Galvanize

I attended the Full-Stack Web Development Immersive at Galvanize-Boulder, and graduated in mid-January.  Prior to Galvanize, I'd spent 4-5 months self-studying with some basic HTML, CSS, and Javascript via online resources.  The onboarding process for my g32 cohort was smooth; we received the pre-course work (about 40 hours' worth) about a month in advance of our August 1 start date.
The pace for the program is fast; a lot of material is covered in lectures and assignments, and even the fastest students in my cohort sometimes struggled to keep up. The upside of this is that we covered an impressive amount of subject matter in a (relatively) short 6 months.  I found the second and third quarters most challenging, as I had not had much prior experience with Node.js, data bases, and the back end.  I loved the end-of-quarter projects; especially working on small teams to create full-scale applications with tools that we had just learned (like Angular.js).  I worked hard in this program and put in a lot of hours; at least an additional 20 hours per week, aside from the 40 hours in class.
Our instruction was top-notch; my cohort was particularly fortunate, as we had one lead instructor, one associate instructor, and two residents for 15 students.  Our lead instructor had 17 years of experience as a developer and many years as CTO of different startups.  His fluency with the material was important, as the associate instructor and residents were more recent graduates of Galvanize cohorts.
The main piece of constructive criticism I have is with the curriculum, which had some flaws and gaps (in particular the Angular curriculum).  These were being corrected during our program, and I imagine they are now not an issue.  We were always encouraged to explore outside resources, which makes sense, as material changes and more becomes available at a rapid rate.
I feel extremely fortunate to have accepted a job as an associate software developer within a week of graduating from the program.  I now work for a Boulder startup, on a two-person development team, with our CTO.  Our stack is relatively new to me, but I feel that Galvanize prepared me extremely well to be able to learn and implement new technologies quickly.  The program was extremely challenging, but I feel that it was absolutely worth it.
 

Where to begin...
I did a lot of research on Austin code schools before I applied to Galvanize. I'd attended one of Galvanize's info sessions and was "that" person who asked all the tough questions. Scott, the program director, answered all of them graciously in detail, and I suspected from that night I may have a good experience at Galvanize.

Fast forward six months. I graduate tomorrow, and while I'm excited to go out and get a job (and have already informally been offered two, by the way), leaving Galvanize as a student will definitely be bittersweet. Besides the remarkable cohesion and synergy of my cohort, the technical learning experiences have been the most & fastest I've ever learned in any academic program...ever.
(Coming from a former school teacher) The main instructor for our particular cohort, Zubair, is not only hilarious, but, as one of my classmates put it, "a pedagogical savant." He's somehow made things like complicated computer science algorithms actually fun to learn, and he's got loads of experience in the industry coupled with business wisdom. And, by the way, the tech recruiter from Google who attended our career day was impressed that we'd even studied various computer science concepts in the first place.

We also had Oli and Louis, associate instructors, with our cohort for the duration of the program. Both are sweet, helpful, have put in extra hours to help me or classmates with coursework, and bring a variety of skills and prior industry experience to the table. 

Galvanize's support/career services are also top-notch. Nicole, career services person, has gone out of her way to help me on multiple occasions. She helps with interview and job search advice, books guest speakers, organizes events...the student success person, Jessica, also held a survey with students once per quarter about our overall experience, and the feedback we gave her seemed like near-immediate implementations. I could go on...even the facilities staff at Galvanize is friendly and helpful.

I chose Galvanize because of its six-month plan, knowing I'd need some time to both have a life in the evenings and complete my homework properly, and it's surely been the right decision, as we had the time to go much deeper into concepts than I've heard my friends from other code schools have.

I will say if you’re not willing to commit to the necessary hours of practice and grit, this program may not be for you, as it's not easy to master, nor should it appear as such. I did struggle a bit with concepts at the beginning, but then again, that's probably standard at any level of programming and I never felt unsupported or alone. By the third quarter of the cohort, some kind of new confidence had arrived when I was able to look back at even a few weeks prior and identify the immense amount of knowledge that had soaked in since, and at that point began building with technologies and libraries that had never been explicitly taught to me. Galvanize does publish its intended curriculum, which seems to be equivalent to or more comprehensive than most of the other ATX code schools, but I feel as though I could learn and use any technology out there at this point.

