Our mission at Coding House is to provide a viable alternative to higher education; one that does not result in crippling debt and teaches the real world skills necessary to get a job - in a fraction of the time.

We recognize that our program may not be for everyone. Periodically, a student may decide to leave or will be asked to leave. We work hard to separate amicably and to support that student with a hassle-free, dignified exit as we did in this instance.

This student (in our first cohort ever) was unable to successfully complete the program due to a number of reasons. About half of these were our fault and we have taken full responsibility to ensure we don't repeat those same mistakes. The other half were a result of the student's actions (or inactions) that ultimately contributed to an unsuccessful outcome.

We have since held more than ten cohorts with over 85 students. All but a handful of them got high paying jobs after completing our program. We have also modified our price structure from $15,000 upfront (what's known as the pay and pray method) to 18% of their first year's salary (with a down payment).

We don’t break even until our students get a job. Because of this, we assume the majority of the risk for our students (skin in the game). This guarantees an incentive for us to do everything in our power to make sure our students are technically competent and able to articulate well in a job interview, and that we will help them get a great job so we can get paid as well.

Thank you.

- Nick James, CEO The Coding House Institute

I am sorry. :( 90% of these coding schools need to go. I thought my private school was bad.

Also, there are plenty of free sources for education. Definitely enough to get you started building your own applications. Hell, ever pluralsight is a better bargain.

If Groucho Marx were alive, he'd say "I refuse to join any club that would care about my Klout score"

Besides all of what OP posted in terms of Coding House being a joke, another sign would be that such questions had to be asked and put into a Google form...all of those metrics could have been automated in their collection. In fact, that should be one of the assignments for any proper coding school.

The whole bootcamp movement smells of opportunists cashing in on the naive and uninformed.

I suggested two Atlanta-area code schools, both of whom have been around several years and are well-connected with the development community. The problem with a code school is the same reason why there's a market for code schools at all. The market for talent is so hot that the people you want to be instructors can make way more money elsewhere than you could ever pay them. So you should know you're signing up for sub-standard instruction even before you start looking for one.

I still think my friend would be well-served at one of these spots, I've offered to help him out, but he's just too busy, he needs a situation that will force him to focus that has people on hand to help him cut through the noise. Then his natural intelligence will start coming through and he'll be able to make progress on learning.

Code school is an option, but you still really need to be resourceful and able to pick stuff up on your own because your instructor is pretty much guaranteed to be of the amateur-hobbyist variety.

Was this review by Jose written under duress or legally compelled somehow?

http://www.quora.com/Reviews-of-Coding-House

It is written by the OP, but it is quite positive and recommends the experience from Coding House. It was written in April 2015. The article was from September 2014.

Something is off here...

But it seems like it was geared toward people who already had a handle on programming. This, along with inflated marketing promises (welcome to the business world) is where things collapsed.

These are fixable problems. First, time should be split between instruction on concrete beginner level topics and the project. Preferably relevant to the task they will be tackling in the project itself. The instructor should be very well versed in the technologies at least so far as the previously solved project the students build is concerned. The project itself and the steps needed to accomplish the project should be very well understood. The instructor should have a step by step guide from start to finish. This would take doing the project from scratch a few times using the notes from the previous one as a guide. That guide shouldn't be shared with the developers but it should serve as a reference to get them unstuck after beating their head against Google and Stack Overflow.

And, of course, you shouldn't make promises of employment that you can't keep.

Now, those seem to be very core problems but I do see the logic behind a lot of the rest. Exercise is important to work into your routine. Networking is important. Learning to solve your own problems is important. Working with others is important. Doing promo photoshoots and locking your laptop? Not so much.

I can see why this person would want their money back and if I were Coding House I'd pay it, but I don't think everything is as damning as this letter makes out. With some serious tweaks it is recoverable. I think their heart was likely in the right place.

For complete transparency I graduated college with a business degree, worked in the software industry (project management/account management side) for 5+ years, and completed multiple online certifications for various programming languages. I am telling you this not to brag (because this experience doesn’t mean shit) but to demonstrate these programs can benefit individuals who have a solid work/education background, as well as those wanting to make a career change.

