone through the program themselves, so they help you prioritize and manage the workload, as well as give very helpful tips without giving away the answers. Plus they're good people in general too.

One thing to consider: the curriculum is constantly changing and improving, so there will be some inconsistencies and confusion, especially because the NY and SF offices have to share the curriculum. But then again, that's like a real company, isn't it? Don't expect smooth-sailing; expect to be blocked and forced to find solutions to problems you don't expect to happen. That being said, though the frustrations mount, if you can learn to handle it all with grace, you'll come out from it all a very competent web developer and a very competent employee.

I just completed the curriculum and I feel great about what I’ve learned and what I can accomplish in the future. The TAs really care about your learning. They are supportive and easy-going, which makes all the difference when you experience bootcamp levels of stress. The lectures are interesting and the projects are by and large fun. Your classmates are also great because everyone is motivated to be there and works hard.

When I started at App Academy, I did have some prior coding experience from college, but those classes had never gone well and I was not at all confident in my abilities. With the App Academy curriculum, I learned a bunch of languages and with the culminating full-stack project, I feel like I’m ready to start a career as a software developer.

However, the curriculum is super intense and you always feel like you never have enough time in the day. That being said, it’s very important to get adequate sleep and take breaks. Even if you don’t feel like you can take a break. Do it, and do App Academy!

I just finished week 9. It has been really fun and rewarding, especially when you learn new stuff and build programs/games/projects right away. You have no idea what is going on (for a while), but somehow it always works out just fine. Being able to code full-time is amazing on its own, and having a supportive environment is way better than fighting alone. 

Some tips for future students:
- About your peers: Most of my classmates have some coding background or self-studied some languages, while others didn't code before attending aA. There are CS graduates,  and people with non-tech background. It is a diverse group, but one thing is in common: everyone is pretty passionate about coding and wants to make it. 
- About prior experience: Some people have asked me if they can attend without coding experience. In my opinion, having prior experience or not is not the deciding factor. The most important thing is making sure that you really want this. People have different learning styles, so think about whether you like a fast-paced environment.
- That being said, do consider the potential risk of being dismissed after two failures in assessments. We have 6 assessments in total. In our cohort and previous cohort, the dismiss rate is about 20%. 
- If you can, try to learn data structures and algorithms before you start aA. In aA, recursion is taught in one day. It is helpful to know basics such as Big O time complexity, sorting algorithms, etc. before you start this program. Two of the assessments are about algorithms (in Ruby and JavaScript).
- I also hope I had known more CSS before I came in. CSS is relatively easy to learn on one's own, but there are so many details. In aA we don't learn a lot about CSS in the curriculum, just because it is not the focus of the curriculum. Core curriculum includes Ruby, Rails, SQL, JavaScript, React/Redux. But you do need to write HTML/CSS in your final projects.
- Pair programming: At first I was skeptical, but it turned out to be the best thing about aA. I learned so much from my coding pairs.

The job search curriculum starts next week. So I don't know yet.

Personal story: I considered switching my career path to coding in 2013. But I thought it's impossible with my liberal arts background. So I didn't give it too much thought and pursued another path. But inevitably I came back to coding. I started to code more in 2016 but still hesitated about whether to apply for developer jobs. When I finally made up my mind it was kind of late. But better late than never... I am grateful for being able to make that decision. No matter the results, had to try. I think you don't have to attend a bootcamp. Just don't give up easily. Try to learn programming for several months and see if you enjoy it. If not, that's fine. Even if you really want to be in the tech industry, there are options: many other roles like marketing/design are fun rewarding jobs too.

App Academy is not for everyone, there's no way around that central truth. It is mentally and emotionally exhausting to cover the amount of material at the pace that the course demands, and the stress only grows week after week.  During my time in the course, the only times I wasn't at the office working were when I was commuting there, or asleep (this isn't an exaggeration).  But if you can handle that, then the course is very rewarding.  If you want to work at a high level for 12 weeks to get into a competitive, growth field, App Academy is certainly worth it.  If the idea of not seeing your friends for 12 weeks while you're sitting in front of a computer for 12+ hours a day sounds like torture, the program might not be for you.

App Academy was probably one of the more challenging academic experience in my life. The pace of the course was no joke. Students were expected to learn and be able to understand that day's material. Be prepared to quickly absorb the materials since the next day will be something completely new. I would advise anyone who is not able to keep up with this pace to reconsider applying to App Academy. However, if you love coding and have aspiration to become a software developer,  App Academy's rigorous course should be your number one bootcamp options as they push you to your limit and allow you grow independently as a developer.

