Overall: 1/5 General Assembly (GA) is big on marketing but low on actual teaching. Bad instruction, bad placement rates. This review is based on attending their free workshops and meeting their students. Teaching: 1/5 Instructors don't seem to know too much about what they're teaching. If asked an industry relevant question, they replied with "oh we don't teach that yet", or "oh sign up for the full course and we might cover it", when it sounds like they don't know the actual answer (by their confused and worried look). Outcomes: 1/5 From their full time students whom I've met, it seems their job placement rates are very low. They usually struggle with finding a job or I find them at events from other bootcamps considering taking more courses. Value: N/A I went to their free events. I don't have firsthand experience with paying for it, although I heard from their former students that it wasn't worth it. read more

I signed up for the SQL Bootcamp as an entry way into General Assembly and unfortunately left the class unsatisfied. I paid 349 USD to attend today's, Thursday, June 25, 2019 SQL course. The instructor (out of respect for the teacher, I will not mention his name- perhaps he just had a bad day) was not only 15 minutes late to class, but completely rushed through the course to end at 4pm EST (which was scheduled to end at 5pm EST) because "he had a Nike campaign to work on". Furthermore, the instructor was completely aware that he rushed the class- prior to releasing the participants he said, "Feel free to rate me low today, my reputation precedes itself so it will not matter to me if you give me a low rating because I ended class early and I know I rushed through the class". He then attempted to reconcile by saying that he "owed us one" and that we could email him with any questions or audit another one of his classes. I took time off of work to better strengthen my skill set and trusted General Assembly to provide the setting. His class was unprofessional and honestly, not worth the cost you are charging participants. I understand he may have commitments, but if he did perhaps he should have chosen to not lead a class. I walked away with none of the class objectives accomplished and he did not have the time to answer questions we had. I'm sure there are other competent teachers there, but I cannot say this instructor was one of them. Based on my experience with this entry class, I would be hard pressed to take a longer course with this company- just not worth the crapshoot. read more

I came in on a Saturday morning for the free intro to coding class: HTML & CSS and it was super informative. (I didn't bring my laptop bring yours if you want to attend) is not mandatory but there's a lab provided and is feasible to do it on a laptop then on your phone (like me ugh). First time I'm ever exposed to coding and the professor explained everything very well and it was interesting. The class was from 11am - 1pm and at first was theory and then hands on. We were able to work on a lab provided by the professor ‍ and put into practice the common tags and lists. General Assembly offers many introductions to classes for free, super helpful to find what you like and what you would want to learn more about. read more

General Assembly New York - Educational Services Near Me - New York, New York

Expertise and instruction are different. Instructors are well-versed in their fields, but don't know how to teach at GA. The instructors discussed some of the training provided by GA, and it's clear this should be GA's primary focus if it wishes to gain any authentic academic credibility. The course I took was jam-packed with material that was never applied in any meaningful way. What was being taught appeared to be great, but how it was taught made the class worthy of a full refund, mentioned many times before. On the final day of the course, many of my classmates didn't show up because they understandably didn't grasp much of the content, and weren't allotted an appropriate amount of time to prepare a presentation. Education must be understood as more than talking through content. Rather than receiving a caring comment from Mickey, please dedicate that time to improving instructional delivery practices at GA. Commenting here is merely another effort toward the appearance of GA - please focus on how instruction is being delivered, instead. read more

I completed General Assembly's Visual Design course this week. The curriculum was adaptable for a range of skills, though my cohort ranged novices to current designers so that was more of a challenge, and the instructor was knowledgable. It is a good class to take if you are interested in design, need a refresher or portfolio material. I feel like I learned something in every section, despite finding many of the concepts familiar. tl;dr - I can only recommend this class and instructor. read more

I did the Ux immersive! It was incredible, I met tons of great people and did learn a ton of valuable information. The statistics about employment they provide are not correct however. Do not go in there thinking employers will clamor for you, it's just not the reality. There will be a ton of GA grads you will be up against from prior classes as competition. 3 months after the course and 4/26 people in my class have full time jobs. The statistics aren't true. Also they are telling newer students that class sizes are 30, but from what I understand they now make 3 teachers teach 60 students at the same time... bouncing them between classes so the quality of the education is dipping. That last part is a bummer because the education was the good part, but now that quality is getting lost. Be sure to make the intake person really clarify what "class size" means. read more

