Austin Community College Continuing Education

I recently completed the Austin Community College Software Development Bootcamp and I couldn't be happier with my experience. Piyush was an absolute wealth of knowledge. Every lecture with him was filled with detailed, insightful information and he was always happy to answer questions. Brittany was a fantastic mentor and an expert in JavaScript. She was kind and patient and always there to help whenever I needed it.


Jon was an incredible instructor who took the time to make sure I fully understood HTML and CSS. He was extremely knowledgeable and always willing to go the extra mile to help me grasp the material. Finally, I have to give a big shoutout to Jon-Mikel, who was an excellent instructor for our class on JavaScript, NodeJS, ExpressJS, APIs and MongoDB. He was able to break down complex concepts in a way that was easy to understand and always made sure we had the support we needed to succeed.


Overall, I highly recommend the Austin Community College Software Development Bootcamp. The instructors are top-notch and the course material is comprehensive and well-organized. I feel confident in my new skills and am excited to apply them in my career. Thank you to the whole team at ACC for a fantastic learning experience!

The web software developer bootcamp with ACC was excellent.  My main regret is missing a few classes - that makes it quite hard to catch back up, but Piyush, Sage, JM, and Jesus were all willing to work with us and at odd hours throughout the day.  

I recommend to anyone who is taking this class to read about the subjects ahead of time to gain a basic understanding before the instructors explain - this helps to have intelligent questions to ask, and not feel so overwhelmed with the deluge of information.  

I came in with basic coding knowledge and a bit of remembered HTML - I didn't feel like this was necessary, but it was definitely a benefit.  

Word of warning this is a lot of information, it's easy to get burned out.  You don't have time for vacations, it's especially challenging to do this while holding down a full time job, and if you find yourself having free time you should probably be reading or coding something.  

I'd recommend this class to anyone who wanted to pursue this field!

I researched all the available boot-camps in the Austin area taking the intro classes for all of them. There were 4 main areas where ACCs program stood out from the rest:
1. Trial class - Although there was a small fee associated with it vs free like the other companies, you actually completed something in ACCs trial class. The others were 2-4 hr intro classes where you would start to "build" a website however it felt more like an ordered list of steps to follow instead of a place to get a feel if this is what you want to spend your hard-earned money on.
2. Cost - The cost of the program was about half of the competition's prices with a very similar syllabus and you do not have to "interview" to start the program like almost every other program out there!
3. Lead Instructor - When I reached out to Piyush with all my questions about the program, he wasn't quick to rush me off the phone or just push me to the trial class, he took the time to answer all of them as well as offer guidance based on our conversation, all before even registering for the trial class.  
4. Instructor Team interaction - Jon-Mikel, John, Piyush and Sage were all extremely knowledgeable and were easy to follow (although sometimes the information itself wasn't so easy to follow! LOL). They used real-world examples when breaking down the materials and they were eager to help whenever necessary. They spent numerous hrs helping me understand topics that I struggled with outside of class time on many different occasions. 

I highly recommend the ACC Bootcamp.  The class size (~20) was very comfortable.  I had three instructors and three teaching assistants.  I never felt like I couldn't access help.  The staff is made up of a really great personalities and very well balanced as far as their specialized areas and strengths.  This was my first time back in school in 12+ years so remote learning was very new to me.  The instructors and teaching assistants do an exceptional  job getting the class involved and interacting.  I also really loved how they encouraged my class to teach to each other (via our social network discussion board or zoom meetings).  By doing this, the students reinforce the knowledge they have by translating it and also helping their teammates. 
The classes were on two weeknights and a Saturday morning every week.  The weeknight classes were all zoom based but Saturday morning I had the option of going to class.  The mornings I did go to Saturday class, I found it refreshing to be present and see classmates.  

As a continuing education course, this is a great bootcamp to complete. All aspects of being a Full Stack Developer are covered. However, I would have hope that they focused on a single templating language and studied that deeply. The constant jumping around of two subjects made it a lot more difficult to follow. Nonetheless, the basics were covered so ramping up at your own pace is doable even after the course completion.

One problem I did have was the fact that I was often pushed away from following through with big tech interviews I was pending to take. I was often pushed to try and find smaller companies, which was something I did not want to do at that point in my life. Always seemed like my goals were too much to aspire for and that really turned me away after a while to keep going on with the class. Made me feel ashamed about my goals.

ACC's continuing education program is a joke. I had been a former Student at ACC's credit program and never had any issues BUT then decided to try to Continuing Education program after I received my Certification in Software Testing from ACC. I graduated the program with a 3.75 GPA. 

Be warned about Greg Hervey and the Dream Weaver class. This guy is a totaly SCAMMER. Unlike all the other professors this guy doesn't provide a syllabus or a breakdown for each project. 

I took the Dream Weaver class, turned in all the projects and my websites looked really good. This guy FAILED me because he didin't like the way I wrapped my files in the path he wanted us to upload the final presentaton of all the websites completed. I did 4 COMPLETED websites and uploaded them but because they were not loaded in order he failed me. 

This has NOTHING to do with the quality of my webistes which he even commented looked good. 

I made a formal complaint with ACC against him and his business because AFTER he failed me he told me I could take the Dream Weaver class over through his personal business at a "discounted" rate...what a loser! Most unprofessional experience I have ever encountered. I complaint up to the Director of the Continuing Education Hector Aguilar and of course they all made excuses and nothing was done. He makes them money plain and simple. I hope in the future more people compain against this guy and he gets fired. He doesn't belong in education. 

I also filed a formal complaint against his business with BBB and this goes on his record. Beware of this when you take he class. Marcela Nouzovska even made the comment the students don't like him because he's so anal. You better believe it. There's no room for a perfectionist and petty little man like Greg Hervey. He obviously shouldn't be teaching college students. He needs to find a different line of work.

 

I elected to take the ACC software developer bootcamp instead of others I researched because it was clear that I would be more than just a number for them.  There was no high pressure sales tactics, and I really appreciated that.  The instructors really went out of their way to assist you, even outside of established class hours.  It is obvious they are there because they care about helping others learn the material.  They are all knowledgable and personable.  I had a great experience and learned a ton in the six months I attended the bootcamp.  I highly recommend it!

I am so, so glad I decided on a whim to attend this bootcamp. I couldn't decide between the Austin Community College bootcamp and the one taught by UT Austin, so I went to the ACC "pre-class" to meet the instructors and learn more about the curriculum. By the end of the trial class, I knew that learning from Piyush, Jon, Sevy, and Jon-Mikel would be the right fit for me. They are all extremely approachable humans, with huge hearts, and they put a ton of effort into listening and communicating clearly. Each instructor brings their own unique strengths and styles to the course, and they were all amazing and crazy likeable. That being said, the course is truly Piyush's brainchild and baby, and it was a joy to learn from a professional who has worked in the industry for such a long time. His stories about working in tech are hilarious and really insightful. He's also a really good person, and he truly cares about each one of his students. Seriously, he believes in you no matter how dumb you might feel. I worried about him during the course, because he sometimes seems to stretch himself super thin, trying to help everyone out all of the time. Don't message him at 1:00 in the morning, because he might actually write you back.

I definitely think that you should attend the pre-class, if you're on the fence about joining. Actually, if you have $80, do it anyways - it's super fun. And know that this class might not be the best for people who like to follow a rigid, pre-determined schedule. But if you're all right with putting your trust in these instructors, I highly recommend letting them lead you on this wild ride with them. I'm so glad I followed my gut and didn't pay twice the price for the UT Austin version.