Written By Liz Eggleston
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Overview
Want the most up-to-date findings? Check out our 2016 Alumni Outcomes & Demographics Study.
We're excited to present the results of our latest and most comprehensive survey of graduates in the coding bootcamp space. We surveyed graduates from 44 qualifying coding schools and received 665 qualified graduate responses.
The majority of graduates of coding bootcamps are finding full-time employment, and 66% of graduates surveyed report being employed in a full-time job requiring the skills learned at bootcamp, with an average salary increase of 38% or $18,000. This year's Student Outcomes & Demographics Study dives into bootcamp graduate success, analyzing not only demographics and outcomes, but also how previous experience, income, location, and other factors impact a student's average salary and ability to get a developer job.
Thanks so much to the schools who participated in this study and helped distribute it to their alumni networks!
Key Findings
In our second annual graduate survey, and the most complete cross-school study of its kind in the coding bootcamp industry, we found strong evidence of salary growth, with respondents reporting a $18k average increase in their first job after attending a coding bootcamp.
| Change in Avg Salary | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| All Respondents | $46,638 | $64,255 |
| Employed Full-Time | $49,221 | $67,178 |
| Change in Median Salary | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| All Respondents | $40,000 | $62,800 |
| Employed Full-Time | $45,000 | $65,000 |
In addition, bootcamp attendees are more likely to be working full-time after graduation.
| Change in Employment | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Employed Full-Time | 53% | 62% |
| Employed Part-Time | 8% | 2% |
| Employed Freelance | 6% | 7% |
| Self-Employed | 8% | 3% |
| Student | 8% | 2% |
| Unemployed | 16% | 21% |
| Other | 1% | 2% |
As students continue their job search after graduation, job placement trends upwards, with 89% of graduates being placed within 120 days of graduation.
| 27.17% | 61.23% | 78.99% | 88.77% | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| placed | placed | placed | placed | |||
| 30 DAYS | 60 DAYS | 90 DAYS | 120 DAYS |
The outcomes report also finds:
- 66% report working in a job requiring the skills learned at bootcamp, compared to 5% working as full-time programmers beforehand.
- The average student paid $11,852 in tuition.
- The typical attendee is 31 years old, has 7.6 years of work experience, has at least a Bachelor's degree, and has never worked as a programmer.
- 36% of bootcamp attendees are female.
- Graduates report an average satisfaction rating of 8.42.
- Use of external lending partners has increased drastically since 2013 (from 4% in 2013 to 25% in 2015).
The "Survey Results" tab shows interesting insights like:
- Undergraduate Music majors saw the greatest salary jump after attending a bootcamp. Foreign Language majors are most likely to be employed as developers after graduation.
- Graduates working in Palo Alto boast the highest average salary of the cities in this report (California has the highest average salary of any state, but check out where North Carolina falls!)
- Coding bootcamps provide a $36,000 lift in salary for low-income students, compared to a $2,000 lift in salary for high-income students.
- Students with Associate's degrees experienced the highest lift in salary after graduating from a bootcamp: $30,133. 79% of bootcamp graduates also have at least a Bachelor's Degree, but does this impact success?
- Students who learned Python have the highest average salaries after graduation (~$80K). Students who learned C# at a bootcamp are most likely to be employed as a developer after graduation.
Results
Tuition
Average tuition for a coding bootcamp is $11.8k, with most students paying for school themselves or with the help of family (Table 6). Some schools offer tuition reimbursement for students who receive job placement through the school, but only 5% of students report receiving such reimbursements.
| Tuition | Mean | Standard Error |
|---|---|---|
| Tuition | $11,852 | $106 |
| Source of Funding | % | Standard Error |
| Self | 49.17% | 2.96% |
| Family | 20.83% | 2.26% |
| External Loan | 18.97% | 2.28% |
| School (Scholarship) | 3.40% | 0.80% |
| Employer | 1.71%% | 0.26% |
| School Financing | 5.92% | 1.80% |
| Tuition Refund for Job Placement | % | Standard Error |
| Yes* | 5.36% | 0.32% |
| No | 94.64% | 0.32% |
* For those who received a refund, the average refund was 34% of the tuition cost ranging from 2% to 100%.
