6 Reasons why I chose Academy Xi over General Assembly

Vienna Chen
Jul 21, 2017 · 3 min read

Let me start off by saying that I made my decision to do the 10 week UX:Transform course at Academy Xi after many months of research and deliberation. My decision is of course purely my own and therefore if you want a bit of a background read “why I left fine arts to become a UX designer” before launching into my 6 reasons.

1. There was a physical space (at Academy Xi).

One of the things that struck me at the General Assembly seminar was that it was held at WeWork- an agile working space shared across multiple businesses and users. When I walked it that night there was a flurry of people running around, making calls and typing away furiously on their laptops. It honestly felt like grand central station and the GA seminar was held right in the middle of a busy intersection of office suites.

2. Personal call

Okay, to be fair both Academy Xi and GA called me back within a day of me sending an enquiry email. The difference was, the call I had with GA was more of a one way street, it felt like I was just answering a checklist of questions and the call I got from Academy Xi was more of a conversation. Academy Xi wanted to know why I wanted to do the UX:Transform and what I expected out of it and GA just wanted to know whether I’d qualify.

3. Interview was 1 v 1 instead of online submission

After speaking to Academy Xi I was invited to come for a 1:1 interview at their office. With General Assembly I received an email with a brief that I would need to complete to showcase my thinking. This was perhaps came down to timing and personal preference but going in for a meeting in person worked better for me. I still had to present on a brief for Academy Xi which they emailed me but the whole process seemed more personal.

4. Smaller class size

All the research I found online and from talking to people showed GA classes to be upwards 20 people. Not surprising from the number of people attending the initial seminar night. I confess I‘m quite shy and tend more towards introversion so one of my concerns was being ‘lost’ in large class. One of the questions I asked Ben during my 1:1 interview with Academy Xi was the class size they were hoping to put together and I remember he said around 10. The class size ended up being 7 which was great because we got so much personal guidance from our instructor Rob.

5. It was more personal

Yes, I’m going back to this point again. Ben was very upfront with me that this was the first time Academy Xi had run a 10 week full time UX intensive course but from the get go I could tell that they were focused and passionate on the students they were taking through the UX journey. I appreciated that they wanted to build a relationship with us- they were putting their trust in us to represent Academy Xi and in turn we had to trust that they would guide us and launch us into our UX futures.

6. It was cheaper

I wasn’t getting sponsored or supported to do this course. It was all out of pocket for me and having come straight out of a Master of Art I was* still on Migoreng wages. By this time I had already decided that Academy Xi was a better fit for me and that I would get more out of their program than GA. It just made sense.

*At the time of writing I am two weeks into the UX:Transform and thus sadly still on Migoreng wages.

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Vienna Chen

Written by

Virtual Reality Product (UX/UI) Designer | Currently making River Fox VR | Great listener and question-asker, not so great speaking in front of large crowds |

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