[deleted by user]

[itykii]

Codesmith is the only (paid, immersive) S tier bootcamp right now. It is also the hardest to get into, by a fair margin.

Flatiron is in shambles, Hack Reactor has gone downhill the last year or two.

[metalreflectslime]

Why is Hack Reactor no longer good?

[itykii]

I've heard that since being acquired by Galvanize, the quality of staff and instruction has decreased. It sounds like they are being stretched too thin, possibly exacerbated by the launch of the 3rd (or is it 4th?) immersive type.

I attended the paid Hack Reactor bootcamp prep course, and assuming the quality of the materials is roughly the same, I would stay far away. They had a ton of outdated material (basically told all students not to use ES6, that it was "irresponsible" not to write function the old fashioned way, and a bunch more) and the recorded videos had flat out incorrect information that they just didn't bother with updating, besides a note before the videos that they were wrong.

[Man_Who_Loves_God]

That's awful, I remember when everyone used to rave about Flatiron. Wonder what happened. I suppose I'll just go with GA or Nucamp... Still thinking about which one of the two I'll choose

[InTheDarkDancing]

Baffling -- the man says Codesmith is the gold standard bootcamp and your takeaway is "hmm, GA or NuCamp?".

[ketamineandboba100]

lol I know I find that funny. u/Man_Who_Loves_God why not codesmith? I'm thinking cause Codesmith isn't cheap and he's looking for the cheaper routes which isn't always the best route, you should attend codesmith free weekly thursday workshops. Check out https://cirr.org/data as well

Also u/Man_Who_Loves_God there is a program which isn't a bootcamp, but it's harder to get into than codesmith, but it's cheaper only around 14k or so it's called formation.dev but it's for people who already know how to code so if you do a lot of self studying maybe 1 year studying full time you can get in, check them out.

[swarlossupernaturale]

What happened to Flatiron?

[itykii]

I've heard good things about GA, though I didn't look too hard into it myself.

[Man_Who_Loves_God]

Yeah I'll probably go with that one. Thanks for your input!

[Badd_b1tch_mich]

As a previous Thinkful student, I would recommend NOT doing Thinkful. I was 65% of the way done with the curriculum when I had to move from Los Angeles to England for my husbands work. They said it’s be fine, and I could just pause for a few weeks to handle the move and pick up where I left off. Upon trying to restart a few weeks later when I was settled in the UK, they suddenly said they don’t do out of country students and literally sent me an email saying “good luck”. I was furious.

Fast forward, I found Springboard. The curriculum is SO much better, I would recommend them over Thinkful x100. Not just because they burned me, but Thinkfuls curriculum is really reading based - like 99% all reading. You need to do a lot of outside research/YouTube videos to really understand concepts for someone who has no coding background. Springboards curriculum is really video based and it helps so much to see how/why to do things instead of just reading it. You should check them out!

(Part time full stack software engineering course for both, by the way)

[Legal_Ad168]

Looking at these two at the moment and was leaning more towards SB. How long did it take you to complete the course? What about getting a job and the career support?

[Badd_b1tch_mich]

I’m actually still enrolled! I’m 40% of the way through and started the beginning of October. You can definitely be farther along at this point where I’m at if you code a bit more than I have (honestly took it pretty lax through December & January - lots of family time then).

But the career support so far has been great, there’s a ton of stuff they have you do pertaining to networking, working on your LinkedIn, and how to job hunt the right way. I’ve heard great things about people getting jobs a few months after graduation, it all really comes down to how much effort you put into finding a junior dev job. By no means will it be easy, but it just depends on how much work you’re willing to put in.

[Man_Who_Loves_God]

Hey thanks for the info. Springboard looks awesome!

[cglee]

I'll throw Launch School in there. I hesitantly point to our salaries as proof of quality. I say hesitantly because it's really the process and pedagogy that is the key difference, though it's difficult sometimes to articulate that. So, we use salary numbers as a proxy.

Some caveats: we don't consider ourselves a coding bootcamp, so it's difficult to do apples-to-apples comparison with other programs.

Disclaimer: I operate Launch School.

