Written By Liz Eggleston
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Overview
Course Report is pleased to present our third Market Sizing Report, another in-depth, empirical study that takes stock of the coding bootcamp industry. The findings confirm continuing industry growth between 2015-2016.
Course Report polled every full-time, in-person US/Canadian bootcamp with courses in web and mobile development, gathering statistics on 2015 graduates and projected 2016 graduation rates. Our response rate was once again impressive: 96.7% of schools responded.
Key Findings
Coding bootcamps continue their rise in an industry that will graduate over 17,966 students in 2016. Course Report found:
- In 2016, the bootcamp market will grow by 1.7x, to an estimated 17,966 graduates in 2016, up from 10,333 in 2015.
- As a point of comparison, we estimate that there were 61,408 undergraduate computer science graduates from accredited US universities in 2015. (See Footnote 1)
- In 2016, the sheer number of bootcamp providers has grown to 91, compared to 67 last year.
- Average tuition price of qualifying courses is $11,451, with an average program length of 12.9 weeks. This is compared with averages of $11,063 and 10.8 weeks in 2015.
- We estimate that tuition revenue from qualifying US schools will be $199M in 2016, excluding scholarships.
- This year, Full Stack JavaScript surpassed Ruby on Rails as the most common teaching language, used in 33% of courses. Ruby on Rails remains popular, but now accounts for 30% of courses.
- As of June 1, there are coding bootcamps in 69 US cities and 34 states!
| 2017 Coding Bootcamp Market Sizing Report |
| 2016 Coding Bootcamp Market Sizing Report |
| 2016 Graduate Outcomes + Demographics Study |
| 2015 Coding Bootcamp Market Size Study |
1 We estimated undergraduate CS graduates by using the 2015 Taulbee Study, published by the CRA (http://cra.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/2015-Taulbee-Survey.pdf) The Taulbee Study is a survey of PhD-granting departments, released annually in May. The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics compiles statistics on undergraduate degrees, but hasn’t published statistics since 2011. We assumed that Taulbee captured 26% of the total undergraduate degrees, based on the most recent comparison published at http://cra.org/crn/2012/11/counting_computing_cra_taulbee_survey_and_nsf_statistics.
Results
Market Size
After surveying school representatives from the 91 qualifying US/Canada-based coding bootcamps, Course Report estimates a 74% growth rate for the coding bootcamp market in 2016.
| 2013 graduates (actual) | 2,178 |
| 2014 graduates (actual) | 6,740 |
| 2015 graduates (actual) | 10,333 |
| 2016 graduates (projected) | 17,966 |
| Estimated growth rate | 74% |
| Overall growth rate since 2013 | 112% |
Among the respondents, 17 schools reported “zero” graduates in 2015. That group expects to graduate 837 students in 2016. Among the schools operating in 2015, all but 6 schools expect to grow (see Footnote 2). The number of schools offering full-time programming courses in the US/CA has increased from 67 in 2015 to 91 in 2016.
2 Note: Mobile Makers Academy operated immersive bootcamps in 2015, but will change their model to serve high school students in 2016, and are therefore not expected to grow. Starter League operated an immersive bootcamp in 2015, but was acquired by Fullstack Academy, and are therefore not expected to grow (their graduate numbers are included with Fullstack Academy). Tradecraft no longer offers an immersive Engineering track, and are therefore not expected to grow in 2016.
Teaching Languages
Coding bootcamps have historically been taught using Ruby on Rails; however, in 2016, Full-Stack JavaScript (aka MEAN Stack) has overtaken Rails as the primary teaching language. 33% of courses reported MEAN Stack as the primary programming language (Table 3a). Not only are schools new to the market choosing JavaScript, but established bootcamps are also migrating their curricula to emphasize MEAN Stack.
Despite the growing popularity of MEAN Stack, the number of Rails graduates still outnumbers the number of MEAN Stack graduates. 47% of coding bootcamp graduates are Rails developers, while 29% graduate as MEAN Stack developers (Table 3b). We attribute this to large coding bootcamps like General Assembly, Dev Bootcamp, and The Iron Yard, who still primarily teach Rails and are graduating a significant number of Rails developers. However, most programs focus on Full-Stack Web Development, with significant instruction time spent on CSS/HTML/JavaScript.
