General Assembly

My experience on the London WDI course at GA was very mixed and hard to say if I would recommend it to anyone or not, and I will try my best to explain why. I shall first start off with the Pro's of doing the course, then get onto the Con's. I finished the course a few months ago so have had time to process my experience and to then see how it prepared me for the outside job hunting world. 

So, Pro's:

The overall feel and atmosphere of the campus was really enjoyable. It has a nice little homework area where you can hang out and work after lessons and it does not feel sterile. So after a long day of coding you can move to a more relaxing state if you need. All of the staff were approachable and it had a real sense of community. I had never been in a place where I had gotten along with everyone there, and for this reason i loved GA. It thrives a relaxed learning population. Also, the social side of the GA is pretty big and there are lots of drinks involved.

The other main Pro is that the tutors at GA put effort into teaching you. They stay every night to help till around 10pm, then come in on the weekends to help during projects too and it never once felt like they didn't want to be there. 

The other students were all lovely, which is great as GA promotes pair coding, which is great.

I also would have to say that I did learn a lot of coding information and terms.. and I say "information and terms" as I picked up a lot of terminology, also basic structuring of websites and a basic knowledge of what certain words mean... although....

.... Con's:

I did NOT learn, in depth javascript, or other languages, which I thought was a very important thing to pick up in a three month coding course. But instead of going in depth in javascript, we skimmed that, then skimmed jQuery, then skimmed AngularJS etc etc till we had covered many different technologies, but never focused a lot on one to pick it up properly. This in tern made me aware of all these things and gave me some small understanding, but left me not understanding fully how to even write Javascript, or anything else, from scratch.

We were told to copy code a lot of the time, and when I would ask what parts of the code did, i just got told to copy it and I did not need to understand what it did. 

There was not a lot of code checking and feedback of progress. Was rare that I had the tutor look through my code properly and give me feedback or in depth help. The tutor would sometimes take my laptop and do the coding for me on parts, therefor leaving me without the knowledge but with working code, this happened a lot, and it felt like I was just being given four projets to take to interviews, but was very concerned that if i got asked about the code, I could not answer the questions, as a lot of it was not my work. (also a lot of other students work from group project weeks).

So given the above you would think that I would not recommend, but, i think that GA messed up this one time.

Basically our class was the biggest one, and there were too many students per tutor. Way too many to get proper help, which is proabably why i got told to copy a lot. They do not have classes this big after us i don't think. Also, we had a tutor that was new to teaching and did not do a good job. We would not pick up entire lessons through this reason. That tutor is no longer there. The course was trying a new structure that did not work. Our homework was not a natural flow from the work in the day, and we felt like nothing flowed and a lot of the time was confused about the structure of learning, but they have now realised what they did wrong and the newer classes seem to be working well again. 

So, if we were just an unlucky class, and now they have less students, more time to help one on one and the structure is sorted, I would strongly recommend GA. But, this may be an up and down process, so cannot say for sure.

I'll leave by saying, outcomes really do try hard to find you a job after and if you do the work they will do everything they can to help you. There is a lot of support after leaving and I was one of the lucky ones that landed a job very quickly after leaving.

So GA does get you work after!! As always, if you put the hard work in, no matter what, you will get there. :)

I took Data Analytics last summer at General Assembly. I've always been interested in working with data and it's always come naturally, but I haven't had a lot of opportunities to develop those skills in the jobs I've had up until this point. I took this course so it could give me hands on -real world experience working with data, and it definetly delivered. Our instructor worked at YikYak and the TA was from a data team at Turner, so it was really interesting hearing from both how they used those tools in their daily work. I felt supported on topics that were challenging to me, and I was always able to dig deeper into areas that felt a bit easier. Now I'm a go-to person at work if anyone ever has a question about excel, and I feel confident that I can use this experience to my advantage on my next job hunt as well.

I had the most wonderful experience with GA. Dave and Kiefer were my instructors and they were a dream team! If you come into the program thinking 3 months will make you a Data Scientist, then you need to re-adjust your expectations. For me, I have learned more than expected. I have alwlays felt that the more you know, the more you don't know. The course left me wanting to dive deeper and just keep going, and that is a very exciting feeling! The instructors go way beyond their duty to help because they truly care. Dave once stayed till almost 8pm to help me with scrapy. During capstone days, Kiefer spent well beyond 3,4 hours with me a day when I was behind. They are always availabe during and even after the course was over to help whenever I have questions. They follow up on my questions and provide additional materials for further study. Now I'm a TA and get to be involved with some of the course planning. I have even more appreciation of how hard the intrustors and the entire production team work to make the course go smoothly. Staff at GA are super friendly. Outcomes was helpful but I feel we could use more partnership. That said, I got my internship through an on-site interview from GA. I have also met amazing peers in my program, some has become life-long friends. People's background was diverse and we support each other to learn. Since we are all adults, everyone is super motivated and that created a great environemnt. Our TA continue to hold review sessions and interview preps after the course is over. There are evening TA's most days of the week. Our course producer sent out many social events everyweek for people to network. We had amazing speakers come to talk during our course too for us to get industry exposure. All the resources are there. You'll get everything you could possibly get if you put in the effort. I feel super lucky and thankful for this experiece. 

