General Assembly is a coding bootcamp that offers short and long courses in web development, product management, data science, and software engineering, and other subjects.
General Assembly is a leading computer science training resource. The course educates students in the skills they need to successfully transition into a career tech career. Students at General Assembly receive immersive instruction in both technical areas and career development, to help them prepare for a new career in tech.
In this General Assembly data science review, we’ll discuss the curriculum for the course, costs, outcomes, and other facts that you need to know about the program.
Curriculum
General Assembly’s full-time data science courses educate students in the technical and problem-solving skills that are in-demand by companies hiring data scientists. The curriculum for the course breaks down into five units, which are as follows:
- Fundamentals: At the start of the course, students learn a lot about essential data science tools and techniques, and how to work in a programming environment to gather, organize, and share projects. Students learn skills such as basic UNIX commands, Git, Matplotlib, and Seaborn, all of which are used frequently in data science.
- Exploratory Data Analysis: In the second unit of the course, students learn how to perform exploratory data analysis on a dataset. Students perform general, visual, and statistical analyses using Python programming and associated libraries to approach data science problems in fields such as public policy and finance. Students review statistical testing concepts, learn to scrape website data and design an experimental study in this module.
- Classical Statistical Modeling: In unit three, students explore effective study design and model evaluation and optimization. Students also learn how to collect and connect external data using web scraping and APIs, and how to implement linear and logistic regression and classification models.
- Machine Learning Models: In the fourth unit of General Assembly’s data science course, students start to build their own machine learning models. By the end of the module, students will know the differences between supervised and unsupervised learning via clustering, natural language processing, and neural networks.
- Advanced Topics and Trends: The final unit of the course features a deep-dive into several advanced data science topics. These include recommender systems, computer vision models, and neural networks.
At the end of each module, students complete a final project designed to reinforce their skills. For example, at the end of unit one, students use Python and NumPy, two skills covered in the unit, to answer questions based on a clean data set. Final projects, often called capstone projects, help students build their portfolios.
Career Support
General Assembly’s data science program isn’t just about helping you master technical skills: the program aims to help you find a data science job. Throughout the course, students work with a career coach who helps them create a path to their new career and navigate the challenges they face as they embark on the job search.
When a student graduates from General Assembly, they leave with a portfolio of projects which they can use to demonstrate their skills to hiring managers and recruiters. Student portfolios consist of exploratory data analyses and predictive models that showcase skills and demonstrate career readiness. General Assembly will help you put together this portfolio throughout the course, and teach you how to use it to help you find a job.
General Assembly provides students with an opportunity to prepare for interviews through mock interviews with staff members. Additionally, students have access to ongoing networking opportunities to connect with experts, employers, and potential collaborators, which can help when they’re looking for a job.
Locations
General Assembly’s data science course is offered in most of its campuses around the world.
Here are the cities where you can attend General Assembly’s data science bootcamp: Atlanta, GA; Austin, TX; Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; Dallas, TX; Denver, CO; Detroit, MI; Houston, TX; Los Angeles, CA; Miami, FL; Minneapolis, MN; New York City, NY; Orlando, FL; Phoenix, AZ; Providence, RI; Raleigh, SC; San Diego, CA; San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA; Stamford, CT; Washington, D.C.; Toronto, Canada; London, UK; Paris, France, Singapore, Asia; Melbourne, Australia; and Sydney, Australia.
The General Assembly data science bootcamp course is also available online.
Cost
General Assembly offers four methods of payment to students in its program: upfront payment, student loans, installments, and Income Share Agreements.
- Upfront: $15,500
- Installments: $5,317 in three installments.
- Loans: Financing as low as $450 / month through Climb or Meritize.
- Income Share Agreement: 10% of monthly income for 48 months. Students only make payments if and when they earn more than $40,000 per year, and payments stop when the 1.5x payment cap is reached, 48 payments are made, or 96 months pass after which point the ISA will be forgiven.
Eligibility for these payment options varies depending on the country in which you attend bootcamp. For example, General Assembly’s Income Share Agreement is only available to US-based students.
Additionally, prospective students who are women, or are in an underrepresented community in tech, may be eligible for a scholarship. General Assembly also accepts the G.I. Bill from veterans, military spouses, and children of veterans.
Outcomes
According to General Assembly’s student outcomes report for 2016/2017, 83%of students graduated from the school’s data science course, and 92% of students found a job within 180 days of graduating from bootcamp.
Admissions
The first step to becoming a student in General Assembly’s data science course is to submit a written application online. After applying, you’ll connect with an admissions rep who will determine if you’re a good fit for the course.
Next, you’ll have to complete an admissions assessment, which evaluates whether you’re ready for the rigorous program. Afterwards, you’ll receive an admissions decision from General Assembly. Keep in mind that the General Assembly acceptance rate is relatively low to make sure only motivated students join. A down payment is required if you’re accepted and decide to attend the course.
It’s also important to consider your schedule and decide if you can attend full-time, immersive courses or a part-time course. General Assembly’s Data Science Immersive program runs for 12 weeks and is ideal for students who can commit to a fast and intensive coding education.
Conclusion
If you’re thinking about pursuing a career in data science, General Assembly’s data science course may be a good training program to consider. If you’re looking for part-time courses and a non-immersive program to increase your data skill set, consider General Assembly’s data analytics course.
During the course, students learn all the practical skills they need to break into a career in data science, ranging from the basics of machine learning to analyzing datasets using Python. Students also benefit from General Assembly’s extensive hiring network and other support services while they transition into new tech careers.
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