Horizons School of Technology - CLOSED

I did the Horizons One program. The first part of the program is identical to the Horizons semester program. The next part of the program, while less structured, taught me a lot about how to learn new skills. I came into the program with no prior experience... Read More in coding. By the end of 9 months of learning to code full-time I'm thoroughly satisfied with my new skillset. While I still feel like I have a lot to learn, I am now working at a partner start-up as a main contributor where I receive mentorship and space to continue learning the necessary skills.

*Warning: this review is pretty (very) long-winded, so brace yourself

The summer of 2017, right before my senior year of high school, I decided to take a leap of faith and jump on the Horizons bandwagon. For the first time, the program was opening its... Read More doors to high schoolers, so that in and of itself made my experience quite unique. Perhaps that also makes me uniquely qualified to address my fellow high schoolers, who may or may not be considering Horizons as a summer option too.

First of all, as a general statement for anyone and everyone: this program was definitely well worth the time and money. Despite coming in with some familiarity with programming, I still learned a great deal about web development and always felt inspired, challenged, and ravenous for more, all the way from nine in the morning to six in the afternoon. The exercises involved not only plenty of critical thinking but also creative problem-solving, meaning you and someone sitting right across from you could very well have completely different solutions by the end of the day.

My favorite exercises? Our personalized spin offs of popular web-based applications like Amazon and Trello (Homazon and Horello respectively, in Horizons-like fashion). A Horizons Facebook in which everyone in the classroom posted celebratory and/or troll comments, crowing that their Facebook code had finally worked. Minimalist iPhone applications that we could test out on our personal phones. The list goes on.

As for the instructors, they explained abstract concepts so thoroughly, with the help of examples in CodePen and fiddling around in the command line and JavaScript console in Google Chrome, that I quickly grasped the material. Throughout the day, occasional review sessions held by TAs, along with focused discussion with my classmates, only cemented that confidence.

Being one of seven high schoolers in a cohort of fifty college students, which ran concurrently with a cohort of perhaps two-hundred college students, I (remarkably enough) never felt singled out for my age or shortage of technological/algorithmic savvy. I don’t think my classmates even knew I was a high schooler unless I explicitly told them, which made collaborating with them easier and elevated my personal standards and level of diligence. Knowing my classmates hailed from Princeton, Berkeley, Northwestern, and the like pushed me to ask them questions about college life and made me seriously consider majoring in computer science.

Another major contributor in my growing interest for computer science as a potential career was, of course, Silicon Valley itself. Daily, my walk to and from class inundated me with the sights and sounds of casually dressed employees on their way to work, high rise buildings towering above, and familiar tech companies I’d never thought I’d see in person. Every morning, strolling past Twitter’s headquarters on the way to class renewed my sense of awe and admiration. Over the course of my time at Horizons, I even had the fortune to not only visit but also enter the headquarters of Twitch, Quizlet, and Stripe, which allowed me to witness startup culture for myself. In the end, the bustle of inspiring people in and around Horizons made me wonder what it’d be like to be among their ranks, further motivating me to learn as much as I could.

My in-class bootcamp experience actually peaked towards the end of my seven weeks there, when all of us high schoolers divided up into two groups and had a culminating project: creating a website or phone application of our choice. We pooled our accumulated knowledge and applied it to useful and interesting end products, which we proudly pitched to our classmates and instructors. My partner and I ultimately created an app for tracking service hours, complete with place autocomplete and electronic signature. All in all, Horizons gave me the power to turn my imagination into functional solutions for real-world problems, a power my high school could never have given me, whether due to a lack of resources or lack of faith in my young age and inexperience.

While I have nothing but glowing praise for the curriculum, instructors, environment, and overall learning journey at Horizons, I do wish other aspects of the program were done differently. This first point is a no-brainer, but Horizons comes with a relatively hefty price tag, especially for high schoolers. Even with my $1000 scholarship, my parents still paid $8000 (not including housing, food, and travel), four-fifths of my college counterparts’ tuitions for five weeks less of content.