Every single person in our cohort successfully used an unfamiliar new technology that was not explicitly taught in the curriculum to build our capstone projects, and it's because Galvanize delivered on its promise of teaching us to "learn to learn." Overall, I highly recommend this program and have been trying to evangelize my friends to enroll for months...

Galvanize provides an unparalleled experience. Locating the school inside a tech startup/meetup space creates an immersive experience where students are exposed to hundreds of professionals in the field.The curriculum at Galvanize is outstanding with very up to date information, practices, and opportunities to delve deeply into related material, libraries, or frameworks. Like anything in life, you get out of the experience what you put in. Look at the time with Galvanize as a major investment in your life, and you will receive a steadfast partner in making your dreams a reality. But, do not take this lightly as you are ultimately responsible for building your new life.

The format is a code-along experience where topics are explained in lecture format while you are coding and trying out each concept as it's presented. The instructors constantly check to make sure that people are getting the concepts and tutors assist those who need it with minimal impact on the pace of moving forward. This is not a school where they teach to the lowest common denominator. Those who are struggling will have to spend extra time to catch up but will be given all the assistance they need to do so. At the end of each day, a project is assigned that reinforces the daily code alongs and allows you to truly lock in the material. At the end of each quarter, a project is assigned that builds on the topics of that quarter and all quarters before it. When you leave the program, you have many projects, notes files, and working programs to use as examples for your future career.

I highly recommend the program for anyone who is motivated and willing to make the sacrifices necessary to change their lives.

I was part of cohort 13 that graduated on July 2016 in the San Francisco campus.

Galvanize was life changing for me. It was extremely intense, but it transformed my career. My background is in business strategy and entrepreneurship and now I am a data scientist working with AI and deep learning for security in less than a year!

I studied using their guide materials for about 2-3 months before applying and took a few Coursera classes on Machine Learning as an introduction. The selection process to Galvanize was challenging for me due to the lack of programming and stats skills, it consisted of 1 challenge and 2 interviews.

They offered a week 0 before the program started just focusing on Python that was amazing for me! It helped me get ready and feel more confident in programming. The summary of the Data Science Immersive is: the learning curve is very fast, and the difficult level is always the same, meaning that you learn a lot but always feel like you can barely make it and absorb everything. In the end I feel that was the biggest lesson: they thought me how to learn and how to do it fast.

In general, the instructors were great! There is a weekly constant feedback loop and they are extremely responsive. I put as feedback one time that I was struggling with the math because I am a visual learner and two days later our main instructor approached me to understand better and on the following day all lectures were more visual - truly amazing!

What I wish I knew before: I was expecting to find a job easily since data science is so hot and there's a lot of demand. Job hunting is hard. Looking at "95% placement rate in 6 months" sounds easy. Applying to jobs constantly and networking and keep learning for 6 months is very intense. Don't expect magic. But luckily Galvanize also offer us career counseling, they were the best! They coached us individually, and organized career meetups for alumni every week to brush up our skills, practice whiteboarding, coding, interview questions, exchange best strategies, etc. But still, "data science" is a huge broad field. Companies that have data scientist positions open sometimes want an Excel number cruncher, while others need a very specific industry experience, etc. Keep going: I had to do 186 job applications to receive the offer I wanted.

Finally, I wasn't expecting my collegues to be that awesome. There were people ranging from 24 to 62 years old, from undergrads to PhDs, from business background like myself to aerospace engineering. And we all struggled together, bonded, and learned a lot from each other strenghts and weekness.

Overall, I highly recommend the program, it truly changed my life and career. Using the same mental models I learned there I kept going deeper in deep learning (pun intended) and got a job in AI. I will always be grateful for Galvanize for making me start confidently a cycle of constant learning in a world full of data.

