Horizons School of Technology

I joined Horizons without a technical background and not really knowing what applying for technical jobs entailed. A couple months in Horizons changed all that and gave me a whole new perspective on what it was like to be in the industry.

Horizons starts off with the basics and ramps everyone up to a comparable skill level through detailed tailored courses. The TAs during the program were also an invaluable resource and guided students along masterfully during this period of time. 

Being located in tech central also means that you are able to tap into Horizons' deep network in the area and be fully immersed in the tech culture and understand the inner workings of different firms. The founders are also incredibly helpful in looking at resumes and making sure every student knows how to present themselves in this increasingly competitive environment.

Most importantly, the post Horizons experience has been incredible as well, with many lifelong friends made during the program and an ability to connect with alumni as well. It has been an incredibly useful resource and an amazing social network.

Oh man, I could write a whole novel about how much I loved my experience.

Horizons has given me the tools to grow my skills and passion for technology and entrepreneurship in a way that I never anticipated.

The summer of learning cutting-edge web/mobile dev, networking with amazing companies and fellow Horizonites, and bonding in a community of amazing students with like-minded interests (who have also gone on to intern at the best tech companies because of Horizons) gave me a solid leg-up in my tech career. 

Because of the amazing things you build (replicas of Facebook, Yelp, Trello, are just among a few of the projects you build each week) and the extremely talented and brilliant instructors, you'll come out of this school feeling like you learned more in 2 months than you've ever learned in college.

Seriously, once I started recruiting for a software engineering internship, I realized that because of Horizons, I not only was getting way more interest from companies than my peers, but also I was much more prepared for the technical interviews. It was in large part because of what I learned and built at Horizons that I have now gone on as a software engineering summer intern at a Fortune 500 company and have also transferred from my liberal arts college to Northwestern's engineering school for CS.

Mainly, the network you build for both life and entrepreneurial ventures is invaluable. I have met lifelong friends and potential startup co-founders and out in the tech world at recruiting events, I have realized that Horizons alumni look out for one another and are proud of their shared experience at Horizons.

Also, the co-founders Abhi and Darwish are some of the kindest and most caring people I have ever met. Abhi has mentored me continuously (whenever I reach out to him, he always finds time to talk with me), and I have even asked him to my school to give a talk because he has so much to offer in terms of solid career advice. Abhi and Darwish are very good people who work very hard (they're always the last to leave the building because they're so dedicated to Horizons), and how they manage to maintain mentoring Horizonites while simulatenously keeping Horizons so efficient and productive is beyond me.

This has truly been a cornerstone experience of my life and education, and I can't recommend Horizons highly enough to anyone who is interested in entrepreneuship, learning web/mobile dev, or just want to stand out and get a leg up on technical internships/jobs.

Definitely apply - you seriously won't regret it. 

At the university, you can gain a lot of knowledge but not much practice. 
As a student of computer science and neuroscience, I learn a lot of theory but don't gain any practical experience. 

The summer at Horizons allowed me to get relevant experience, meet top students in the country and make a lot of enthusiastic friends. Horizons is much more than just learning how to code. It allows you to build the right connection for the entrepreneurship world. 

I would highly recommend anyone interested in tech field or product management to take a summer at Horizons.

Before Horizons, I was a typical business student with an interest in tech. Horizons transformed me into a leader with a strong grasp on technology and a powerful network. There are 3 key advantages I gained from Horizons: Skills, Network and Mindset.

Skills:

At Horizons I developed a strong competency in web development with JavaScript, and walked away with the ability to code my ideas into reality. I went from never writing a line of code in my life to developing software solutions for start-ups and winning Asia’s biggest student led hackathon HackUST.

Network:

Beyond the valuable skills I learned, I developed an extraordinary network of friends and mentors. In addition to meeting peers who now work for the top companies in the world, I met lifelong friends who provide me with constant support and encouragement.

Mindset:

Horizons helped me unlock my true potential. Before the program, top tier jobs and internships didn’t seem to be in reach. Now, and in large part due to the support of Horizons colleagues, I am interning at McKinsey & Co, one of the most highly sought after internships in business. Being  surrounded by the best students from around the world at Horizons helped me reach beyond what I thought possible.