I remember talking to one of my college classmates, who was complaining to me that her Ivy League school only paid for maybe half of her tuition. I also remember thinking, regretfully, that my not-so-well-supported high school would not have shelled out upwards of four or five thousand dollars to finance my summer pursuits. So although I love the initiative to start computer science young, I hope Horizons can in the future make it more affordable and accessible for passionate high schoolers such as myself.

Secondly: food. I think my parents paid approximately $800 for my meal plan, which covered breakfast and lunch. For breakfast, an underwhelming smoothie capsule of ice, spinach, assorted frozen fruit, and oats, which you had to blend yourself in the morning before class (sometimes, latecomers even started the blenders during a morning lecture). For lunch, a healthy but cold lunch that you had to microwave yourself, which I never did since two cohorts shared one microwave per classroom for two classrooms. Owing to the fact that the delivery man always laid out the lunches on the table for meal plan students to take, some students who were not on the meal plan decided to help themselves as well. Consequently, I passed most of the summer in envy of the non-meal-plan students, especially those who simply hopped over to the nearby Costco for lunch. Then again, I don’t know what I expected in terms of food from a coding bootcamp.

Turning from student life to the classroom, I would like to underscore that finding TA assistance, let alone instructor assistance, could be really difficult. The instructors set up a queuing system in Slack for requesting help, but the bot sometimes kicked you back several places for no reason. Or people simply raised their hands for help, effectively cutting the Slack queue. Or when you finally reached the front of the queue and a TA finally responded to your SOS perhaps ten minutes later, they couldn’t work their magic on your buggy code and had to consult their own code (aka the solution). In my case, one of my TAs was a high schooler who, when randomly assigned to me, would only ever scratch his head, squint at my screen, and eventually call someone else over to aid me. Needless to say, asking for TA/instructor help was at times more burdensome than helpful.

My last observation concerns the speaker series, one of the supposed highlights of the Horizons experience. Nonetheless, I remember little, if not nothing, of what my speakers talked about. The only speaker I did enjoy and do remember was the only female one, Payal Kadakia, the founder of ClassPass, who painted a vibrant picture of her rise to success and infused her presentation with the most personality. If the speaker series aims to broaden students’ horizons (no pun intended) and give them perspective, as the Horizons website states, it is critical to include more gender diversity in that perspective, especially given the gender gap in tech.

Though Horizons inevitably has room for improvement, I would not hesitate to do it again, from the fast-paced and comprehensive curriculum, to the enthusiastic and knowledgeable instructors, to the challenge and freedom of exercises/mini-projects, to the inspiring and refreshing atmosphere of Silicon Valley. Thanks in large part to the valuable lifelong lessons I took away from this bootcamp, I am now on my way to Cornell Engineering in the fall, excited to continue what I started at Horizons.

Absolutely loved Horizons. I was surrounded with some of the brightest people I've had the privilege of meeting and the most supportive and caring instructors and leads. Horizons fosters a supportive, innovative community that will challenge you daily.... Read More I can say with certainty that Horizons made me a better programmer and got me where I am today.

Horzions School of Technology is similar to many "summer"/semester programs. The results gained are a lot on you. What differs comes from the potential.

Horizons does a great job with how they work with you on a personal basis. Each person is unique and... Read More their program is shaped on their own, but the basic mold provided by them is already so advanced. The education is strong for people experienced in web development and those who've never coded in their lives. Though, the difficulty may change.

Along with the amazing education, indivudals get to meet amazing peers. Half the experience is the city and people. Currently, they could build an entire campus if they move to a cheaper location, but they understand the value of being in the center of SF. They've made much of the experience through their learning process as a company.

I can't say enough great things about the whole company and program.

I graduated from the Horizons program just a few months ago. When I decided to join, I was a fresh college graduate with an extra semester looking for a challenge. In many ways, Horizons taught me a new way to think. I've learned to become methodical... Read More in my thoughts and how to break down complex problems. The instructors were heavily involved with each of the students. My first week, an instructor sat next to me while the class was in lecture and single-handedly caught me up to speed so that I could continue on with the rest of the class in the weeks going forward (I was unable to complete the prepwork for personal reasons). This act was not the exception, rather, it was the rule amongst Horizons instructors. Each one of them went out of their way to ensure we understood what we were doing and the processes behind the technology. Demi is an exceptional teacher, helping to explain what happens "under the hood" as often as possible.