Notice in Table 8 that the use of external lending partners has increased drastically since 2013 (from 4% in 2013 to 25% in 2015). This is likely due to new lending providers like Affirm, Earnest, and Climb, who lend specifically to coding bootcamp students. The most popular lending partner is Climb Credit (Table 7). For 107 students who used External Loans, on average, about 87.11% of the tuition cost was covered by a lending partner. The distribution of lending partners is shown below for those 107 students who used External Loans.
| Lending Partner | % | Lending Partner | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Climb Credit | 21.50% | Avant Credit | 0.93% |
| Lendlayer (now Affirm) | 19.63% | Former Employer | 0.93% |
| Not Disclosed | 9.35% | Group Lend | 0.93% |
| Earnest | 8.41% | Lending Tree | 0.93% |
| Upstart | 7.48% | Ontario Works | 0.93% |
| Wells Fargo | 5.61% | Regions Bank | 0.93% |
| Credit Union | 2.80% | TD | 0.93% |
| Prosper | 2.80% | TFC Tuition | 0.93% |
| FinanceIt | 2.00% | Turing | 0.93% |
| LendingClub | 1.87% | Vectra Bank | 0.93% |
| Pave | 1.87% | Vouch | 0.93% |
| "Student Funder" | 1.87% | Western Union | 0.93% |
| Affirm | 0.93% | WorkBC | 0.93% |
| Type of Funding By Year | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self | 58.02% | 57.81% | 46.34% |
| Family | 20.38% | 22.59% | 19.18% |
| External Loan | 3.67% | 7.58% | 24.71% |
| School (Scholarship) | 5.93% | 1.89% | 3.59% |
| Employer | 3.28% | 2.46% | 1.36% |
| School Financing | 8.71% | 0.42% | 4.91% |
Student Demographic Profile
Respondents self-reported demographic information such as age, gender, and race. The student profile is summarized below in Table 1.
| Age | Mean | Standard Error |
|---|---|---|
| Mean Age | 30.95 | 0.77 |
| Gender | % | Standard Error |
| Female | 36.3% | 2.96% |
| Male | 63.1% | 2.96% |
| Non-Binary | 0.6% | 0.29% |
| Ethnicity | % | Standard Error |
| American Indian | 1.0% | 0.09% |
| Asian American | 14.0% | 2.48% |
| Black | 5.0% | 1.83% |
| Other | 17.2% | 1.48% |
| White | 62.8% | 3.06% |
| Hispanic Origin | % | Standard Error |
| Yes | 20.3% | 2.87% |
| No | 79.7% | 2.87% |
| Citizenship | % | Standard Error |
| Yes, born in the US | 78.2% | 3.60% |
| Yes, naturalized. | 9.7% | 1.85% |
| No | 12.2% | 3.15% |
| Education | % | Standard Error |
| Drop high school | 0.2% | 0.14% |
| High school | 2.6% | 2.31% |
| Some college | 14.2% | 3.22% |
| Associate's degree | 4.1% | 0.66% |
| Bachelor's degree | 62.1% | 3.65% |
| Master's degree | 14.2% | 2.98% |
| Professional degree | 1.5% | 0.09% |
| Doctorate degree | 1.1% | 0.49% |
Many coding bootcamps offer scholarships for women, so we compare our findings on gender enrollment to the 2014 Taulbee Survey, an annual survey of computer science programs at accredited universities. The Taulbee study estimated that 14.1% of 2014 bachelor degrees were awarded to females. Our study suggests that bootcamps compare favorably to traditional computer science departments (as well as masters programs) on gender diversity.
