Claim Academy

I spent the fall of 2018 at Claim Academy in St Louis and had a wonderful experience. The staff is very friendly and supportive. They push you to work through problems on your own instead of holding your hand the whole way. The classes are small and there... Read More is a lot one on one time available. If you are looking to jump-start a development career this is a great start! it is a lot of work but its worth it. Good luck!

I am a student who just graduated from Claim Academy. I must say that it is 100% worth your time if you are serious about becoming a software developer.

I gained a Bachelor's degree in Computer Information Systems a couple years ago. When comparing my... Read More degree to Claim Academy, Claim Academy is just as equivalent or even better if you ask me. In college you only have 4 hours a week on subjects over the course of 4 years. At Claim Academy, you go 9 hours a day (45 hours a week) which prepares you for extremely well.

Instructors were great.
Location is great.
Help is always there.

Overall, it was a great experience, and highly recommended. I was even offered a couple jobs a couple weeks before even graduating which I gratefully accepted!

Sean

Diversity. Inclusion. Accessibility. Mentorship. Empowerment. Support. Adaptability. Comfortability. Instructors that know their stuff really, really well. Instructors that share "real-world" tricks of the trade. They go out of their way. This is what... Read More makes Claim unique and increases your chance of greatest success.

Shortly after I applied, Travis called me to walk me through the onboarding process, and he gave me his personal phone number in case I had any questions or problems. I met the founder, Ola, who is open to being contacted directly, as well.

Sahara makes learning the complexity of Java and frontend simple and easy to understand. She will sit with you to make sure you "get it". You can interrupt her at any given moment and she manages to help everyone. She keeps you on your toes to make sure you allocate time to career development and to apply for jobs. She and Praneeth will give you the practice you need to ace technical interviews. They will also tailor this to specific upcoming interviews.

Praneeth is the C# king - his widsom and expertise shines through. He also has great tips on how to learn faster and he has a wealth of programming and industry insight. He shares this in a way that we can apply to the "real world".

Lamar is just amazing. He makes sure you don't have any gaps in your understanding. He makes you stretch your mind. He will stay into the wee hours of the morning if need be. You can call him anytime.

Amanda will show up at networking events outside of class and on the weekends. Her relationship building yields so many new job opportunities for us.

Ola helps you be the "total, employable package". He leads by example. He's a TedX Fellow and Pulitzer Foundation Speaker.

Bottomline, everyone's a coach that helps pave the way for new and rewarding opportunities! I don't just get interviews; I get offers. And I have Claim Academy to thank.

BEWARE!!!
1. This is not a Fullstack Java bootcamp and definitely overpriced at $12,500 as the depth of coverage in subjects as HTML, CSS and Javascript is very shallow. The emphasis is solely on Java and which in my opinion is poorly taught. Furthermore,... Read More you will receive one (1) evening lecture on HTML and thereafter get web links to study about CSS and Javascript on your own.
2. It is not for beginners as they claim and you should be prepared to do up to 80% of the academic work on your own with very minimal support.
3. You will not receive feedback on your weekly assignments and projects.
4. You will not do any mock technical interview preparations nor receive help on re-structuring you resumes
5. You will not attend nor be invited to any Hackertons/networking events.
6. You will not get any refunds irrespective of the week you chose to withdraw from the program.

