Hi, I’m Olga! I have years of experience in data science, most recently at eBay. Now I work as an industry mentor at Pathrise. I help data scientists land a great role through technical workshops and 1-on-1s. Check out my article where I compare General Assembly vs Flatiron School.
Similarities and differences between General Assembly and Flatiron School
General Assembly and Flatiron School are tech bootcamps with courses in software engineering, data science, cybersecurity, and other subjects.
Similarities
- Both programs have campuses in big cities like New York City and San Francisco as well as online options.
- Students in both programs get 1-on-1 support from technical mentors and career coaches, working on resume writing, interview prep, and other job search skills.
- Both programs offer full-time, part-time, and even self-paced options.
- Students in both programs can finance their tuition with an income share agreement (ISA), so they pay with 10% of their income after they land a great tech job.
- Both claim job placement rates above 91%.
Differences
- General Assembly teaches a wider variety of tech topics including digital marketing and UX design.
- Flatiron grads can continue to meet with career coaches until they land a job.
- General Assembly also offers brief 60-hour and 1-day programs for people to get a taste of their program. Flatiron only offers full bootcamps and brief bootcamp prep courses.
- General Assembly also has brief courses on specific tech topics like Python basics, advanced WordPress, and social media strategy mapping. Flatiron courses are broader.
Courses offered by General Assembly and Flatiron School
Both General Assembly and Flatiron School offer courses on the following topics and more:
- Software engineering
- Data science
- JavaScript
- Cybersecurity
- Ruby
However, General Assembly teaches a wider variety of courses, including:
- Digital marketing
- UX design
- Content strategy
- Tableau
- Agile & Scrum
- Python
Prices for General Assembly and Flatiron School
Flatiron School’s on-campus programs cost $17,000 upfront. Live online courses cost $15,000 upfront while self-paced courses only cost $9,600 upfront. They offer a 10% income share agreement (ISA) so students can pay after they land a tech job paying at least $40k per year.
Free pre-bootcamp courses are also available, giving students a taste of software engineering and data science. Flatiron’s pre-bootcamp programs only last 75 hours. A 50-hour course on JavaScript fundamentals and a 30-hour course on Ruby basics are also available for free.
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. Just like Flatiron, full-time General Assembly students can pay with a percentage of their income. 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.
Although Flatiron and General Assembly offer both intensive and more flexible courses, Flatiron has a reputation for being a bit more demanding and fast-paced on average.
Ratings and reviews of General Assembly and Flatiron School
Flatiron School has received mostly positive reviews. Their program holds a 4.66/5 rating on Course Report and a 4.67/5 star overall rating on Switchup. One grad liked that the curriculum was practical and project-based, satisfied that “everything you are doing with your time is real, actual work” and that students “always work in a real dev environment.” Another student was impressed by the job support, appreciating that the career team “worked tirelessly to get us all in contact with companies” and that the job support team “coached us on interviewing, networking, salary negotiation.”
However, another grad was frustrated with the course support, warning that there were “zero code reviews” and the environment was “way too loud” to get work done. Although career services were in contact with students, the grad wished they had done a “better job with filtering the job leads” and would have preferred more relevant, specific job support. Although Flatiron claims a 93% job placement rate, their company was embroiled in a $375,000 settlement regarding misleading employment and salary numbers.
Like most bootcamps, the reviews for General Assembly are mixed but mostly positive. But, they are on the SwitchUp list of best bootcamps in 2020 and they have thousands of alumni. There are a lot of grads who have found success with General Assembly and are now working in roles directly related to what they learned in the course. You can see this on their outcomes report.
On CourseReport, students rated the school highly, but some students had issues with the speed of the curriculum as well as frustrations surrounding frequently changing and inexperienced instructors. The general consensus is that GA works best for self-starters who are motivated and willing to put in the work.
Alternatives to General Assembly and Flatiron School
If you decide not to enroll in General Assembly or Flatiron School, you might consider one of the alternatives listed below instead:
- Aspiring software engineers and UX designers 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.
- Students seeking income share agreements (ISA) can check out Lambda School and Holberton School. They both teach full stack web development, covering both front-end and back-end skills.
- The popular tech bootcamp BrainStation has tracks in web development, web design, data science, marketing, and product management. Like both General Assembly and Flatiron courses, BrainStation features project-based learning and 1-on-1 feedback for students.
