Coding Bootcamp Experience: Flatiron School Review

Note: Due to the coronavirus crisis, all physical Flatiron School campuses are currently closed, and learning is online only. Visit our Coronavirus Information Center for more on recent developments.

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Have you ever considered a career in software engineering, data science, UX/UI design, or cybersecurity? If so, you don’t need to go to a traditional four-year college. Instead, there are several faster-paced coding boot camps from which you can choose. Flatiron School is one of them.

Flatiron School, founded in 2012, is an onsite and online coding boot camp with a flagship campus in New York. The school became a part of WeWork in 2017. As reported on Flatiron School’s website, Course Report ranked it the No. 1 best coding boot camp for 2019-2020.

Read on for our full Flatiron School review, and information including the boot camp’s classes, costs, and potential loan and scholarship opportunities.

• What the Flatiron School is all about
• Learning to code with the Flatiron School
• Tuition costs, financing and scholarship opportunities
• Applying for a program at the Flatiron School
• Flatiron School contact information
• Other boot camp options

What the Flatiron School is all about

The Flatiron School offers intensive programs in engineering, data science and design at its flagship campus in New York, and in other campuses across the country — in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Denver, Houston, San Francisco and Seattle — and online. There is also one international campus, located in London.

Students come together to learn coding, work on projects and build a community. Plus, they can connect with industry professionals and mentors who may help them jump-start their careers after graduation.

In 2015, the Flatiron School introduced its online learning platform, Learn.co. This means you can access the same resources and community while setting your own schedule from anywhere.

Although the Flatiron School comes with a high price tag, it does offer financing options and scholarships. Plus, most of its in-person and online boot camps come with a job placement guarantee. The Flatiron School guarantees that you’ll get hired within six months of graduating, or it will refund your tuition. Among the stats in its 2019 jobs report is that 93% of its online and on-campus graduates who were looking for work had ultimately accepted a job.

Although the Flatiron School is not accredited or recognized by traditional higher education standards, its job placement record does speak for itself.

Learning to code with the Flatiron School

The Flatiron School offers several immersive programs on campus and online, as well as several free online courses. The free courses are as follows:

• Coding Bootcamp Prep Online: This 75-plus-hour boot camp prep course gives you a taste of Flatiron’s curriculum and culture. You’ll learn the fundamentals of HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Ruby, and get the chance to speak with Flatiron’s interview prep team, so you can have a better chance of acing your interviews.
• Data Science Bootcamp Prep: You’ll learn the fundamentals of Python and get an introduction to Machine Learning, along with learning the basic principles of data science.
• Intro to Careers in Design: Here you’ll learn about the difference between user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design, so you can get a better understanding of which one might be best for you.
• Hacking 101: Intro to Cybersecurity: This prep course was developed in partnership with cybersecurity boot camp SwitchUp. Included is a hands-on lab to help you learn the basics of virtualization. Cybersecurity is a fast-growing field with many opportunities.
• How to Land a Tech Job: You’ll learn how to do a thorough job search in the field, through the same methods taught in Flatiron’s full-time software engineering classes.
• Introduction to Javascript: This 50-hour course offers a tutorial on the fundamentals of JavaScript. Before the end of the course, you’ll build a game called Rock Dodger from scratch. You’ll also learn Konami Code.
• Introduction to Ruby: Here you’ll learn the fundamentals of Ruby, and build a two-player game of Tic-Tac-Toe using Ruby and JQuery.

Although none of these courses are required for admission, Flatiron recommends at least the boot camp prep course before you apply to one of its full-time programs, or to a program at another boot camp. If you ultimately gain admission to Flatiron, you’ll have several options to pursue as a student, both in-person and online.

They include:

• Software Engineering: This 15-week program teaches you how to be a software engineer. You’ll learn full-stack web development, which includes web frameworks, front-end frameworks and javascript.
• Data Science: This 15-week program goes in-depth on areas from Python to Machine Learning. You’ll get an introduction to a new module every three weeks, and should expect to come through with an understanding of how to discover new data science techniques.
• UX/UI Design: In this 24-week course, you’ll learn the skills necessary to begin a career as a UX or UI designer. This will include technical training and apprenticeship-style project work and career coaching.
• Cybersecurity Analytics: This 12-week course will help prepare you to handle the wide world of threats in the cyber universe. You’ll work in a lab environment to set “traps” and catch bad actors to hone your security skills. This program includes eight foundational courses, including network administration, hunt skills and threat intelligence.
• Cybersecurity Engineering: This 15-week course allows you to dive into advanced cybersecurity tools including Python, Wireshark, Linux and Metasploit. The program includes nine modules to help prepare you for a career as a tier 1+ security engineer, technical analyst, penetration tester or consultant.

Tuition costs, financing and scholarship opportunities

Flatiron School tuition is $9,600 to $15,000 for online programs, and $17,000 for on-campus courses. The website provides several options for paying and financial assistance.

You can pay upfront, or you can enter into an income-sharing agreement, in eligible locations. This means that, after an initial payment upon enrollment, the remainder of your tuition is paid after you’ve completed the program and are earning a minimum monthly income.

As for loans, Flatiron School partners with financing companies Skills Fund and Climb to give eligible students the option to pay for courses with monthly payments of up to 36 months and 42 months, respectively. Both also offer a cost-of-living loan of up to $7,500.

That said, these are not your only options for financing a coding boot camp. Shop around before choosing a lender to make sure you’re getting your best possible terms.

The Flatiron School also offers special scholarships for women as part of its mission to ensure gender parity in tech. Other scholarships include the NexTech Scholarship, Access Scholarship and NYC Web Development Fellowship, which is available only to New York City residents making less than $50,000 per year.

Applying for a program at the Flatiron School

The Flatiron School offers a challenging, immersive education in all things web development. Plus, its dedicated career counselors help you prepare for job interviews and land a high-paying job.

Part of the reason Flatiron has such a strong record with its graduation rate and job placement is how competitive its admissions process is. The admissions committee admits driven students it expects to succeed after the program. As noted on its website, the school’s first semester accepted less than 15% of applicants, so you should expect some tough competition.

Flatiron is not looking for people who are completely new to coding. The school wants applicants who already have a passion for coding and want to take their skills to the next level.

You can go directly to the website to apply.

Flatiron School contact information

If you’ve got questions for the Flatiron team, get in touch through the contact form on its website. You can also email [email protected] or call 1-888-958-0569.

To hear from the students themselves, check out the Flatiron School reviews on their website. You can also follow the school’s latest developments on Twitter and Facebook.

Other boot camp options

The Flatiron School has several strong reviews online at Course Report, with descriptions including “challenging,” “rewarding” and “amazing.” However, not all the reviews are perfect. Complaints on the site include “poorly written” lessons, buggy portals, content gaps and a lack of quality standards.

There is, of course, no program that is ever going to be perfect, or right for everyone. And the boot camp experience itself may not be right for everyone, as not all people thrive by learning at an extremely fast pace. For some, a four-year program in software engineering might be a far better choice.

That said, if you are set on coding boot camp, Flatiron School may be the right choice for you. If not, there are plenty of other options for you to consider. Here you can explore nine coding boot camps that defer tuition until you find a job. And here you can find five options for coding boot camp (including Flatiron).

Rebecca Stropoli contributed to this report

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