Feel free to reach out to me at anytime if you have any questions about this amazing program:

https://ca.linkedin.com/in/maxwellnicholson

When the engineering department at SMU sent out an email to its students about the Horizons’ fellowship opportunity, I was intrigued. For me, learning how to develop mobile apps has been a lifelong dream of mine. However, two years into college and I still had no clue how to do it.  I knew that I wanted more and perhaps I could find it at Horizons. After establishing that they would accept a 15 year old college student (if I could pass the test, etc), I decided to go for it! I am very pleased that I did. Horizons has truly been one of the best experiences of my life! Not only were my CS abilities elevated but they were raised to an entirely different level.  They taught us how to find the resources needed in order build whatever we desired. Although the knowledge we gained was superior to any other courses I have taken, the relationships I attained are really what I loved.  The people were great from the founders, TA’s and my co-fellows. Everyone at Horizons was not only very intelligent, but they all had an interest in what they were learning. Being in this environment really pushed me to surpass my limits and accomplish things I did not know I could do.  And they were fun too!

The connections made at horizons extended beyond the classroom.  They brought in young successful entrepreneurs who specialized in some of today's hottest topics: machine learning, social media, etc.  After they spoke, we were given the chance to speak with them one on one.  Getting their insight may have been one of the best components of Horizons and the speakers’ words still hold a lot of value to me.

Participating in the summer Horizons program was an incredibly rewarding experience, both in terms of personal growth and career development. First and foremost, the instructors provide a challenging and practical education in software development that I believe is a great supplement to or replacement for a traditional university CS degree. Most if not all of the other reviews will express the same sentiment. Additionally (and more meaningfully to my career path), Horizons gives students a broader perspective on technology, entrepreneurship, and the startup ecosystem. The impressive lineup of speakers offers inspiration and advice to those students looking to enter the tech industry. While I chose not to pursue a job in software development, I was motivated by my experience to consider a career in software investing. The Horizons team was incredibly helpful in offering connections and advice for the job search process. I'm now happily employed at a software-focused venture capital and growth equity firm. Whether you're interested in refining and expanding your software development skillset or exploring the tech industry in a broader sense, Horizons is an incredibly valuable experience that I would highly recommend. 

*Warning: this review is pretty (very) long-winded, so brace yourself

The summer of 2017, right before my senior year of high school, I decided to take a leap of faith and jump on the Horizons bandwagon. For the first time, the program was opening its doors to high schoolers, so that in and of itself made my experience quite unique. Perhaps that also makes me uniquely qualified to address my fellow high schoolers, who may or may not be considering Horizons as a summer option too.

First of all, as a general statement for anyone and everyone: this program was definitely well worth the time and money. Despite coming in with some familiarity with programming, I still learned a great deal about web development and always felt inspired, challenged, and ravenous for more, all the way from nine in the morning to six in the afternoon. The exercises involved not only plenty of critical thinking but also creative problem-solving, meaning you and someone sitting right across from you could very well have completely different solutions by the end of the day.

My favorite exercises? Our personalized spin offs of popular web-based applications like Amazon and Trello (Homazon and Horello respectively, in Horizons-like fashion). A Horizons Facebook in which everyone in the classroom posted celebratory and/or troll comments, crowing that their Facebook code had finally worked. Minimalist iPhone applications that we could test out on our personal phones. The list goes on.

As for the instructors, they explained abstract concepts so thoroughly, with the help of examples in CodePen and fiddling around in the command line and JavaScript console in Google Chrome, that I quickly grasped the material. Throughout the day, occasional review sessions held by TAs, along with focused discussion with my classmates, only cemented that confidence.

Being one of seven high schoolers in a cohort of fifty college students, which ran concurrently with a cohort of perhaps two-hundred college students, I (remarkably enough) never felt singled out for my age or shortage of technological/algorithmic savvy. I don’t think my classmates even knew I was a high schooler unless I explicitly told them, which made collaborating with them easier and elevated my personal standards and level of diligence. Knowing my classmates hailed from Princeton, Berkeley, Northwestern, and the like pushed me to ask them questions about college life and made me seriously consider majoring in computer science.