I have fond memories of celebrating birthdays and late night dinners with my classmates. We had to be together during the weekdays, but often chose to be together over the weekend. I've just started my new job in New York and am looking forward to meeting Horizonite alumnus out here in the upcoming weeks. The network goes far and wide-- the program truly fostered a familial community.

I highly recommend Horizons. The founders are keen on success amongst their students. They not only provide an exceptional team of instructors, but also compliment the learning experience by introducing career talks, social activities and an internal hackathon.

If you not only want to learn how to be a great programmer, but also want a full, well-rounded experience-- this is place for you. I'm so excited to see Horizons grow and succeed in the upcoming years.

I did Horizons last summer and found it to be well worth the investment. I had concerns before the program started about what could be learned in three short months, whether I’d enjoy myself during the program, and whether the skills I’d learn would be... Read More worth the cost.

First, I was very surprised about how effectively put together the curriculum was and how quickly we could learn new material. Although I like to think of myself as someone who is motivated to learn on my own, I have to admit that the environment at Horizons pushed me far past the rate at which I would have learned this material on my own. I learned an incredible amount in an incredibly short period of time, and for the most part have maintained and built upon all of this knowledge because I use it daily still. A few months after the program, I watched a youtube video on what web dev technologies someone should know to be relevant in 2018, and I was surprised and pleased to see that Horizons had taught us every single one of these skills. It is impressive how the structure of the program allows such rapid learning.

Second, I was surprised how much fun I had. The grind was definitely real, but it felt far more meaningful and fulfilling than school - simply because it was practical and exactly what I wanted to and needed to know to be able to build cool products. I met some of my best friends in the program and we are still working on projects together. The teachers and founders are incredibly kind and well connected and can really help you if you spend time connecting with them.

Finally, I’ve decided that Horizons was more than worth the cost. Keep in mind that the cost of the program is generally a fraction of what you pay for a year of college, and in my case has been far more helpful for my personal and career development than school has been. With the skills from the program, I launched a fitness startup (which failed quickly lol) and have almost made up the cost of the program doing freelance work part-time. I’m taking a year off from school to travel and freelance, and that would not have been a possibility for me if it weren’t for Horizons. I have heard people who have completed the program that have said it wasn’t worth the cost and they could learn all of it on their own. But I would argue 1) these are the people who aren’t using their skills anymore; obviously it’s not worth if you aren’t going to continue coding. 2) you may be able to learn all this on your own but its doubtful you’d do it as quickly without the motivation and excellent teachers at this program.

I actually did the summer program in Philadelphia (has since moved to sf and boston) and I had pretty much the most incredible summer of my life. I was a computer science major at UPenn and I still learned SO much-- it's everything you don't learn in... Read More the classroom (which is a lot). If you've ever wanted to be able to build and deploy your own applications, or if you just want to make your resume look amazing -- Horizons is definitely the way to go. I'm now a Software Engineer at a great company and I don't know how I would have done it without Horizons. Thanks guys!

Horizons is a coding bootcamp, and it excels at that: a low student/instructor ratio with qualified and experienced instructors, a top of the notch, ridiculously refined curriculum, a very very high potential network, and an ambitious management team.... Read More But it is much, much more than just a place to learn code.

I took a considerable risk to do the Semester immersive course, left a paid internship at a tech start-up in NYC and flew to SF with practically no safety cushion. I was also worried that the curriculum wouldn't be challenging enough since I was already writing code at work, had taught myself some programming languages and learned some CS related concepts in college (I studied engineering in college). Also had a bias against JavaScript at the time, because I didn't have the key to its powers. One week into the program, all of those concerns were completely wiped away: many of my classmates were CS majors/grads and were definitely learning as much as the rest of us, I was very much challenged intellectually allbeit without any negative pressure, and I discovered the almighty omnipotence of JavaScript. Before I describe the non-coding components of this experience, I want to stress how good Horizons was strictly in terms of technical education. I learned to build the front-end of a website in a million different ways, SQL and NoSQL databases, the basics of computer networking and of the Internet and how to practically utilize those concepts to set up a full-stack application, Shell scripting, algorithms and data structures, software design paradigms. And this was just in the first month. The TA's were obsessed with teaching us the best technologies, seeing us implement best practices, etc. The instructors were bottomless tech-knowledge pits (thinking of Demi in particular here #legend).

