FAQ | Frequently Asked Questions

Flatiron School is an accelerated adult-education tech school that teaches you the skills you need to become a software engineer, data scientist, cybersecurity analyst, or cybersecurity engineer. We publish annual Jobs Reports and provide comprehensive Career Services so you know you're getting a top-notch opportunity to change your career and your future.

Flatiron School was founded in 2012. Learn more about our origins on our About Us page.

We have campuses nationwide to teach students across the country the skills they need to change their career.

We currently offer On-Campus courses at our campuses in

• Austin: 316 West 12th Street, Austin, TX 78701, ph: (888) 958-056

• Chicago: 515 N State Street, Chicago, IL 60654, ph: (312) 500-4049

• Denver: 3601 Walnut Street, Denver, CO 80205, ph: (720) 526-0570

• Houston: 708 Main Street, Houston, TX 77002, ph: (832) 384-8065

• New York: 11 Broadway, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10004, ph: (646) 693-4977 

• San Francisco: 1460 Mission St. San Francisco, CA 94103, ph: (888) 958-0569

• Seattle: 1411 4th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98101, ph: (206) 531-0322

• Washington, D.C.: 1440 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20005, ph: (202) 350-0061

To compare program dates by location, toggle between campuses via the “Location” dropdown at the top of the page or in the side menu.

We offer tours and info sessions on a regular basis, and you can register on our events page. If our event times don’t work for you, please email admissions@flatironschool.com to schedule an appointment at a time that works for you.

You can meet our staff and students at events throughout the year. Additional information about our on-campus and online events can be found on our events page. 

Our corporate offices are based in the Flatiron district in Manhattan.

All of Flatiron School’s policies can be found in our catalog.

Yes, you need a computer to participate in all of our programs. If you don’t have one already, we can provide you with a list of suggested vendors from which you may lease or buy a computer. Computer requirements vary by program; you can find out more information on our Computer Requirements page.

Your fellow students will come from a wide variety of backgrounds. We believe a lawyer, journalist, and pro-athlete will do more interesting things together than three people of any one background. You’ll expand your network with students of varied experiences who share the same passion to launch a career they love.

On-campus students typically graduate in 3 1/2 months. Online students can graduate anywhere between 5 and 15 months, depending on the program you choose.

Students receive a Certificate of Completion upon graduation of our program.

(Due to regulatory requirements, Florida residents will be granted a Diploma.)

We are continuously evaluating our curriculum across all programs to ensure that it is current and relevant for today’s job marketplace.

Students are required to be on campus Monday–Friday from 9 a.m.–6 p.m. During these hours, you'll be working on projects, lectures, and assignments. In addition to the required hours, most students need to invest additional time on nights and weekends to complete the work and fully understand the material. You should expect to invest at least 60 hours a week in the program.

Our campuses are generally open to students 24 hours a day and 7 days a week (except holidays), and we often find our students working hard at all hours to finish homework and projects. Students find it extremely difficult to have any other commitments during their studies, such as a part-time job.

On-Campus:

You'll interact with your instructors, participate in group work with instructor help, join paired programming sessions, and be able to attend office hours with instructional staff and community hours with your classmates.

Online (Full-time and Part-time):

You'll have access to weekly tech coaching sessions, bi-weekly education coaching, and access to your instructor throughout the day via Slack. 

That depends on a few important factors. What’s your learning style? Where are you in life right now? What kind of experience are you looking for?

Here are a few other factors to consider:

• • Location: Do you live in a city where we offer our programs on-campus or are you willing to move to one of these cities for the duration of your program? Flatiron School’s on-campus students spend weeks of intensive work on campus, whereas online students can learn anywhere they have a solid internet connection.

  • Pace: Do you prefer to immerse yourself in a flood of information, or take things at your own pace? Our on-campus and full-time online programs progress very quickly. With our part-time and self-paced programs, you can move at a pace that works for you and around your schedule. You will also need to decide whether you can quit your job and pursue these studies full-time or if you would prefer to fit your studies around your job.

On-Campus programs have around 20 – 30 hours of homework per week on top of the Monday-Friday 9am - 6pm daily school schedule. 