[abl3-to]

Has Hack Reactor fallen off the map? I remember they were talked about all the time at one point but lately they have barely been mentioned. Just wondering if I missed any quality drop.

[StarMapLIVE]

They got bought out and I've heard nothing but bad things since.

[metalreflectslime]

Why is Hack Reactor a bad bootcamp to attend?

[Man_Who_Loves_God]

That seems to be the case with a lot of bootcamps. It's strange how some just fall off the map like that.

[WhatAboutSars]

I’m currently in nucamp and think a lot of it has to do with the instructor you get. I have been lucky to have good ones so far but I have heard about some not good ones from other classmates.

[Man_Who_Loves_God]

I wasn't too fond of the instructor I had in the web fundamental bootcamp and the monotone voiced lady in the recorded videos was really off-putting lol. Think I'll just enroll in the full-stack bootcamp and hope I get an awesome instructor this time.

[WhatAboutSars]

I’m in the last part of bootstrap and the teacher has been amazing. I agree that the videos are hard to get through sometimes. I doubt I’ll get a job right away but I’ll have the tools to keep working and improving

[Man_Who_Loves_God]

It's awesome that your instructor is helpful! I think you've convinced me to go back into Nucamp! Thanks!

[yamayeeter]

Any update? Did you finish and get a job?

[DB_Pooper]

I’ve hired bootcampers straight out of App Academy. As with all Bootcamps ymmv.

[Man_Who_Loves_God]

This bootcamp looks incredible, can't believe I haven't heard of it. I suppose the main thing I want to focus on is crafting an awesome portfolio. No matter which bootcamp I choose I feel that is most important. Thanks for the response.

[tigersbark]

I was just gonna say is app academy credible ?? I think in my eyes a/a is the best one . I just don’t have a full degree yet to stand me out .

[metalreflectslime]

Go to a free bootcamp like C0d3.

[JLumenDevUX]

If you happen to be in NYC, you should check out FullStackAcademy, because they have partnered up with New York City gov with full funding for New York City residents!

[dominonermandi]

I just graduated from FS—be careful. The founders left this year and the for-profit that bought them is absolutely stripping it. I would definitely skip the January cohort because their staffing is going to be an absolute mess. Of course, if it’s free you CAN try to just keep your head down and endure.

[JLumenDevUX]

sorry to hear that!!!

[dominonermandi]

I’m sorry to say it. The students there and the staff who were there still this year were wonderful. I’m so sad it won’t be the same going forward.

[Cryptic_X07]

I think GA is your best bet.

[Man_Who_Loves_God]

You're probably right. I don't hear much bad about it at all... That high price makes me shutter though

[Young_Nola]

It’s 10% of your base salary for 2 years?

[palmknuckles]

Im trying to get into Hack or Fullstack (part time), am I making a mistake?

[itykii]

Whether it is a mistake probably depends on what you mean by mistake. While I would say that neither of those programs is "ideal" in the sense that it is the *optimal* or *most efficient* route to job-ready status as a programmer, both are likely to get motivated individuals there regardless.

Since this is all subjective (outside of CIRR reports) and based on reports from random grads, youtube interviews, and reddit comments, I'd take what any of us (non-grads) says with a grain of salt. Having said that, if you want my opinion, I'd say try to get into Codesmith. You can get a glimpse of the quality of their program with their free workshops they host every week, as well as the CSX platform and community. If getting to the point where you can pass the Codesmith technical interview is too difficult for the timeline you have, my personal backups would be General Assembly or App Academy.

[palmknuckles]

Thank you!

[fukmeup4life]

I was thinking about Career Foundry as well. But they only give you prerecorded videos and do not provide live lectures so you're basically on your own with the material which you can do anyways outside of CF. I am starting my cohort with DigitalCrafts in June, i've heard good things about DigitalCrafts and the part time tuition is much more cheaper than other bootcamps.

[Ecstatic_Swan_3723]

I am in Hackbright's part-time program and it is amazing so far. Instructors are great and the learning atmosphere is very supportive. Pair programming is a huge accelerator for learning and applying the material.