Galvanize is a BootCamp which is a type of educational institution. It is organized in a different way than a conventional collage or university. Its educational program oriented to teach theoretical part of data science in very quick way, so that students will learn only what is necessary to move on to the next step in leaning. The next step is hands-on practical experience when students lean how to use what they leaned in class by implementing it in practice. I would say that it is highly important to do as much as possible pre-course work yourself and even try to go beyond. The program is short, 12 weeks, and very intensive, so that even if you have background in one of the STEM fields, you still need to put a lot of effort into the data science immersive program. If your background is not one of the STEM fields I would say that you might consider to join master of data science program at Galvanize U instead of data science immersive.

The learning atmosphere at Galvanize is pretty non-formal, instructors are easy to approach and ask for any help student needs in understanding the material, the amount of time instructors spend with each student one on one is probably the greatest if compared to conventional collages.

Galvanize provides great support to students in the job search after graduation. This is the place where a student will find a lot of direct connections with employers in many companies, including the ones that are at the top in their fields of industry.

Overall, if you are planing on switching your career to data scientist and you feel like you need some training, I would definitely recommend to obtain that training from Galvanize.

I am only 4 weeks into the Galvanize full stack Web Development program and I love it.  I knew it was going to be an intense learning experience, but I had no idea I would have learned so much so soon.  The instructors are great at giving you IT knowledge but also at keeping you from panicking from the intensity and being overwhelmed.  At the end of the week they ask us what we've learned this week, and when they list it on the board, we are awed that we learned something only on Monday, when it seems like we've had that knowledge for much longer.  I alread feel like I can do some pretty cool things and we're only just starting.  I've also talked to a lot of people from the other classes who are much further along than our cohort, and they are just as thrilled about the program as we are.  There are some things that don't work for us, but they have a daily feedback and incorporate changes to accomodate those needs the very next day.  It is a fantastic learning environment, but it is intense.

Let's get started by talking a little bit about my background. I am a woman from Asia with a Master Degree in Mathematics and Computer Science. Before coming to Galvanize, I am an independent researcher in Machine Learning and Cognitive Science. I curate online content from open source and education sites to gain more knowledge as well as serve for my purpose of seeking knowledge. The reason why I come to Galvanize is to upgrade my technical ability in Data Science and expand my network in Tech Community in Bay Area. 

I think most of you guys when deciding to go to a Bootcamp is to get a job or transfer into Tech Industry for a higher salary. Well, it would be a good motivation but lack of thoughtful considerations. How do you define a good job? Are you gonna like it because of a reward, not the fulfillment? Do you believe that three months of an intensive practice would make you a competent worker for an entry level with a salary of 100k+++? Do you believe that you are really a genius to master a whole bunch of things which are supposed to learn and pratice in many years?

Let me tell the ugly truth.

No, no, no ....NO!

Never ever believe any body tell you that kind of guarantee to make decisions.

Learning is an accumulative experience. Depending on how you absorb knowledge, slow and analytical, fast and responsive, you have your own way. Three months are never enough for you to make yourself as an expert, however, it is enough for your to establish a habit and a mindset to prepare for a job search.  So, how do you really get those after three months? You need a curriculum to know right things, instruction to do right things and enviroment to find the right resources and reinforce all of those.

Everyday at Galvanize we have two main sessions to learn with lectures and practices. Those basically tell you some of the most should-to-know things and enhance it by working with the others. But what I would like to point out is that the structure of curriculum is very well-organized and practical. Plus, it is contributed by many students and members which allows you do and play around on top of new things. Congrats, you have the newest map and you won't get lost!

The program is indeed quite fast and intensive In Galvanize. So we do have assessments to evaluate students, however, the main purpose is to help determine who we should pay more attention to support than the others, like more practices or more assessed reviews customized by observations from instructors to help you improve your ability. They are also there when you need help to understand a problem. However, not so trivial problems which you can Google by yourself. But they are really there when you need. I still remember the day we learn about technology like clustering computing with Spark, one of my instructors stay all day to help us set up things and answer all questions. I know some of them staying late to spend time on discussing how to help students, which I appriciate very much.

Finally, one of the last things I have to mention about Galvanize is that this is not school. Though partcipants in a program are called students, but actually, we are members of a learning community. We work together and we share knowledge while practicing and helping each others. Not only students in a cohort, but instructors, other students from other cohorts, career service staffs, or other people with whom have a chance to share your experience. That is a true network, not a group of people you socialize at some meet-ups when bragging about what you (might) do. They are really great and gonna help you much after you graduate.

