Rutgers Bootcamps

I graduate from this bootcamp next month (October 2016) and am proud to say that I've learned a ton over the last ~5 months. The TAs and instructors really care and do what they can to help us succeed, our Slack community is very active and they are always on there answering people's questions when we are not physically in class. All the classes are recorded and you can go back and watch them any time. And the vast majority of the people in the class have kept up with material, so one can derive that the pace is ideal, even for those with full-time jobs (of which there are many). The biggest testament to this fact are the recent round of group projects, which we presented for the class and were so cool. I'm talking beautiful, fully-functional websites with payments, databases, etc.

We have classes 3x a week, with the students being split between Monday/Wednesday and Tuesday/Thursday classes, and everyone meeting on Saturday. I'm in the Tuesday/Thursday group and our instructor Matt Kim is fantastic. He never gets frustrated and has a real talent for teaching the material and simplifying it based on our levels of understanding. We meet from 6:30 PM - 9:30 PM, with a ~30 minute break on the weekdays, and 10:30 AM to 2:30 PM on Saturdays, sometimes with a guest or career presentation afterwards.

The instructors are very helpful and stay late after each class to help those who need it, and are very responsive online as I've said, but we are expected to do our best to reinforce new concepts and research things we don't understand. This is how coding works: StackOverflow and Google are huge parts of the job. Your future employer can't (yet) install new knowledge directly into your brain via some microchip, or spend hours explaining every nuance of a new concept. You will be expected to know how to learn, and self-reliance in this area is crucial.

We started off learning front-end design, including HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, Javascript, jQuery, etc., and moved on roughly half way through the course to back-end development, focusing on Node.js. Now we are going back to the front-end, learning React. I feel as though I have a solid, balanced understanding of web development, and feel I've built up the necessary base of skills to teach myself any new programming concepts or languages that I need to know in the future. These days I have a strong sense of optimism about my future, being excited to take what I've learned and apply it to create something awesome.

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All that being said, there are a few categories of people who might fall behind to the point where they need to drop out:

1) People who aren't willing to put in the work. The instructors can't do the work for you. It requires a significant input of time and energy, but this is true of learning any new skill to such a high degree in six months.

2) People who are already very busy. This is simply a consequence of time being a limited resource. If you are working a full time job, trying to start a business in your free time and raising young children, you very well might not be able to handle the bootcamp, but that should be obvious. You need to have enough time available to complete the coursework.

3) People who know nothing about computers or coding. The course doesn't assume much foreknowledge, but it would be very wise to study HTML, CSS and Javascript to some degree before coming in, even if that means just taking the corresponding Codecademy classes. This will give you a good head start, and prevent you from getting overwhelmed, freaking out and starting to believe that you're not smart enough to learn to code.

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I started learning HTML, CSS, and Ruby on Rails a few months before the course, so the first few weeks weren't too challenging for me. I worried that the class would be too easy, but the pace quickly picked up, and the work became quite challenging, and continues to be so. That said, challenge is how we learn, and I am grateful to be learning so much in a relatively short amount of time.

I have yet to begin the career services part of the Bootcamp, which begins after we technically 'graduate' and is something we have to apply for and meet certain requirements. I gave "job assistance" 4 stars because I would have liked the job assistance requirements to be less intimidating--but they are still manageable. Based on my experience with the class, I expect that the career services will be very helpful for landing a job after the course ends. We have had career services talks on various Saturday classes which have provided us with great resume and LinkedIn advice.

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Overall, I would definitely recommend Rutgers Coding Bootcamp, and am happy to have found such a great bootcamp in New Jersey. I'm wholeheartedly grateful for my experience here.

I recently graduated from the Rutgers Coding Bootcamp and I couldn't feel more proud of myself.

Going into this, I knew the program would be intense and a lot of responsibility would fall on me to keep up with the workload. I was able to complete this program while attending work full time and dealing with the many ups and downs that life likes to throw at us.

The first two months of the program were met with feelings of hope, excitement, frustration and an overall feeling of being lost.

While the instructors do their best and will go above and beyond to help, it is up to us as students to help them guide us. I realized this a few weeks in. Learning to code is nothing like sitting in class for four years to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.