General Assembly New York - Best school evs. UXDI life - Educational Services Near Me - New York, New York

Came to General Assembly for the UX Designer boot camp class on Saturday (today lol). My instructors name was Kyra Peralte. The price for the course: $349 Why I took the class: I'm a software engineer - I wanted to familiarize myself with ux design so I can help out in my current role + use it on a freelance project Im doing. Overall experience: It was a 10-5 pm class on a Saturday. Overall you meet up with some pretty chill/cool people who also want to learn. The instructor was really cool and you can tell she knows what she's talking about. I have so much more respect for ux designers now - I'm so sorry I guess I didn't realize how tedious the work was - the whole process. Taking the course definitely gave me a new appreciation for the part ux design takes in a project. You learn all aspects of ux design + you design your own app paper prototype. I realized today that I might not be a good fit for ux design but I think it was great that i took it so now i know what my ux team members do and how their role is important. Over all I'm happy with my experience. The -1 Star is mostly just because of the price. I would've said maybe this class was worth max $200 instead of the $349. Just my opinion! read more

Just when I thought I was finally done with school, I decided to sign up for a free Intro to Digital Marketing class with General Assembly to give myself a little refresher course on subject matter that has become increasingly important in my career. After getting over the "first day of school" jitters all over again and finding a seat where I could see but wasn't dead center (didn't want to look like a showoff), I had an amazing experience! My instructor was a young woman who is actually working in the field and has been for a few years, and she not only knew her stuff but also helped me think of digital marketing in ways that never even occurred to me. It was a single class, but was a great intro and made me, a person who could not be happier to be done with school, really want to continue taking courses. You don't really need to bring anything with you for this particular class, and they will send you the presentation afterwards to use for future reference! read more

General Assembly New York - Classroom, 3rd floor - Educational Services Near Me - New York, New York

Do not expect a human, even when you hear the phone ring. Expect several messages from a pleasant-sounding woman who you will grow to resent, as she tells you how great General Assembly is. I'm using them as a new resource that's a recommendation from my boss and already paid for my class, but I have an emergency. It's ok, I can always call or email this innovative company and get an automated response "within 12 hours." Will update when I get a response. It's 12:16 E.T. It's 11:37 E.T. the following day. They did not get back to me. Going to attempt to get my money back. Will update my review with any new info. I sent an email the same day I called at the address suggested below. I also left my email address on a voicemail message. Those are the only options offered. Still no reply. It's only $100, and my company is paying, but, Mickey S., this is unacceptable. If you want to give me a number, you can include it in a "Complement" that I won't publish. Please do not give me another email address. **Update: An e-representative finally got back to me, about a week after my initial correspondence. My account has been credited.** read more

A complete scam. I participated in the UX online course last year. The program is $16,000 and you have to research and do everything yourself. Most of the instructors and careers coaches are recent graduates with no real life work experience. For those that do work, teaching the course is a side job. You aren't guaranteed a job upon graduation. They say 98% of graduates get jobs, but that's not true at all. They hire everyone from within the program to inflate the numbers. When you first inquire about the program on the website, they immediately call you with pushy sales techniques and grandiose claims that are false and too good to be true. Seems a bit like an MLM. It's extremely overpriced for you to have to learn and teach yourself everything. They also claim anyone can do the program with no experience or knowledge. This is also not true. I wasted 3 months and 16k, to barely learn anything. My entire class felt the same way. There are plenty of other tutorials and programs people can do that are way cheaper. read more

