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, helping data scientists land great jobs through technical workshops and 1-on-1s. Check out my review of Magnimind.
- What does Magnimind do?
- Who is Magnimind for?
- What does Magnimind cost?
- Ratings and reviews of Magnimind
- Alternatives to Magnimind
- How does Magnimind compare to Pathrise?
What does Magnimind do?
Magnimind is a bootcamp that helps people learn the skills they need to get entry level data science jobs. They offer a flagship full-stack data bootcamp as well as short courses on specific data science topics. In addition, there is a separate mentoring program for students seeking extra support and project learning. While their bootcamps usually meet in-person at their Palo Alto campus, all courses are currently remote due to Covid-19.
Flagship data bootcamp
Their flagship data bootcamp runs for 15 weeks and requires about 15 hours of work per week. Live classes meet Monday-Wednesday from 6pm to 8pm and on Saturdays from 9am to 12pm. Students participate in live lectures, hands-on assignments, group projects, and 1-on-1 sessions with 2 different mentors. In addition to formal career services, students can connect with other mentees for unlimited peer interview practice.
The 15-week flagship bootcamp teaches students a comprehensive full stack of data science concepts and tools, including Python, SQL, machine learning, and NLP. The first 3 weeks focus on fundamental data and math skills like probability, statistics, linear algebra, and some basic data visualization. Students learn to retrieve, analyze, interpret, present, and organize data by working with Python and SQL. Likewise, the curriculum also covers coding topics like strings, booleans, lists, and dictionaries and databases that they use to model real data with common probability distributions.
The next 3 weeks of the curriculum teach students the fundamentals of machine learning, including clustering, classification, regression, ensembling, dimensionality reduction, and event cross-validation (to prevent overtraining). Then, weeks 8 and 9 focus on Natural Language Process (NLP) with the cloud. Moreover, students work hands-on with frameworks like NLTK, TextBlob, Gensim, SpaCy, Keras, and Tensorflow as they choose efficient ML algorithms for NLP.
Career services
Weeks 10-15 are reserved for career services. Students build polished data projects with mentors from startups, solving a real problem with their new data science skills. Students are encouraged to add this project to their portfolios and list the experience as an internship on their resumes. Mentors track each student’s progress, help them develop career goals, review their portfolios, and identify weaknesses.
In addition, students learn to write compelling resumes, craft cover letters, and participate in mock interviews through the program’s career services. Grads also get formal certificates they can add to their resumes and Linkedin profiles. In addition to organizing meetings with recruiters, Magnimind gives all grads access to their professional network of alumni.
Students seeking an even more hands-on experience with extra 1-on-1 support can enroll in Magnimind’s mentoring programs. There are 2 mentoring programs available: one focuses on machine learning projects while the other focuses on data science projects. Both last 7 weeks and require about 15 hours of work per week. Students work 1-on-1 with mentors from startups as they build portfolio projects based on the needs of top Silicon Valley companies. These mentoring programs feature all the same career services and job support as the full-stack bootcamp, only with a more project-based curriculum and less introductory material for beginners. Mentoring sessions usually take place outside of business hours and can even be scheduled as needed.
Mini bootcamps
Mini bootcamps are also available to learn more specific data topics. Students take a deep dive into machine learning, NLP, statistical modeling, neural networks, and machine learning with Apache Spark. Short mini bootcamps are also available for specific subjects like data analysis with Python, SQL, Python for machine learning, deep learning, blockchain, time series, machine learning with R, and even machine learning tactics for interviews. While many of these mini bootcamps cater to beginners, they can also be helpful for current data scientists looking to improve or refresh a specific skill. Mini bootcamps only have about 12 hours of content, with live classes meeting for a few hours over a handful of weekends.
Who is Magnimind for?
People with little to no experience in data science or data analytics who are looking to move into these careers could benefit from Magnimind’s courses. Their full-stack data science bootcamp is especially helpful for people seeking a hands-on, comprehensive program with mentoring opportunities. People seeking extra 1-on-1 support with less live instruction and more project work could be a good fit for the 7-week mentoring programs.
What does Magnimind cost? How much work is involved?
Tuition for their 7-week mentoring programs or the full-stack data science course is $2,500. Students can also pay in 4 installments of $625, although the first payment is due upon registration. Upfront payments come with a 20% discount, so students only pay $2,000. Students with low income can apply for a scholarship.
An income share agreement (ISA) is available to students outside of California so they only pay after they land a tech job. However, students who choose the ISA option pay a total of $6,000 in 12 monthly installments with their new income.
While their machine learning mini bootcamp is free, tuition for any other mini bootcamp is $300. People who register early only pay $250.
The admissions process begins with a brief online form. Candidates then have a behavioral interview that ensures the applicant’s background and goals match their chosen course. Interviews don’t feature coding challenges or technical questions. While some mini courses may require a little math or coding background, their mentoring programs and flagship bootcamp are designed for beginners. No prior tech experience is required.
Ratings and reviews
Magnimind has mostly positive reviews. They hold a 4.63/5 star rating on Course Report, where grads praise the accessible hands-on curriculum and personalized support. Their mini bootcamps were especially popular, with many aspiring data scientists turning to these short 12-hour courses to learn data fundamentals or brush up on their existing skills.
