Horizons School of Technology - CLOSED

I came in looking to learn how to build something with my bare hands (and as a non-cs major). After a few months with Horizons, I felt pretty confident that I could build anything I wanted or at least learn how to build something, if it wasn't apparent.... Read More Throughout the program, the lectures were fantastic (shoutout to Moose and Graham!) and during the pair programming, I could tell many of peers were very sharp and pushed me to be better. Furthermore, if you got really stuck, TA assistance was very accessible from ex-software engineers, who were quick to assist. The whole concept of the demo day / hackathon I thought was well executed and contributed to Horizons feeling more than just a coding bootcamp to get you a job (although it very much can do that). It felt like you were really there to learn and build something great. Factor that with the guest lectures, where we got top people in tech to talk about how they made it and advice for us. The whole Horizons experience, in my opinion, will be more than any other bootcamp out there, its THE gateway into the tech world.

Horizons is a little bit expensive, but the people with whom you are surrounded and the skills you learn far surpass the cost of the program. It was one of the hardest summers of my life, but I do not regret doing this immediately after graduation. The... Read More students they bring in are the creme of the crop and I don't doubt many will be extremely successful startup founders and software engineers in the future. I recommend this program to any student looking to break into the tech world.

The program is a home for students who are incredibly motivated and inspiring. You will find yourself among peers who are from the top of their class with such diverse backgrounds. If you don't learn how to code (which you will) you'll definitely learn... Read More more about the world. Aside from being a self-paced program, the founders stress the need for a balanced curriculum. They bring in speakers from many different industries to help inspire us every day. When I was there I was able to speak and listen to Payal, founder of Classpass, in a very small setting. I had the opportunity to ask her questions that otherwise large conferences reserve for a select group. The opportunity allowed me to gain insight into a very real person who worked hard to get to where she is at. Now, given I work in consulting and require a Tumi bag, I see her ad campaign in every Tumi store I find myself in. In knowing I had the opportunity to meet and connect with her, inspires me in my day-to-day.

If you have gotten this far in reading my review, just take the leap. Apply at least, and then make the decision.

Horizons is by far the best experience with coding I have ever had. I was at first a bit skeptical, especially because they didn't require a ton of coding experience. They really start from the basics and teach everything you need to know (and more) to... Read More be job ready. After attending Horizon's, I was filled with a ton of industry knowledge, including how to nail interviews, how to start and pursue my own projects, and much more. I attended this coding school immediately after graduation without a job, and 2 months after the program I already had a high paying job. They really care about you as an individual and give you everything you need to be a successful engineer. The only advice I would give is that you get what you put in, so working hard during this camp is critical to success.

In my sophomore year of college, studying Computer Science, I was torn between pursuing an internship or participating in the Horizons Summer Program. I was at a stage in my education where I had 2.5 years worth of CS formal education, and yet when I... Read More was reading applications, my skills were lacking. This was an intimidating experience, whereas I felt Horizons would be the absolute best place for me to spend my summer, developing new skills while honing my programming skills, and getting more in touch with the tech "world". My only issue was with the idea that I would be spending money rather than making money, especially since I have always been employed since my senior year of high school. After speaking with Abhi (co-founder) on the phone, I decided that I would look at this experience as an investment in my future.

The program was everything I wanted and more. I learned so many skills and got to learn and collaborate with incredible, smart people. Horizons did not only give me crucial skills to land an internship, but the confidence to do so.

Throughout the 3 months, I learned to write both front-end and back-end code in JavaScript. Class was structured as Monday-Friday from 9am — 6pm with lectures from 9am — 12pm and partner coding from 1pm — 6pm. Lectures were either in person or pre-recorded... Read More videos. On Fridays we would usually have a deep-dive into certain topics and a review of the week. The coding challenges on those days consisted of mini projects that would tie together learning from the current and preceding weeks.

The first 2 weeks we focused on front-end and learned HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and jQuery. On top of the CSS, we learned Bootstrap and Flexbox, which made everyone wonder “Why does anyone bother with front-end?”. The next two weeks were spent on building back-end skills like, learning how to work with servers, databases, sockets, promises, and touching on cyber security. During this time we made basic versions of Facebook, Amazon, Momentum to solidify our learnings. The week after was spent getting familiar with writing in ES6 and learning React, and Redux. The last week of learning was spent working with React Native and dabbling in mobile development.