TLDR; Great experience, amazing instructors, got the skills, and ready to jumpstart my career. Taking the Data Science Immersive isn't for everyone, just like General Assembly isn't for everyone. In 3 months you're taught almost 2 years of industry knowledge which is reasonable since it's a 9-5 every weekday program. I had two amazing instructors, shoutout to Phil and Mike, so my experience is going to be skewed from the start. It's gonna be freakin hard and expect hours of wtf moments and almost giving up. Also know that you're getting what you put in, I wasn't looking for a career change to happen just because I spent 3 months in a program but I got all the skills needed for it. But trust me, stick it out and you'll thank yourself later. In actuality you could learn everything you need to know online for free or a low cost but you would lose out on the help and guidance from instructors and peer programming with awesome classmates. What makes the program great is struggling with everyone from diverse backgrounds to complete the daunting projects and succeeding as a collective. I know that I have the confidence and knowledge to lead me to a successful data science career. Love or hate the program, it's was a tough but educative learning experience, not a cheap one but well worth it. read more

I took the UX Design 12-week course here and found it to be pretty weak. The class is actually more of a UX 101 - super basic and intro level. Would be great for students who are learning user experience for the first time ever. The course information on the site promises a lot more than it delivers. The course touched on each point from the course outline at an extremely high level, and in the end I barely took anything away from the class. Also the in-class vibe was very much a nurture environment - all comments were praised including the frequent longgg overdrawn ones from the LOVE-to-hear-themself-speak types (annoying). Ain't no body got time for that. In retrospect I wish GA would have been more straight-forward about who the appropriate audience is for this class. Spending 4k on this course is totally outrageous/unnecessary if you have ANY level of experience in digital already. read more

I've had a couple of experiences with General Assembly, and to be honest I am a fan. The InDesign one-day course was indispensable. The Hacking Mindfulness workshop was a little lackluster, but still an alright hour and a half spent. Unfortunately, I had a very costly and bad experience with the uncompromising Education Programs Producer who was not as understanding as my instructor. I had signed up for the Visual Design Course this fall. I was thrilled to learn a new skill that would compliment my current skill sets and bring me forward in my career. As a freelancer, the $3K tuition was a bit steep. In order to pay for the course, I had to take out a personal loan and clear then clear my schedule. A week into the course, I realized that it would be a bit more time consuming than my freelance schedule would afford me. The Education Programs Producer refused to meet with my situation. She couldn't refund me or even offer for me to take the course at a later date, jumping in where I left off. Sadly, I had to walk away paying $3,000 for two workshops and a bunch of PDFs. No doubt, I will return to the PDFs in the future once my year calms down, but I am still upset with the rigidity that resulted in this situation. read more

I took the SQL bootcamp one day crash course and learned a lot in a very short period of time. Nigel was an excellent instructor. I also hired him to tutor me for 3 additional hours. Great instructor!! read more

For a school that pumps out so many students, it's probably important for it to start implementing standards when it comes to the admission process. I took a 10-week immersive here, and the course itself was fine because I was fortunately to have the best classmates and instructors. I'm mostly disappointed in the career help aspect of the program. GA provides very little insight when it comes to job search. Unless you're coming straight out of college and have zero career experience, you might not find whatever little advice they give to be very useful. I also don't know if being a GA student hurts one's reputation in the tech world; I bring this up because I've been told of this during job interviews. It's a good program to get your foot in the door, just to show that you've had some kind of formal education in UX, and that you're serious enough to drop 12k+. But no one is going to be on your butt about doing a ton of extra work (as they might at at least 2 other bootcamps that I know), so you should know that you get out of it what you put in... which should hopefully already be your general approach to life anyway ;) read more

I took a SEO Training for Startups & Beginners course on 12/16. While the course was great, the lack of follow-up by both GA and the instructor, Quaison, has a lot to be desired. We were told we'd get the slides in about 48 hours and 10 days later, still no slides. I understsnd its the holiudays but sending an email and attaching a file should take 10 minutes at best. I've been told the roster was sent to the instructor but not sure why it's his responsibility and not GAs? Also, I don't think I gave permission to release my email address to a 3rd party. read more

I completed the General Assembly Digital Marketing Part Time Course in February 2019. I had a fantastic experience! My instructor, Matt, was incredibly knowledgeable on the subject matter and took a lot of care to engage our class. This class most definitely enhanced my skills and it's already aided in my career growth. Thanks GA! read more