7. If you’re an international student, count the cost before enrolling as they have undisclosed and unstated policies that discriminates against foreigners or people of color.
First and foremost, the name Claim Academy fits this school because that's what it is. A lot of information/pledges and policies on their website are claims but in reality are not in force or honored. I've read most of the reviews of the preceding cohorts and keep wondering if they were forced into giving them either because they received their Certificate of Completion on their last (demo) day or most some are on the Facebook scholarship to study at Claim Academy. During my time, I interfaced with two (2) other cohorts and witnessed how most students struggled with their work due to lack of support and understaffed/shallow knowledge base of the tutors/mentors on key concepts such as REACT and ANGULAR. My review is based on facts and my personal experience or that of fellow cohorts during the June – September 2018 Java cohort.
It is worth noting that my cohort started with seven (7) students but after week one (1) two students withdrew because of the poor quality education. The third student withdrew for personal reasons while I withdrew after four weeks of learning for various reasons I've given below. If you want value for money, please take time to read through it.
The school is very unprofessional and cagey. Prior to my enrollment, I asked them for the Full Stack Java syllabus but they were unwilling to share it, saying it was against their policy. When I pressed for it and they did share it, I noticed the contents and depth of coverage were shallow. This is one of the alarm signals that should have warned me about their competence. I decided to give them the benefit of doubt but later regretted my decision to enroll had to quit after four weeks.
Secondly, we hardly ever received feedback for daily work assignments and never received feedback for weekly projects despite our complaints on numerous occasions. Before my arrival for the Full Stack Java Developer bootcamp, I was told the student to instructor/mentor ratio is approximately 7:1. This turned out to be untrue as the actual student to mentor ratio during the day from week of June 25, 2018 when I arrived till week 3 was about 25 students to 1 mentor (25:1). This is largely due to the fact that the school is grossly understaffed. Throughout my brief stay (about 4 weeks) they had 1 mentor across the three cohorts to share for support. The main Java instructor works full-time during the day and is only available during the nights for lectures and when he arrives he had to first attend to the soon-to-graduate cohorts who have been waiting eagerly for him to arrive because there isn't anyone during the day to provide support on AngularJS of ReactJS which they're using for their various projects. Our cohort will have to wait for him to finish with these before we can start lectures. Also, during our lecture, he still had to step out every now and then to attend to the other cohorts.
Thirdly, as regards, instructors and mentors at the institution, the information on their website (http://claimacademystl.com/teachers.html) is very misleading. They have 13 persons listed but in reality I discovered that none of these persons are with them except, the president Mr. Ola Ayeni. This is done to deceive unsuspecting members of the public to register for their programs only to find out they’ll be left alone to grind out their learning when they’re enrolled. Ironically, I wondered why and how a Software bootcamp will find it hard to update a single static web page. This further underscores the point that they’re grossly under-staffed.
As regards peer learning, we were told at the onset, that students in our cohorts will be paired into groups. This never happened despite my complaints about it on a few occasions.
Fourthly, the school's owner/business partner Ola Ayeni is egoistic, dubious and very untruthful both to students and his staff. After I pulled out at the end of week four, they refused to authorized my refund as stated in their refund/pricing policy. They, at the instruction of Mr. Ola Ayeni, resorted to the use of threats and bullish tactics to try intimidate me into cowering. In thier responses, they made so many false claims and lied that all International students were to pay a fee of $15,000. I clearly pointed that none of these are on their website or in my invoice payments. As at present (Sept. 27, 2018), the school is yet to refund my outstanding balance. These and many more prompted me to take action by lodging a formal complaint to my bank, the U.S. Department of Justice, Attorney General for Missouri and the Better Business Bureau (BBI).
After, pulling out of Claim Academy, I had to enroll with two separate online bootcamps for Java programming and Front-End development both of which I completed in six (6 weeks). I can definitely say I learned far much more than I would have had I remained at Claim Academy.
My candid advice to businesses/organizations who value integrity and sound business principles, is to be wary of partnering with Claim Academy because they could be dragged into a litigation case someday. As for prospective students, don't fall into the same trap. Take your money and go find a better institution. They're not worth your time or money.

INSTRUCTORS:
The instructors are competent and helpful when they are available.
During the day, from 12-6, the class had access to one java instructor, one .Net instructor, and zero Angular/React instructors.
During the evening from 6-9, the class had access... Read More to one Java/Angular/React instructor, but not for the full duration of the program(except by e-mail).
CURRICULUM:
Several of my classmates who were new to programming dropped out. They cited "insufficient mentorship" or "too fast paced" as their reasons.
You are expected to spend the majority of your time on Google teaching yourself, which is an important skill, but not what you pay other people for.
Do not expect more than a cursory glance at HTML/CSS here as part of the "Full-Stack Developer" training.
JOB ASSISTANCE:
My employer sent me to this training, so I have no experience depending on them to find me work. 5 stars by default.
OVERALL EXPERIENCE:
I learned a great deal while I was here, by teaching myself 10x as much as I was taught. There are other programs and resources I would recommend for a fraction of the cost.
Some of us were pressured into writing a hasty and positive review of this program. Since I don't depend on Claim Academy to find me work, I feel that I can be honest here. Take this into account when reading other reviews.

It is good place to learn coding and start career in programming. You will learn a lot about programming and other necessary skill. Make sure you work hard and ask lots of questions. Mentors are very knowledgeable and supportive. Asking question is must... Read More and pay attention.

Before joining Claim Academy, I had previous coding experience that I had picked up through TreeHouse, Codecademy, and through courses that I had been taking at UMSL. But none of those experiences could have prepared me for the intensly challenging and... Read More thorough classes at Claim Academy. Each lesson was saturated with "real-world" problems and solutions, which is so much more valuable than the previous dry textbook-style learning I was used to. This program was hands-on with its labs that encouraged us to write either whole or mini applications each and every lesson.

I graduated Claim Academy with fully-functional and complete applicatons, which I found to be incredibly useful to speak about during interviews. During Demo Day at Claim, I was able to present my final application in front of employee-searching companies. Shortly after, I recieved a phone call from a represetative who had seen my presentation and I was offered a position.

I am grateful to have enrolled at Claim Academy. It gave me the stepping stone that I needed to get my foot in the door and begin a career in programming, and for that I am thankful!

I am definitely ecstatic that I was chosen for this program. I entered into a classroom that was uniquely diverse and welcoming. The instructors really have faith in the students and in the program. No answers were given but they forced us to think. By... Read More my second week I had already noticed that my perception of everyday things had started to change. I was starting to dissect programs and websites in my everyday life, like on a trip to AutoZone. The twelve weeks were long, but they really did go by quite fast. Overall I enjoyed myself and learned a host of new skills that I feel will be relevant for decades to come.