NYC Data Science Academy

This is a very conprehensive course covering R data analysis and visualization techniques. I can't remeber everything I learned in this class, but whenever I encountered data project in my work and study, I always went back to check the slides, examples and libraries provided by this course. 

Vivian is a very passionate instructor and an excellent data scientists. She offers many hands-on example in class, not just reading and showing slides. She is very serious about the course and push students in a "hard" way. She encouraged all of us to try, I can't get lazy because of her.

In general, this is a very postive experience. Just squeeze some time in the weekend, you will be amazed how much you can learn within 1-2 months.

I have posted a review also in a different website - but also wanted to share my opinions on this website for others to consider.

I took the Beginner R course, which was not that great reflecting back on it. In whatever class you take, the teachers make most of the difference, and in my case, we were not taught well. In the end, I cannot even remember if I have absorbed anything at all except for doing basic statistics in R. We were told that Vivian, the founder, would visit, but she never visited. While doing self-study on free R online courses such as EdX, I discovered that the materials we received in this course was similar to what I found in these free online courses about R.

In the end, we presented our projects, but all of our projects were half-baked, because we did not absorb enough knowledge about R to prepare and present. Although my project was really using the bare basics of R, such as basic statistics (e.g. average, max, min), Vivian said that I did a great job and that I should sign up for the R Intermediate course. She kept on pressuring and asking me when I can join, and I later realized that this academy was really focused on making money off the data science buzz rather than really teaching students about how to master data science.

Learning to code requires a lot of work - this class gave me the push to invest the time necessary in a structured manner. I found the lecture notes and homework problem sets very useful. Compared to content found on MOOCs and general online searches, the class curriculum is a lot more practical and concrete. 

Our instructor Liz is very helpful and accommodating. The classroom environment was open to questions/discussion, and Liz was very willing to take the extra step to help me improve my final project.  

PROS:

- Very strong curriculum coverage - maximizes the hours that we had in lecture quite effectively. I was able to do a lot more at the end of class than I originally anticipated, and I now have a base of knowledge to apply it to my daily work

- Great schedule - it's hard to find a weekend class for those who work longer hours on the weekdays 

SUGGESTIONS FOR THE FUTURE:

- More problem sets / heavier homework. I learned a lot through the homework and in-class problem sets. Having more problems / worked solutions, even if optional, could really help reinforce concepts faster    

- I do think people came in with different amounts of knowledge/background experience. Maybe one thing to help equalize the starting field is to assign some 'pre-work' / 'pre-reading' ahead of the class so that a baseline can be established and more time can be spent on the analysis/visualization portion 

The staff are friendly, and well prepared.
This bootcamp helped me to consolidate and organize my knowledge. 
I feel that they gave me exactly what I was looking for, before the bootcamp I was not so sure about my models, now I feel great doing what I do. This is priceless. 

If you have any doubts about those guys, please don't. They are super honest people, for sure this is a trust worthy organisation.

Thank you guys, if any of you from NYDSA read this.

Felipe.

I attend the bootcamp because one of my friends' recommendation that the bootcamp is a great place to get hands on experience of data science. Actually this bootcamp is as good as I expected. The bootcamp offer everything related to data science, not only the advanced part such as machine learning and deep learning, but also fundamental skills like Pyhton, R and SQL. After the bootcamp, I feel like I am prepared to apply for data science job. 

I will never forget the 3 month study experience which is owesome. The teachers and assistant here are very knowledgeble. The classmates are also great who have very strong acdemic/working experience. People here are PHDs or masters with around 2-10 years' working experience. I would highly recommend NYCDSA.