For our Online courses, think of your weekly responsibilities as at least 40 hours per week for full-time programs, and at least 25 hours per week for part-time programs.

We share a class Slack channel with you even before you start classes, and encourage you to participate in the questions and activities to get to know your classmates ahead of time and to get to know one another. In addition to scheduled face-to-face interactions in group projects, we have found that the most successful students use Slack to reach out to fellow students throughout the day. Many also schedule Zoom time with fellow students to mimic that face-to-face time they’d have in person. We also host panel discussions, project showcases and even graduations — all online.

On-Campus courses feature ~25:1 student:faculty ratio.

Online Full-Time cohorts typically have a ~35:1 student to teacher ratio.

There is usually 1 hour each day allotted to lunch.

You can check out our currently available initiatives on our Scholarships and Diversity Initiatives page.

Once you have been accepted into the program, you may apply for financing. You can find all of our available tuition payment methods on our Tuition & Financing page. 

The tuition for our courses varies by location and discipline. For details on total tuition for each program, please visit that course's program detail page. You can find those pages using the Our Courses page.

You have a few options in terms of financing your enrollment in one of Flatiron School's courses. See all of your options on our Tuition & Financing page.

The first step is to fill out a written application. Once you submit your application, you will hear back from our Admissions team regarding next steps. If your application moves forward, you will be invited to schedule a video call with a member of the Admissions team to better understand your learning needs, career goals, and whether the program is the right fit for you. Some programs also require prospective students to complete a technical interview when applying. Either after your interview or after a technical interview (if required), you will receive an Admissions decision within a few business days.

Students are accepted on a rolling basis so there is no deadline to apply, but the sooner you submit your application, the more likely you are to secure a spot for your preferred start date. Our cohorts fill up well in advance of their start dates, so we recommend applying at least 8 weeks before your desired start date. This allows 2–3 weeks for you to make it through the application process and accounts for time needed to complete any required pre-work.

Absolutely! Simply schedule an appointment with someone from the Admissions team.

Flatiron School’s application process is rigorous and sometimes students who are not accepted the first time around are able to ‘study up’ and are accepted the second time around. Applicants are advised to use that time building their skills (both professional and technical) and to submit a new application that is materially different from the first one, showcasing their hard work and improvements over that time.

We don't require you to have prior experience to apply for any of our programs. Our admissions requirements are being at least 18 years old, having a high school diploma or a GED, having a native or bilingual fluency in English, and passing the admission interview(s).

No. Coding bootcamps care more about attitude and potential more than a piece of paper. If you have a high school diploma or a GED, you have what it takes to get into a coding bootcamp — and to get a job after graduation.

There is no maximum age limit for attending Flatiron School, but you must be at least 18 years old to enroll in our courses.

We offer two software engineering courses.

• Our in-person Software Engineering course. It is a full-time course. This course is currently being offered online.

• Our Online Software Engineering course is offered full-time, part-time, and self-paced.

Our modular structure means you’ll know that you’re gaining the competencies needed to become a software engineer. Because our curriculum builds cumulatively, instructors assess students at the end of each module to ensure students have a strong understanding of the concepts before moving forward to the next module. Reviews and check-ins occur throughout the program to ensure students have touchpoints with instructors and can ask questions in a one-to-one setting. If you don’t pass an end-of-module project or assessment on the second try, you may have the opportunity to repeat the full module at no extra cost. You can repeat a module once; if you don’t pass the second time through, you will be dismissed from the program. If you are dismissed from the program, you may be eligible for a refund. Refunds are issued based on the applicable refund policy as outlined in our catalog.

Our Software Engineering program is held on the following courses:

• Austin Software Engineering: 1400 Lavaca St, Austin, TX 78701, ph: (888) 958-0569

• Chicago Software Engineering: 515 N State Street, Chicago, IL 60654, ph: (312) 500-4049

• Denver Software Engineering: 3601 Walnut Street, Denver, CO 80205, ph: (720) 526-0570

• New York Software Engineering: 11 Broadway, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10004, ph: (646) 693-4977

• Houston Software Engineering: 708 Main Street, Houston, TX 77002, (888) 958-0569

• San Francisco Software Engineering: 1460 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94103, ph: (888) 958-0569

• Seattle Software Engineering: 1411 4th Ave, Seattle, WA 98101, ph: (888) 958–0569

• Washington D.C. Software Engineering: 1440 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20005, ph: (202) 350-0061

While there are no required prerequisites to apply to our data science program and we welcome beginners, we do recommend students explore our free Data Science Bootcamp Prep before applying, as this program can be very difficult for beginners. It’s important for two key reasons:

• The easiest way to determine if you want to pursue a career in data science is to see if you like coding.

• We want to fill our community with people who see data science as a passion and who want to launch lifelong careers as data scientists. It’s much easier to show that you’re passionate and dedicated by taking the initiative to get started first. Even if you’ve only worked through a few lessons, showing a little effort and curiosity about data science speaks volumes in your application.

Our modular structure means you’ll know that you’re gaining the competencies needed to become a data scientist. Because our curriculum builds cumulatively, instructors have the opportunity to assess students at the end of each module to ensure students have a strong understanding of the concepts before moving forward to the next module. Reviews and check-ins occur throughout the program to ensure students have touchpoints with instructors and can ask questions in a one-to-one setting. If you don’t pass an end-of-module project or assessment on the second try, you may have the opportunity to repeat the full module at no extra cost. You can repeat a module once; if you don’t pass the second time through, you will be dismissed from the program. If you are dismissed from the program, you may be eligible for a refund. Refunds are issued based on the applicable refund policy as outlined in our catalog. 

• Retrieve data from various sources 

• Organize data using Python

• Explore data and write down hypotheses for further analysis of the data

• Perform Hypothesis and A/B tests

• Build machine learning models that use your data to generate predictions

• Understand how to manage and model Big Data

• Create beautiful visualizations to present key findings

• Learn Presentation techniques to better share conclusions about approach and analysis to key stakeholders

You can attend our Data Science program on the following campuses:

• Chicago Data Science: 515 N State Street, Chicago, IL 60654, ph: (312) 500-4049

• New York Data Science: 11 Broadway, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10004, ph: (646) 693-4977

• San Francisco Data Science: 1460 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94103, ph: (888) 958-0569

• Seattle Data Science: 1411 4th Ave, Seattle, WA 98101, ph: (888) 958–0569

• Washington, D.C. Data Science: 1440 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20005, ph: (202) 350-0061

We offer two data science courses, one in person and one online.

• Our in-person Data Science program is a 15-week program that teaches you all the skills you need to get a job in data science. Because of COVID-19, this course is currently being offered online.

• Our Online Data Science program is offered full-time, part-time, and self-paced, and offers you the same curriculum as our in-person course. It has the same goal — to prepare you for a career as a data scientist.

Read more about how to get into our data science courses.

Cybersecurity is the protection of computer systems from theft or damage to their hardware, software, or electronic data. Our students are taught to be “ethical” hackers. They protect organizations against threat actors or bad hackers.

Great question! We have a whole page dedicated to identifying the difference between our two courses.

Our Cybersecurity Analytics program teaches people with little to no technical experience the skills to succeed in roles such as entry-level cybersecurity analyst, threat intel analyst, SOC analyst, compliance analyst, and cybersecurity consultant. Check out our Cybersecurity Analytics page for more details!

Strong candidates for our Cybersecurity Analytics program will be detail-oriented with creative problem-solving skills. Candidates should have a natural interest in programming and/or computer network, passion and determination to excel, and a strong work ethic. Having basic computer and programming skills will be helpful, as well as a general understanding of computers, networks, and systems. Students should have a high school diploma or equivalent. Having a networking engineering certification AS, BS, MS, BA, MA in Comp Sci, Math, etc. is also helpful.

Our Cybersecurity Engineering program teaches the skills to succeed in roles such as entry-level Security Engineer, Security Analyst, Security Consultant and Security Pen Tester. Check out our Cybersecurity Engineering page for more details! 

Strong candidates for our Cybersecurity Engineering program will be detail-oriented with creative problem solving skills. Candidates should have a natural interest in programming and/or computer networks, passion and determination to excel and a strong work ethic. Having basic computer and programming skills is also helpful, as well as a general understanding of computers, networks and systems. Students should have a High school diploma or equivalent. Having a networking engineering certification AS, BS, MS, BA, MA in Comp Sci, Math, etc. is also helpful.