Pre-Bootcamp Work Experience
Most respondents were not employed as software developers prior to attending bootcamp, with an estimated 13% reporting developing software at work, and only 5% programming full-time prior to enrolling.
| Programming Background | % | Standard Error |
|---|---|---|
| Full-time at work | 5.18% | 2.24% |
| Some at work | 12.75% | 2.63% |
| Some in my free time | 44.49% | 2.99% |
| None | 32.63% | 2.94% |
| Other | 4.95% | 1.16% |
The average work experience among students is ~8 years, although 16% report being unemployed prior to bootcamp enrollment, as shown in Table 3.
| Work Experience | Mean | Standard Error |
|---|---|---|
| Years | 7.65 | 0.61 |
| Salary | Mean (USD) | Standard Error |
| All respondents | $46,638* | $2,820 |
| Those working full-time | $46,221** | $1,337 |
| Pre-Camp Employment Status | % | Standard Error |
| Employed full-time | 52.28% | 4.18% |
| Employed part-time | 8.24% | 2.14% |
| Employed freelance | 6.48% | 2.32% |
| Self-employed | 8.26% | 2.32% |
| Student | 7.92% | 1.39% |
| Unemployed | 15.94% | 3.06% |
| Other | 0.58% | 0.40% |
* Median salary for all respondents is $40,000
** Median salary full-time working respondents is $45,000
Applications & Student Expectations
Most graduates report applying to a coding bootcamp in order to gain a job as a programmer (85%), although 8% report attending in order to start their own company. Less than 1% report attending bootcamp to get a promotion or change jobs with their current employer.
Table 4. Research & Application Process
| Number of Applications | Mean | Standard Error |
|---|---|---|
| Number of schools applied | 1.40 | 0.07 |
| Number of acceptance | 1.29 | 0.06 |
| Reason for Attending a Bootcamp | % | Standard Error |
| Getting a Programming Job | 85.43% | 2.63% |
| Starting a Company | 8.29% | 2.00% |
| Getting a non-technical job | 0.02% | 0.32 |
| Other | 4.45% | 2.27% |
| Freelancing/contracting | 1.07% | 0.27% |
| Getting a promotion | 0.74% | 0.10% |
Finally, the most important factor to a future bootcamper when deciding between bootcamps is the Quality of Instruction. Average ratings (Table 5a) give some idea about the importance of factors. Quality of Instruction is the most important factor, then Location, Tuition, and the Teaching Language have about the same importance level, and Scholarship and Quality of Facilities are the least important factors. Another way to look at this question is by Selection Rates of these factors (Table 5b).
| Factors | Average Rating |
|---|---|
| Quality of Instruction | 1.83 |
| Location | 2.97 |
| Teaching Language | 3.04 |
| Tuition | 3.35 |
| Quality of Facilities | 4.50 |
| Scholarship | 5.31 |
| Factors | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tuition | 10.2% | 18.9% | 24.5% | 24.5% | 25.8% | 13.5% |
| Location | 19.2% | 20.1% | 24.1% | 21.8% | 11.0% | 3.9% |
| Quality of Instruction | 55.0% | 22.7% | 11.3% | 7.9% | 1.8% | 1.4% |
| Quality of Facilities | 0.7% | 5.6% | 14.1% | 19.6% | 41.9% | 18.1% |
| Scholarship | 1.7% | 3.5% | 4.1% | 6.5% | 21.6% | 62.6% |
| Teaching Language | 13.3% | 29.2% | 21.9% | 18.5% | 10.2% | 7.0% |
Student Outcomes
Post-Bootcamp Employment
Overall, 66% of graduates report being employed full-time in a job requiring the skills learned at bootcamp. Among those, most (63%) are in salaried, full-time position, with others reporting working as an independent contractor or running their own business.
| Post Camp Employment Status | % | Standard Error |
|---|---|---|
| Employed full-time | 62.36% | 3.31% |
| Employed part-time | 1.97% | 1.59% |
| Employed freelance | 6.67% | 0.92% |
| Self-Employed | 3.14% | 0.45% |
| Student | 2.03% | 1.03% |
| Other | 2.35% | 0.26% |
| Unemployed | 21.48% | 3.25% |
| Employed in a Programming Job | % | Standard Error |
| Yes | 65.89% | 3.07% |
| No | 34.11% | 3.07% |
| Salary | (USD) | Standard Error |
| All Respondents | $64,255 | $1,706 |
| Employed Full-Time | $67,178 | $1,519 |
As students continue their job search after graduation, job placement trends upwards, with 89% of graduates being placed within 120 days of graduation.
