General Assembly Austin

General assembly is the code camp for lower end of the coders if you haven’t figured out yet. Price is lower. Quality and content is lower. But most importantly the bar is lower going in and is lower going out. They are good at marketing. And it’s still expensive. The right way to do it is to learn all the basic stuff yourself online and then apply to a higher end camp. Don’t fall for the hype. Like all camps, you get out what you put in.
Oh, all these camps aren’t 12 weeks of teaching. They are 2 – 3 hrs a day of teaching for the first six weeks. All the rest is you teaching yourself and the last six weeks is doing group projects with randoms. Hope you get lucky there. The first week is HTML CSS — the very basics. So really 5 weeks half time. So About $ 100 an hour for shared tutors.
There are so many 5 star reviews but you should do your homework and look at it critically too.
Yes it does work out well for some people. It works. The cost is out of line but the truth is 80% of people are not going to be able to teach themselves and not keep getting stuck or lost.
Look at the chairs. The other camps have nice office chairs. GA has dinky chairs. Yeah, saved some money and crammed in more people. But real programming involves huge time commitments. You need to be comfortable. See the attitude difference.
This review is not as relevant to UX classes.

I took their Data Science class and I can say without a doubt that it’s not worth the money for me. I know of several other students that were satisfied with the class and others that felt similarly to how I felt.
It probably would have been good if I had already known most of it. I’d say save your money and spend it on a tutor.

I was a full-​time yoga teacher, looking for a massive career change — and I don’t really think I could’ve found a better catalyst for that than GA. As it happens, I was looking to dive into tech at a rather fortuitous time: right as General Assembly was offering their first UXDI (User Experience Design) program in Austin. I decided to jump in — and have found it to be of a value far outstripping what I paid for it.
The overall structure of the program was incredibly thoughtful, efficacious and concentrated — and dedicated to the development of a stellar, professional portfolio. First project, first week. Five projects in total, over 10 weeks. Don’t get me wrong — it was hard work. Everyday learning, discussing and practicing principles, philosophies, concepts, ideas, best-​practices, a seemingly endless variety of programs, alongside homework, studying, reading, networking — it’s a full-​time engagement.
But the results and opportunities it has opened for me, in just that short amount of time, are just incredible. I got my first contract gig about 6 weeks out of graduation — the second one a week after that one finished.
This is the real-​deal disruptive game changer, folks. I’ve been interviewing alongside kids just out of their 2– and 4-​year programs — the likes of which I can’t even imagine how much they paid — and am proud to say my portfolio stands up stupendously alongside theirs.

General Assembly is the place to go if you want to learn new skills or enhance skills you already have. It’s fairly new to the Austin area, but it has already garnered a significant reputation among Austin employers. I took the User Experience Design Immersive (UXDI, ten weeks, full-​time) program this summer, and I was blown away with what the program offered. First off, they provided an Amazon giftcard for the textbooks that I needed for the class (wish that my college education had provided that!). They provided a delicious lunch pretty much once a week, bringing in well-​known practitioners in the UX field to speak: Jared Spool, Dave Malouf, and Stacey Chang. Being so involved in the industry ensures that their curriculum always stays up to date, and having many campuses worldwide expands the resources beyond what other immersive courses in Austin or elsewhere may offer. In addition to their highly competent instructors, GA provides a career coach (called an Outcomes Producer) to assist in the job search process. She may nag you to write a Unilocal review, but she is invaluable to those who are looking to transition into the career field which was taught in their course. GA strongly encourages attending meet ups during the course to expand your personal network, and hosts many events that allow you to get involved with people who are already working in Austin. This is vital to the job search process — I started getting traction on my job search through LinkedIn even before I graduated, just through getting connected with other UXers in the Austin area.
The opportunities that GA has provided for me were phenomenal. If you’re thinking about learning UX, Web Development, Visual Design, etc, GA is the place to go. Seriously, it’s totally worth it!

If you are really motivated to change your career path, GA will give you all that is humanly possible to make a switch. I took the UX Design Immersive after completing an MA in communication technologies, but GA was the real skill builder I was looking for. Instructors build modules that are highly practical without sacrificing time for in-​depth conversations about the industry and theory. They know what they’re doing, and their biggest assets are the dedicated UX pros they find as instructors. You do have to go in willing to work hard and spend time after class on networking and honing in on your forte. But if you are committed, GA can help you get it done.

I graduated from GA’s User Experience Design Immersive in July. It was the best decision I have made for my career thus far! As far as I know, it is the only true immersive program for UX Design in the Austin area, teaching the fundamentals of user research, usability testing methods, and some visual design, and front-​end programming. After working for 3 years as a «full stack» employee at a large company and small startup, I was left without a defined area of focus for my career. GA allowed me to take control of my career trajectory and get a crash course in UX design at an affordable price. Thanks to their financing options, I was able to focus on the course without stress. GA’s career counseling is unmatched by any other immersive program, and set myself and other students up for a successful job search. I highly recommend the program!

After researching different coding bootcamps, I found that General Assembly was the best fit for me. As someone who their fair share of teaching oneself the fundamentals using Codecademy, Code School and other free online resources, I felt the need to have a more structured curriculum.
Fortunately, GA came at the perfect time for me to make the big commitment to commence my journey into learning Web Development full time. The curriculum was stupendously structured starting off with basic git and cli with HTML, CSS and Javascript. Then we progressed to the back-​end of things learning Ruby on Rails and Node.js. The material covered is extensive, but it really is amazing how much you can learn in such a limited amount of time. The beauty of programming is that one is always learning!
The instructors were all incredibly knowledgeable and enthusiastic to share their experience. I appreciate the candor from each instructor and their ability to convey complex subjects in a pragmatic and understandable manner. It also greatly helped having 3 nights of office hours per week.
My fellow peers were all equally amazing, ambitious and determined which made for a wonderful environment to learn in! I now have several wonderful friends that I can always look to for help and to grab a beer with!
Thus with the culmination of an excellent curriculum, excellent instructors and wonderful peers, GA_​ATX gets my highest recommendation.