• New York Cybersecurity Analytics:  11 Broadway, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10004, ph: (646) 693-4977

• Washington, D.C. Cybersecurity Analytics: 1440 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20005, ph: (202) 350-0061

• New York Cybersecurity Engineering:  11 Broadway, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10004, ph: (646) 693-4977

• Washington, D.C. Cybersecurity Engineering: 1440 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20005, ph: (202) 350-0061

We offer three cybersecurity courses, two in-person and one online.

• Our in-person Cybersecurity Analytics program is a 12-week program that prepares you for a career in cyber analysis.

• This course is also offered online, as our Online Cybersecurity Analytics program. This is offered full-time and part-time.

• Our Cybersecurity Engineering program is offered in person, and is a more technical cybersecurity program that prepares you for a career in cyber engineering.

Yes!

While engaging with our free curriculum is the best way to strengthen your application to our Online Software Engineering and in-person Software Engineering programs, finishing Coding Bootcamp Prep is not necessary. 

Our Admissions team primarily wants to see consistency in how you’re preparing. As soon as you feel ready to commit your time and energy to a full-time program, you’re encouraged to apply to our Online Software Engineering or On-Campus Software Engineering programs. (Note: It’s important to remember that your initial application and interview is just a way for us to get to know you and for you to get to know us, and includes no technical questions.)

No. While you’ll begin learning to code and have full access to 75+ hours of HTML, CSS, Ruby and JavaScript lessons and labs, it covers just a fraction of the material in our Software Engineering program. Coding Bootcamp Prep is a free full stack development intro that is designed to help you determine whether you want to pursue a programming career, and whether you can successfully learn to code through our teaching techniques and technology.

Similar to our Coding Bootcamp Prep, engaging with our free curriculum is a great way to strengthen your application, but is not required to apply.

You are not required to accept any offers you receive. If you do not wish to accept a particular job offer, you will still have access to your career coach and can continue your job search.

To advocate for & enable a talent pipeline between employers and Flatiron graduates.

Your Career Coach is your dedicated, 1-on-1 partner through every step in your job search. Behind-the-scenes, the Employer Partnerships team is working to build partnerships that present career-launching job opportunities for our students.

When an employer contacts us to fill a role, the first step the Employer Partnerships team takes is to understand the ideal candidate for the employer based on the company’s tech stack, team structure, values, and any professional backgrounds that may be relevant. Think of the Employer Partnerships team as a matchmaker. They share “resume books” with employers based on these ideal candidate characteristics, and the employer then selects who they would like to interview.

By presenting right-fit candidates to these employers and providing seamless hiring processes, the Employer Partnerships team creates loyal employers who come back to hire from Flatiron again and again.

Interviews Whenever an employer selects a graduate from the resume book to move forward in their interview process, the Employer Partnerships team will facilitate an introduction between the candidate and the employer.

Events The Employer Partnerships team also invites employers to participate in or present at various events, including webinars or Lunch & Learns, informal networking events, office field trips, or Graduation Showcases where students present their capstone projects. Events vary city-to-city and may change based on time of year.

The real question is: How can students distinguish themselves for employers! Ultimately, employers select which graduates to move forward in interview processes — the Employer Partnerships team can make the match, but it’s up to our graduates to close the deal.

This varies by cohort, discipline, and market. What is true across all markets is that students drive their own job searches with the support of their career coaches. While our employer network is robust, our most successful job-seekers are active job-seekers – working hard to make their own connections and creating opportunities for themselves.

All types of companies, ranging from small start-ups to large organizations, and spanning across industries.

Job titles may vary, but the Employer Partnerships team vets opportunities that align with the skills that our students learn in their program — whether software engineering, data science, or cybersecurity. The Employer Partnerships team identifies full-time paid opportunities, which may include salaried roles, contract roles, or paid internships or apprenticeships.

1. Master the technical skills taught in the program.

2. Keep learning & honing their technical skills even after the program (including completing the Post-work curriculum!).

3. Be kind, communicative, open-minded, & positive.

4. Be a great citizen of the Flatiron community by responding promptly & politely to employers, Employer Partnerships team members, and Career Coaches.