App Academy is indeed extremely selective, with an acceptance rate less than 3%.
The salaries shown are all self-reported (App Academy isn't releasing this), so there is likely some sample bias for sure.
And you doubt that a/A grads work at Google or similar companies? See for yourself: https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/people/?facetCurrent...
You can't take someone new to programming and train them to pass a Google interview in 12 weeks.
The flaw with your assumption is that you're new to programming by the time you start a/A. By the time you start a/A you can already solve sophomore-level algorithms problems.
I never assumed that. I prefaced my assertion with: unless you have a significant knowledge base going in.
I've done a bit of reading up on app academy and from what I can tell it's a pretty standard curriculum, but it includes 80-100 hours per week of work.
It's basically a 12 week long interview that's doesn't so much train developers as it does select them.