Another major contributor in my growing interest for computer science as a potential career was, of course, Silicon Valley itself. Daily, my walk to and from class inundated me with the sights and sounds of casually dressed employees on their way to work, high rise buildings towering above, and familiar tech companies I’d never thought I’d see in person. Every morning, strolling past Twitter’s headquarters on the way to class renewed my sense of awe and admiration. Over the course of my time at Horizons, I even had the fortune to not only visit but also enter the headquarters of Twitch, Quizlet, and Stripe, which allowed me to witness startup culture for myself. In the end, the bustle of inspiring people in and around Horizons made me wonder what it’d be like to be among their ranks, further motivating me to learn as much as I could.

My in-class bootcamp experience actually peaked towards the end of my seven weeks there, when all of us high schoolers divided up into two groups and had a culminating project: creating a website or phone application of our choice. We pooled our accumulated knowledge and applied it to useful and interesting end products, which we proudly pitched to our classmates and instructors. My partner and I ultimately created an app for tracking service hours, complete with place autocomplete and electronic signature. All in all, Horizons gave me the power to turn my imagination into functional solutions for real-world problems, a power my high school could never have given me, whether due to a lack of resources or lack of faith in my young age and inexperience.

While I have nothing but glowing praise for the curriculum, instructors, environment, and overall learning journey at Horizons, I do wish other aspects of the program were done differently. This first point is a no-brainer, but Horizons comes with a relatively hefty price tag, especially for high schoolers. Even with my $1000 scholarship, my parents still paid $8000 (not including housing, food, and travel), four-fifths of my college counterparts’ tuitions for five weeks less of content.

I remember talking to one of my college classmates, who was complaining to me that her Ivy League school only paid for maybe half of her tuition. I also remember thinking, regretfully, that my not-so-well-supported high school would not have shelled out upwards of four or five thousand dollars to finance my summer pursuits. So although I love the initiative to start computer science young, I hope Horizons can in the future make it more affordable and accessible for passionate high schoolers such as myself.

Secondly: food. I think my parents paid approximately $800 for my meal plan, which covered breakfast and lunch. For breakfast, an underwhelming smoothie capsule of ice, spinach, assorted frozen fruit, and oats, which you had to blend yourself in the morning before class (sometimes, latecomers even started the blenders during a morning lecture). For lunch, a healthy but cold lunch that you had to microwave yourself, which I never did since two cohorts shared one microwave per classroom for two classrooms. Owing to the fact that the delivery man always laid out the lunches on the table for meal plan students to take, some students who were not on the meal plan decided to help themselves as well. Consequently, I passed most of the summer in envy of the non-meal-plan students, especially those who simply hopped over to the nearby Costco for lunch. Then again, I don’t know what I expected in terms of food from a coding bootcamp.

Turning from student life to the classroom, I would like to underscore that finding TA assistance, let alone instructor assistance, could be really difficult. The instructors set up a queuing system in Slack for requesting help, but the bot sometimes kicked you back several places for no reason. Or people simply raised their hands for help, effectively cutting the Slack queue. Or when you finally reached the front of the queue and a TA finally responded to your SOS perhaps ten minutes later, they couldn’t work their magic on your buggy code and had to consult their own code (aka the solution). In my case, one of my TAs was a high schooler who, when randomly assigned to me, would only ever scratch his head, squint at my screen, and eventually call someone else over to aid me. Needless to say, asking for TA/instructor help was at times more burdensome than helpful.

My last observation concerns the speaker series, one of the supposed highlights of the Horizons experience. Nonetheless, I remember little, if not nothing, of what my speakers talked about. The only speaker I did enjoy and do remember was the only female one, Payal Kadakia, the founder of ClassPass, who painted a vibrant picture of her rise to success and infused her presentation with the most personality. If the speaker series aims to broaden students’ horizons (no pun intended) and give them perspective, as the Horizons website states, it is critical to include more gender diversity in that perspective, especially given the gender gap in tech.

Though Horizons inevitably has room for improvement, I would not hesitate to do it again, from the fast-paced and comprehensive curriculum, to the enthusiastic and knowledgeable instructors, to the challenge and freedom of exercises/mini-projects, to the inspiring and refreshing atmosphere of Silicon Valley. Thanks in large part to the valuable lifelong lessons I took away from this bootcamp, I am now on my way to Cornell Engineering in the fall, excited to continue what I started at Horizons.

Horzions School of Technology is similar to many "summer"/semester programs. The results gained are a lot on you. What differs comes from the potential.