| 27.17% | 61.23% | 78.99% | 88.77% | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| placed | placed | placed | placed | |||
| 30 DAYS | 60 DAYS | 90 DAYS | 120 DAYS |
School Services and Satisfaction
Many schools offer services to help prepare students for the job market. Almost all students report receiving some form of assistance: resume prep, apprenticeship, on-site interviews, and more.
| Resume Preparation Assistance | % | Standard Error |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 93.27% | 2.22% |
| No | 6.73% | 2.22% |
| Apprenticeship/Internship Placement | % | Standard Error |
| Yes | 53.26% | 2.90% |
| No | 46.74% | 2.90% |
| On-Site Interviews | % | Standard Error |
| Yes | 55.79% | 2.90% |
| No | 65.34% | 3.01% |
| Job Guarantee | % | Standard Error |
| Yes | 34.66% | 3.01% |
| No | 65.34% | 3.01% |
Most coding bootcamp graduates have one job after graduating- 59%. 35.73% still work at the first job they got after graduation. For students who have had more than one job after graduation, the average length they spend in their first job was about 7.2 months ranging from 1 month to 32 months. As bootcamp graduates accept second and third jobs, their average salaries also jump (Table 14).
| Number of Post-Graduation Jobs | % | Standard Error |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 29% | 3.88% |
| 1 | 59% | 3.97% |
| 2 | 9% | 3.39% |
| 3 | 3% | 0.73% |
| Avg Salary Change | USD | Standard Error |
|---|---|---|
| From 1st job to 2nd job | $13,055 | $1,646 |
| From 2nd job to 3rd job | $22,111 | $5,040 |
| From 1st job to 3rd job | $14,285 | $4,666 |
| Job Title | Count |
|---|---|
| Software Engineer | 101 |
| Developer | 42 |
| Web Developer | 35 |
| Software Developer | 27 |
| Front-End Developer | 21 |
| Junior Developer | 21 |
| Full-stack Developer | 12 |
| Teacher Assistant | 10 |
| Associate Software Developer | 9 |
| Intern | 7 |
School Satisfaction
Graduates report an average satisfaction rating of 8.42/10 and would recommend their coding bootcamp to a friend 8.46/10.
| Overall Program Satisfaction | Standard Error | |
|---|---|---|
| Satisfaction (1-10) | 8.42 | 0.14 |
| Recommended (1-10) | 8.46 | 0.19 |
Success Insights
Because of the stellar participation in this year's survey, we were able to analyze post-bootcamp success by a number of factors, including location, race, gender, educational attainment, and more. The following tables dig deep into analyzing the types of students who see the most success after graduating from a coding bootcamp.
Income
The average bootcamper reported an $18K lift in salary after graduating from a bootcamp. Do low-income students experience the same increase in salary as middle and high income students? We find that low-income students see a lower average post-bootcamp salary than middle and high-income students, but a high lift in salary after graduation (~$36K lift). Pre-bootcamp income seems not to have a significant impact on ability to land a job as a developer after graduation.
| Post-graduation Salary | Mean (USD) | Standard Error |
|---|---|---|
| Prior income ≤ $30,000 | $55,463 | $1,403 |
| $30,000 < Prior income ≤ $50,000 | $63,646 | $1,374 |
| Prior income > $50,000 | $75,529 | $2,386 |
| Change in Salary after Graduation | Mean (USD) | Standard Error |
| Prior income ≤ $30,000 | $35,620 | $1,779 |
| $30,000 < Prior income ≤ $50,000 | $23,257 | $1,726 |
| Prior income > $50,000 | $1,809 | $1,702 |
| Employed full-time in job requiring bootcamp skills | % | Standard Error |
| Prior income > $50,000 | 67.52% | 3.44% |
| $30,000 < Prior income ≤ $50,000 | 70.28% | 3.32% |
| Prior income > $50,000 | 63.27% | 1.75% |
Educational Attainment
The average bootcamp graduate reported a post-bootcamp salary of $67,000. However, there is a strong relationship between pre-bootcamp educational attainment and post-bootcamp salary. Students with a Doctorate degree reported the highest average salary of $111,399.
