Hi, I’m Elle! I work as a product designer at Getaround and as an industry mentor here at Pathrise, where I help our fellows land great jobs in product design through technical workshops and 1-on-1s. Check out my article where we compare Bloc vs General Assembly.
- Similarities and differences between Bloc vs General Assembly
- Courses offered on Bloc vs General Assembly
- Prices for Bloc vs General Assembly
- Ratings and reviews of Bloc vs General Assembly
- Alternatives to Bloc vs General Assembly
- How do Bloc vs General Assembly compare to Pathrise?
Similarities and differences between Bloc and General Assembly
Bloc and General Assembly are tech bootcamps with courses in design, web development, and other subjects.
Similarities
- People can enroll in UX design courses in both programs.
- Both tech bootcamps also provide online offerings.
- In addition, students receive 1-on-1 support from career coaches, who provide guidance on resume building, interview prep, and more.
- Bloc & General Assembly have courses in coding that teach topics such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, front & back-end development, APIs, React, and jQuery.
Differences
- Bloc only offers programs in web development and UX design.
- General Assembly has tracks in software engineering, UX design, data science, digital marketing, and product management.
- The courses offered by Bloc are online and take approximately 720-864 hours to complete. In addition, most students finish the self-paced curriculum in 8 months.
- With one-day, part-time, and full-time options, General Assembly offers a wide range of courses, such as 2-hour classes on HTML/CSS or 12-week software engineering bootcamps that meet Monday-Friday for 8 hours per day.
- Online courses are held live for General Assembly.
Courses offered by Bloc and General Assembly
Both Bloc and General Assembly offer courses for aspiring UX designers and web developers:
Bloc
- Designer Track
- Web Development Track
General Assembly
- Intro to Coding: HTML & CSS
- User Experience Design Immersive
- Intro to UX Design
- Introduction to User Research
- Design Thinking Bootcamp
Besides design and web dev courses, General Assembly also has offerings in software engineering, data science, digital marketing, and product management:
- Software Engineering Immersive
- SQL Training for Beginners
- Data Science Immersive
- E-commerce Workshop
- SEO for Beginners
- Product Manager Immersive
Prices for Bloc and General Assembly
At Bloc, the web dev and designer tracks cost $8,500 and $9,500 respectively. Those who pay upfront receive a $1,000 discount. Students are encouraged to finish the bootcamps in 8 months. Those who require an extension must pay an additional $1,200 per month.
Full tuition for General Assembly’s full-time bootcamps is $16,450. Students who pay upfront get a $450 bootcamp. Part-time courses cost $4,050 and students can choose to pay this upfront (with a $250 discount) or with loans. Discounts and scholarships are also available. Through our partnership with general assembly, you can get access to a series of exclusive program offerings, including $1500 off any of their bootcamps or short-courses. If you’re interested in launching a career in tech, schedule a call with the GA Admissions team and ask them for the free workshops, events and discounts.
General Assembly offers a wide variety of payment options. Probably their highest profile option is the “income share loan” (ISL) — this option allows full-time bootcamp students to pay once they land a job. Made possible via Edaid, students pay only $500 upfront. Then they pay nothing until they land a job paying at least $40,000.
A simpler option might be paying installments. General Assembly allows students to divide tuition into two, three, or four easy payments while in the program. Interest free loans are available as well via Climb. Students can choose to start paying immediately (over 18 or 24 months), or pay 12 months later over 36 months with $500 down payment. Students can also take out interest loans through Ascent, Climb, or Meritize. Students who pay via loans can choose to repay immediately, defer payments, or choose an interest-only option. Interest rates range from 6.5-15%, with terms from 3-5 years. While Launch Academy invites some of their hundred hiring partners to free networking events, General Assembly connects students with 19,000+ hiring partners including top tech companies like Facebook, Microsoft, and Google.
Ratings and reviews of Bloc and General Assembly
Both bootcamps receive mixed reviews.
Bloc grads were disappointed that they did not have a dedicated mentor or grader. They noted that staff changes occurred frequently, which made it difficult to accurately monitor their progress. Some people did not have enough time to complete the program in 8 months and needed to pay extra tuition. Others felt that the curriculum did not provide enough depth and said that they needed to supplement it with online learning tools, such as Codecademy.