Update: Right after graduate I did get an offer from a start-up, which is also a member of Galvanize Community. Since I am an international applicant and do not stay in the states, I still receive some support from career service. Keep in mind that, to get a 100k+++ salary or a good match, you might need to apply over hundreds companies in a couple of months to get 3-4 job offers relatively. It is quite painful and time-consuming but gonna help you grow a lot AFTER three months. Good luck!

My experience at Galvanize was above and beyond my expectations. The program covers a great deal of what you’ll need as a Data Scientist. The instructors are way better than in academia (I know that may not say much...). They are super smart (also in how to teach a topic) and they care about their students. The lead instructor brought some of his Data/Computer Science industry experience to the program which was a great plus. I am very pleased with the amount of experience I acquired with all the individual programming and pair programing Galvanize offers, and the environment helps so much mastering it (all the help we can get from each other and instructors from 9:30am to 6pm for 3 months). It was such great investment for my career!

Galvanize is having a hard time finding qualified enough people to join the program (specially the level of programming skills required to pass the entrance exams). That is why now they also offer a 8 weeks on just Python programming (twice a week at night), and the money invested on that can go towards the Data Science immersive after. Such a great idea to solve the need of have students starting with already a good level of programming to be able to survive the course and keep the high quality of the immersive.

I finally reached the end of my tolerance of not having a fulfilling career. After considering many different paths, I landed on software engineering. Galvanize was suggested to me by someone who worked in the building, who witnessed firsthand the transformation the students were going through. 

Expect to work. This learning environment is simultaneously approachable and challenging. You make friends. You push yourself in terms of how much information you can absorb in a set period of time. I had a great time getting back into a classroom and getting to focus on this one topic for six months instead of trying to learn in my free time. I don't know that I would have ever felt confident enough to apply for a "real dev job" without a program like this. 

The classroom is energetic. The instructors push themselves to keep current with the market and provide timely content to students. Each instructor has an interesting value add, whether it be game development, serious front-end chops, or devops interests. 

They also provide job hunt assistance, in the form of getting your online presence in order for the job hunt process, resume & cover letter help. They also get students in front of potential employers as much as they can while maintaining a sustainable pipeline for students. 

I am super glad that I did the Galvanize Full Stack (now Web Development) program. I am proud of how much I've "leveled up" this year. 

Galvanize surpassed my expectations. I joined because I knew that I wanted to be able to build applications. Going into the program I had only a little bit of exposure to/experience with programming.

Galvanize provides access to thousands of github repos, which are essentially thousands of mini-applications that you can access to build, practice on and learn from.

It is a bootcamp, it is intensive and you will get what you put into it. So the more hours you can dedicate to programming throughout the course, the better. Don’t expect that this is a 9a – 5p program.

Each of the instructors really cared about our success with the material and often went above and beyond to work with us. They stayed late, listened to feedback and had patience. That said, they were also good at simply being realistic about the fact that they are there to help you learn how to learn - on your own. They will not give you all of the answers and you are expected to struggle – because when you leave the program they earnestly want you to be able to manage continuous learning on your own from that point forward.

The range of how much prior experience each student had coming in was very wide. Some of us had next to zero experience, while others had several years of industry experience and a CS degree. All of the students I knew from my cohort and the other cohorts were very supportive and Galvanize does a really good job of creating/fostering community.

Being from a college town, Galvanize was incredibly overhyped. My analytics professors swore this would be better than my current classes and the programming here is "top notch." While the teachers were all great, the people in charge of Galvanize are a hot mess. There were multiple miscommunications about which classes were being offered, it took me two months to be registered in the right class, and the people in charge were downright rude to me the entire time. I really didn't feel like that was warranted since the mistake was on their end. My Hack CU friends were going to take classes here as well, but I will be suggesting they look elsewhere where college students aren't treated like second class citizens. They'll never care if they see this though, they only care about your money! Oh well Galvanize, you fooled me! Lesson learned the hard way. The instructors were good, but everyone in charge at my location needs to be fired. What a mess.