Disruption Institute

I came to the Disruption Institute after working for some years as a Fine Dining Chef. I struggled initial to keep up with the curriculum as I was out of my old study habits and I had no prior experience in computer programming. Disruption Institute Founder,... Read More Mike Gelphman was very sympathetic with my plight and he took me aside to figure out how he could improve my experience. I would never give anyone the impression that it was easy but it does work if you are willing to strive for it. Mike created this Institute to help motivated people charge their live for the better.

Following my time at DI, Mike was contacted about work on a social media start up. Mike referred them to me and I was able to integrate some of the features I had developed for my DI final project into the application, which made me incredibly proud and gave me the confidence to approach my next employer. Again, a local startup reached out to Mike and he was able to get me the contract. That company was a great fit for me because I got to work side by side with successful entrepreneurs. My passion was reinvigorated by seeing the possibilities that exist for experienced creative people in the field of mobile development.

The Disruption Institute is not a guarantee of success. For me, it is the best opportunity in the area. I was not interested in taking on more student loans to study computer science at the local college. DI will show you what it takes to actually create a living breathing application and get it to the app store. I wanted to learn on my own and that is really what DI did for me. The Disruption Institute provides a crash course on what it takes to be a developer. The rest is up to you.

I did the Disruption Institute the first year. Since then I have been able to build a fairly successful career in iOS development. I would say you get out of it what you put in. As with most things, if you don't put in the work you won't get much out... Read More of it.

The Disruption Institute was the tipping point in my life between going nowhere and a rocket to success.

There are some moments in your life that you know will have a huge impact, and when I was accepted into the Disruption Institute I knew that was one. I remember vividly telling my wife that this was going to change our live's forever, and boy was I right!

The Disruption Institute gives you what you put in, and then some. I entered the course with a fierce determination and it netted me two apps published in the App Store within 12 weeks. Since then they have been downloaded thousands of times.

It may seem surprising, but this is very uncommon in this day in age. A lot of job and education opportunities will not give back the hard work you put in. I recommend the Disruption Institute so highly because it has consistently demonstrated that it will allow you success if you work hard and are determined.

Applied for DI late 2014. Received a call for an interview Spring 2015. Compared to other popular Coding Bootcamps, DI webpage is not very forthcoming with information.

Received an interview early 2015. It was fairly decent. When I got accepted in Disruption... Read More Institute. I received a couple of links to non-related DI sites for pre-work. I was so excited to finally feel like my career was going to change. I was never held accountable for the pre-work that I completed. The program was very fast pace, but I didn't feel like the teachers and instructors were really focused on my learning. Program starts, I find out the creator of the program (Micheal) has no programming experience. Ok, that's fine, I said to myself. There were 3 different teachers for each day of the week. Small projects were assigned on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Thursday was larger project with no teacher and little assistance from a mentor.

There were occasions the instructors were not on the same page when teaching objective- c. It was filled with ideology and opinions about ideas, related toward iOS Development. No books were provided, no course outline, no time frame for projects. No accountability. Teachers were too busy with there day job to devote any real time to help us learn. Teachers were only available during class time. At times, they have to leave early and made it seem, they had better things to do. A forum was setup two weeks after class started. Seemed to be throw together. Lectures were 2-3 hours and an hour for code. One student quit at the beginning of the program, because he noticed the disorganization.

We had multiple internet connectivity problems for about a month. Which was very frustrating in a programming class. Due to the lack of technical knowledge of the organizer. It was never fixed.

Micheal was very polite and professional. His focus was on selling ideas and products. Selling his company, not concerned about the class learning structure or progress of the students. A photographer was brought in during class time to take our pictures, during our lectures. This was very distracting for a student trying to learn. Micheal asked throughout the program how were things going. Multiple student expressed problems, but midway through an 8 week bootcamp is too late.

Bootcamp is a rushed 8 weeks, with no class on Friday. Last two weeks without an instructor and sprinkle in one mentor. By demo day, two students out of 10 had there projects complete. One student quit objective-c and said he was learning swift.

Demo Day was delayed another two weeks out than originally scheduled. A month after the program was suppose to be completed.

After, I wrote my truthful review. There were two more review that came out giving, good positive experiences. I find that to be rather convenient, for a program that is on its fourth installment. No previous review, before my review. Maybe, for those students, but not every story ends with a happy ending.

My advice: Study hard. Get connected with other "popular", "named brand schools", udacity has a really good program. Stay away from this one. Save your 6,000. There is no refund.