I was in TurnToTech for a month before moving to Flatiron School’s iOS immersive. The difference is night and day.

PROS:

Knowledgable teachers
Flexible work hours
Friendly environment

Cons:

Self taught curriculum
No pairings/group projects
Not all teachers able to explain concepts clearly
Students can come and leave whenever

TurnToTech is an interesting addition to the mobile bootcamp scene in NYC. There aren’t many besides Flatiron School and FS360. TurnToTech is wonderful for the type of student who may have a part time job, or may be less inclined to work with others. They accept virtually any students who express interest in their curriculum, and do not have any sort of technical tests beforehand. These students are accepted on a rolling basis, which means that most students are never on the same page in terms of curriculum. The bootcamp argues that this type of space nurtures an environment where experienced students can help newer students with questions. In reality, this simply means that TurnToTech can get away with having only one or two experienced instructors for the entire bootcamp, which is usually 30 – 40 people. Now, due to the fact that these students are not a cohort working together – there is no sense of collaboration. Why? Everyone is determined to make it through the curriculum by themselves. As a result, the space nurtures separation between the students instead of a collaborative environment.

The curriculum is disorganized, and could be put together by someone in a few hours. Students get a series of documents consisting of “do this” and “do that”, while being redirected to google for explanations on new concepts. This is fine – being good at learning via google is one of a developer’s most important skills, but the way in which this curriculum leans on it for new students is unacceptable. There are no lectures, labs, paired, and group projects. What this means is that students come out having no experience working in a team, collaborating on Git with multiple people.

There is also the problem of false advertising on their website. Though lavishly designed, there are no “individualized learning plans”, because the reality is that each student is given the same series of documents to complete. You could say that the individualized learning plan amounts to a small talk with a teacher followed by more googling of concepts.
There is also no one-on-one mentoring in the traditional sense. They cherry-coat it. They simply have teachers who may be able to answer a question briefly for a few minutes. If the teachers stay with you on a problem for a long time, other students need to wait as well. Their teacher to student ratio is abysmal.

I’ve seen many descriptions of TurnToTech on various websites saying that they want to make you a well-rounded engineer. Their curriculum does not show this. And unless their students have come in with a CS degree, their students will not have any sort of CS knowledge needed to become a “well-rounded engineer”. Sure, they try to host weekly CS talks, but a few hours once a week and is a far cry from what is necessary.

One of the greatest qualities of top bootcamps such as Fullstack Academy, Hack Reactor, and App Academy is the commitment that teachers have to students who are struggling. This mean the teachers constantly check up on students, no matter what level or experience they have – and make sure they are understanding concepts correctly. TurnToTech cannot, and does not do this, because frankly – they do not have enough teachers, and do not possess enough quality within the teaching group to provide such a level of commitment. What this means is that students never know if they’ve fully understood the concepts. Sure, they may have “done this” and “that” on the curriculum’s documents, but such project-based learning means nothing if the students are unable to solidify their knowledge through paired programming and group projects, while being closely facilitated by instructors. Though, this may simply be a downside of TurnToTech’s no-cohort model.

TurnToTech is by no means a top coding bootcamp. It’s not even a mid tier bootcamp. This is hard, but TurnToTech needs to revamp its teaching style in relation to the amount of tuition it wants from the student. Its students constantly purchase courses from other tutorial sites, google concepts, and even sign up for other part time courses while completing the “full time” program. This is due to a shaky curriculum that does not help students master concepts, and due to the fact that for a steep tuition – the “school” offers no form of structured learning.

Their admissions process consists of a simple written application that anyone can pass, followed by an “interview” onsite. The interview is really just a formality, and as long as the student expresses interest and the ability to pay, then they are in. There is no technical interview.

Why you should go:

*for the highly motivated, highly self sufficient student
-If you do not want lectures, paired programming, lab based learning and can fare well simply googling everything.
-If you have a part time job, but possess the commitment required to basically self study and self teach

*for the normal curious student
-If you can justify paying 12,000 to simply be in a space with others, but never collaborating, and without daily lectures and labs.
-if you can justify paying 12,000 to complete a series of documents without committed instructors making sure you are not falling behind in concept (different from completing assignments)
-if you can justify paying 12,000 to basically learn by yourself with occasional help from teachers and students, in a lax, non-structured environment.
-if you’ve got 12,000 laying around, got rejected by other top bootcamps, and simply want to be in a bootcamp for the sake of being in a bootcamp.
-if you’re too lazy to work a little and participate in technical interviews mandatory for top coding bootcamps.

Why you shouldn’t go:

-If you want a strong, structured curriculum that has its focus on student-teacher commitment and student-student collaboration.
-if you want to go to a top bootcamp with established graduation rates and hiring rates.
-If you want to dive deep into concepts, rather than do them once.
-If you want a low student-to-teacher ratio.
-If you want quality instruction, daily lectures, and instructors who are actively committed towards your success.