It was tough. Sometimes I would get very frustrated because I was exhausted. Sometimes I would feel defeated after hours and hours of unsuccessful debugging. Most of the time I felt lost and I thought I was way behind many of my peers. Towards the end of the camp, while I was working on my travel app, I saw my long hours of coding and many hours of frustration come to fruition. Things started clicking and I began to not need the help of the TA’s as much anymore. I began to feel confident enough to code without any hand holding, not because I became a kick-ass coder, but rather because the camp taught me how to learn to code. In other words, when I was stuck on a problem I knew what tricks I could use to debug and how to research and test out different paths to a solution, but most importantly: Horizons gave me the confidence to want to learn anything thrown my way.

Overall, would 100% do it again!

Link to full review: https://medium.com/@sahirjamal/my-experience-at-horizons-coding-bootcamp-ecfa57acc7cf

I spent the summer in San Francisco learning at Horizons and I am still amazed at what an incredible experience it was! I learned practical skills at a rate that vastly outpaced that of my CS classes at UW-Madison. In addition to this, these were skills... Read More that could be immediately applied, unlike some of the non-practical skills that college CS programs require you to spend time on. Another thing that shocked me was how well Horizons instructors were able to teach students who had never programmed before. There were plenty of Business and Economics students who were able to solve complex problems and build the front-end and back-ends of applications all by themselves or with teams easily in a matter of weeks. When someone got stuck, there were a wide variety of teachers who were happy to help and that could each explain a concept in a different/unique way that was fitted to the student's needs. They truly cared and loved helping students learn. Some instructors even took time out of their weekends to go over more theoretical concepts or advanced applications with students who weren't needing review sessions (which were also offered for those who needed it). Finally and perhaps most importantly, I gained an immense amount of future work and business connections. I spent plenty of time interacting with successful engineers and founders of companies, asking plenty of questions and gaining great advice. These people gave me their emails and phone numbers which is truly invaluable. In addition to all of this, the founders of Horizons have done a spectacular job helping alumni find jobs and get advice. Horizons is truly a unique and remarkable experience that is far better than any alternative.

As a CS Major coming from a well respected CS university I went into the summer already familiar with Data Structures & Algorithms as well as Computer Organization, System Design, and Artificial Intelligence. With that being said all summer I was challenged... Read More and pushed every day to use my skills to become a Software Engineer and learn how to build and deploy real applications. Software Engineering is something that is often overlooked in CS curriculums, yet is supremely important and is what most CS majors end up doing when they get a job. Going to Horizons gave me a great head start on learning how to build scalable, efficient, and secure web and mobile applications. With the skills I learned at Horizons I was able to get an internship at Apple 1 semester later!

10/10 loved the curriculum as well as the amazing individuals I was surrounded with! The summer I spent at Horizons in San Francisco was definitely one of the high points of my life!

Horizons School of Technology is an amazing experience to learn the most you ever could during a summer.
I remember staying often for 15 hours per day in class, and some TA's even spent the night helping students that needed it most.
The pace is really... Read More fast, especially if you have zero coding experience. But you will catch up, just be in it 110%.
I highly recommend to join this coding school, for the quality of its TA's, Speakers, Community and founders.
Pros
You'll learn so much, it's a great investment in yourself, and really worth it since it will change your life for the better.
Cons
A little expensive, but totally worth it.
Go for it!

If you are looking to gain fundamental knowledge on web development or software engineering, look no further. Horizons will give you the tools you will need to build some amazing products and launch a career in software engineering.

Throughout the course,... Read More Horizons had TAs that were dedicated to staying up with us until the crack of dawn so that we could understand the course material. Towards the end of the program, you are given an opportunity to create your own product (great for people who come in with start-up ideas) or work for an actual start-up (some of our students worked on a project for Optimizely). These projects were monumental in supplementing our coursework and giving me the real-world application to what we had spent learning in the first half of the program.

Finally, Horizons was incredibly supportive during the job search. I was able to schedule multiple mock interviews with TAs and get very personal feedback on how to improve before my actual interviews (something that can be pretty costly -- think gainlo.com). TAs also provided resume help and also tips on negotiating salary/benefits once you get an offer.

If you are hoping to switch careers or gain insight into the software engineering world, I would highly recommend Horizons.