Catalyst Full Stack Program
Catalyst is our premier, fully immersive technical training program that equips you with a cutting-edge curriculum, a dedicated instructor, and a daily schedule to accelerate you to your first job as a web developer.
Online done right.
This ain’t your momma’s online college course. We focus on your personal results and success instead of catering to cohorts.
Your time. Your pace.
Full-time. Part-time. Somewhere in between? You choose. We’ll be here for you, because what works for one doesn’t work for everyone.
On-the-job training, pre-job.
You’ll learn the same tools and techniques that are used in software jobs today. Not used-to-use tech from 20 years ago.
Personalized coaching.
From lab reviews to 1:1 sessions, our Catalyst student-to-instructor relationship is unmatched. Enroll in a course, find a lifelong coach.
Overview
Our Catalyst program specializes in training software developers with a niche focus in modern websites and web applications. As a Catalyst student, you’ll receive the absolute best that we have to offer as an educational provider – from personalized coaching and mentoring (during and after the program) to a full suite of comprehensive curriculum and supportive services.
The Catalyst Experience
This program is one-of-a-kind. It’s more than a curriculum and better than your run-of-the-mill bootcamp or college course.
Here’s what you won’t experience:
You won’t find yourself starting with 10, 20, or 30 other students all competing for the same instructor’s or TA’s time (that graduated one month before you started), and you don’t have to be in any particular location (we’re fully remote). You won’t be quizzed on arbitrary knowledge you can Google. You won’t be graded on technicalities that you’re still learning. You won’t “fail” out if you fall behind. You won’t find yourself struggling alone.
Here’s what you will experience:
You’ll pick your start date, and wherever you may be, whenever you’ve finished our super-simple admissions process, you’ll start. As a student, you’ll join daily office hours with your instructor, and you’ll see who else is currently in the same section of the curriculum as you (study buddies!). You’ll be able to schedule 1:1 coaching sessions with your instructor, and you’ll receive personalized, private code reviews for each major lab assignment from your instructor. You’ll be pushed, challenged, and (sometimes) frustrated as you inevitably struggle, but we’ll still be here to help – from start to finish (which is a job, not a certificate).
We expect a lot from our students. We treat you like an adult, not a child. We’re not going to coddle you. You don’t get points for showing up and doing the bare minimum – you have to do the work. You also don’t “get good grades” for perfection. Instead, you’ll get real experience as a budding software developer. Build your portfolio. Showcase your creativity, your work ethic, and your interests. Let us (and future employers) know who you are through what you do. If you’re signing up for our Catalyst program, you’re signing up for what will likely be the most rigorous educational experience of your life. It can be overwhelming at times, but that’s why we’re here – to help you through it.
It’s our job to make sure you land your next one. If you’re up for it, let’s catalyze your career change, together.
Your Admissions Process
Leave your prior accolades at the door. All we care about is you.
Schedule a consult
Have questions? Can't believe what you're reading? Want to make sure we're the "real deal"? Understandable. Just schedule a call with us – we love meeting future students!
Start Catalyst Prep
We'll teach you whether you're a high school dropout or Summa Cum Laude valedictorian – you still have to purchase and complete our prep course before you can enroll.
Pick your start date
While you work through Catalyst Prep, we'll work through the finer details (instructor meet 'n' greet, paperwork, payment) so you're ready to roll on your start date.
You’ll be in good company with our alumni.
“Full Stack” means...
You’ll learn how to build for both the front-end and back-end of modern websites and web applications – first with JavaScript then with TypeScript – so that you’re ready for whatever the next step in your career throws your way.
Curriculum
This is exactly what you’ll learn in this course. Expand these details to see a breakdown of the curriculum and what you'll build in each module.
Learn about all the necessary onboarding info you’ll need to quickly set up all the programs and processes we use while you’re enrolled at Covalence. As you're getting started, we’ll also give you some insight into how you can get help when you need it, and what resources are available to you as a Catalyst student.
No mystery here. Module 2 builds the foundations for front-end web development: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. We'll work through simple concept labs to build your first website, style it with CSS, and add some basic functionality with JavaScript.
Module 3 expands the foundations you set in Module 2, starting with one of the most popular CSS frameworks (Bootstrap) to allow your websites to look better than raw HTML, and then we expand our JavaScript knowledge with your first introduction to the manipulating the Document Object Model (DOM) natively and with jQuery, which is your first foray into JavaScript libraries.
With the basics out of the way, Module 4 is where the rubber meets the road with more advanced JavaScript techniques. You'll learn all about async functions, scope, promises, closures, spread operators, template literals, and more – everything you need to know to really understand and use modern JavaScript, not just copy and paste it from Stack Overflow.