If you are looking for the polar opposite in terms of an iOS bootcamp, I would recommend looking at Flatiron School’s iOS immersive. Although exponentially harder to get in to( 5% compared to TurnToTech’s accepts-nearly-everyone), students are also expected much more through a much more rigorous curriculum and a setting that has lectures, paired programming, and group projects.

April 20, 2016

I so completely disagree with this other reviewer that I thought I should share my own views. That kind of reads like an ad for the other bootcamp. I’ll speak about three things

Their instructors are great. Of the different things you need to consider when looking at a bootcamp, instructors should be first in your list. Talk to turn to tech’s instructors and discover for yourself. I found them extremely knowledgeable and easy to work with.

The curriculum is really well designed and in-depth. I can say that with confidence because their projects are quite closely related to things I do at my job. (I find it laughable that the guy in the review thinks the curriculum was put together quickly. My guess is that he never actually saw it) Their curriculum is super fine-tuned and in depth. The way it works is that you start with C coding (some of their problems are really tough, they don’t want you using libraries at all) and smaller projects, learn xcode, debugging etc. And then it gets in depth and projects get more difficult. There’s also a ton of reading which goes with the curriculum. What I really liked is the sequence of the assignments and the various things they want you to do in each. They make you do and undo things (intentionally) which teaches you why design patterns like MVC or DAO exist. Another thing I really loved is that they teach manual memory management and the instruments tool.

Their style of working gave me as much personal attention as I wanted and I never had this fear that if I was left behind that it was the end of the course. Sometimes I moved faster than others and sometimes slower. There was one week when I was having a tough time on the Core Data project so the instructors said we should spend another week on it. I was always explained everything and never felt like I was being rushed. Before internship started I thought I had it all figured out but internship was the real stuff where everything came together. Code was waay more complex. And the real use of github became clearer. In some areas we went way in depth like battery consumption when gps is on. By the way I also got plenty of support for my own app, they specially helped me with backend and the appstore submission process.

And I must say that their job support was great and they were super helpful and they are very well connected. Twice I used their assistance to get a job. They also helped me with mock interviews and they have great interview resources. As an example, I was very interested in working for a specific company and to their credit they got me an online coding challenge with that company.

Overall my experience at turn to tech was really great and I highly recommend Turn to tech.

June 23, 2016

I attended TurnToTech’s iOS bootcamp and had a great experience and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for an iOS bootcamp.

To start the story, I was really only interested in learning iOS development so after doing some research, it seemed that there were only 2 good options in the city. My interview experience with both schools could NOT have been MORE DIFFERENT. The other school had a very formal online application process and it took a while before I was able to speak to someone. They were very stiff and corporate and they seemed more interested in selling me their class than explaining how the program worked or introducing me to instructors or alumni.

When I first reached out to TurnToTech, I was immediately able to speak to a human being! He spoke to me for about 20 minutes on the phone and then suggested I come in to see the school and speak in person. When I went in, he spent about an hour with me and then introduced me to the lead instructor and the founder. I ended up being there for about 2 hours, but I was really psyched because I felt that they really listened to me; they really took their time to get to understand what type of student I was and how I learned best. There was a real “human” vibe here.

The assessment was actually 2 interviews. I had been practicing on my own only for a month and I asked for another week to study before I took my assessment test. This was an hour long meeting with the founder. He asked me questions and I had to write code as well. He said I could be a good fit but also told me that I was not ready yet. He pointed out that I had a few gaps in my coding knowledge and he recommended two more weeks of prep work. This wasn’t great because I wasn’t sure if I was going to get accepted but I studied some more and came back for the second interview and this time all went really well and I got started.

When they explained how their teaching style worked, I could immediately understand its value. They don’t expect that every student will move at the same rate and have designed their teaching around this idea. Most of their assignments come in the form of projects (except for their coding challenges). You need to finish all projects in 3 months but you can take longer on certain projects if you need to and less on others.

I also like that fact that they ONLY focused in mobile development. Few other things that I really liked about TurnToTech are their internship project, that I also got to attend for free their Swift classes in the evenings, hackathons, CS lectures and that I always got one on one time with instructors. They also helped me with my own app a lot. I was also a bit surprised initially that they even had former devs and CS grads as students but I guess mobile is a hot field and TurnToTech has a strong curriculum so it makes sense.

Another important thing is their alumni network. They are quite accessible and have been very helpful to me. I also got a lot of help on the interview side. There were mock interviews, resume reviews and I was introduced to several companies through their network.

It hasn’t been easy, I think I was putting in 70 hour weeks, but it has paid off really well and I’ve been enjoying my job as an iOS developer. I am quite happy that I chose to become a programmer and I am happy I chose TurnToTech.

July 11, 2016

Turn To Tech has great teachers and staff memebers. Their cuuricum is always changing and is a great place to learn the fundamnetals of IOS/Android development. Their teachers are extremly knowledgable and their curriculum is self-paced. This maximizes learning for students because they are to slow-down or speed-up depending on their needs. As more Turn To Tech grads attain jobs, their job process has become easier. It is a tight knit community of well-intentioned individuals. I enjoyed my experience there.

January 25, 2017