Bootcampers with a Masters Degree are most likely to be employed as a developer after graduation (~72% reported being employed). One caveat to note is that students with an Associate's Degree experienced a the highest lift in salary after graduating from a bootcamp- $30,133. Even students with only a high school degree or "some college" saw positive outcomes (Table 17).
| Post-graduation Salary | Mean (USD) | Standard Error |
|---|---|---|
| High school | $55,000 | $1,270 |
| Some college | $52,078 | $1,626 |
| Associate's degree | $60,857 | $1,185 |
| Bachelor's degree | $64,439 | $1,388 |
| Master's degree | $74,950 | $2,773 |
| Doctorate degree | $111,399 | $2,402 |
| Change in Salary after Graduation | Mean (USD) | Standard Error |
| High school | $10,000 | $8,890 |
| Some college | $10,383 | $2,166 |
| Associate's degree | $30,133 | $467 |
| Bachelor's degree | $21,793 | $1,618 |
| Master's degree | $22,705 | $1,386 |
| Doctorate degree | $28,888 | $2,569 |
| Employed full-time in job requiring bootcamp skills | % | Standard Error |
| High school | 62.06% | 1.67% |
| Some college | 52.52% | 3.88% |
| Associate's degree | 58.92% | 4.99% |
| Bachelor's degree | 67.12% | 2.81% |
| Master's degree | 71.72% | 2.07% |
| Doctorate degree | 67.07% | 4.18% |
Programming Experience
As expected, students who had more experience in programming before attending a coding bootcamp tend to have higher average salaries and are more likely to be employed in a programming job after graduating. However, for bootcampers who reported that they worked in a full-time programming position before attending a bootcamp, the average salary lift was quite low (Table 18).
| Post-graduation Salary | Mean (USD) | Standard Error |
|---|---|---|
| None | $59,774 | $1,608 |
| Some programming in my free time | $63,662 | $1,489 |
| Some programming at work | $69,525 | $3,126 |
| Full-time programming at work | $74,900 | $420 |
| Other | $72,384 | $1,199 |
| Change in Salary after Graduation | Mean (USD) | Standard Error |
| None | $14,2013 | $1,667 |
| Some programming in my free time | $21,924 | $1,841 |
| Some programming at work | $21,034 | $1,762 |
| Full-time programming at work | $1,400 | $1,520 |
| Other | $23,612 | $687 |
| Employed full-time in job requiring bootcamp skills | % | Standard Error |
| None | 62.43% | 1.96% |
| Some programming in my free time | 66.00% | 3.85% |
| Some programming at work | 73.18% | 2.53% |
| Full-time programming at work | 38.86% | 4.90% |
| Other | 81.47% | 3.27% |
Race/Ethnicity
Coding bootcampers who identify as Asian American have a higher average salary after graduating from a coding bootcamp and are most likely to be employed as a developer after graduating. Memo: American Indian was not included in Table 19a as there were only three cases.
