BrainStation

My experience with BrainStation’s UX program was deeply disappointing. The program had a clear double standard: students were expected to maintain 90% attendance, but instructors frequently arrived late or extended their lecture times.


I left the program SO unbelievably burnt out - and I'm someone who worked as an EMT and went to FT university for the past 3 years. And for what? The program’s content was outdated, and students were awarded high grades for following their unimaginative cookie-cutter process. They actively downgrade you for critical thinking or asking questions. Just jump through the hoops and end up with a portfolio that looks exactly like every single other person who has ever gone through Brainstation (just google UX Designer Brainstation or look on LinkedIn).


Much of UX can be done by AI. They did nothing to acknowledge or prepare students to grow in this rapidly changing industry and a position that will likely be obsolete in the next 5 years. They just want to make their money and factory farm as many students through as possible because they inevitably go under.


No one from my cohort has found a job since completing it. Instructors seemed more focused on getting out of class as fast as possible than providing any measure of genuine support or curiosity and investment in student's development or future careers.


Why are they bad teachers? Lectures were often rushed and lacked any meaningful dialogue. Technical issues and missed sessions were common, compounding the frustration. Feedback and support were inconsistent, with unclear grading criteria and frequent denial or poor management of one-on-one session requests. Instructor's were late and unprepared daily, with missed deadlines for capstone feedback and unacknowledged technical problems during presentations. Communication was garbage, and there was a lack of any effective support channels and regular check-ins.


When you ask their bosses to hold them accountable, they don't give a sh** either.


Overall, the program did not live up to its promises. Straight up - THIS IS A SCAM.


The outdated content and lack of job placement success demonstrate Brainstation's failure to deliver on any of its promises. Their utter lack of credibility in the tech sphere reinforces this. Don't muddy your name by getting involved with this joke of a company. Read less

I quit my job to go through the UX design bootcamp as I had a scholarship offer by BrainStation and was optimistic but nearing the end they decided that my projects which I had spent essentially every minute of my time throughout the 3 month program were not good enough (even tho they were) and refused to grade appropriately. My entire class was shocked to hear that they wouldn’t allow me complete the last project and we all noticed how condescending some of the educators were throughout the program. The person grading my work is a TA with no experience in ux design. The lead educator is honestly a bit of a con artist, don’t submit any idea you value. The academic advisor does not have your interests in favour, they just care about their money. Mind you I studied neuroscience at a reputable university and I’d say I’m quite competent and my ideas were well executed and skills well demonstrated throughout the bootcamp. I noticed some off putting behaviour by the educators towards two mothers attending the bootcamp as they were struggling with balancing their schedules. I would 100% advise against taking the bootcamp, or even having any affiliation with this what should be called ScamStation. They take government funding for this… disappointed that this is where some of my tax money goes to. This was my experience but amongst my entire class, we would all agree that you’re better off pursuing real education at a real university. Read less

The Data Analytics course at Brainstation was a good course but it could be improved. I think Brainstation doesn't set the expectation from the beginning that this is going to be more of a self taught course. I understand that the course is short, and meeting once a week is not enough to learn everything, but with all of the material being taught you will need to put in the time outside of class to learn on your own. However, I felt like the course material wasn't very detailed and didn't break down the problems enough. This made it really hard to do the labs on our own (i.e. sometimes the material didn't correlate with what the labs were asking us to do). I also feel like there was a disconnect between Brainstation administration and the instructors, making the expectations for graduation not very clear. Brainstation would e-mail us just one time to do something (i.e. like write this review) but then we wouldn't get reminders throughout the course or in-class.  The instructors also wouldn't mention these requirements in class and I found that strange. Overall, it was a good experience and I would recommend it to someone trying to learn some basic skills in Excel, MySQL, and Tableau with the disclaimer to be prepared to do a lot of self learning. Read less

Pros:
- Learning with and collaborating with peers.
- Plenty of support from the education team for when you inevitably get stuck.
- Structured curriculum.
- Project-based learning.

Cons:
- The pace of the first 2 weeks was too slow given that the material was covered in the pre-program prep material.
- Some students without much coding experience struggled to keep up and they had no chance to learn at a slower pace.
- There are 4 projects where you worked in groups/pairs so it is possible you have to collaborate with someone whose skill/standards are not compatible with yours.

Overall, I had a great experience because:
- I had previous coding experience from learning data science.
- I sought help from the education team rather than get stuck for too long.
- I love coding.

Tips:
- Get help if you are stuck and can't figure it out alone after 15 minutes.
- Do the "diving deeper" parts of assignments that challenge you to do something new. That way, if you get stuck, you can get help. Read less

A great program with awesome educators. Covered all the bases and provided so many helpful resources in addition to course content.

One of the best virtual experiences I've had in terms of education and work as the scheduled check ins and live classes keeps you on course to succeed.

All this said, the fulltime bootcamp is extremely intense and I wouldn't recommend it if you have any kind of life events happening during the study period. Prepare to not see the outside world for a majority of the study period.