- CodeX Academy teaches software engineering and web development basics. Their self-paced coding bootcamp is hands-on and even has mentorship opportunities. Learn more about CodeX Academy in our review.
- Some other popular software engineering bootcamps include Rithm School, Hack Reactor, Codesmith, and The Software Guild.
- You can also check out Bubble no-code bootcamps to learn how to make products without coding. Learn more about Bubble in our review.
- If you’re interested in taking an online product design bootcamp with self-guided and instructor led options, DesignerUp is a good option. They have 70+ video lessons plus interactive quizzes, worksheets, and opportunities for portfolio building and portfolio review. Read about DesignerUp in our program review.
More alternatives
- Aspiring designers can also look into Designlab, an online bootcamp that teaches the necessary skills to land an entry-level UX designer job. See if Designlab meets your needs by reading our program review.
- Similarly, Bloc teaches hands-on courses on web development and web design. Although their program is remote, Bloc emphasizes student support, with instructor feedback and weekly 1-on-1 mentorship meetings.
- The self-paced data science program Data Science Dream Job offers remote, flexible courses for aspiring data analysts and data scientists.
- Students with prior data experience can look into Metis. Their 12-week, immersive program is extremely hands-on with data projects students can add to their portfolios. Learn more about Metis in our review.
- Another remote and flexible tech bootcamp with 1-on-1 mentoring is Springboard. Students in their career tracks build 14 portfolio projects and participate in weekly meetings with experienced mentors. If students don’t land a great job within 6 months after graduating, they get a refund. Learn more about Springboard in our review.
- The tech bootcamp Thinkful includes 1-on-1 mentoring, too. Their hands-on bootcamp has tracks in software engineering, data science, and other tech fields. Students graduate with polished portfolio projects they can show off to employers.
- People seeking courses in digital marketing, sales, and UX design can look into GrowthX Academy. Their 8+ week program is fast-paced and includes 1-on-1 mentoring sessions.
Even more alternatives
- The online learning platform Udemy hosts 100k+ courses on both tech and humanities subjects. Students get lifetime access to any self-paced course they buy.
- Codecademy is one of the most popular coding programs online. They provide free courses on many different programming languages. They also offer membership options ranging from $20 to $40 per month for more course options and greater support. Learn more about Codecademy in our review.
- Coursera also hosts thousands of tech courses taught by professors from accredited universities. Their curriculum features hands-on assignments, video lectures, and community discussions.
- Similarly, edX is an online platform with thousands of courses from top universities like Harvard and MIT as well as big tech companies like Microsoft. Their courses cover a huge variety of tech and even humanities topics, including software engineering, web dev, digital marketing, and sales. Read more about edX in our program review.
- Another huge online learning platform is Udacity. They host free and paid courses on a wide variety of tech topics, including software engineering, data science, and UX design. Many of their courses come from top tech companies like IBM or Google. Students in their nanodegree programs get 1-on-1 mentoring with both a career coach and a technical mentor. Learn more about Udacity in our review.
How do General Assembly and Flatiron School compare to Pathrise?
Both General Assembly and Flatiron School are tech bootcamps with courses that teach people the necessary skills to land a job as a software engineer, data scientist, or cybersecurity professional. However, General Assembly teaches a wider variety of courses, including UX design, digital marketing, and more specific software skills. Most students in both programs start with no prior tech experience. At Pathrise, fellows should already have some background in their field of interest so that they can fully benefit from our industry workshops, pair programming sessions, and 1-on-1s, which can cover complex technical interview questions. We have tracks in software engineering, product design, data science, digital marketing, as well as product, strategy & ops.
A full service organization, Pathrise helps with all phases of the job search, including resume writing, crafting a LinkedIn profile, portfolio optimization, reverse recruiting and cold emailing, behavioral and technical interview prep, salary negotiation, and much more. Our mentors have experience on both sides of the hiring table and have already helped over 1,000 people land great tech jobs.
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.
Both Flatiron School and General Assembly have income share agreements (ISA) that require a percentage of graduate income. The Pathrise income share agreement (ISA) is only 5-9%. On average, grads in our program land jobs in just 3-5 months. Our program is also flexible, with only 2-4 hours of group sessions per week and 1-on-1 sessions that can be scheduled as needed.
Pathrise is a career accelerator that helps students and professionals land their dream job in tech. With our tips and guidance, fellows have seen their interview scores double and their application response rates triple. 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.