| Post Graduation Salary | Mean (USD) | Standard Error |
|---|---|---|
| Asian American | $78,135 | $1,881 |
| Black | $61,476 | $1,086 |
| Other | $60,734 | $1,758 |
| White | $61,159 | $1,702 |
| Change in Salary after Graduation | Mean (USD) | Standard Error |
| Asian American | $18,238 | $2,068 |
| Black | $15,555 | $2,993 |
| Other | $14,153 | $3,097 |
| White | $21,139 | $3,377 |
| Employed Full-Time in Job requiring Bootcamp Skills | % | Standard Error |
| Asian American | 73.37% | 2.19% |
| Black | 60.12% | 0.39% |
| Other | 57.67% | 3.04% |
| White | 65.63% | 2.58% |
| Post Graduation Salary | Mean (USD) | Standard Error |
|---|---|---|
| Hispanic Origin- Yes | $64,062 | $1,734 |
| Hispanic Origin- No | $63,379 | $1,310 |
| Change in Salary after Graduation | Mean (USD) | Standard Error |
| Hispanic Origin- Yes | $10,741 | $1,932 |
| Hispanic Origin- No | $21,319 | $3,793 |
| Employed Full-Time in Job requiring Bootcamp Skills | % | Standard Error |
| Hispanic Origin- Yes | 67.36% | 3.48% |
| Hispanic Origin- No | 65.68% | 3.06% |
Gender
Women make up 36% of the coding bootcamp industry; Women also reported a higher average salary after graduating from a coding bootcamp. Men and Women are equally likely to be employed as a developer after graduation. Memo: "Non-binary" was not included in Table 20 as there were only four cases.
| Post-graduation Salary | Salary (USD) | Standard Error |
|---|---|---|
| Male | $59,379 | $1,742 |
| Female | $69,747 | $1,479 |
| Change in Salary After Graduation | Mean (USD) | Standard Error |
| Male | $14,839 | $3,431 |
| Female | $25,283 | $1,918 |
| Employed full-time in job requiring bootcamp skills | & | Standard Error |
| Male | 65.98% | 2.51% |
| Female | 65.92% | 3.89% |
Programming Language
While JavaScript has been gaining popularity in coding bootcamps since 2014, graduates who learned Python report the highest salary after graduation and the most drastic change in salary after graduation (Table 21). Student who reported learning C# are most likely to be employed as a developer after graduation (71%).
| Post-Graduation Salary | Mean (USD) | Standard Error |
|---|---|---|
| C# | $65,390 | $3,088 |
| Objective-C | $53,506 | $2,944 |
| Java | $37,500 | $2,500 |
| JavaScript | $58,837 | $4,392 |
| PHP | $44,626 | $2,735 |
| Python | $80,368 | $1,872 |
| Ruby | $60,333 | $1,615 |
| Other | $52,365 | $2,682 |
| Change in Salary After Graduation | % | Standard Error |
| C# | $16,298 | $4,568 |
| Objective-C | $12,125 | $3,757 |
| Java | $21,500 | $1,500 |
| JavaScript | $12,773 | $10,589 |
| PHP | $-2,228 | $9,342 |
| Python | $33,713 | $3,281 |
| Ruby | $19,787 | $2,042 |
| Other | $15,531 | $3,219 |
| Employed full-time in job requiring bootcamp skills | % | Standard Error |
| C# | 71.1% | 6.5% |
| Objective-C | 48.4% | 8.3% |
| Java | -- | -- |
| JavaScript | 53.6% | 3.2% |
| PHP | 76.5% | 5.1% |
| Python | 65.6% | 5.6% |
| Ruby | 67.7% | 3.7% |
| Other | 48.9% | 6.2% |
Location
Cities with the highest average salaries remain the large tech hubs with plenty of developer jobs: Palo Alto, San Francisco, Denver, New York City, Chicago and Boulder were among the cities with highest mean and median salaries (Table 23a). States like California, Colorado, New York, Illinois, and North Carolina were among the states with highest mean a median salaries. Note: Only cities with five or more cases were included in Table 22a and only states with 5 or more cases were included in Table 22b.
