General Assembly Washington DC

General Assembly is great for a lot of things! Good alumni network, interesting classes, great community, delicious beverages, cool hipster environment.
However, I think we all have forgotten about community colleges. I strongly urge you, reader, to reconsider taking a class here. You will pay a LOT of money for something you could learn for a few hundred dollars at a community college or for free online. Also, programming is not a thing that you can master in a few months. Even after you take the course, you will likely be unemployable in the field for at least months, maybe even a year, after graduation, and in that time you will be paying back hundreds of dollars a month that otherwise you could be using for living expenses.
If you calculate how much the course will cost per hour, it is to the tune of around $ 60. Comparably, college rates (where you will actually get CREDIT) is around $ 30 an hour. If you took out a loan this figure is even higher with interest.
General Assembly thrives on hope– offering expensive (appearing valuable) courses to those who are miserable in their careers and/​or unemployed, hoping to transcend into making the big bucks in the computing field. However, immediate success in this aspect are slim. Sure, you will probably get out of your crappy job if you try hard enough, but maybe 1 or 2 people in your entire class will actually be able to get a job RIGHT after graduation.
To be honest I regret taking my class because of how much money I am still paying off and the fact I am not in any way ready for a programming job. Seriously, either try learning this stuff for free online (the way it’s meant to be) or take a college class which will actually be recognized by most HR departments. Or maybe even get a book (THE MANUAL) on the programming language. If I could go back in time somehow I would have just gotten the manual.
The only situations where I think these classes are justified is if your company is footing the bill or if you are already an advanced programmer who wants to learn new skills fast and access the alumni network.

I’ve taken two weekend workshops here, the Adobe Illustrator and the UX Design Bootcamp. Both were great intro courses and I’ll definitely be back for more workshops and am considering a part time class.

I was a member of the Web Development Immersive program offered at GADC a year ago, and today I’m a Software Engineer. WDI was a transformative experience for me, and I had a blast hacking all day with a group of driven, hard working, and like minded individuals. I have only fond memories of my experience at GADC.
The school itself is very «agile», always looking for ways they can improve their curriculum, and student experience. They work very hard to make sure they are offering cutting edge content, and exciting opportunities for the student body.
The staff/​community couldn’t be more welcoming. The overall vibe is very supportive, positive, diverse, respectful, understanding, and fun. GA offers lot’s of great networking events (like their famous Friday happy hour), and there seems to always be something going on.
The campus is awesome, and packed with studious, inspiring, and generally awesome people from a variety of backgrounds. There’s tons of work space available, the tables and walls are white board ready, and the coffee is hot & delicious.
Whether you want to change careers and study web development or UX design for 3 months, take night classes, or attend a one-​day workshop, there’s really no other place in DC that offers this level of community and technical training GA provides.

I took the Web Development Immersive class at GA, which is a 5 full days a week for 12 weeks class. It was intense, hard, tiring, stressful, fun, educational, and a billion other adjectives. I had amazing instructors and the team at GA did their best to ensure that I had a positive experience. Attending this class was one of the best decisions I ever made and not only did I learn career changing skills, I formed amazing friendships. I would, and have, recommend that anyone attend a GA course.

My daughter and I went to a DC paint night here a few weeks ago. We had a great time! The building on the outside looks like a regular office building but the general assembly office was like a warehouse… not what I expected but kinda cool nonetheless. They offer a plethora of classes to enhance one’s career and I think that can only be a good thing. Friendly folks and the location is clean and the neighborhood looks fairly safe for DC. I would go back.

I had the pleasure of visiting GA_​DC for 3 days since they hosted the Kaiser Permanente and Microsoft Codeathon during DC Millennial week this year.
Having been to a GA space in LA I was familiar with them and knew what to expect. I was however surprised at the amount of space they have.
Occupying the entire 8^th floor they’re able to boast 3 large classrooms, a host of small conference rooms/​offices, two pantries and an extremely large open space consisting of tables and chairs.
The open space in the back has areas reserved for members and non members which is nice.
For our event we had almost 90 codeathon participants and over 20 staff and the venue provided ample space.

I’ve only taken one (day-​long) class here but was pretty impressed by the value and content of the programming.
Eight hours on a beautiful sunny Saturday is a hard commitment, but our instructor for introduction to Adobe Illustrator was really engaging and covered a wide range of basic tools/​shapes/​concepts. Our class was fairly small since it was such a nice day which left plenty of time for questions and hands-​on help throughout the class.
I do have to admit that I didn’t get a good handle on Illustrator during the class, but that’s because it’s a really complex program (most of the issues I had were with the software itself) and one that would be better as a multi-​week class rather than a day-​long one.
Details missing for the website: GA has laptops you can borrow onsite if you need to. They also provide beverages throughout the day and a pizza lunch. For $ 75 (discount codes available when you sign up for the mailing list) this is a great deal in DC.

Instructor never showed up. No snacks or drinks while we waited for over 40 minutes with zero information. (After which a number of us left bc we were tired of waiting.) Totally unprofessional and a waste of time. Spend your time /​money elsewhere.

Took a workshop here for Intro to Python Programming. Great instructor with hands-​on lessons as he moved on.
The space is great! Street parking or garage parking. Wi-​fi provided (naturally) and the classrooms are adequately spaced for seating, white board discussions, etc.
SPECIFICALLY, my Into to Python class was exactly what I needed, at this time. I’d done some online free courses and the information wasn’t exactly «clicking on all cylinders» for me. This four hour course made it all «plain» for me.
Great instruction, friendly and professional front-​desk staff, free sodas and filtered water and open collaboration space.

I was lucky enough to have the Front-​End-​Web-​Developer (FEWD) part-​time class at General Assembly’s new Washington location paid for my company, so no complaints on that front. Personally, if I had to pay for it myself, I think the price-​tag is a bit steep.
The location is currently under construction. It is getting redone to make it a true GA location, where young developers feel kind of at home — so minimalist, less office like, comfortable, hip… etc.
This, however, doesn’t interfere with the evening class that I’m taking. So it doesn’t bother me. The instructor, Greg, is very good in explaining HTML/​CSS/​JavaScript and with no prior code experience, I feel like I’m making good progress.
Anyway, GA is just what I was looking for.
Will update, when class is over!

I’m excited that General Assembly is now in DC — it has the potential to be a great resource for DC’s relatively small but growing tech community! I’m encouraged by the wide variety of courses that are being offered, including nuts & bolts things in addition to cool courses like web and UX design.
I took a class there last weekend and I can’t say that it met all my expectations. I did learn enough to start teaching myself though, so I definitely got something out of the class. The room was arranged so that I couldn’t see the projector, and the instruction wasn’t very engaging or organized. I didn’t get a spiral-​bound book or any other instructional materials. I’d be fine with that if I hadn’t paid ~$ 160 for the class (and I got the early bird price, so I know that many participants paid more).
I’d still be open to taking a class here again, though, and I’m really excited about the potential of GA after the beginning kinks are worked out!