Prior to Coding House I was making roughly $50,000. I was teaching myself programming on the side on platforms such as Pluralsight, Codecademy, and Code School. I also took took three classes at O’Reilly School of Tech. I can say from personal experience NO ONE can become a Jr. Developer in a reasonable time using these resources. These platforms teach you programming in a kiddie pool environment far away from real world environments. Try developing a production ready application after completing those courses - it isn’t possible for 99% of people. You don’t have professionals showing you the ropes of Version Control Systems, framework architecture, Test Driven Development, Design Driven Development, development tools, deployments to AWS, Digital Ocean, Heroku, and API integrations. Anyone who is claiming someone can make the transition with only using these educational resources is clearly uneducated on software development. Those individuals are so far disconnected from reality its laughable.

Making a transition into software development is far more complicated than taking a few free courses online. Programs such as Coding House (and several others) prepare their “students” for real world application development. Bootcamps are extremely intense and mentally exhausting. You have to be resilient and willing to make a million mistakes. Yes the reward can be great on the other side (great pay and work) but you have to be honest with yourself prior to attending a camp. 2 months is a short time for anything. You have to put in countless hours before and after the program. Nothing is going to be handed to you. Welcome to life - mommy and daddy will not be there to hold your hand. These camps provide a huge stepping stone that modern Computer Science programs are not providing. I am not saying CS programs are not worth time + investment because I have never attended such a program. CS programs and bootcamps are different on so many levels and have different goals.

My Accomplishments at Coding House: -Accepted employment offer one month after program was complete -Won 1st place at Launch 215 Hackathon building an application with Sabre Cord API -Invited to speak with the CEO of Codecademy based on a blog post I wrote. -Interviewed at PayPal and Apple and completed all final rounds of the interview process (and I turned all those offers down) -Developed a mobile application that allows anyone to scan a barcode of a food product and know instantly if they are allergic to any ingredients.

Prior to coding house these accomplishments were not within my reach. I can honestly say I accomplished more in 2 months than would have been possible in a 18 month timeframe on my own. My money and time was well worth the investment.

What makes Coding House successful: -Extensive pre-work prior to attending. I spent well over 200 hours or more dedicated to preparing myself for the program. -One of the best damn instructors the industry has to offer. I have worked with very talented developers throughout my career and this instructor is top notch. He can teach, coach, challenge, and push you to your limits. -The curriculum (Javascript Stack) builds extremely well and allows for great progression -No others worries but coding and collaborating with other students -Application based learning with a solid portfolio to display at the end of the program

So what does this mean? Bootcamps are what you make of them. Are they perfect? No. But they can help propel you in many different directions for your career. Anything worth pursuing is difficult and a lot of people will fail achieving it. I swam for 4 years as a NCAA Division I athlete (again -this isn’t too brag). 20 of us started as Freshman, and 4 of us completed our Senior year. Why? Because it was hard and demanding. Bootcamps are the same. They are hard and require 110% dedication to achieving your goals. The weak will fail and blame everyone around them for it. Those people are everywhere and it’s sad they can’t take ownership for their own failures. The tough will succeed and continue to push the limits of education and software development.

I am one of the founders at Coding House. Let me provide some insight on the post from last year.

1) 50% of the the post is true and my fault

2) 50% is untrue and students fault

3) It was our very first cohort and we had a lot to learn about what worked and did not work

4) The student has been refunded

5) We wanted to make it like a real boot camp and that was to hard on some of the students

6) We have fantastic instructors you can find there bio's on our site

7) We have change our policies to insure it dose not happen again

8) Look up all the reviews of Coding House and you will find we have great outcomes and satisfied students

I don't think this is a fair assessment, especially at the more established code schools.

For one, the instructors are probably making more than you think they are, so the difference between what they could get for a full-time gig and what they could get as instructors likely isn't that differently.

You also need a very special skill set to be an instructor at these kind of schools. You need to know the code very well, but you also need to be a good instructor which is a completely different skill set (communication, patience, understanding of how and when to introduce concepts). A vast bulk of the talent at the very top end you're referring to who would be completely unaffordable for the coding schools may not have that second component.

But, you're right in your suggestion that you choose a good school. The number of code schools, in my opinion, has become far too crowded and I expect that within the year we'll start to see most of the schools either go under or merge.

(As a disclaimer, I (until recently) worked at General Assembly which runs coding schools in several cities, but I don't speak for them and I never worked directly on the Web Development Immersive program during my time at GA, though I did take it and was happy with the outcome.)