Flatiron School

After completing a number of introductory coding classes, a Flatiron alum recommended I try the Bootcamp Prep course that Flatiron offers. The course was more challenging than Codecademy and Udemy since it really requires you to immediately reinforce each lesson by applying it to a mock project (which Flatiron calls labs). Unlike Hack Reactor's prep course, however, Flatiron's "Ask a Question" feature ensured there was always someone to give you a hand when you got stuck and needed a little guidance. Their "Technical Coaches" replied within a few minutes and helped me through problems without giving me the answer. Not only did this allow me to learn more in less time, but it also let me zero in on concepts I didn't completely understand and correct them before moving on to the next section.

Part of what made the course so effective (and challenging) for me was Flatiron's use of professional tools such as Github and the IDE to teach. Although it was nice when Codecademy would tell me exactly where my syntax was wrong, I found myself becoming much more efficient and detail-focused when using the Learn IDE since it forced me to search my own code for mistakes. The lessons themselves were, for the most part, thorough. There were a few instances when I had to consult Flatiron's Javascript/Ruby Fundamentals course (also free, and slightly more comprehensive than the bootcamp prep) for added explanation or clarification on a topic. There is a coding project at the end of each Intro course (one for JS and one for Ruby) which acts as a sort of cumulative test for everything you learned while allowing you to create a program of your own!

By the time I had completed the course, I felt prepared for the coding challenges and technical interviews in several bootcamps' admissions processes. I was accepted to all bootcamps I applied to, and ended up choosing Flatiron since their teaching methods were so effective and community was so helpful. I very highly recommend you try their bootcamp prep course and experience it for yourself.

I had an early introduction to coding in middle school and learned c++ up through objects in college as a Comp Sci major, but college just wasn't for me. I just wanted to learn to code! So after a brief (awful) career in IT, I decided to attend Flatiron School.

The truth is, you can learn to code anywhere. You can learn half a dozen languages, object oriented principles, even algorithms and data structures on your own. What you get at Flatiron School, and what's worth every cent of the loan I took out to pay for it, is:
1) The Community there that fosters learning, experimentation, best practices, and personal growth. I could never have done this on my own, without having other students sitting shoulder to shoulder with me going through the same thing.
2) The Perspective that one should always keep learning, always be a beginner, aim high, make it work - make it fast - make it pretty, etc. that comes from seasoned developers who are committed to getting the best out of their students.
3) The Support I got as a student and am still getting in my first job as a developer. My counselor is always on call and even though I've already graduated, she answered one of my messages about how I should update my resume while she was on vacation. 

This is what Flatiron expects from you:
1) Passion and a lifelong love of creative problem solving and process learning. If you are doing this just to learn how to build an app, or just to get a job, many of the little things that make Flatiron School great will actually frustrate you.
2) Time equalling probably 60-80 hours a week in person, online I suppose you have to put in whatever time is necessary to make progress. The people who were most successful were the people who knew when to put in extra work and go above and beyond as well as when to take a break.
3) Citizenship is the only word I can use to describe this. Everyone is encouraged to participate as much as they can, to give and receive feedback, and to uphold the school's values. Flatiron is a great place because of each person who is there, not because of a process or an outcome.

I have been reccommending Flatiron School, and its online platform http://learn.co, to everyone. Friends, family, acquaintances, strangers. I'd tell my cat to try it out if she had thumbs. If they can bring an eighth of what they have in the classroom to their online course, it's miles better than those rote and impersonal MOOCs.

I'd encourage anyone who is interested and in the NYC area to visit the campus. It's the best way to get a feel for what Flatiron is all about. Attend one of the events, see the student presentations or one of the talks they host there about careers in development. That's the best way to know if it's right for you.

If you're considered taking these courses, I'd like to say that you should avoid the online option entirely.

I can't speak for the in-person training, but the online courses have been a terrible experience for me over the past 6 months that I've been overpaying for the service.

An overwhelming majority of the instructors are slow to respond - not just initially, but mid-conversation as well - and are not interesting in teaching the course material. The amount of times I've been told by an instructor to Google the question I've asked them is remarkably dissapointing.