The Web Development Immersive class at GA was a life-changer for me--this despite the fact that I'm already well down life's road. ; - ) Actually, it's no doubt because I'm beyond the average student age that I was able to take it all so seriously, and take so much from it. Granted, I did somewhat cherry-pick my favorite parts of coding--i.e., JavaScript, HTML, and CSS--but doing so was all to the good. Having a wide expanse of offerings during the three-month WDI class afforded me the opportunity to see where my interests and background were best suited, so that my nascent skills could grow in the right garden. The GA campus itself is wonderfully conducive to learning; and the administrators are knowledgable, hardworking, and delightfully friendly. read more

Before I say anything else, I will say that my experience level was advanced beginner; meaning I knew how to use basic Google Analytics, social media and paid ads. I couldn't put the puzzle together to see the big picture and that is what GA helped me to do. I do not recommend this course for people who have more experience because you will feel bored. They really should offer an advanced class for people who want to update and maintain skills. Within the first week, I got a new job in digital marketing and was able to hit the ground running. My only regret is that I wish I had taken the class earlier. read more

I took the User Experience Design Immersive - the 10-week course covered Agile and Lean Design processes, the Iterative process, and lots and lots of practice. ~I have found that the UX methods taught by General Assembly's User Experience Design Immersive are industry-standard and stringently upheld by the teaching staff.~ The instructors I had were beyond par, committed to teaching practice-to-proficiency in order to be successful in the UX industry. Like any kind of training or mentorship, you get out what you put in, but there is no shortage of opportunities for success coming out of this program. The Outcomes Coordinators (a benefit of the full-time courses) will support you, encourage you, and hold you accountable to your advancement goals. read more

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This is a follow up to my earlier review. I received the following email from GA. Essentially, despite admitting that the course was terrible, GA is offering only the option to re-enroll in this(or I guess any other) bootcamp for a 50% reduction in price. This means that if we want to learn the skills, we need to pay an addition $150.00 (50% of 299.00 original cost) and sit through another 6 hour bootcamp with no assurances that we will have the proper curriculum or even workable internet (see previous review). If GA wanted to do right by their students, they would first respond to the phone calls (or emails) individually and then offer either a free re-take or a refund of the bootcamp or some other mutually agreed upon remedy. Hi there, Thank you for joining us on campus last weekend. Unfortunately, in reviewing student and instructor feedback from our Intro to Python Programming Bootcamp, it appears we missed the mark. We hold ourselves to a high quality of educational experience and did not deliver on this expectation during your class last Saturday. With this in mind, please see below for a 50% credit toward any future GA NYC class, workshop, or bootcamp. Discount Code: nycpython17 We hope to see you back on campus soon, so that we can show you the full potential of our learning experience. All the best, -- New York Classes & Workshops General Assembly | generalassemb.ly read more

I love this school . Was very good and enjoyed every moment of the learning process for UX design . Wish it was only a little longer !

What I find strange about General Assembly is that they advertise so many interesting workshops and classes that I would love to participate in and have paid and registered for, but I can never attend said classes because they are cancelled last minute due to "low enrollment". I registered for the 10 week part-time Digital Marketing course specifically for mid-October which was cancelled. However, I was then offered either a full refund or the chance to enroll at a different time. Unfortunately no other time works for me because of numerous scheduling conflicts so I opted for the full refund. I then registered for a Google Sheets workshop because I thought that I might as well use the refunded money for the various workshops that GA provides. I registered about two weeks in advance, in which I excitedly told my employer that I'll know how to pivot tables and input formulas by the end of this workshop, only to find out in my inbox that it is also cancelled. I was offered a full refund, but this is just really inconvenient and annoying. Twice I've registered for something at General Assembly and both times they were cancelled or pushed back. My colleague registered for the part time Data Science/Analytics course for November and her class was also cancelled and pushed back to December. She asked for a full refund because she cannot attend said course in December. I understand that General Assembly is providing a service to the community in the best way that they can (in which we also willingly pay hefty fees for the classes), but what's the point of advertising these classes and workshops if they're going to be cancelled last minute? People have lives and schedules, and when we pay in full to register for these classes, we expect them to happen. How am I supposed to know that a class or workshop that I want to register for will just be cancelled last minute? Another friend of mine took the UX Design immersive course a couple of months back and she said her class had more students than she expected, meaning that General Assembly would rather cram a bunch of students into one classroom than have small class sizes for the people that have already sent payments. General Assembly should be fully aware that people (especially in NYC) are busy and you can't just cancel things as you please. Aint nobody got time for that! read more

