University of Denver Boot Camps

 When I signed up for this boot camp, I was told by one of the administrators that this was a credentialed and respected program within the Software industry. As it turns out, this really isn't accurate. The first thing that everyone should know, is that this isn’t a real Denver University program. It’s owned and operated by a company called Trilogy. Secondly, even though I like and respected the teaching staff, they are expected to pull off an impossible task. There is no way to cram what is typically four years worth of coding curriculum into three(full-time) or six(part-time) months and honestly expect students to learn the skills required to properly excel. Also, even though there is access to tutors you can only have a max of two(full-time) or one(part-time) sessions per week. Given the immense amount of information students must retain in order to be competent, this really isn’t even close to enough. Thirdly, this program failed to mention until the very end of the course (when you can no longer ask for a refund) that boot camps do not have a very good reputation in the Software industry. This is a pretty important piece of information to hold out on when you consider the main reason people sign up and pay for this course. Yes, this program does offer career coaching however, there is only so much assistance they can provide during a twenty-minute weekly review session. The fourth, and one of the last things all mention is the actual student success rate. It’s been a year to the date of when the other students and I began this course and I have kept tabs and connections with the other students,  Of the twenty-five plus students in my class (which I’m connected to via LinkedIn), four of them got jobs in the Software industry, and of those four only two actually work in a developer role, of the other two, one is in a sales position and the other is in a project manager position. That means the chance of this program getting you into the Software industry is less than seven percent and the chances of it getting you into a developer role is less than four percent.  In summary, Trilogy is simply using the cover of DU and many other universities across the country to appear as a prestigious program so that they can sell the idea of a life changing course to people trying to break into the Software industry. from mine and many others experience, this is really just false advertising. A year ago, I was eleven-thousand dollars richer and I could have used that money in many different and more beneficial ways. Not just to get into the Software industry but to improve the overall quality of mine and my families life in general. Instead I was played a fool, encouraged to “invest in my future” by one of Trilogy’s administrators. What did I actually receive from my eleven-thousand dollar investment? A very basic and elementary knowledge of far too many and in certain cases irrelevant technologies and languages. Plus a certificate that so far has only proven to be completely worthless amongst potential employers. I really don’t want to sound like a bitter person. My only hopes by writing this review is that it will hopefully prevent people from making the same mistake that I made.    

(The title of this review is qualified because I am about 2/3 of the way through, so I don't yet know about getting a job)

My original training is in music performance and teaching. I have a doctorate in performance and pedagogy of music. About six months before enrolling I took a long, hard look at my professional life, and came to the realization that it is not sustainable over the long run. 
Once that has been determined, I started teaching myself to code online, to see if this could be a viable thing for me to do. I didn't hate it, so I decided to proceed with enrolling in a coding Bootcamp. 
I decided to go to the DU Bootcamp after researching the available options in my area. While the backing of a major university, as well as the (relatively) low admission price were appealing, what actually made my decision was their teachers and study environment: I attended a couple of events and audited a class before choosing and enrolling, and I learned how dedicated to teaching they were (in sharp contrast to the other coding Bootcamp I identified as an option before deciding on DU).

This looks like the best decision I made in my entire life. While learning online, I discovered I don't hate coding. From the first week at the Bootcamp I discovered that I actually love it and am good at it. I can honestly say that I have never enjoyed learning or doing anything as much as I am enjoying this camp and the learning experience. I am incredibly hopeful that I will be able to get a job and continue doing such fun things and be paid for it!

I would strongly recommend this camp. I think one of the main reasons I am so pleased with it is that the faculty (teachers, TAs) are all super happy to help with anything: I find myself having conversations with them about code all the time. My advice is to take advantage of the resources offered in the camp, and become a resource yourself: I put together and am leading a weekly study group where we work on our homework assignments. Through this activity I have been able to inculcate the learning I do in class. 

The six-month part-time full-stack Coding Boot Camp at DU was an intense and excellent learning experience!

I started the Boot Camp with zero knowledge or background in computer coding, technology, or any STEM-related field. While there was a steep learning curve, especially in the first few months, the dedication and genuine care and encouragement of the staff (instructor, TA's, tutor, and student coordinator), as well as the mutual support of the tight-knit community of newly made friends within the class made it not only possible, but honestly enjoyable to power-through the rough days and become a competent app developer. I am now able to say Ithat I am a full-stack developer (albeit a new one) with a new-found skill-set that makes me a marketable professional in a brand new, exciting field. My group of friends from Coding Boot Camp and I were able to launch a new start-up and secure our first paid, professional web dev contract weeks before we even graduated!

Coding Boot Camp was so much hard work and required a very high degree of commitment and tenacity to get through. It was really hard. But, the DU Coding Boot Camp program was well designed and executed, and in the end I learned more than I thought possible. I would recommend it to anyone who has a passion for learning to code and a stubborn commitment to complete the things you have started.

 

The 6 month course (10hrs a week in the evenings and on Saturdays) was a rough schedule but really worth it. You learn a TON. I entered the class as an absolute beginner, and I'd say I ended about middle of the pack - some of the students ended up creating really amazing final projects - it's a matter of how much you put into it. You have to really be willing to put your life on hold and dedicate yourself to the course (especially if you are working a full time job simultaneously), but if you can do that you will get a ton of value out of it. My teacher was exceptional, and I think that could really make or break the class.