Module 5 is all about one of the most popular JavaScript libraries in the world right now – React.js. We've been teaching it since 2018, and we keep our curriculum up to date with the latest version changes and improvements the React team has made over the past several years. We'll start simple with concepts and architecture of a React web application, and from there we'll teach you how to set up the proper Hooks, state management, and more.
Once we round out Front End Development with React, we make our way over to the server-side, still in JavaScript with Node.js and Express as our back-end framework. We'll set up routes, APIs, and start letting the data flow from the front to the back end of our applications. There's not as much "visualization" to this section of the curriculum, but we'll teach you how to figure out what's going on with plenty of console.log()'s and Postman tabs.
JavaScript's popularity is not always well-received with programmers and institutions that rely on more stringent (less dynamic) languages to ensure proper code etiquette and cleanliness – that's where TypeScript swoops in to save the day. It's the best parts of JavaScript with the best parts of a more strongly (or static) typed language, like C#/.NET or Java, and the best part is that it's a superset of JavaScript – which means that if you know JavaScript, learning TypeScript is pretty easy and makes your life a lot easier. So that's what we do… teach JavaScript, then rehash all of the previous module topics in TypeScript.
A front-end and back-end is only as good as the data that it's showing – or retrieving from other services – so we'll teach you how to set up and manage your own relational databases with MySQL, along with some basic ETL protocols and stored procedure techniques to make your life a little easier. Our speciality isn't in database management, so this introduction is intended for web developers that need to set up Full Stack applications – or work in a team that manages their own. You'll also learn how to send transactional emails with Mailgun, process payments with Stripe, and control access to your applications with user authentication protocols.
JavaScript, from front to back.
We focus on your fluency in JavaScript first, then introduce TypeScript, to make sure you have a solid foundation in one language.
Lectures. Labs. Repeat.
You’ll have several activities and labs to complete in order to prove your mastery of this material. It’s challenging but fun – get ready to work!
Foundations, not frameworks.
Modern web development changes daily. No one can keep up with everything, but we can build up your foundational knowledge base so you’re prepared for anything.
Novice? No matter.
We curate our curriculum with beginners in mind. Everything builds on top of previous topics, so you can go from module one to done.
Anything but average.
We’re only interested in making one dent in the universe: yours.
$60k
Average starting pay for 1st job post-grad
3-4
Average # months to 1st job post-grad
2:1
Average student-to-instructor ratio
Betsy Bailey
Product Manager at PaySplit
FAQs
You’ve got questions. We’ve got answers, even if they aren’t listed here. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, just reach out. We’re happy to help.
The tuition for our Catalyst program is $9,600. To make this as accessible as possible, we’ve partnered with Ascent and Leif to provide fixed-rate financing, income share agreements (ISAs) (full-time, part-time), and tuition-installment plans (TIPs) to our Catalyst students.
Yes, after successfully passing your final assessment, we issue your “Antidegree" Certificate of Completion. It means basically nothing, like most degrees, but we issue it anyway because recruiters, employers, institutions, and governing bodies often require it so that they can verify you actually completed our program. Your skills post-graduation are far more important than this certificate.
Hell no, and this is why – and why you should be wary of any guarantee. You’re the only one that can “guarantee” your success. We can help prepare you to the best of our ability – and we have a great track record at doing that – but we can’t guarantee it, nor will we ever try to sell you that smokescreen.
If you ask, we'll probably tell you if we know it. However, most people only care about time-to-job and starting pay. Since 2015, our alumni start earning around $60k/year after graduation, and it takes most of them around 3 to 4 months to land their first job after graduation (and that’s predominantly in the southeast United States). Obviously, each student has a unique experience; your mileage may vary, but we'll do our best to well-equip you for that journey.
It’s up to you – it’s the same curriculum, service, payment options, and certificate. The only real difference is how much time you’re willing to commit to your education. For full-timers, we expect 40 hours/week at a minimum. That puts you on pace to finish within 3 or 4 months. If you work at half that pace, it should take you twice as long, so if you have other stuff going on (job, family, etc.), part-time may be a better choice.
A stable internet connection, a decent computer, a great attitude, a sunny disposition, and an unwavering work ethic.
The tuition for our Catalyst program is $9,600. To make this as accessible as possible, we’ve partnered with Ascent and Leif to provide fixed-rate financing, income share agreements (ISAs) (full-time, part-time), and tuition-installment plans (TIPs) to our Catalyst students.
The tuition for our Catalyst program is $9,600. To make this as accessible as possible, we’ve partnered with Ascent and Leif to provide fixed-rate financing, income share agreements (ISAs) (full-time, part-time), and tuition-installment plans (TIPs) to our Catalyst students.
The tuition for our Catalyst program is $9,600. To make this as accessible as possible, we’ve partnered with Ascent and Leif to provide fixed-rate financing, income share agreements (ISAs) (full-time, part-time), and tuition-installment plans (TIPs) to our Catalyst students.