A roadmap advice for fellow future developers applying to App Academy: one, study up. The bootcamp says they will accept students even if they have not never code before. However,  the coding challenges to get accepted in the bootcamp are not trivial. They will require some basic knowledge of a programming language. App Academy also offers a free JumpStart program or a Bootcamp Prep course that will prepare you for these coding challenges. If you have never coded before, I highly advise doing either of the programs I mentioned before. They are extremely helpful and you also get a taste of the App Academy's culture before joining.

Great! You passed the coding challenges and the non-technical interview and are accepted into App Academy. Now what? It is very important to do and complete the Alpha Course before the start of the curriculum.  Ninja advice, the Alpha Course will prep you well for the first two weeks, but you have to keep learning at a fast pace. You will not be doing just Ruby (the first language taught in App Academy) . If you have extra time before starting App Academy, my advice is to read up and look at some code for SQL and Ruby on Rails. This will smooth your transition from simple object oriented programming in the first two weeks to the first real web development process, backend development and database management.

You are about to make an exciting decision in your life. Prepare for 80 to 90 hours a week of hard work. You will be living and breathing code. You will have no life, but you will form close bonds with your cohort. Mostly important, you will be having fun because this is what you have always dreamed of doing, so go out there and apply!

App Academy has been one of, if not the most intense and challenging academic experiences of my adult life. I'm really happy with the education I've gotten there, but there are a number of things to consider before you decide to attend.

Stress: The 9 week curriculum covers a huge amount of content and most of it is challenging. Class is from 9-6, followed by several hours of homework each day. The weekends are mostly devoted to studying for upcoming assessments, which are held roughly every week. So beyond the normal stress that this amount of work induces, there's not really much or any time to take care of yourself by going the gym, hanging out with friends, sleeping, etc.

Time Management: Even though the first 9 weeks of this course are highly structured, you will still need to manage your own time well. This includes giving yourself enough time to sleep, even if your'e not finished with all of the work due the following day. Weeks 7 & 8 comprise a self directed project, and weeks 9 - 12 have very little structure at all. How much you get out of those last 5 weeks, and the amount of time it takes you to get job offers once the program ends all depend on your ability to manage your time well.

Cost: aA now has several payment plans, some of which allow students to defer the bulk of tuition payment until they are employed as software developers. That said, the average job search takes between 3 and 6 months, during which those students are contractually restricted from part-time work. This means you will need to be able to afford food and housing, while not working for at least 6 months (the course + minimum job search). In New York. So even if this program was free, a large cost barrier still exists.

Culture: Even though there's not a lot of time to socialize, the cohorts do tend to get pretty tight, and you will need to to help each other out a lot (emotionally and academically). In my experience, there was a strong culture of collaboration, not competition, which I think is strengthened by the emphasis on pair programming at aA.

Okay, that stuff out of the way, you will learn more than you thought possible in the course. The instruction is fantastic, both in lecture and one on one settings. The curriculum also teaches you how to approach learning technologies not covered, which will be an essential skill upon graduating. Even though you will likely have to put in a decent amount of work after graduation in order to land a job, you will be well prepared to do so by the course itself.

If you do decide to attend, you can mitigate a lot of the negative stuff above by preparing well. Attend either JumpStart of Bootcamp Prep. Be really thorough when going through the alpha curriculum prior to the cohort start date. Reach out to people who have gone through the program and ask lots of questions.

Good luck!

I have just recently finished the coding portion of the bootcamp curriculum at the NYC campus. I have to say I am definitely surprised at how much I have learned in such a short span of time, but that was definitely not without daily struggle getting through as much of the day's material as possible. The curriculum is definitely grueling. The 70-90 hours of coding a week is a real thing and will leave you without almost anytime for anything else (social life, sometimes laundry, mealprepping). Even after doing 70-90 hours a week, you will have to learn to be okay with some concepts / ideas falling through the cracks as it is inevitable at the learning pace. Throughout the course I felt like I was barely keeping afloat during the material, as most everyone else was, as your TA's will tell you, this is normal. As we progressed through the course, I found myself understanding concepts later on through the week, and slowly found myself struggling with newer material at the tail end of the course. I started to feel not as strong as I did earlier on and worried that I would not be ready to tackle the fullstack project that is completed after the coding curriculum. That was completely not true, once we hit our projects I found out how much I learned and quickly was able to cover the knowledge gaps I did have beforehand just by working through the projects. Overall, I would say that attending this bootcamp can definitely be worth it if you feel as though you can put the time and work in. I would advise any incoming students to put in as much work in as you can as the weeks really do fly by.