Noble Desktop vs. General Assembly: Prices, topics, and details

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 article where I compare Noble Desktop vs General Assembly.

Similarities and differences between Noble Desktop vs General Assembly
Topics offered on Noble Desktop vs General Assembly
Prices for Noble Desktop vs General Assembly
Ratings and reviews of Noble Desktop vs General Assembly
Alternatives to Noble Desktop vs General Assembly
How do Noble Desktop and General Assembly compare to Pathrise?

Similarities and differences between Noble Desktop and General Assembly

Noble Desktop and General Assembly both offer courses in web development, software engineering, design, data analytics, digital marketing, machine learning, and more.

Similarities

Students can take their courses online or in-person at their New York City campuses. Both online programs feature live learning over Zoom with small class sizes.
Grads get formal certificates they can add to their resumes and Linkedin profiles.
Both programs are hands-on, with individual and group projects that can be added to student portfolios.
Students who enroll in General Assembly’s full-time bootcamps and Noble Desktop’s certificate courses participate in 1-on-1 mentoring sessions with industry experts. Mentors review student portfolios, optimize Linkedin profiles, help craft resumes, answer specific technical questions, and help students set career goals.

Differences

General Assembly has far more extensive career services. While both programs offer mentoring, Noble Desktop has no formal job support and students only get 4+ mentoring sessions. General Assembly’s program features weekly mentoring meetings, 19,000+ hiring partners, and a 91.4% job placement rate.
Noble Desktop’s individual certificate courses only last about 30 to 150+ hours. General Assembly can be more intense. Their full-time bootcamps run for 12 weeks and meet on weekdays for 8 hours.
Noble Desktop courses are open to anyone with no formal admission process. General Assembly requires candidates to fill out an online application, complete a behavioral interview, and even take a technical challenge to get into their more immersive bootcamps.
General Assembly students can defer making tuition payments through an ISA (income share agreement) so they pay 10% of their income for 48 months after they land a tech job.

Topics offered by Noble Desktop and General Assembly

Both Noble Desktop and General Assembly offer courses that cover the following topics and much more:

UX design
Digital marketing
Data science
Front-end web development
Visual design
Business
Data analytics
Machine learning
Software engineering
Python
Ruby on Rails
React

However, General Assembly also teaches courses on the following topics:

Product management
Career development

Noble Desktop’s shorter bootcamps also take a deeper dive into topics such as:

Financial tech
Project management
WordPress

Prices for Noble Desktop and General Assembly

Tuition for Noble Desktop’s hands-on certificate courses range from $1,949 to $5,490. Students can pay upfront, in interest-free installments, or with a 0% interest Climb Credit loan with payments spread over 12 months. However, all certificate courses require students to pay 10% of full tuition upfront to secure their seat.

Live bootcamps are usually shorter and cheaper than certificate courses, ranging from $325 to $2,995. Tuition is due upfront and grads do not get a formal certification. While certification courses are more comprehensive and designed for beginners, their shorter bootcamps focus on more specific tech topics and can require prior experience. For example, students in more advanced design bootcamps should be familiar with popular design tools like Sketch. Coding bootcamps may require at least some experience with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, NumPy, Pandas, and other coding fundamentals.Some business bootcamps may require project management experience and technical Excel skills like like using VLOOKUP, Pivot Tables, and IF statements.

To keep prices low, Noble Desktop almost exclusively teaches technical skills with no formal career services or job search training. However, students in certificate courses get 4 free mentoring sessions where they can get their portfolio reviewed, optimize their Linkedin profile, craft a resume, ask questions, and set career goals. Students can also retake their course within 1 year for free.

On the other hand, General Assembly offers part-time, full-time, and self-paced bootcamps, plus short events and workshops. Students can take courses online or learn in person at 30+ campuses, including New York City. While some events and workshops are free, others can cost up to $250.

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 Noble Desktop and General Assembly

Online reviews of Noble Desktop are generally positive. The program holds a perfect 5/5 star rating on CourseReport, where students praised the curriculum, hands-on learning, and dedicated instructors. One web dev student described the instructors as “top notch” and “approachable”, appreciating that they were willing to “explain an exercise step by step.” He also “found the hands-on approach very effective” and felt the curriculum did a great job keeping students “engaged in what you’re learning.”

Noble Desktop also holds a 4.92/5 star rating on Switchup. One marketing grad described the instructors as “organized and knowledgeable” with “great energy” that helped keep her engaged during online classes. Although she “learned a lot” and loved that the curriculum was “well structured”, she only rated the job support 3/5 stars. Another student also raved about the “great teaching staff” who were “there to help you work through” any challenge, but he still felt the course could be a “whirlwind” with “dense coursework.” He only gave job support 2/5 stars.

Students on Yelp liked that the program was both accessible for beginners and helpful for more advanced students, even in the more generalized certificate courses. One reviewer commented that “every instructor at Noble Desktop does an excellent job at teaching beginners how to use a program” and helping “more advanced students learn even more tricks.” Overall, most grads were satisfied with the comprehensive curriculum, hands-on learning, and formal certificates, although some would have liked formal career services to go with them.

General Assembly has received similarly positive reviews. They hold a 4.27/5 star rating on Switchup, where grads rave about the project-based curriculum, personalized support, and career services. A recent online grad liked that their product management course featured “a high number of exercises in small groups and opportunities for group discussions.” The grad also valued the small class sizes, commenting that “the number of instructors allowed them to support us during the exercises in small groups directly.