Many General Assembly grads are successfully working in roles directly related to what they learned in their bootcamp. While some viewed the bootcamp favorably, others were frustrated with the speed of the curriculum and the instruction, with a few grads pointing out that many instructors were inexperienced. Self-starters and people who are willing to put in the work thrive at General Assembly.
Alternatives to Bloc and General Assembly
If you decide not to enroll in Bloc or General Assembly, there are quite a few bootcamps and online resources with courses in similar topics:
- If you are interested in taking classes through an online learning platform, check out Springboard or Udacity, both of which offer courses in design and a variety of other topics. Discover how Springboard and Udacity can help you advance your current tech skills in our program reviews.
- edX is one of the largest online learning platforms. They have courses from top universities like Harvard and MIT as well as big tech companies like Microsoft. Learn more about edX in our review.
- Similarly, Coursera, Pluralsight, egghead, and Simplilearn are online learning tools, with courses for furthering your knowledge in coding, design, and other topics.
- GrowthX Academy is an online bootcamp, with programs for people who are interested in UX design, as well as growth marketing, sales and business development.
- Aspiring UX designers and software engineers can check out Kenzie Academy, a full-time tech bootcamp that offers in-person and online courses. Learn more about Kenzie Academy in our review.
- If you’re interested in taking an online product design bootcamp that is self-guided or instructor led, consider DesignerUp. Read about DesignerUp in our program review.
- Another option for aspiring designers is Designlab, an online bootcamp that teaches the necessary skills to land a job as an entry-level UX designer. See if Designlab meets your needs by reading our program review.
- Or, they can look at Big Nerd Ranch, which covers web dev and design.
More alternatives
- For online bootcamps with web dev, UX design, and marketing tracks, check out Skillcrush, Helio Training, V School, and InternStreet.
- Tech bootcamps, BrainStation, Thinkful, Ironhack, allWomen Academy, GW Bootcamps, and Flatiron School offer programs in software engineering, data science, and other fields.
- People who are thinking about financing their software engineering bootcamp tuition through an income share agreement (ISA) can check out Lambda School and Holberton School.
- Students in the Fullstack Academy software engineering bootcamp can choose between full-time and part-time options, either on-campus or online.
- If you are looking for a self-paced, online software engineering or web dev bootcamp, Covalence is a possible alternative.
- Aspiring software engineers and web developers can also consider CodeX Academy, a self-paced coding bootcamp with mentorship opportunities. Learn more about CodeX Academy in our review.
- UX Pro Academy and Avocademy have courses for beginners as well as more experienced people.
How do Bloc and General Assembly compare to Pathrise?
Bloc and General Assembly are tech bootcamps that teach people the necessary skills to land jobs as web developers, UX designers, software engineers, and more. While Bloc and General Assembly teach courses for people with no tech experience, fellows in the Pathrise program should already have a background in their field of interest so that they can participate fully in our industry workshops, pair programming sessions, and 1-on-1s, which prepare students for the questions they will see in their technical interviews.
A full service organization, Pathrise helps people land the best job possible. Our mentors, who have years of experience on both sides of the hiring table, provide 1-on-1 assistance on every component of the job search. Besides placing a great deal of emphasis on technical interview preparation, we support job-seekers on resume & portfolio building, cold emailing & reverse recruiting strategies, behavioral interview preparation, salary negotiation, and more. Fellows learn skills that can benefit them in future job searches as well.
While we require fellows to have technical skills, we don’t necessarily require them to have job experience. You may benefit from completing a program like General Assembly first, then joining Pathrise to get placed at a job. To help you get the skills you need to join our program, we offer $1500 off any General Assembly bootcamps or short-courses, as well as other exclusive offerings to get you up to speed. Schedule a call with the GA Admissions team and ask them for the free workshops, events and discounts.
Pathrise is a career accelerator that works with students and professionals 1-on-1 so they can land their dream job in tech. With our tips and guidance, we’ve seen our fellows interview scores double.
If you are interested in working 1-on-1 with any of our mentors to optimize your job search, become a Pathrise fellow.
Apply today.