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I joined the full time Data Science bootcamp in April 2024. The past 12 weeks have been a whirlwind, but I have learned a lot about Tableau, Pandas, Matplotlib, and Machine Learning. The course is very fast paced so it needs full time commitment from the students, don't think you can work and do this full time course at the same time. The assignments are well structured and give the students a chance to review and implement what was taught during that week. This also means that you will be spending your weekends doing the assignments. Now that the bootcamp is over, I am ready to start my job search next week, while also reviewing all the things that we learnt during the bootcamp. Very good experience so far. Read less

Was a great experience. A challenge but one that I think would set you up for success. The homework was geared towards implementing what you learned through out the week, and there were always instructors available in case you ran into problems or had questions. The professional development side of the bootcamp was helpful in setting up my resume and my LinkedIn and I'm excited to get into this field of study. Read less

Great educators that have real world experience. The curriculum is all well done and allowed me to just show up and make sure I was active and a sponge. Plenty of project that give you great experience as well. I would recommend this camp to anyone who really has done their research on the field and truly wants it.  Read less

The bootcamp does a decent job preparing you for the CompTIA Security+ exam but more importantly it gives you work you will be doing day to day. You will be writing an average of 3 reports a week for a variety of assessments. From risk, threat modelling, data and network security, business continuity planning and 3rd party risk. You will also learn a handful of important tools like basic usage of a Linux operating system, metaspoitable, Nessus, Wireshark and a ton of command line tools. Read less

It was a great experience. I started out with ZERO coding experience and have been able to create a capstone project using CSS, HTML, JavaScript, React, Node.js, Express, connecting REST APIs. And they have given me the knowledge to continue learning and growing. 10 out of 10 would recommend.   Read less

this was great, very fruitful. it was intense but i definitely feel like it was so useful. i cant wait to go into the world with my knowledge. this was great, very fruitful. it was intense but i definitely feel like it was so useful. i cant wait to go into the world with my knowledgethis was great, very fruitful. it was intense but i definitely feel like it was so useful. i cant wait to go into the world with my knowledge Read less

My time at BrainStation's Data Science 3-month bootcamp was one of the most intense academic challenges I've experienced, but also one of the most rewarding. The teaching and content were excellent, providing a comprehensive and rigorous education in data science. Working alongside a diverse group of talented individuals with varied backgrounds was incredibly enriching. I particularly enjoyed the capstone project, which allowed me to delve deep into the world of data through my passion for F1. On the improvement side of things, I felt that the promised links to the BrainStation network and employers never really materialized. The career sessions were great for those starting out, positioning them head and shoulders above other candidates. For more experienced individuals, the classes served as good reminders and practices, though not groundbreaking. However, I appreciated the post-bootcamp check-ins for idea exchange and accountability. To further enhance the experience, more could be done to connect students with potential employers, such as an online portal, mixers, apprenticeships, and partnerships to help students find paid and volunteer work experiences after the bootcamp. Despite this, I highly recommend the course for its world-class instruction. Read less

I had been self-taught in Python for a few years. However getting the BrainStation Data Science diploma, accelerated my learning in an exponential way. From in class tutorials and code-alongs to assignments which made me want to cry, and then into detailed lectures, the curriculum was, without a question, thorough and accurate. I didn't know a stitch about data science and data analytics before BrainStation. Now though, I can speak intelligently about the intersection of business and data. They've got a good program!  Read less

Amazing course materials. Lovely and Helpful instructors. The course was very informative,Patrick and Matt were a very efficient in this process . They focused on teaching us the concepts rather than just the formulas and really cared that we learned as much as possible. The course material was very helpful in forming my understanding of the investment banking/valuation oriented world so far. Read less

First, let me give you a bit of context, I am an immigrant in the US and I have spent over a year worth of my salary to this bootcamp. I'm an engineer with a master's degree with a 1.5 years of Data Analyst experience at a big tech company. I wanted to expand my skillset before I apply to jobs in the US and decided to apply to BrainStation DS Bootcamp. I told them I need help with the payment. It is already a lot but it is over a year worth of my work in my home country (not the money I saved in a year, my whole salary!). They told me they cannot help me with the payment and around two months after completing the bootcamp my friend told me they offered her to attend the same bootcamp that I did FOR FREE!!! I'm extremely disappointed with BrainStation. I cannot understand how they offer it for free now and they did not even help me with the payment amount. DON'T BOTHER TO PAY A DIME TO THEM! APPARENTLY THEY WILL OFFER IT FOR FREE IF YOU WAIT LONG ENOUGH.  Read less

I just completed the 12-week in-person Data Science BootCamp and can confidently say it was probably one of the most rewarding academic experiences I have ever had. The course is meticulously designed to get students up to speed with fundamental (and some very advanced) data science and ML tools. The educators are fantastic - they are incredibly knowledgeable and patient. The admin/student experience team is efficient and professional. The student body is varied, talented, and motivated. I would highly recommend this bootcamp to anyone who wants to challenge themselves and learn an astounding variety of key data science skills in a relatively short amount of time.   Read less

My experience with BrainStation has been overwhelmingly positive. I feel that the curriculum was well-structured and covered the major areas of importance for UX, to learn by doing as the main goal. It is very fast-paced and can be challenging if you don't know what you're getting into beforehand. The instructors and TAs were great, each had a different style of teaching and a different perspective and area of focus, which helped to understand how vast the field of UX is.        Read less

I was a little worried at first that I wouldn’t find the experience rewarding but I can confidently say that it was an amazing experience. The curriculum was relatively comprehensive and the education team was really knowledgeable and helpful. 

The course is great for complete beginners up to seasoned programmers (that are lacking in certain areas). I came in with a lot of personal experience with a bunch of different programming languages and technologies but I was lacking in the front Front-End department. I’d especially recommend it to anyone with little to no experience with Web Development and is looking to transition from building things that print to the terminal/command line to building complete Full-Stack projects with UIs. Read less