TABLE 3a: TOP TEACHING LANGUAGES BY COURSE
TABLE 3b: TOP TEACHING LANGUAGES BY GRADUATES
Tuition
Tuition ranges from free to $21,000 for a course, with an average tuition of $11,451. Courses range from 8 to 36 weeks, but most courses are in the 10-12 week range with an average of 12.9 weeks. Our study focuses on full-time programs, where students typically commit at least 40 hours per week, between classroom and programming time.
| Tuition | % |
|---|---|
| Less than $5000 | 5.2% |
| $5000 - $9,999 | 24.0% |
| $10,000 - $14,999 | 54.2% |
| Greater than $15,000 | 13.5% |
| Deferred Tuition | 3.1% |
Based on our estimate of 17,966 students in 2016, we estimate tuition revenue at $199,169,551 in 2016, excluding rebates and scholarships. Some schools also collect placement fees from employers for students accepting full-time jobs after graduation. Many schools offer job-placement rebates, ranging from a few thousand dollars to the entire tuition. Typically, rebates are offered to students who receive a qualifying job through the school’s job placement program or in the form of a money-back guarantee for students not placed in jobs.
In 2016, 6 schools offer “Deferred Tuition,” including App Academy and Grace Hopper Academy. Deferred Tuition refers to a payment model in which students pay the school a percentage (18%-22.5%) of their salary for 1-3 years after graduation, instead of upfront tuition.
Location (US)
As of June 1, 2016, there are coding bootcamps in 69 US cities and 34 states.
| City | # bootcamps |
|---|---|
| San Francisco | 13 |
| New York City | 13 |
| Seattle | 12 |
| Chicago | 9 |
| Austin | 8 |
| State | # bootcamps |
|---|---|
| California | 28 |
| Texas | 18 |
| Washington | 13 |
| New York | 13 |
| North Carolina | 11 |
Location (Canada)
As of June 1, 2016, there are coding bootcamps in 8 Canadian cities and 5 provinces.
| City | # bootcamps |
|---|---|
| Toronto | 4 |
| Vancouver | 3 |
| Montreal | 2 |
| State | # bootcamps |
|---|---|
| Ontario | 5 |
| British Columbia | 5 |
| Quebec | 2 |
Comparison to 2015 Study
Accuracy
Our 2015 Market Sizing Study projected the 2015 market size to be 16,065 graduates. Our 2016 study finds that the actual market size in 2015 was 10,333 graduates. Thus our 2015 report overestimated 2015 growth. Last year, our 2014 report underestimated year-over-year growth by 11%.
Canada
The 2016 Market Sizing Study again includes Canadian bootcamps. These 6 Canadian bootcamps graduated 701 students in 2015, will graduate an estimated 1,029 in 2016, and will generate ~$6.8M in revenue in 2016. The most popular teaching language in Canadian bootcamps is divided evenly between Ruby on Rails and MEAN Stack.
Participating Schools
Respondents in the 2016 Coding Bootcamp Student Outcomes & Demographics Study graduated from the following 91 bootcamps:
Missing from 2016 Study:
10 bootcamps are not included in the 2016 study which were included in 2015, for a variety of reasons.
- Only three schools were unresponsive or refused to participate: CodedByU, Fire Bootcamp, and Hack Dojo.
- Starter League was acquired by Fullstack Academy. 2015 data is included under “Starter League,” but 2016 data is included under “Fullstack Academy.”
- Coding Campus rebranded to V School.
- School of Devs rebranded to Hack Dojo. Unfortunately, Hack Dojo was non-responsive in this report.
- Portland Code School, RocketU, and RockIT Bootcamp are closed.
- Philly Dev Camp, SeedPaths, Learn.Modern Developer, CoderVox, and Astro Code School no longer offer immersive, in-person coding bootcamps.
Methodology
In our third annual Course Report Survey, we surveyed a total of 91 US/Canada-based coding schools, commonly referred to as “bootcamps” or “accelerated learning programs.” Of the schools surveyed, which had to meet a set of criteria described below, 88 completed the survey, for a response rate of 96.70 percent. The surveys were sent to school representatives and graduation figures are self-reported by the respondents.
INCLUSION CRITERIA
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 through an accredited college or university, (c) provide coding-specific curriculum with a focus on Full-Stack Web Development, Mobile Development, or Front-End Web Development (a separate report will be released for schools specializing in product development, data science, design, or marketing), and (d) based in the United States or Canada. Many schools offer courses at multiple campuses across a wide range of curriculum. Respondents were asked to only report on courses meeting the above criteria (full-time, in-person, non-accredited, programming-specific, United States/Canada).
2016 Forecast
All participants reported the number of students who graduated in 2015. All participants also provided estimates of their expected, 2016 graduate total.
Course Analysis
In addition to survey responses, we utilized the Course Report database of individual course sections to identify a sample of 193 courses (used in Table 2 and Table 3). To qualify for our sample, the course needed to meet all of the above criteria and have a start date in 2016.