Best decision in my life. Instructors are always helpful and genuinely want successful outcomes for each student. They provide additional/supplemental readings/materials if you are unsure about something taught in class. The instructors are industry professionals and have a deep-rooted passion which translates to a valuable resource for the students. Prepare to just do code for the whole time you are there and your life after the program. Most importantly, prepare for a new you and new family

The Data Science class was very good and our instructors were great.  They were extremely helpful and made themselves very available for questions and 1 on 1 time. 

There was a ton of content.  At points it seemed like a data dump with complex math being described as python code, which can be very hard to understand for entry level coders.  I would recommend the class to anyone interested in data science, but be sure you have a strong grasp of basic python and understand what you want to get out of the class.  If not, you could easily get lost or left behind.

Want to learn Photoshop but you're intimidated by its overwhelming features that you just don't know where to start? Are you looking to increase your skill set? Are you a UX Designer who wants to have more confidence in defending your designs?

These were all the reasons why I took the part-time Visual Design course and it exceeded beyond my expectations. Dani, the course instructor, and Jess, her assistant, were an awesome and supportive team. They guided me on the process of creating a homepage design that I'm proud to show to employers.

It's been almost a year and a half since I've finished the course but it's made a big impact on my career. Before the course, I used to focus more on wireframing. Now I've moved onto a job where I mostly work on the visual design and prototyping of the product. The course has increased my confidence not only as a Photoshop user but a designer as well. Another benefit is the connections you make with your peers and the instructional team. I go to Dani and Jess whenever I need design or career advice.

Before coming to General Assembly, I had little to no experience with coding. After 12 weeks of focus and hard work, thanks to GA, I have built a strong foundation for a career in front-end development by gaining exposure to a broad range of technologies. The intructors were fantastic. The experience they bring to the classroom taught us to think like developers  by providing just enough guidance to maximize our time in the program while allowing us to struggle through obstacles the right way rather than taking shortcuts. I can honestly say I learned more during those three months than I did in college. Moreover, the outcomes team provided more than enough tools, and networking opportunities to land a job I was excited about. Make no mistake though, you will get out whatever effort you put into this course. Don't sign up if you're not ready to work hard.

Beyond providing a hard skillset, this course inspired me to challenge myself and enjoy the learning process again. With each new project comes new puzzles to solve, and with each new language comes new obstacles to conquer and skills to master. On the whole, I'm thrilled to be graduating with the confidence to take on the ever-changing field of web development.

To pad General Assembly's hiring statistics after you finish your immersive program, GA employs it's newly "educated" students to join the GA team as an Instructional Associate. 

After a three month drilling of a broad scope of knowledge, you're now going to be explaining your half-assed education to a new cohort of optimistic students. You are not going to learn the skillset of a Data Scientist in three short months. You'll have an idea of what it mean to be a Data Scientist, but you will be nowhere close to being a valued asset of any analytics team. 

Had I know of the GA shenanigans before I joined and finished DSI at the San Francisco Campus, I would have saved my time, money, and sanity and would have continued to grow the traditional way. Instead, a boot camp is nothing but false promises and overly idealistic beliefs. Don't make the same mistake.

Besides clearly removing negative reviews that members of my DSI cohort has written, General Assembly is the reincarnation of the likes of Devry and ITT Tech. 

First Warning Sign: Applying and Interviewing 

An absolute and utter joke for an incredible math heavy and technical course. 

Second Warning Sign: Instructors

Quick to doubt and even quicker to shrug off. Students are not treated with respect. When youre paying an exorbitant $16,000 for a 12 week-course, you should get any assistance and help you desire. That is not the case at GA.

Final Warning Sign: Outcomes Team

Individuals who have never held a technicial position as a data analyst or data scientist are advising how, where, and why you should be applying to certain positions. 

I cannot reccommend GA to absolutely anyone. If you need a rundown on how to operate a business based on false promises and false statistics, you've found the right place. There are much better and more affordable options than wasting your precious time and money at General Assembly.