I graduated from the NYC Data Science Academy in September 2019. Though I lived in Austin, TX – home of many data science schools -, after vetting the success of past graduates and the credentials of the instructors at the Academy, I made the decision to temporarily move to New York to attend this school.
The requirements and coursework was very intimidating, but certainly appropriate given the requirements to be an effective data scientist. The typical student spent at least 12 hours a day at the classroom to meet homework and project deadlines, but those hours were well-spent. Even though the difficulty in the material ramped up, the quality of the students’ projects and in-class discussions definitely became much more substantive and impressive. The devotion of the students definitely rubbed off on each other, but the expertise of the instructors definitely helped foster that growth as well. It is also worth mentioning that the close alumni network also played a part in student growth.
Beyond the hard skills learned (Git, Docker, SQL, Python, R, ML, etc ), the program required a lot of soft-skill development as well. Between developing effective presentation skills for our projects, and collaborating with our peers, teaching assistants and instructors, you truly learn what it means to become a data scientist amongst data scientists.
It is also worth mentioning that they play a big role in your professional development as well. They devote a lot of time to your resume building, interview preparation, and student networking, and, personally, I found the alumni presentations they prepared were some of the most insightful presentations I’ve had.
If you are serious about becoming a data scientist, you go to this school.