In order to make the most out of the class, reach out to the instructor, go to office hours and practice a little every day. If you do this, you will be off to a great start. Also, reach out to your peers and learn with them; they are probably just as nervous as you. The work can be intimidating, but let go of the fear and be open to having your mind challenged in the best of ways.

Halfway through the program is when I started feeling a little more comfortable and looking back at everything that I had learned and accomplished. Take pride in even the smallest steps because they will push you even further. At times, I still felt lost on some concepts, but all I needed to do was put in more time to learn on my own and ask the instructor for a one on one.

Towards the end of the class, almost everyone was still nervous and worried about being prepared for a job in this field. This feeling is okay, after talking to people in the field, even they still feel lost sometimes. Coding is about accepting the fact that you will never know everything, but being open to learning anything. Follow what your interest are and stay passionate. Even if you don't find a job right away, keep at it and stay positive.

All of the instructors for this program have been amazing. I have worked mostly with Ahmed and he has been an inspiration to me. He was always positive and helped lift my spirits when I was ready to walk away. Don't be afraid to reach out to the instructors if you are having a hard time and need support, they are understanding and want you to succeed.

As for the career services portion of the class, they put together a lot of networking events to attend; however, I personally couldn't make some of them due to work constraints. Even with this, they do offer many networking experiences to take advantage of as well as assistance with your resume and portfolio.

Something to keep in mind is that this program is constantly developing and growing stronger with every month that passes and every class that graduates. While the program isn't a smooth easy ride into the hands of a successful job offer, I would definitely recommend it to everyone interested in coding. This program challenges you as a person, as a coder and as a student. There are many lessons to be had. Take advantage of all the resources they provide to you and make the most out of it. You get what you put in, much like the garbage in garbage out expression.

Another huge positive for me was the flexibility of the course and being able to work full time while furthering my education. I’d also like to add a personal note from my experience as a woman in this field/program to other woman. There is a great amount of support for us in this field if you know where to look. Reach out to the instructors and career services as they will guide you to helpful resources. Don’t be intimidated if you walk into a class with only a handful of woman. Once everyone gets to know each other and the walls come down amazing things happen. Everyone was great and willing to help. Even if you do happen to come across a not so pleasant person just remember maybe they are having a hard time themselves.

For anyone interested in this class, don’t let your mind trick you into thinking you are less than and that you can’t do it. I know I struggled with that and looking back now, I am very proud of myself for the applications that I have built and the knowledge that I take with me. As well as the friends and long term support that I have come away with. Don’t give up - follow your dreams.

Update: I was able to find a lucrative job shortly after the program, while the job doesn't focus on coding alone, it is in the IT field and there will be times that I can use my coding skills. The decision to take this job over a strictly web based development job was a personal one, as it combined another passion of mine. I am very grateful for the coding bootcamp as this showed the interviewer that I was dedicated, hardworking and willing to put in effort. The excellent recommendation from the instructor helped greatly!

I’ll leave you with a cheesy yet feel good quote - I know they have helped me keep going when I least expected it.

"If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough" - Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

I can definitely reccomend the bootcamp to anyone who is roughly in my position -- I had a little prior experience doing programming, and a little bit of familiarity with the unix command line, but that was it.  I had never worked in IT, and hadn't touched a programming language or tried to hand code HTML since high school.  The only javascript I knew was learned from a couple days of working through tutorials on Codeacademy before classes began.  

My point is that I had to rely on the two lead instructors (and the TAs) to learn Javascript, Jquery, SQL, React, MongoDB and Node/Express from scratch.  They did a very good job of guiding students such as myself through some very demanding, arcane, sometimes frustrating technical subject matter.  They did a great job of patiently working through students' questions on everything from CSS positioning to callback functions to general questions about web development as a career.  And yes, it definitely showed that they were professional web developers rather than, say, CS researchers.

Anyway, they got the job done, which for me was to learn how to sit down at an IDE and be able to write a basic 'MEARN' stack web app from scratch.  

Also, I found the cirriculum was pretty well-designed.  It follows a pretty sensible trajectory from HTML, CSS and JS/Jquery through nodejs server programming/routing/etc, then databases, and then finally JS frameworks, interrupted by three 2-4 week group projects.  It's all javascript/node js, so you get a good opportunity to learn a very popular language intensively.  I really could not imagine putting together a similar learning experience for myself through self-study or taking an assortment of online courses.

