Disclaimer: I am a student at General Assembly WDI in Santa Monica, and I am also looking to go to Hack Reactor in San Francisco when this is completed. I tota

Disclaimer: I am a student at General Assembly WDI in Santa Monica, and I am also looking to go to Hack Reactor in San Francisco when this is completed. I totally agree you DO NOT need to go to these programs. Everything that they teach is definitely out there for you to learn on your own. I started to get interested in this stuff last year working on a start-up/project and I like these schools for a couple reasons; 1. I get access to instructors. Because I am a "noob" I get flustered when I spend 2-3 hours looking for an answer. 65% of the time, Stackoverflow has the answer. But for the other 35% that needs an in depth examination, having an instructor 10 feet away from me for 9 hours a day is incredible. 2. Employer confidence. I believe the best way to get fucking good at this "craft/trade" if you will, is to be gainfully employed where you get paid to spend in excess of 40 hours a week working on your craft. There is no doubt you can get a job without these programs by teaching yourself, building some shit, making a nice github and applying for entry level/intern level dev jobs. But employers like seeing you came from these programs. It's a "stamp of approval" if you will. Companies take a chance on hiring junior devs, and these programs offer some piece of mind being "hey, this person was good enough to get in this program, and has spent 12 weeks being trained by these other qualified people". 3. Network. I have had the absolute pleasure of meeting 20 other incredibly smart, driven, talented, and fun people. I get to be surrounded, pushed, and inspired by these people everyday 5 days a week, 9-12 hours a day, for 12 weeks. 4. Teaching you how to learn. This is huge for me. People on the outside seem to say that these programs make people "one trick ponies" who only know how to do some rails CRUD app. But that is really not true. The biggest thing with this program (and others) is it teaches you how to learn this stuff. Rails will be gone in a couple years replaced by something new. All this shit is always changing; it's our job as web devs to stay on top of it, and adapt to survive. Skills like asking the right questions, reading documentation, where to go when you're stuck etc. These are just some of the benefits I can think of off the top of my head. These are not for everyone, but it has helped me immensely and love doing this. It should also be noted, I am 21 and dropped out of school to go to this. Edit; The title changed. Originally this comment was to note on the original title of "whether app academy/DBC/HR/Hacker School etc is worth it". My argument was for why I think, in my opinion, these programs are worth it. Didn't want this taken out of context.