One grad raved that “the teacher has so much knowledge” and appreciated that his mentor had “answers to any questions in detail.” Students described live classes as “clear and concise” with lots of technical and career support. While a recent mini bootcamp grad had a “very good experience” overall, he was disappointed that “video recording link expired after about 1 week after the last session. It would have been helpful to go back and review/ get more practice.”
On Switchup, Magnimind is rated 4.91/5 stars. Students valued the “helpful” instructors and mentors who “explained the concepts very well.” Grads loved that projects simulate the corporate environment, empowering students to solve a real data problem with a mentor from a real tech company. A full-stack bootcamp grad liked that the curriculum was accessible to beginners, appreciating that their instructor “explained concepts in simple plain English” and “taught everything from basic and built on using scikit library” so students of all skill levels stayed engaged.
A student on Quora described the course as “clear and concise” and was convinced that the program could help “anybody in building their ML skills” regardless of experience. On the whole, most grads were satisfied with the hands-on data learning and dedicated instructors, though some mini bootcamp students would have preferred more time to practice the material.
Alternatives to Magnimind
If you decide not to enroll in a Magnimind course, there are many alternative bootcamps and resources that can help you land a job as a data analyst or data scientist.
- The popular bootcamp General Assembly has full-time, part-time, and 1-day courses on data science and other tech subjects. Their program features 1-on-1 mentoring, hands-on data projects, 19,000+ hiring partners, and a 91.4% job placement rate. Like Magnimind, their students can pay with an income share agreement (ISA). Read more about General Assembly in our review.
- Another well-known tech bootcamp, Thinkful teaches online courses in data science and other tech topics.
- Similarly, Springboard has tracks in data science and data analytics. If grads don’t land a job in 6-months, they get a full refund. Learn more about Springboard in our review.
- BrainStation, Noble Desktop, Georgia Tech Bootcamp, allWomen Academy, and Flatiron School are popular tech bootcamps with tracks in data science, web development, web design, marketing, and product management. Clarusway and Rutgers Bootcamps have online courses in web dev and data.
- The Menon Labs fellowship helps people learn the skills to become web developers, data scientists, and product managers.
- People interested in a self-paced program with 1-on-1 mentoring can look into Udacity. Some of their tech courses even come from top companies like IBM and Google. Learn more about Udacity in our review.
More alternatives
- People with some data science experience can look into Metis. Like Magnimind, they offer project-based data science courses with onsite and remote options. Learn more about Metis in our review.
- The online learning program Data Science Dream Job offers self-paced data science courses. Like Magnimind, their program includes portfolio building, 1-on-1 mentoring, and career assistance.
- Aspiring data scientists can also look into Divergence Academy or Principal Analytics Prep, data science programs offering full-time and part-time courses.
- The data science resource DataCamp hosts 300+ courses on data science subjects. Similar to Magnimind’s short mini bootcamps, DataCamp courses only last about 4 hours.
- Similarly, 365 Data Science is a low-cost and low commitment option to learn data fundamentals. In the same vein, FourthBrain has part-time, online machine learning courses.
- Kaggle hosts 19,000 public datasets and 200,000 public notebooks for aspiring data scientists who want to sharpen their data skills and build their portfolios. Their active community encourages collaboration and group project work, similar to Magnimind’s team projects.
- Other options are UC San Diego Bootcamps and GW Bootcamps, which have courses in data science and web dev.
- Women, GNC people, and trans people can check out CodeOp, which has courses in web dev, data, and product management.
- For students on a budget, Codecademy hosts free self-paced courses on data science and dozens of programming languages. They also have membership options ranging from $20 to $40 per month for greater course options and support. Learn more about Codecademy in our review.
- People seeking university courses can check out edX. Their popular online learning platform hosts university courses on data science from top schools and tech companies like Microsoft. Students can choose to learn the fundamentals or focus on specific topics, like front-end web development or data analytics. Learn more about edX in our review.
How does Magnimind compare to Pathrise?
Magnimind teaches people the skills they need to land a data science, machine learning, or data analytics job. While some mini bootcamps require some fundamental data skills, their flagship bootcamp and mentoring programs are designed for beginners. Pathrise fellows should already have some background in their chosen field to get the most out of our technical curriculum.
Our mentors assist with all phases of the job search, including resume and portfolio optimization, cold emailing and reverse recruiting, technical and behavioral interviewing, and negotiation so that they can be the best possible candidate and land a great job.
Like Magnimind, Pathrise offers an income share agreement (ISA) so fellows don’t pay anything until they land a job they love and start working. Our program is similarly flexible, with only 2-4 hours of group sessions and 1-on-1 mentoring sessions that can be scheduled as needed. Our experienced mentors have helped 1,000+ students and professional land great tech jobs.
Pathrise is a career accelerator that optimizes the job search through 1-on-1 mentorship and personalized training. Fellows in our program see their interview scores double and their application responses triple. If you are interested in working with one of our mentors to land your dream job, join Pathrise.
Apply today.