The program also holds a 4.28/5 star rating on Course Report. While one data analytics grad was kept engaged by the curriculum and hands-on assignments, they still felt “you have to be a total beginner” to really benefit from the bootcamp. General Assembly reviews often describe the program as “fast paced”, “intense”, and “breakneck”, but most grads “loved the staff” for helping them through the challenging curriculum. Many students attributed the high graduation rate to personalized support from instructors.

Mentoring went over especially well on Career Karma, where the instructors hold a perfect 100/100 score. Students appreciated that “instructors are available outside of class time” and were eager to answer questions on just about anything. On the whole, most grads seem satisfied with General Assembly’s engaging classes, supportive instructor team, and project-based curriculum. The extensive career services and 91.4% job placement certainly didn’t hurt either.

Alternatives to Noble Desktop and General Assembly

If you decide not to enroll in Noble Desktop or General Assembly, 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. Their program teaches both technical skills and soft skills students can use to launch their careers. If grads don’t land a job in 6 months, they get a full refund. Read more about Kenzie Academy in our review.
The popular tech bootcamp BrainStation has tracks in web development, web design, data science, marketing, and product management. Like General Assembly, BrainStation has a project-based curriculum and a high job placement rate above 90%. Students can learn online or in-person at campuses in big cities like New York.
Similarly, Thinkful is an online tech bootcamp with both full-time and part-time courses in UX design, product management, and other tech topics. Like General Assembly, students can use an income sharing agreement (ISA) to defer payment until after they find a job. Their program features 1-on-1 mentorship and lots of projects grads can add to their professional portfolios.
Aspiring UX designers, digital marketers, and SaaS professionals can look into GrowthX Academy. Their 8+ week bootcamp is fast-paced and hands-on, featuring assignments, quizzes, and 1-on-1 mentoring. Learn more about GrowthX Academy in our program review.
Springboard is another online learning program that teaches software engineering, machine learning, data analytics, and other subjects. Students in their career tracks build 14 portfolio projects and meet weekly with experienced mentors. They also offer a 6-month job guarantee. Read more about Springboard in our review.
The self-paced online bootcamp CodeX Academy helps aspiring software engineers and web developers launch a new career. Like General Assembly, they offer an income share agreement (ISA) so grads don’t pay until they land a job. Learn more about CodeX Academy in our review.
Aspiring software engineers can also look into Lambda School, Holberton School, and Rithm School. Students in these software bootcamps can defer payments with an income share agreement (ISA).
People with some previous data experience can consider Metis. This fast-paced data bootcamp is hands-on, giving students opportunities to build polished data portfolios. Students also get certificates they can add to their Linkedin profiles. Learn more about Metis in our review.
The remote, self-paced program Data Science Dream Job offers flexible courses to aspiring data scientists and data analysts. Their full program includes technical workshops, live classes, mentoring, resume templates, and even a job guarantee.
Aspiring UX designers seeking a remote program can look into DesignerUp. They have both instructor-led and self-paced UX options, with 70+ video lessons with quizzes, worksheets, portfolio building opportunities, and even portfolio reviews. Learn more about DesignerUp in our review.
The online UX bootcamp Designlab teaches students the skills they need to land an entry level UX design job. Students in their program build 4+ portfolio projects while working with a mentor. Not only do students get job support after they graduate, but they also get a job guarantee. If grads don’t land a job in 6 months, they get a full refund. Read more about Designlab in our program review.
Bloc is another online web design and development bootcamp that features a hands-on curriculum and weekly mentoring meetings.
Another popular online learning platform is Udacity. They offer both free and paid courses on a wide variety of tech topics, including software engineering, data science, and UX design. 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.
The online learning platforms Coursera, Pluralsight, and Simplilearn also have hundreds of self-paced tech courses.
Students seeking university courses can look into edX. This online platform offers thousands of courses from top universities like MIT and Harvard 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. Find out if edX fits your career goals in our program review.
Finally, 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.

How do Noble Desktop and General Assembly compare to Pathrise?

Noble Desktop and General Assembly both offer courses that teach people the necessary skills to land a job as a software engineer, data scientist, digital marketer, web developer, or designer, though only General Assembly has courses for aspiring product managers. While some Noble Desktop bootcamps are designed for students with some experience and General Assembly’s courses require a technical challenge, most of their students start with no experience. Pathrise fellows should have some background in their chosen field to fully benefit from our industry workshops and 1-on-1 sessions. We have tracks in software engineering, product design, data science, digital marketing, and product, strategy & ops.

Pathrise is a career accelerator that helps people land their dream job in tech. Fellows in our program work 1-on-1 with an experienced mentor on all phases of the job search, including resume writing, portfolio building, cold emailing & reverse recruiting strategies, behavioral interview preparation, salary negotiation, and more. In addition to as-needed mentoring sessions, our flexible 2-4 hour group sessions prepare fellows to ace technical interviews. Fellows in our program have seen their interview scores double and their application responses triple, landing a job in just 3-5 months on average.

Noble Desktop requires payment upfront or in monthly installments. Full-time General Assembly students can choose to defer payment with an ISA, but when they do land a job they’ll owe 10% of their income for 48 months. Pathrise’s ISA is just 9% of the first year’s salary. We never require upfront payments or deposits.

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. Our mentors have experience on both sides of the hiring table and have already helped 1,000+ people land great tech jobs. If you are interested in working with any of our mentors to optimize your job search, become a Pathrise fellow.