I completed General Assembly's Web Development Immersive 3 month bootcamp. One of the most, or possibly the most, challenging things I have ever done in my life. I am very grateful to have been a part of this miraculous program. I say miracle because they teach an extraordinarily difficult curriculum of precious and pertinent information delivered in a digestible and expeditious format. I came into this program very green and pretty much struggled the entire way through until the very end, but sure enough I received my first job offer less than 6 weeks out of the program. It works!!! If it works for me, it can work for pretty much anybody. I would give 5 stars but felt the program could have offered some tutoring sessions, maybe on the weekends, to help supplement any of us who had gaps in learning. This is a great program, there is space in it for anyone who wants to learn or further their tech stack. I would recommend it to any who can find the time and the scratch. read more

I can't speak for the full-time programs, but I was really happy with my weekend bootcamp (Programming for Non Programmers). The teacher was invested in making sure everyone in the class of about 15 people really learned the basics, and he adjusted the pace based on feedback. The "campus" itself is a couple floors in FlatIron that have the industrial/start-up vibe. read more

I feel a little weird writing a review for a start-up, but I love GA. They have great classes, a great staff, and cool offices. I'm taking a Digital Marketing class there now and I really like the teachers and the course materials. read more

I took a Digital Marketing course at the General Assembly NY campus and it was an incredibly rewarding experience. NY was one of the first GA campuses and the people, instructors and students there have an incredibly sense of community. The campus and classroom environments are wonderful. The facilities have a really techie-modern feel (you can even write on the walls inside the class!), bringing education into the 21st century. I'd highly recommend taking one of their courses or workshops at the NY campus. GA doesn't end after the classes as they have constant postings on the walls inside the campus if you're looking for a job or if an employer is looking for someone talented like you. I'll definitely take more classes in NY in the future. read more

General Assembly's WDI was one of the most exhilarating and challenging experiences of my life. I abandoned my career as a fashion designer to pursue a career in web development. I think I cried at least once a week out of pure frustration, but I emerged at the end end feeling like a better person. It's an incredible journey that cannot be explained in words. read more

I took WDI for three months and it was the best choice I've ever made in NY, I love the school enviroment and the people. Everybody here are working hard and positive. I met so many friends here and helped each other a lot. I learnt a LOT in 12 weeks and design my own web apps. It was fastpaced and full of passion. I would recommend GA to all of my friends! read more

I'm currently a student taking Front end web development in the evenings part time because I'm hoping to design a website. I really like the area that General Assembly is in, its not the nicest building from the outside but it seems really well maintained, the faculty and staff are all really into helping students be their best, and everything is inviting and well maintained. The building has class rooms and an open floor where you can study plus a back room that is a quiet study area. Overall, I've really enjoyed my experience here. The only reason it didn't get a full 5 stars is because I wanted to study one weekend and the building was closed, so I had to find another place to do work as its really tough at times. read more

Still serving up great classes for the Technologist sect, rooms need better ventilation and A/C in the summer, but the Wifi is strong and so is the content. I'll most likely be back. read more

The short story: General Assembly ripped me off after promising me a refund. The longer story: I signed up for one of their workshops. Unfortunately, a competing work obligation came up. Following General Assembly's cancellation instructions, I emailed them over a week before the workshop start date, and asked if I could get transferred into another session. I had to write them twice before anyone responded. That person said they couldn't transfer me but were happy to refund me and would start processing the refund right away. I replied promptly and said a refund would be great. But...nothing happened. No response, no refund. I wrote them three more times and left a voicemail for their finance department. Again, no response, no refund. The next time I heard from them was a day before the workshop was supposed to happen, reminding me that I was enrolled. I also received an email from the instructor with instructions on how to prepare for the class. General Assembly obviously hadn't canceled my enrollment at all, nor took action on the refund they promised. read more