Now that I've hopefully hammered home the quality of the coding education, let's move on to the fun (or boring depending on your personality) stuff. The network. This is a one of a kind web of high achieving, ambitious young individuals. It's impossible to objectively define success and satisfy everyone with the definition, but I have seen so many different takes on that word in my time at Horizons. You will be part of a diverse, gender-balanced mix of amazing individuals from all walks of life, and you will create strong bonds with them. You will learn from and debate with hard-working, thoughtful VCs, entrepreneurs, investors, C-level execs from wildly successful organizations about topics ranging from product design, to the meaning of life. And then you will realize that these people aren't very different from you, an adventurer, and knowledge hunter attending a coding bootcamp in SoMA, SF. You will connect with Darwish, Abhi, Demi, Moose and other fantastic human beings who will do whatever they can to help you become better and achieve your goal. You will be in the cradle of innovation, Rome of the 21st century. While grabbing a drink at a bar 2 blocks away from Horizons, I met the CEO of Dropbox. We were blocks away from the offices of the tech companies that people in South Africa, the UK, Chile and Singapore all use to get by every day.

I strongly recommend this experience to anyone interested in the tech industry and entrepreneurship - future software engineers, product managers, entrepreneurs, investors and unicorn CEO's to apply. And if you're selected, don't hesitate, do it!

Many aspiring Horizonites ask me:
Has the program changed your life in any way?

I applied to Horizons around July of 2016, about a year before the actual program. Horizons emailed our school’s email list, and I was deadset on nabbing that fellowship.

I... Read More got it November of that year and committed to starting the program June the following year. I committed to it before committing to any other post-grad plan and banked on the hope that whatever company was going to employ me would be willing to accommodate the Horizons timeline. I committed to it because I knew it was only going to change my career path for the better. It's changed me in reinforcing my abilities and my commitment to entering the tech industry. It's given me confidence in my skills, commitment to a career in tech and a solid and strong community.

In CS classes in high school I always told myself I wasn’t good enough, especially when my (mostly) male classmates told me how early and easily they finished. I never thought I could fathom becoming a software engineer because people were always better and smarter than I was. But going through this program has built my confidence in my technical capacity. I’ve also found so much joy in coding – it’s like a giant puzzle that I MUST solve. I get into flow so quickly now, and it’s hard for me to snap out!

I’m now confident that I can build things for myself and others. The instructors, TAs & founders themselves were extremely kind, caring and helpful. They have your back and you can trust they'll help you grow in any way they can. Horizons is not just any other bootcamp - it's a community. The program and the people in the program have definitely changed my life, and they continue to do so. What more could you ask for?

Full review here: https://mikareyes.tumblr.com/post/163309869682/horizons-faq-from-a-current-horizonite

Horizons was one of the best educational decisions I ever made. I studied traditional computer science in college. I am an entrepreneurial person motivated by product and people, and I was frustrated that after studying CS in school for 2 years, I still... Read More could not easily build my own web and mobile applications. Horizons fixed this in 3 months. I build websites all the time for fun/ projects/ anything now, and I have a mobile application in the iOS App Store. I am also developing a user-facing, social web application in my free time. None of this would be possible without Horizons. If you here words like "Node.js," "API," "node modules," "framework," "back-end," and "SQL" all of the time, but you are still confused about what they mean, you need to do Horizons. I am so much more confident in job interviews after the program, and I am able to code whatever I want in my free time. The instructors set an incredible culture throughout the program. You are able and encouraged to ask questions whenever you want, and an instructor will generally be there quickly to help you work through the problem, so you never quite get "stuck." I was amazed by how some students who did the program with me had never coded before, and when Horizons ended they were actually more proficient than me. I can't say enough good things about the program. I have recommended it to almost all of my friends who have some interest in learning CS or who studied CS in school but are looking to take their skills to the next level.