Grand Circus is an online learning institute offering 14-week full-time and 28-week part-time Software Developer bootcamps and a 26-week part-time Data Engineering bootcamp. Students can choose between coding bootcamps covering Full Stack JavaScript or Full Stack C#/.Net. In addition to the coding bootcamps, Grand Circus connects employers with tech talent, and offers advanced workshops, and reskilling and upskilling solutions for companies of all sizes. Workshops include introductions to coding, front end, back end, and web development fundamentals. Grand Circus instructors are experienced professionals, and focus on training students with relevant, project-based instruction that delivers real-world experience.
The mission of Grand Circus is to make a tech career universally accessible. Since launching in 2013, Grand Circus has maintained partnerships with big tech and local government entities to ensure that students are receiving the latest, most advanced training. Grand Circus helps students develop interview skills and soft skills, and organizes networking events to introduce students to employers. To date, more than 2,500 bootcamp graduates now work at over 400 companies across the country. Grand Circus is one of ten Google for Startup North America tech hubs, and partners with Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Detroit at Work, TekSystems, the Grand Rapids SmartZone, and Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation to provide a mix of funding and programming.
Although no coding experience is required to attend Grand Circus coding bootcamps, students must be intelligent, tenacious, resourceful, hardworking, self-motivated, and committed. Students should know how to work with programs like Google Drive and Microsoft Office. To apply, candidates complete an online application form, followed by an interview with Grand Circus. Once admitted, students will need to complete a 2-week, online pre-course before the start of the bootcamp. Students will receive a certificate of completion upon graduation.
I attended the Java Bootcamp in Early 2016, and this review will be a summation of my experience with Grand Circus, this is in no way representative of everyone's experience in past and future Java Bootcamps at Grand Circus.
I'll be dissecting the program using the below rating criteria.
Instructors
Our Instructor was an amazing woman name Jayashree Ravi. you could tell that she had a lot of knowledge of the curricu...
I attended the Java Bootcamp in Early 2016, and this review will be a summation of my experience with Grand Circus, this is in no way representative of everyone's experience in past and future Java Bootcamps at Grand Circus.
I'll be dissecting the program using the below rating criteria.
Instructors
Our Instructor was an amazing woman name Jayashree Ravi. you could tell that she had a lot of knowledge of the curriculum, and knew the IDE (Eclipse) very well. if you had any problem, she could look at your code and immediately tell you what's wrong, and things to keep in mind while coding to prevent your problem from happening again.
A big problem was that there was only one instructor, and 16 students. So if multiple students had multiple different problems, a line would begin to form, and as our problems grew increasingly complex, the wait would be longer. Jayashree was good at handling the problem though, and as you went through the program, you learned ways to deal with the long wait time.
We had a TA, but they were Ineffective at best, and outright disastrous at the very worst. There would be times when peers would receive help from our TA, and their code would come back more broken and confused than when they asked. There was even a time where our TA spent an entire day working on one of our Labs with a group of some of the students who were falling behind in the class, and the next day, one of my peers said that they went home and cried for hours because they felt that they wasted a whole day (when your program is 8 weeks, and you're already behind, one day makes a difference)
I think many students complained about the TA in every survey, but not a whole lot was done (what could be done?) to make them more effective.
Overall, I found that the Instructors were good, and give it 4 stars. A more effective TA would bring this to a 5.
Curriculum
I personally found the curriculum lacking in many areas, that I felt left me somewhat unprepared for the real world, which incidentally doesn't matter much (i'll explain below).
The program is separated into two parts, there's a two week take home part that you do once you pay your deposit (so if you pay it months in advance, you have months to do the work).
I found that the pre-work wasn't adequate to prepare people for class, as well as there wasn't much help for people that needed it. to elucidate this point, 5 days before the program started, I was contacted by one of my peers, and they wanted assistance with the pre-work. When I met up with them, they didn't have Eciplse installed, and knew absolutely no Java. This student ended up struggling throughout the whole class and didn't do very well in the end. I feel like Grand Circus should have worked harder to be available for people who were having serious problems like that and followed up more to make sure our work was getting done.
