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App Academy is an intensive web development course in San Francisco

appacademy.io

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Re: App Academy is an intensive web development course in San Francisco

#31

Post by FD3SA »

Hi there, this sounds incredibly effective and I know a number of very talented friends who'd be interested. I briefly read through the description but couldn't find the answers to the following questions:

1. How are accommodations handled? Do we have to arrange that on our own or are they provided?

2. Do you help with visas? My friends are Canadian so not sure whether they can stay for 9 weeks in the USA without a student visa.

3. Does the entrepreneur lesson plan differ at all from the regular employment plan? Or are you in the same plan and just pay differently?

Thanks in advance for your help, phenomenal company and vision.

Re: App Academy is an intensive web development course in San Francisco

#32

Post by heydonovan »

_o99w wrote: post #30

This is a fantastic idea. I wish I could go back in time when I was graduating high school and enroll in something like this. Would have saved me tens of thousands, and increased my earnings over lifetime by quite a large amount. Congrats.

Completely agree! It's just a shame that only a handful of companies offer such a program. I'd gladly give my tuition money to programs like these.

Re: App Academy is an intensive web development course in San Francisco

#33

Post by CesareBorgia »

FD3SA wrote: post #31

Hi there, this sounds incredibly effective and I know a number of very talented friends who'd be interested. I briefly read through the description but couldn't find the answers to the following questions: 1. How are accommodations handled? Do we have to arrange that on our own or are they provided? 2. Do you help with visas? My friends are Canadian so not sure whether they can stay for 9 weeks in the USA without a s…

Hi! Thanks for the kind words! They mean a lot to us.

1. We help you arrange housing by connecting you to other App Academy students moving to SF, as well as by connecting you to local hacker/startup houses, but ultimately accommodation is the responsibility of the student.

2. We have accepted international students in the past, and will continue to do so. However, we unfortunately don't have the resources to help you with visas.

3. The only difference for entrepreneurs is the payment plan.

Re: App Academy is an intensive web development course in San Francisco

#34

Post by hnriot »

I recommended this class to a friend of mine, she applied, but the day of acceptance came and went and she never even got a rejection email. I emailed Ned and never heard back either. It seems that all they managed to do was add her to their mailing list. So I cannot recommend them anymore for their way of dealing with applicants. Simply not responding is rude and unprofessional.

Re: App Academy is an intensive web development course in San Francisco

#35

Post by avalaunch »

srunni wrote: post #28

How useful would this be to a non-software engineer with significant self-taught programming experience? I have programmed (mainly Python & Java, no Ruby/Rails and little web experience) for several years within the context of biomedical engineering and could probably teach myself the material, but this would provide some external discipline and, more importantly, make finding a job much easier (my resume and some ot…

Your experience level sounds a lot like mine before I was accepted into the App Academy (I'm a student here right now). I'm not a software engineer either but I had been teaching myself to code in Python (with a Django framework) for about a year to a year and a half before applying.

It took me about 1 month here to cover the same amount of material that took me 1 year to cover on my own. Being self taught is great, but learning in a classroom full of equally motivated students guided by an incredible teacher is even better. If I get stuck, I can turn to any of my fellow students and they'll help me out. Likewise, I often learn the most by helping others get unstuck. And, of course, our instructor is always there to help us think about problems in new ways. He gives lectures daily and then for the rest of the day he helps us out in a more personal, one on one basis. His great skill is his ability to break down complicated ideas and present them in an easy to understand manner.

While I could learn all of this on my own, it's hard to overvalue the effect of learning in an accelerated environment like the App Academy provides.

I've actually been blogging daily about my experience at the App Academy. You can check that out here: http://krisallenfields.tumblr.com/

Re: App Academy is an intensive web development course in San Francisco

#36

Post by kin »

ruggeri wrote: post #5
telephonic wrote: post #2

Ok, so you're competing directly with Dev Bootcamp ( http://devbootcamp.com ) by underpricing them. I'm reading the tuition section here: http://www.appacademy.io/description It looks like the student pays you 12.5% of their first year's salary. Normally wouldn't the hiring company pay? If I'm reading it right -- and I might not be -- how is that different than a student loan? Wouldn't that just be 12.5% off the top…

Hey! Thanks for the interest! To my mind, we're not underpricing Dev Bootcamp. Our focus in pricing is to change the risk equation for students. We want to lower the barrier to entry for the tech jobs market. We also want students to know that we are really committed/invested in them. The big difference from student loans: students only pay us if the course actually works :-) Our first batch students are just beginni…

curious, what determines if the course does not work? Is there a time period that students have to get jobs post-course that determines if the student does not have to pay?

Re: App Academy is an intensive web development course in San Francisco

#37

Post by lachyg »

gyardley wrote: post #24

The first company to offer intensive programs like this over the Internet will do well for themselves.

Caveat Lectar: I'm full time at Dev Bootcamp.

Like the other commenter, I completely disagree. The reason these programs work is because they are in person with heavy accountability structures, rapid sharing of knowledge, and an amazing community building.

I honestly can't see any of these working nearly as well as the in person programs. You have to be involved, invested 9, 10, 11 hours a day. Your fellow students will pull you up if they see you slacking or not working hard enough. They'll help you when you're down.

Re: App Academy is an intensive web development course in San Francisco

#38

Post by niggler »

hnriot wrote: post #34

I recommended this class to a friend of mine, she applied, but the day of acceptance came and went and she never even got a rejection email. I emailed Ned and never heard back either. It seems that all they managed to do was add her to their mailing list. So I cannot recommend them anymore for their way of dealing with applicants. Simply not responding is rude and unprofessional.

This is not uncommon. Though this is a great time to mention that YC sends pretty good rejection letters (we see these every batch, e.g. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3180243):

We're sorry to say we couldn't accept your proposal for funding. Please don't take it personally. The applications we receive get better every funding cycle, and since there's a limit on the number of startups we can interview in person, we had to turn away a lot of genuinely promising groups.

Another reason you shouldn't take this personally is that we know we make lots of mistakes. It's alarming how often the last group to make it over the threshold for interviews ends up being one that we fund. That means there are surely other good groups that fall just below the threshold and that we miss even interviewing.

http://ycombinator.com/whynot.html

We're trying to get better at this, but the hard limit on the number of interviews means it's practically certain that groups we rejected will go on to create successful startups. If you do, we'd appreciate it if you'd send us an email telling us about it; we want to learn from our mistakes.

Y Combinator Team

Re: App Academy is an intensive web development course in San Francisco

#39

Post by pbreit »

jfarmer wrote: post #20
patrickaljord wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you care so much that the student has to pay? And why insist that it's just a cheaper bootcamp? That plus the fact that your account was created an hour ago makes your negativity suspicious. Sorry if I'm wrong.

It's just unorthodox, is all. It also sets up a strange dynamic if a student can't or won't pay. It would be even lower risk for the student if the hiring company paid, which is a standard practice -- referral fees as a percentage of the referral's first-year salary. 15%-20% is the standard.

If you don't find a job, you don't pay. And you pay in installments over 6 months (ie, 2% of your annual salary per month). This does not seem crazy. At all.
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