PSA: Udacity grow w/ Google scholarship, for web and/or android devs. US only

#1

Last few days to apply for the scholarships. US residents only.

I’m not affiliated in any way but as I understand it basically you sign up, fill out the forms, take one of udacity’s 4 relevant free courses, and based on performance (and community involvement?) you may get chosen for a free 6 months in a corresponding Udacity nanodegree program.

There are 2 beginner paths with no prerequisites. The other 2 are intermediate paths
For the mobile web specialist track the phase 1 free course is Offline Web Applications, which has the following prerequisites

JavaScript experience, including:

  • object-oriented JavaScript
  • using native Promises
  • running a Node web server from the terminal
  • Students should also be proficient in HTML and CSS, and have experience creating web apps.

For the Android Developer track the phase 1 free course is Android app development, which has the general prerequisite of

This course is intended for students with at least 1 year of programming experience in Java or another object-oriented programming language (for example: C++, Objective C or Python).

Sounds like a great opportunity, and a seemingly simple application process, there’s almost no sense in not applying.
That being said, personally I don’t really fit with any of the 4 programs. Not much for me to get out of their front end course, but I don’t have experience yet with “native promises” or running a node web server from the terminal

And with the Chingu voyage stuff starting soon I don’t have time to pick up a whole new language for the android programs.

Good Luck to anyone who applies!

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#2

Thanks for sharing this.

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#3

Thank you so much for sharing this. I just turned in my application. Wish me luck!

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#4

This does look interesting. I had applied a few weeks ago for the Android basic track.
They will notify those selected December 7th and if you are picked, you start on December 11th. For the 15,000 they get in the basic track, there are 1,500 namodegrees to be awarded. They were not clear on the criteria to be in the top 10% however…
I am taking 2 classes at an online university right now, one of which is Java, so good timing if it works out!

#5

Got accepted to the Android Basics program today!

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#6

I got accepted into Phase 1 of Front-End Web Development track.

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#7

I got in too! I’m already about to finish Lesson 6.

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#8

Best of luck! This seems like a great opportunity. Next round they cut 90% of the people…

#9

I am just coming to the end of the Front-End Developer course for the “rest of the world” scheme.

Whilst the experience has been mainly positive, this section of the course you are not actually getting anything special other than a good community to be part of. The courses are already up on the Udacity website, however getting through to the next section offers the chance of their Nano-degree which is pricey :slightly_smiling_face: It covered nothing that I didn’t already know, but it has given me a good chance to get involved with numerous community projects, and I have become friendly with a lot of people who I am sure I will keep in touch with.

I think it was said at the start that 120,000 people applied in total, and around 40,000 spaces were awarded out. The forum and Slack channel went nuts for the first few days, but after that it has settled down and actually only 4,000 people have signed up to the forum in our section (there is meant to be 20,000).

As far as I can tell, the main clincher is the community involvement > performance because following the guidelines you can’t really go wrong with the practical stuff. I have tried my best to stand out on the forum and get involved (I’m the slack UK channel moderator) and hopefully it will pay off!

Some one on the course made a pretty cool table of the forum statistics which has actually been very interesting. Im currently #39th highest for posts “liked”… so whether this is something they go off of we shall see!

In hindsight I wish I had probably gone with one of the other courses… perhaps something a bit more challenging! But I wouldnt not have done it!

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#10

Yes, I think the program is going to turn into more of a networking thing than anything else. So far, the only thing that isn’t review in the actual coursework are the keyboard shortcuts.

#11

Ive signed up to get notified for the next round outside the US, I think I missed the last signup by a few days as I didnt know about it. Im keeping an eye on any notifications regarding it now just in case the email slips by me.

#12

Hey, @arhillis, looks like we both got accepted – I’ve seen you around! Haha.

I agree with the OP, though. There’s not much to get out of it(unless you’re an absolute beginner). I’m completely unmotivated to continue with the material. Definitely just a networking thing, I think. But also, it’s nice to help others on the forum/slack.

#13

Update on my behalf.

I got through to the main section and it is definitely worth attempting to make it through! The content is much better/in-depth on the Nanodegree and it covers more advanced bits. There is also a career review section, where your CV is critiqued and exclusive job searches for Nanodegree participants.

For anyone interested I did a overview of the scholarship as well as my thoughts on how to progress —> https://github.com/JABedford/Front-End-Bible/blob/master/Learning%20Resources/Udacity/Front-End-Scholarship.md

#14

Thanks for writing that article. It was very helpful to me.

#15

You are welcome. Keep checking back as I am going to be updating with my thoughts on the main scholarship as well.

#16