The Flatiron School, a coding bootcamp company that was acquired by WeWork in 2017, opened the doors of its new Chicago campus this month.
Flatiron, founded in New York in 2012, adds Chicago to its growing list of nationwide campuses. Besides New York and Chicago, the company has programs in Houston, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Seattle and Denver. It also has a school in London.
The Chicago campus is located at WeWork’s new River North office at 515 N. State St.
Flatiron, which has graduated more than 1,000 students, provides software engineering, data science and design courses. Classes cost up to $15,000 for a 15-week immersive software engineering bootcamp, said Kristi Riordan, Flatiron’s chief operating officer.
Riordan said Flatiron’s classes are designed to allow students to work on real-world projects, spending only a small amount of time in traditional lectures. Additionally, Flatiron’s teaching philosophy doesn’t give students letter grades. Instead, students are taught concepts to a point of mastery, allowing them to take extra time on certain topics if they need to, Riordan said.
The school also provides career coaching to help students find jobs that fit their new skills learned in the bootcamp. Its alums have gone on to work at companies like Facebook, Spotify and Google. And if students haven’t found a job within six months, Riordan said Flatiron gives students their money back.
“We’ve been helping students throughout the Midwest land their dream jobs in tech for years through our online program,” Riordan said. “We’re thrilled to bring that experience to the Chicago community by launching an in-person program to further expand our impact in a city that continues to be a leader in the tech space.”
Flatiron increased its Windy City ties after acquiring Chicago coding program Designation last year. Designation, founded in 2014, trains UI and UX designers. As a result, the new Chicago Flatiron campus is the first to have Designation programs incorporated.
As of right now, the new Chicago campus is currently only offering Designation's UX/UI design courses. However, software engineering courses begin on April 1 and Flatiron is currently accepting applications.
Take a look at Flatiron’s new Chicago campus below:
