2016 Course Report Alumni Outcomes & Demographics Study

Overview

Course Report is excited to present the results of our latest and most comprehensive survey of graduates in the coding bootcamp space. We surveyed graduates from 52 qualifying coding schools and received 1,143 qualified graduate responses.

The majority of graduates of coding bootcamps are finding full-time employment, and 73% of graduates surveyed report being employed in a full-time job requiring the skills learned at bootcamp, with an average salary increase of 64% or $26,021. 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 third 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 $26,021 average increase in their first job after attending a coding bootcamp.

 

In addition, bootcamp attendees are more likely to be working full-time after graduation.

 

As students continue their job search after graduation, job placement trends upwards. 89% of job-seeking respondents who took the survey 120+ days after graduation were placed.

The outcomes report also finds:

• 73% report working in a job requiring the skills learned at bootcamp, compared to 1.4% working as full-time programmers beforehand.
• The average student paid $11,792 in tuition.
• The typical attendee is 30 years old, has 6.8 years of work experience, has at least a Bachelor's degree, and has never worked as a programmer.
• 43.3% of bootcamp graduates are female.
• Graduates report an average satisfaction rating of 8.83/10.
• Use of external lending partners has increased drastically since 2014 (from 8% in 2014 to 17% in 2016). 

The "Survey Results" tab shows interesting insights like:

• Undergraduate Law majors saw the greatest salary jump after attending a bootcamp. Graphic Design majors are most likely to be employed using the skills they learned at a bootcamp after graduation. 
• Graduates working in San Francisco boast the highest average salary of the cities in this report (California has the highest average salary of any state, but check out where Washington falls!)
• Coding bootcamps provide a $39,190 lift in salary for low-income students, compared to a $2,347 lift in salary for high-income students. 
• Students with only a High School degree experienced the highest lift in salary after graduating from a bootcamp: $33,300. 76.4% of bootcamp graduates have at least a Bachelor's Degree.
• Students who learned Python continue to have the highest average salaries after graduation (~$90K). Students who learned PHP at a bootcamp are most likely to be employed using the skills they learned at a bootcamp after graduation. 

 

 

Results

Student Demographic Profile

Respondents self-reported demographic information such as age, gender, and race. The student profile is summarized below in Table 1.

 

Many coding bootcamps offer scholarships for women, so we compare our findings on gender enrollment to the 2015 Taulbee Survey, an annual survey of computer science programs at accredited universities. The Taulbee study estimated that 15.7% of 2015 bachelor degrees were awarded to females. Our study suggests that bootcamps (43.3% female) compare favorably to traditional computer science departments (as well as masters programs) on gender diversity.

Location

Majority of bootcampers attended their courses in San Francisco, while California was the state that had the highest amount of bootcamp graduates.

Pre-Bootcamp Work Experience

Most respondents were not employed as software developers prior to attending bootcamp, with an estimated 10.9% reporting some programming at work, and only 1.4% programming full-time prior to enrolling.

 

The average previous work experience among students is ~7 years, although 17.4% report being unemployed prior to bootcamp enrollment, as shown in Table 4a. 

 * Median salary for all respondents is $40,000

** Median salary full-time working respondents is $44,000

The majority of bootcampers had an income level between $25k-$50k before attending bootcamp, as seen in Table 4b.

Pre-Bootcamp Industry

The most popular industries that Bootcampers were in before attending bootcamp, as seen in Table 5, included Hospitality/ Retail/ Tourism, IT/Web Development/Design, and Consulting (Business, Management, etc). 

Applications & Student Expectations

Most graduates report applying to a coding bootcamp in order to gain a job as a programmer (89%), and 4% 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. On average, bootcampers apply to 1.4 schools and are accepted to 1.3 schools. 

 

Finally, the most important factor to a future bootcamper when deciding between bootcamps are Job Placement Outcomes. Average ratings (Table 7) give some idea about the importance of factors. Job Placement Outcomes are the most important factor, then Quality of Instruction. Teaching Language and Location have about the same importance, followed by Tuition; Scholarships and Quality of Facilities are the least important factors. 

 

 

 

Tuition

Average tuition for a coding bootcamp is $11,792, with most students paying for school themselves or with the help of family and external loans (Table 8). Some schools offer tuition reimbursement for students who receive job placement through the school, but only 5% of students report receiving such reimbursements. 

* For those who received a refund, the average refund was 44.5% of the tuition cost ranging from 18% to 100%.

The most popular lending partners are Earnest and Climb Credit (Table 9). For 217 students who used External Loans, an average of 85.8% of the tuition cost was covered by a lending partner. The distribution of lending partners is shown below for those 217 students who used External Loans. Notice in Table 10 that the use of external lending partners has increased from 8.1% in 2014 to 17% in 2016.

 

 

 

 

Student Outcomes

Post-Bootcamp Employment

Overall, 73% of graduates report being employed full-time in a job requiring the skills learned at bootcamp. Among those, most (68%) are in salaried, full-time position, with others reporting working as an independent contractor or running their own business. Both these statistics have increased since our 2015 Outcomes & Demographics Report, when 66% of graduates reported using skills learned at bootcamp and 62% employed full-time post bootcamp.

 

As students continue their job search after graduation, job placement trends upwards, with 75% of job-seeking graduates being placed within 120 days of graduation and 44% finding a job in less than a month.

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.

Most coding bootcamp graduates (57%) have one job after graduating. 56.7% 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 8 months ranging from 1 month to 26 months. As bootcamp graduates accept second and third jobs, their average salaries also jump (Table 15). 

 

School Satisfaction

Graduates report an average satisfaction rating of 8.83/10 and would recommend their coding bootcamp to a friend 8.84 times out of 10. 

 

 

 

Success Insights

This year's survey garnered increased participation, so 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 a $26K 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 (~$39K lift). Pre-bootcamp income seems not to have a significant impact on ability to land a job as a developer after graduation.

 

Educational Attainment

The average bootcamp graduate reported a post-bootcamp salary of $66,887. However, there is a strong relationship between pre-bootcamp educational attainment and post-bootcamp salary. Students with a Master's degree reported the highest average salary of $75,806. 

Bootcampers with an Associate's Degree are most likely to be employed in a full-time job requiring skills learned at bootcamp (~84% reported being employed). Students with a High School Degree experienced the highest lift in salary after graduating from a bootcamp- $33,300. Our report reveals that bootcamp graduates with only a high school degree or "some college" saw very positive outcomes (Table 19). 

*Doctorate degrees accounted for ~1% of respondents.

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. Bootcampers who reported that they worked in a full-time programming position before attending a bootcamp experienced the highest average salary lift (Table 20). 

 

Industry Background

Table 21 shows that Tech, Software and E-commerce, are the most popular industries that bootcampers join after graduation. 

 

Race/Ethnicity

Coding bootcampers who identify as Black have a higher average salary after graduating from a coding bootcamp. Memo: American Indian was not included in Table 22a as there was only one case.

 

 

Gender

Women make up 43.3% of the coding bootcamp industry; Women also reported a higher average salary after graduating from a coding bootcamp. Men are more likely to be employed in a full-time job requiring skills learned at the bootcamp. Memo: "Non-binary" was not included in Table 23 as there were only 18 cases.

 

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 24). Graduates who reported learning PHP are most likely to be employed full-time in a job requiring skills learned at the boocamp(87%). 

 

Location

Cities with the highest average salaries remain the large tech hubs with plenty of developer jobs: San Francisco, Oakland, Seattle, New York City, and Denver were among the cities with highest mean and median salaries (Table 25a). States like California, Washington, Texas, New York, and Colorado were among the states with highest mean and median salaries. Note: Only cities with five or more cases were included in Table 25a and only states with 5 or more cases were included in Table 25b.

 

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 Law, Anthropology/History, IT, English, Physical Sciences and Mathematics. Law majors saw the most drastic change in salary, and Graphic Design majors were most likely (99% in fact) to be employed after graduation, in a full-time role requiring skills learned at the bootcamp. 

 

Tuition

Average tuition for a coding bootcamp is $11,792, with most students paying for school themselves or with the help of family (Table 27). Some schools offer tuition reimbursement for students who receive job placement through the school, but only 5% of students report receiving such reimbursements. 

* For those who received a refund, the average refund was 44.5% of the tuition cost ranging from 18% to 100%.

The most popular lending partners are Earnest and Climb Credit (Table 28). For 217 students who used External Loans, an average of 85.8% of the tuition cost was covered by a lending partner. The distribution of lending partners is shown below for those 217 students who used External Loans. Notice in Table 29 that the use of external lending partners has decreased since 2015 (from 25% in 2015 to 16% in 2016). This is likely due to the increase in school scholarship offerings now at 12% as opposed to 4% in 2015.

 

 

 

 

Participating Schools

Respondents in the 2016 Coding Bootcamp Student Outcomes & Demographics Study graduated from the following 52 bootcamps:

 

*This bootcamp is no longer operating.

 

 

Methodology

We surveyed graduates from 52 qualifying coding schools, commonly referred to as "bootcamps." We received 1495 responses from graduates, 1143 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.

Graduates

To qualify for inclusion in the survey, individuals must have completed a course offered by a coding bootcamp (as defined above) prior to August 12, 2016.     

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 (2015-2016) 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.

About Course Report

Course Report, founded in 2013 by Adam Lovallo and Liz Eggleston, operates https://www.coursereport.com/, which helps potential students find, research, and apply to coding bootcamp programs. Course Report offers a directory of schools, webinars, thousands of reviews, and interviews with teachers, founders, students, and alumni.