The $1500/month pricing would suggest that you'd get helpful staff, seeing as they don't need to pay for you to be in a physical classroom. Unfortunately, that has not been the case in my experience.

The online course is supposed to be an attractive option for someone like myself who is working full-time, but as there is little support and incoherent testing parameters, it's more trouble than it's worth - there are other coding bootcamps out there.

I found an ad for Flatiron School's bootcamp prep and thought I would give it a try. My background in university was philosophy, and I figured there would be a lot in common with symbolic logic, which is something I really enjoyed in school. Finding Bootcamp Prep may be the single greatest thing I ever stumbled upon. It taught me the basics in Ruby and Javascript, did a really thorough job of explaining concepts and taking things at a pace that is really helpful to learning; but most importantly, it helped me discover the joys of coding and opened up the door to a career I'd never thought I'd be pursuing. I'm happy to say, after Bootcamp Prep, I will now be attending Flatiron School fulltime over the next 3.5 months before embarking onto an awesome new career. Thanks, Flatiron School.

Coding bootcamps have been getting a lot of attention recently for touting high median salaries after a (relatively) short period of study. I can't speak for all bootcamps but I can say that Flatiron lives up to the hype. Learning to code from a non-technical background is difficult, but teaching yourself how to do it increases that difficulty exponentially. I learned more in my first month at Flatiron than I did in six months teaching myself. The community, the curriculum, the pressure, all of it combines in a perfect storm to drive you to do your best.

-The instructors and staff here are fantastic. Supportive doesn't even begin to cover it, but the feeling of inclusion and community made what is a very difficult curriculum, fun.

-The students. I don't know how, but the Flatiron admissions staff must be magic because almost all of the students here are great people. Being a part of a group of such diligent, creative, sociable people inspired me to do so much more than I thought possible.

-The curriculum. It's not for everyone, it's incredibly hard. That being said, if you got accepted, chances are you can do it. It doesn't cover everything you should know but considering the time constraints of the immersive, the curriculum makes sense. You should expect to always be learning outside the classroom. This isn't like college where you show up for tests and hand in all the homework at the end of the semester.

-The campus. If you have a chance to apply to the immersive, I highly recommend checking out the campus. It's conducive to getting work done, while also having all the bells and whistles to keep it fun and a good place to hang out. There's also tons of meetups/activities/guest speakers/meditation workshops etc... There's never a shortage of things to keep you busy.

In conclusion. As I mentioned, it's not for everyone. But it really is what you make of it. It will probably be the hardest couple of months you've ever experienced, but you'll get to reap those benefits for the rest of your life as you begin a career in this dynamic industry. Also you'll probably meet a bunch of the coolest people in NYC.

I attended Flatiron School's iOS Development Course, and I can vouch for it being an amazing program.

The course leads you through the basics of coding through the complexities of app development. You'll learn enough to make your own first app, and you'll have the knowedge to qualify for your first job as an app developer. By the end of the program, 90% of the students were working or had finished building their first iPhone app.

As far as the instructors, they're great. They're knowledgable and attentive, and they'll be your mentors as well as your friends. The operations staff are great too, providing an atmosphere that fosters teamwork and communal learning. The students I attended with were great. I became friends with each and every one of them, and still keep in touch with many. The whole atmosphere is overwhelmingly positive.

The cirriculum is tough, but coding is tough. You're going to be lost a lot. You're going to complain to your classmates about how this assignment is impossible. You're going to vent to your friends and your significant other. Then you're going to get your program working and it's an amazing feeling.

At the end of your course your are assigned a career coach, who is there to help you get a job. My coach was very attentive and helpful. Within two months of graduation I was employed full time at a great company as a Mobile App developer. The first interview I had with my current company was organized by Flatiron, and my career coach aided me through the interview process. I'm a bit of an outlier to have landed a steady job so quickly, but not a totally unique case.

If you're thinking about attending, know this:

This is not the place to go if you're looking to have a career handed to you on a platter. If you're not ready to put your life on hold for 3 months while you learn to code, then you should wait to find a time that you are.