| City | Sample Size | Mean Salary | Median Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Palo Alto | 5 | $93,000 | $100,000 |
| San Francisco | 42 | $84,889 | $89,720 |
| Denver | 23 | $73,565 | $70,000 |
| New York City | 17 | $71,706 | $72,000 |
| Chicago | 24 | $66,733 | $65,000 |
| Boulder | 13 | $66,157 | $70,000 |
| Los Angeles | 5 | $65,160 | $70,000 |
| San Diego | 7 | $62,857 | $60,000 |
| Seattle | 16 | $60,075 | $69,900 |
| Santa Monica | 5 | $58,080 | $62,400 |
| Salt Lake City | 10 | $52,526 | $46,800 |
| Miami | 8 | $50,563 | $50,000 |
| Provo | 10 | $48,760 | $50,000 |
| Portland | 9 | $46,100 | $45,000 |
| London | 6 | $42,767 | $40,800 |
| Vancouver | 11 | $39,331 | $40,000 |
| Post Camp Employment Status | Sample Size | Mean Salary | Median Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 91 | $77,119 | $75,000 |
| Colorado | 43 | $73,582 | $72,000 |
| New York | 17 | $71,706 | $72,000 |
| Illinois | 31 | $64,229 | $62,500 |
| Washington | 24 | $62,857 | $69,500 |
| North Carolina | 13 | $61,465 | $65,000 |
| Oregon | 11 | $44,082 | $45,000 |
| Florida | 10 | $47,670 | $47,500 |
| Texas | 5 | $47,700 | $52,000 |
| British Colombia | 13 | $39,818 | $40,000 |
| UK | 9 | $38,400 | $38,400 |
Undergraduate Major
Does a students' academic background affect their success after a coding bootcamp? For respondents who reported earning Bachelor's Degrees, the highest salaried students studied IT, Art, Economics, English, and Engineering. Music majors saw the most drastic change in salary, and Foreign Language majors were most likely (100% in fact) to be employed as a developer after graduating from the bootcamp.
| Undergraduate Major | Sample Size | Mean | Median | Salary Change | Employed in a job requiring bootcamp skills |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IT | 4 | $79,667 | $80,000 | $19,000 | 75.00% |
| Art | 10 | $75,300 | $68,900 | $11,300 | 50.00% |
| Economics | 2 | $72,000 | $72,000 | $7,000 | 0.00% |
| English | 44 | $71,270 | $72,000 | $33,575 | 72.73% |
| Engineering | 33 | $69,610 | $70,000 | $3,100 | 63.64% |
| Foreign Language | 10 | $68,444 | $62,000 | $21,143 | 100.00% |
| Life Sciences | 55 | $67,043 | $62,000 | $29,120 | 76.36% |
| Political Science | 44 | $66,311 | $65,000 | $27,621 | 63.64% |
| Business | 76 | $65,985 | $65,000 | $11,362 | 68.42% |
| Graphic Design | 6 | $65,625 | $57,250 | $17,875 | 66.67% |
| Mathematics | 13 | $64,583 | $60,000 | $16,406 | 69.23% |
| Communications | 25 | $62,927 | $65,000 | $14,577 | 72.00% |
| Music | 12 | $60,113 | $60,700 | $37,843 | 66.67% |
| Other | 20 | $59,471 | $54,200 | $18,221 | 65.00% |
| Computer Science | 18 | $57,950 | $55,000 | $10,857 | 66.67% |
| Philosophy | 10 | $54,844 | $65,000 | $19,289 | 70.00% |
| Psychology | 25 | $54,506 | $56,000 | $14,631 | 64.00% |
| Health | 8 | $51,833 | $51,000 | $24,533 | 62.50% |
| Education | 2 | $37,440 | $37,440 | -$4,160 | 0.00% |
Tuition
Average tuition for a coding bootcamp is $11.8k, with most students paying for school themselves or with the help of family (Table 6). Some schools offer tuition reimbursement for students who receive job placement through the school, but only 5% of students report receiving such reimbursements.
| Tuition | Mean | Standard Error |
|---|---|---|
| Tuition | $11,852 | $106 |
| Source of Funding | % | Standard Error |
| Self | 49.17% | 2.96% |
| Family | 20.83% | 2.26% |
| External Loan | 18.97% | 2.28% |
| School (Scholarship) | 3.40% | 0.80% |
| Employer | 1.71%% | 0.26% |
| School Financing | 5.92% | 1.80% |
| Tuition Refund for Job Placement | % | Standard Error |
| Yes* | 5.36% | 0.32% |
| No | 94.64% | 0.32% |
* For those who received a refund, the average refund was 34% of the tuition cost ranging from 2% to 100%.