Want to learn Photoshop but you're intimidated by its overwhelming features that you just don't know where to start? Are you looking to increase your skill set? Are you a UX Designer who wants to have more confidence in defending your designs? These were all the reasons why I took the part-time Visual Design course and it exceeded beyond my expectations. Dani, the course instructor, and Jess, her assistant, were an awesome and supportive team. They guided me on the process of creating a homepage design that I'm proud to show to employers. It's been almost a year and a half since I've finished the course but it's made a big impact on my career. Before the course, I used to focus more on wireframing. Now I've moved onto a job where I mostly work on the visual design and prototyping of the product. The course has increased my confidence not only as a Photoshop user but a designer as well. Another benefit is the connections you make with your peers and the instructional team. I go to Dani and Jess whenever I need design or career advice. My only con would be that I wish there was an extra week to learn about accessibility. read more

I attended a 3 month bootcamp at General Assembly's 21st street location. Before starting the course I was given prep work to complete prior to the start date. I found the prep work was very insufficient in getting me prepared for the course and it covered very little of what the course actually covered. Most of the administrative staff were only with GA for a couple of months. The guidance they provided to students often contradicted each other and I found them to be more intimidating than helpful. For many of the subjects, most of the course instructors did not have any hands on experience with the technologies being taught and they were trying (or not trying) to learn the subjects as the course progressed . Often the advanced students understood the subjects better than many of the instructors did. I did not find the learning material to be sufficient for me to understand the subjects, some of which were complex and not taught well. It seemed like some of the lectures were cobbled together a day before they were taught and often contained errors which were sometimes not corrected. I wasted a lot of time outside of class trying to figure how the examples taught in class worked. I found the instructors were insensitive to the students who were struggling with the lessons and didn't offer much useful help even if you told them you didn't understand something. Being told to google it was a common response to a question. It was like they didn't care, didn't understand it themselves, or didn't want to waste their time with students who didn't understand the material. read more

I did the UXD Bootcamp workshop with Vincent Scatliffe and was thrilled by how much I enjoyed it. He was not just super informative, but really interesting, dynamic and passionate about UX. When you're stuck in a room on a Saturday from 10-5pm it's easy to be bored or suffering from a sever case of FOMO. But Vincent made me want to do sign up for the 10 week intensive UX Design Intensive course. Loved it. 5 star uber rating! ahahha read more

I am currently enrolled in the WDI (Web Development Immersive) course and find that the material is not extremely well-taught by the instructors. The instructors often gloss over very difficult concepts and sit at the front of the class and code while we watch as the materials goes over our heads. What we're expected to retain is beyond my ability, and I was always a good student as an undergrad and MBA candidate. I had hoped to come out of the course being able to build my own web app with confidence, but will definitely not be able to do this with the knowledge gained from the program. In fact, I've chosen to downgrade my participation from a pass-fail to an audit status. Students with a background in coding have an easier time, but for people starting from zero this course is just the beginning of a long road of learning and practicing to become skilled at coding. But common sense would tell you what you already know: you can't really learn that much in three months. read more

I took a 1 day boot camp and a part time UX Design course here and I loved it! I have recommended GA to my friends and the ones that signed up got a lot out of it too. Like any other learning environment you get what you put into it but GA has great curriculum framework and energetic instructors. read more

Great free lectures! Hopefully there will be more I can attend:)

General Assembly is amazing. I took a Digital Marketing bootcamp with Jim Huffman and the information I received was incomparable. The facility is clean, quiet and they have light refreshments (coffee, water & tea) so it's a great place to get work done. read more

I took the WDI class here and learned from knowledgable instructors who had experience in the industry. It really made a huge difference in my life. read more