I took this bootcamp with a goal of learning more about the web development side of business with a leaning towards analytical business processes and was very pleased with what I learned. It takes more of a broad approach - we covered a ton of topics and didn't get a chance to go very deep into any one area, but thats what I was looking for. I think you would be able to focus on certain aspects of the class and learn them deeper if you wanted to, my teacher was very available and the TA's were helpful too. 

You get to work on several overaching projects over the course of the class that really let you explore what you want, and overall it's a very supportive environment where you can learn, experiment, and try your best on interesting projects even if you can't fully complete them.

I really enjoyed the bootcamp - but it was one of the most difficult things I have ever done. It's worth it if you can put in the time and effort.

I attended this course from Nov. 2018- Feb 2019 and I would like to give my honest opinions without paragraphs of mindless reading:
 

Pros:

• My teacher and TA's were beyond knowledgable and helpful.
• My teacher, Sarah, is basically an encyclopedia of knowledge that can break things down into 3rd grade level terms (well... as much as it is possible). 
• Our Admin, Caleb is also very knowledgable and checked in on our class during crucial times (in the beginning, during some project time, before graduation and he was there at graduation). This was good to bounce questions off at strategic times (in my eyes atleast).
• My class was a good size of about 25 people. We had a lot of diversity between those that are natural coders vs people like me who thought code just looked like the computer malfunctioned after pouring hot coffee over the keyboard.
• We learned A TON! I mean, I thought I would be able to know it all inside and out, but I was very wrong. This is both a plus and minus but more of a plus since I feel like I got the birds eye view of what I actually enjoyed (which is different from what I initially thought). 
• PROJECTS! I had a great experience with my group, in fact, we kept the same group for the most part over the three projects. This is where I felt that all of my classroom headscratching turned into actual knowledge. I felt comfortable enough writing JavaScript and React during these projects which is what I was a little shakey on in class.
• Abundance of resources. As part of a class joke, we would say, "don't worry, I will send out a few articles about this" any time there was a question. There are a ton of good resources that can guide you to top level discovery or deeply nested "secret" functionality of any subject. These are great for study materials since re-doing projects were not my favorite thing to do. 

Now to the cons:

• This 12 week course is TOUGH. I mean really tough. I have never been the best student and my study skills are unrefined, which made this class cause crazy emotional roller coasters.
• Working even a part time job does not seem like a great idea. This in itself can stack on the amount of stress. There is a lot of stuff to read up on and go through. In the beginning weeks, I feel like it was "easy enough" to knock through things, but once you dig deeper into JavaScript, your homeworks will take you a few nights (aka the week nights). 
• I felt like some of the stuff was too "top level". We didn't specialize in any one area which leads to general knowledge (see the job section below). 
• Career Services doesn't exist until AFTER you're done with class. I see how doing this will help us not be overwhelmed, but I beleive there should be more than just basic "sign up and fill out this information" milestones. I feel that there should be someone dedicated to speaking, and keeping up with all the students as they move through the class.
• Career services also seem to be basic: Resume help, sample non-technical interview questions, profile building. All are good to know, but shouldn't be the primary source of help. Also, there was no notice of any meetups (thankfully, our class made a channel for this).
• JOB SECTION - in addition to the above, the entry level job market is tough to break into. There are a lot of additional requirements it seems and this can prolong the time to enter into the industry. I feel like my skillset is basic and top level and many jobs require additional skill sets. This is tough to jugle and most likely will need you to "specialize" in something outside of just HTML, CSS and JavaScript. My advice - START LOOKING AT JOB/ JOB REQUIREMENTS ONCE YOU START JAVASCRIPT! Keep looking at the common languages being requested and learn one or two of them in one of your projects. This will help SO much. 
• The cost - yeah, it is like $1000 a week which is tough while you're not working. That being said, I know my reasons to break into the industry and the money/ freedom is there, so this is more of a heads up than a knock against the program. 

 

Overall, I highly recommend the program, especially with Sarah Cullen. You will feel a crazy sense of accomplisment and you will have the opportunity to earn a decent wage while gaining life freedoms. Very good program and I am very happy with my decision.

I started out my programming journey learning Swift/iOS part-time, maybe 10 hours a week if I was lucky. As I got more serious about programming, I decided to take the DU Full Stack Web Development Bootcamp and it was the best decision I could have made at the time. Trying to learn on my own was difficult, it was hard to set a structure, some concepts weren't clicking and I found myself moving on to new topics before really grasping the current topic I was learning. DU's bootcamp gave me that structure and forced me to solidify concepts before moving on to the next. It was also very helpful to be able to listen to lectures, ask questions and then put new knowledge into practice right away. With all that being said, it was a very demanding course and you get out of it what you put into it. It will be very hard to succeed unless you put in the recommended hours outside of class. I was able to land a job right out of class as a junior web developer. The company I worked for also had an iOS app that I was able to help out on. That led to me landing my first full time iOS job this month! DU's bootcamp really sped up my learning curve and I wouldn't be where I am now without it. I would definitely recommend this course to anyone serious about programming. 

This course was overall challenging, but fun. I had no prior coding experience, but was able to understand most of the information presented. I loved my teachers and TAs—they were really supportive and always happy to help. Although I am not working in the industry yet, this was a great self-development course that showed me a whole new world. I am still really interested in coding, and will continue to do selves development courses until I find a job. As far as aspects that could be improved: I wish we had more class hours, as there is so much material, and I couldn’t always master one idea before we had to move to the next concept. But overall, this was a great introduction to coding and gave me a solid foundation to continue to improve my skills and knowledge.