Notice in Table 8 that the use of external lending partners has increased drastically since 2013 (from 4% in 2013 to 25% in 2015). This is likely due to new lending providers like Affirm, Earnest, and Climb, who lend specifically to coding bootcamp students. The most popular lending partner is Climb Credit (Table 7). For 107 students who used External Loans, on average, about 87.11% of the tuition cost was covered by a lending partner. The distribution of lending partners is shown below for those 107 students who used External Loans.
| Lending Partner | % | Lending Partner | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Climb Credit | 21.50% | Avant Credit | 0.93% |
| Lendlayer (now Affirm) | 19.63% | Former Employer | 0.93% |
| Not Disclosed | 9.35% | Group Lend | 0.93% |
| Earnest | 8.41% | Lending Tree | 0.93% |
| Upstart | 7.48% | Ontario Works | 0.93% |
| Wells Fargo | 5.61% | Regions Bank | 0.93% |
| Credit Union | 2.80% | TD | 0.93% |
| Prosper | 2.80% | TFC Tuition | 0.93% |
| FinanceIt | 2.00% | Turing | 0.93% |
| LendingClub | 1.87% | Vectra Bank | 0.93% |
| Pave | 1.87% | Vouch | 0.93% |
| "Student Funder" | 1.87% | Western Union | 0.93% |
| Affirm | 0.93% | WorkBC | 0.93% |
| Type of Funding By Year | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self | 58.02% | 57.81% | 46.34% |
| Family | 20.38% | 22.59% | 19.18% |
| External Loan | 3.67% | 7.58% | 24.71% |
| School (Scholarship) | 5.93% | 1.89% | 3.59% |
| Employer | 3.28% | 2.46% | 1.36% |
| School Financing | 8.71% | 0.42% | 4.91% |
Participating Schools
Respondents in the 2015 Coding Bootcamp Student Outcomes & Demographics Study graduated from the following 44 bootcamps:
Methodology
We surveyed graduates from 43 qualifying coding schools, commonly referred to as "bootcamps." We received 769 responses from graduates, 665 of which met the criteria described below. The surveys were sent to graduates and all figures are self-reported by the respondents.
Inclusion Criteria
Coding bootcamps: to qualify for inclusion in the survey, a school must (a) offer full-time, in-person instruction of 40 or more hours of classroom time per week, (b) not be degree-granting, (c) provide programming-specific curriculum (schools specializing in product development, design, or marketing were excluded). Many schools offer courses at multiple campuses across a wide range of curriculum.
Graduates
To qualify for inclusion in the survey, individuals must have completed a course offered by a coding bootcamp (as defined above) prior to September 10, 2015.
Incentives
Participation in the survey was voluntary. An incentive for a $500 Amazon Giftcard was offered for participation.
Post-Stratification
Because bootcamps likely varied in the extent to which they distributed and advertised the survey to students, it is unlikely that our raw sample is representative of the overall population of students. To adjust for varying sampling probabilities across schools, we post-stratify the sample on school using the known (2014-2015) bootcamp sizes from a recent Course Report survey. Respondents are weighted such that the in-sample distribution of respondents across camps matches as closely as possible the known distribution of bootcamp sizes. Therefore, our estimates rely on a much weaker assumption than random sampling—we only need to assume that respondents are effectively randomly sampled within school strata.
Missing Data
Some respondents elected not to respond to certain questions (such as salary). Unless this non-response is completely random, dropping these respondents when calculating means would induce bias in the estimates. The current best practice for dealing with missing data is to impute multiple estimates of the missing values using a statistical model and the observed data. We use the multiple imputation algorithm developed in King, Honaker, Joseph and Scheve (2001) and implemented in the Amelia software package for this purpose.
About Course Report
Course Report, founded in 2013 by Adam Lovallo and Liz Eggleston, operates https://www.coursereport.com/, which helps potential students find and research coding bootcamp programs. Course Report offers a directory of schools, course schedules, thousands of reviews, and interviews with teachers, founders, students, and alumni.