Horizons does a great job with how they work with you on a personal basis. Each person is unique and their program is shaped on their own, but the basic mold provided by them is already so advanced. The education is strong for people experienced in web development and those who've never coded in their lives. Though, the difficulty may change.

Along with the amazing education, indivudals get to meet amazing peers. Half the experience is the city and people. Currently, they could build an entire campus if they move to a cheaper location, but they understand the value of being in the center of SF. They've made much of the experience through their learning process as a company. 

I can't say enough great things about the whole company and program.

The title says it all. Horizons was the best three months I have had and will be for a while. Horizons may be a coding bootcamp and you may go with the intention of learning how to be a full stack developer. But the coolest part about Horizons is, it will give you way more than that. It will teach you the most important skill one can posses as a coder. It will teach you "how to learn". It will give you so much confidence, that your learning will not be restricted to what you do in those 12 weeks, but it will go beyond that. Right from the way they have structured the course, to the environment they create, everything will  accelerate your career in tech and is bound to give you a jump start amongst your peers. Web dev will be at your fingertips, and you will not believe the rate at which you will grow and learn in those three months. It's truly life changing and it will be one of the best experiences you will have. 

I did Horizons last summer and found it to be well worth the investment. I had concerns before the program started about what could be learned in three short months, whether I’d enjoy myself during the program, and whether the skills I’d learn would be worth the cost.

First, I was very surprised about how effectively put together the curriculum was and how quickly we could learn new material. Although I like to think of myself as someone who is motivated to learn on my own, I have to admit that the environment at Horizons pushed me far past the rate at which I would have learned this material on my own. I learned an incredible amount in an incredibly short period of time, and for the most part have maintained and built upon all of this knowledge because I use it daily still. A few months after the program, I watched a youtube video on what web dev technologies someone should know to be relevant in 2018, and I was surprised and pleased to see that Horizons had taught us every single one of these skills. It is impressive how the structure of the program allows such rapid learning.

Second, I was surprised how much fun I had. The grind was definitely real, but it felt far more meaningful and fulfilling than school - simply because it was practical and exactly what I wanted to and needed to know to be able to build cool products. I met some of my best friends in the program and we are still working on projects together. The teachers and founders are incredibly kind and well connected and can really help you if you spend time connecting with them.

Finally, I’ve decided that Horizons was more than worth the cost. Keep in mind that the cost of the program is generally a fraction of what you pay for a year of college, and in my case has been far more helpful for my personal and career development than school has been. With the skills from the program, I launched a fitness startup (which failed quickly lol) and have almost made up the cost of the program doing freelance work part-time. I’m taking a year off from school to travel and freelance, and that would not have been a possibility for me if it weren’t for Horizons. I have heard people who have completed the program that have said it wasn’t worth the cost and they could learn all of it on their own. But I would argue 1) these are the people who aren’t using their skills anymore; obviously it’s not worth if you aren’t going to continue coding. 2) you may be able to learn all this on your own but its doubtful you’d do it as quickly without the motivation and excellent teachers at this program.

I spent the summer in San Francisco learning at Horizons and I am still amazed at what an incredible experience it was! I learned practical skills at a rate that vastly outpaced that of my CS classes at UW-Madison. In addition to this, these were skills that could be immediately applied, unlike some of the non-practical skills that college CS programs require you to spend time on. Another thing that shocked me was how well Horizons instructers were able to teach students who had never programmed before. There were plenty of Business and Economics students who were able to solve complex problems and build the front-end and back-ends of applications all by themselves or with teams easily in a matter of weeks. When someone got stuck, there were a wide variety of teachers who were happy to help and that could each explain a concept in a different/unique way that was fitted to the student's needs. They truly cared and loved helping students learn. Some instuctors even took time out of their weekends to go over more theoretical concepts or advanced applications with students who weren't needing review sessions (which were also offered for those who needed it). Finally and perhaps most importantly, I gained an immense amount of future work and business connections. I spent plenty of time interacting with succesful engineers and founders of companies, asking plenty of questions and gaining great advice. These people gave me their emails and phone numbers which is truly invaluable. In addition to all of this, the founders of Horizons have done a spectacular job helping alumni find jobs and get advice. Horizons is truly a unique and remarkable experience that is far better than any alternative.