The payoff for this course has a direct relationship to the amount you put into it. If you leave every day at 6pm and go home and not code, you're not going to get your money's worth. But if you stay up late working on class projects, start work on your own personal app, spend as much time as you can asking the instructors questions, take advantage of Flatiron organized events, then you will thrive here and you will land that job you've been waiting for. The instructors, the operations team, and the managment will all try to get and keep you inspired, and they're here to help at every turn, but the work is up to you.

I was a personal trainer and hustling to make ends meet. I took my business online and I was more interested in how the technologies worked I was using so I decided to learn to program.I started with the book Dummies for Programming and continued to do free online tutorials like W3schools, codeschool, and codecademy. Learning the basics of HTML, CSS, and Javascript is a great start!

I decided to go to the Flatiron Jump Start weekend where basics are explained more in-depth and you get to apply HTML, CSS, Javascript, and Bootstrap in a 2-day workshop. The Jump Start price can be applied to their enrollment AND there are scholarships available. It is important you research what bootcamp you would want to go to. Who's to say a review on this website doesn't take anyone to write. I talked to a couple different ones and decided Learn Academy was going to be the best fit for me since they are heavily involved in the tech community and there is an internship INCLUDED in their program!

Going to a bootcamp honestly changed my life for the better--it started me on a path to a new career where the pay and quality of life is way better. I'm more engaged in my work and I get to BUILD things that are making a difference in the world. I made a lot of friends in my cohort and continue to meet fellow professionals through Learn's alumni network and local tech meetups. Every interview I went on as I was looking for work was at the recommendation of Learn's outreach coordinator, and I continue to talk to my mentors from school when I'm blocked on a coding problem or need career advice.

I enrolled in the Bootcamp Prep Course in order to prepare for the technical interview portion for the Software Engineering Immersive admissions process at Flatiron School. The lessons were clearly laid out and easy to understand. There was also a ton of support available to me that I utilized, both from fellow learners, as well as Flatiron staff. The lessons and labs directly corelated to the types of labs that were presented to me for the technical interview and I am positive they were the key to my success in the technical interview. It also provided me with a good idea about whether or not the Flatiron School was right for me and something I wanted to pursue further. 

I highly recommend taking this course before completing the technical interview. 

Before deciding to apply to the Flatiron School's full time NYC program, I took the boot camp prep course online.

It far exceeded my expecations. It was a challenging progression that did a great job of teaching me different things I could do with Javascript. Its better than any other tutorial or free course I've explored online.

Some of the other courses are show-and-tells where you complete an exercise, think you know something, and move on, regardless of if you learned anything. Flatiron really made me think about what I had to code and what tools I would have to use to solve the problem. The course gave me a great sense of why certain problems are approached certain ways.

Additionally, the read along lessons had well written, practical analogies and even made me lol a few times. It was enjoyable and educational. 

The Bootcamp Prepcourse is definitely worth doing.

I discovered a passion for coding and set my mind to getting into a coding bootcamp. Flatiron was my first choice. I was drawn to Flatiron not only because of the glaring reviews I came across about the quality of the education provided, but also, and foremost, because of its values of passion, creativity, collegiality, positivity, self-development. These values really resonate to me and I felt like I could fit in well. So I applied for the immersive program and started working dilligently on the Bootcamp prep. 

The Bootcamp prep is awesome and totally free! It goes through the fundamentals of Javascript and Ruby, and tests your knowledge with labs that become progressively harder to solve. One of these labs is the basis of the technical interview that an applicant has to pass to be accepted into a class. I loved the labs, even the hard ones. I got totally obsessed with trying to solve them and if felt sooo good when I did. They are like small logic puzzles so if you're the type of person who enjoys solving puzzles or logic problems, you'll prob get hooked as well.

I was also very impressed with the instrustors. I got stuck a few times and there is someone available to help untill 1am. Everyone I spoke with was super nice, helpful and direct (including the admissions and accounting staff, which says a lot about the culture at Flatiron IMO). 

I ended up getting accepted into the immersive program which I'll start in April (yay!). If you want to get into a coding bootcamp, I'd definitely recommend doing Flatiron's prep course. Great quality, access to instructors, the community and resources (such as GIT) and totally free!