The rest of the 8 weeks weren't too bad, but one of my main complaints was that there was a huge discrepancy of skill in the class, which, amplified by the ineffective TA, hindered a lot of students in the class. I felt like this should have been addressed by requiring some sort of previous experience with programming. It's very difficult to take people with absolutely no experience in programming and make them junior developers in 8 weeks. A lot of the students with no experience in programming thought that the pace of the class was way too fast, and on multiple occasions, I would stay in the building until 10pm teaching people very simple Java syntax. Had they would have had some experience beforehand, it wouldn't have been so difficult for them to learn. At the end, they struggled, and didn't do as well as they could have.
Job Assistance
The program does really well with Job Assistance, there are many parts of the curriculum that deal with soft skills and job assistane, and they even put a lot of effort into helping you after you graduate. My only complaint here was that they didn't always have a lot of time to help you with practice interviews, which wasn't too bad in my opinion. They really did well on this part of the program.
Conclusion
I think that Grand Circus markets themselves very well, but falls short of expectations. Nonetheless they are a great school to go to, but my main advice is that if you choose to go to this school, take some time to really understand basic computer science concepts and if you can, just teach yourself some basic front-end/back-end skills.
The way I see it, Grand Circus shouldn't be a place for you to go in with no experience, and expect to come out as a junior developer, it should be a place where you go in with all/most of the skills to become a Junior Developer, and you pay to solidify that experience, and get access to some Kick-ass Job assistance tools that will land you a job anywhere.
Best decision you will ever make! I came into Grand Circus with having no previous software programming knowledge. I was looking to make a career change from sales. The staff at Grand Circus is extremely supportive every step of the way. Dr. K is an amazing instructor that teaches what is needed in a way that is easy to understand. They have a great Career Services program led by Cody Grant that will give you the soft skills needed, as well as explain how employers view potential candidat...
Best decision you will ever make! I came into Grand Circus with having no previous software programming knowledge. I was looking to make a career change from sales. The staff at Grand Circus is extremely supportive every step of the way. Dr. K is an amazing instructor that teaches what is needed in a way that is easy to understand. They have a great Career Services program led by Cody Grant that will give you the soft skills needed, as well as explain how employers view potential candidates. They have a strong relationship with around 200 employers. At Grand Circus, everyone is treated like family and they have games and other activities that keep things fun and bring everyone closer together. I secured a job just one week after graduation. I would definitely recommend to anyone looking to begin a career in tech.
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How much does Grand Circus cost?
Grand Circus costs around $14,750.
What courses does Grand Circus teach?
Grand Circus offers courses like Data Analytics & Engineering with Python (After Hours), Full-Stack C# .NET Bootcamp (After Hours), Full Stack C# .NET Bootcamp (Daytime), Full-Stack Java Bootcamp (After Hours) and 3 more.
Where does Grand Circus have campuses?
Grand Circus teaches students Online in a remote classroom.
Is Grand Circus worth it?
Grand Circus hasn't shared alumni outcomes yet, but one way to determine if a bootcamp is worth it is by reading alumni reviews. 50 Grand Circus alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Grand Circus on Course Report - you should start there!
Is Grand Circus legit?
We let alumni answer that question. 50 Grand Circus alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Grand Circus and rate their overall experience a 4.36 out of 5.
Does Grand Circus offer scholarships or accept the GI Bill?
Yes, Course Report is excited to offer an exclusive Grand Circus scholarship for $500 off tuition!
Can I read Grand Circus reviews?
You can read 50 reviews of Grand Circus on Course Report! Grand Circus alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Grand Circus and rate their overall experience a 4.36 out of 5.
Is Grand Circus accredited?
Licensed, proprietary school.
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