So, again, I definitely reccomend this program if you've made the decision that you 1. enjoy programming but aren't an expert and 2. want to work as a web developer.  Don't do it (or any bootcamp) if you can't answer yes confidently to 1 and 2.  

To address one last thing -- the job assistance so far has been pretty good.  I've gotten plenty of helpful feedback on cover letters, and have found that they take a very active role in checking in on the job search process.  Much much better than what I experienced in my four years as an undergraduate long ago.         

Return on Investment. Keep that term etched on your memory when you sign up for any bootcamp, when you enroll in a university, when you join a gym, etc. You will get exactly what you put into this. Just as your personal trainer can't lift for you and give you an eight pack, the staff can't MAKE you learn the material- that will be up to you.

Time for the review: There are no books, but then again this is a web dev course. Market reasearch was conducted (and is constantly being conducted for future cohorts) in order to put the curriculum together so there's that. The instructors and the TAs are excellent - they really want to see everyone succeed. I've never experienced a more accessible and encouraging staff both inside and outside of the classroom. The most awesome part is that for the TAs and the instructors, it doesn't seem like it's over post graduation. There's hackathons that are planned and they're still available and eager to help. As far as the career help goes, I'm still riding out out my current contract to completion so I momentarily opted out.

Now, back to my annoying "ROI" statement above. You get exactly what you put into this course. For some people the course went too slow, for others it went too fast- but it's really up to you to make it just right. There are a lot of comp sci grads that take this course as well as people who studied things and have worked in fields that had absolutely nothing to do IT - I'm one of the latter. That means that I had to put in double or even triple the effort than some of my peers (this was exceedingly difficult to accomplish with a FT job) but it's what I signed up for.

To me, the course went extremely fast in terms of the 6 month life span. Again, it's not due to a problem with the curriculumn but more of the fact that I still feel uneasy with my code as, yet again, this has been a complete change for me. However, the learning doesn't start and stop in relation to class- you really have to put in the work. The instructors and the TAs truly care and make themselves available but it's up to you to make those 10k count.

Also, I'd like to give a quick shout out to my peers- they are truly a great bunch. I made lots of new friendships, was exposed to many ideas and differing ways of approaching programming through the minds of other budding developers.

I'm a recent RCB graduate and I had a wonderful experience. The instructors are always there to help and guide you and the TAs stay late to answer your questions. You will learn a lot. Their curriculum is solid, but it's up to you to show up to class ready to work. All of the class lectures are recorded and available for students to view at anytime (even after you graduate!)  along with the corresponding lesson plan. Each week there is a new homework assignment. Take these seriously as they will account for your portfolio. The job assistance is great, too. The career department motivates you to connect with employers leading up to graduation and well after you've graduated. Overall I am satisfied with RCB and I would recommend the program! 

I wanted to change my profession and thats why I joined RCB and that was the best decision ever. I had zero experience in computer programming before  I joined RCB but after six months of intense course I feel very confident and proud of myself. My instructor Ahmed Haque was very enthusiastic and always available to help students. The TAs are very very good. There were so many times they had sacrificed there personal time just to help me. At one point I needed some extra help and they actually schedule two extra virtual classes for me . 

The timings and location of the classes are such that one can continue their job and study at the same time. They cover so many things in short time so the pace is little fast, but bright side of it is we get to learn so many things. They provide lot of information and help. Practice will make you successful. I would totally recommend this course.

I could not be happier with my experience at Rutgers Coding Bootcamp. I would not have changed a thing.

I chose this bootcamp for a few reasons: 1) It was not in NYC or Philadelphia (commute from central NJ was a turn-off), 2) I did not want to quit my job (2 weekdays and a Saturday every week meant I still had plenty of time to work a full-time job and do work for the class), and 3) I didn't want an intense timeline (the program is 6 months instead of 6 or 8 weeks so I had time to let the info settle in and review between classes)

I was extremely nervous going in that I wasn’t going to be able to keep up with the amount of learning needed to become a programmer in 6 months. The first few weeks were pretty intimidating, but with the help of the instructors, the TAs, and the other students I was able to find my rhythm. I’m a month past the end of the 6 month program I am an employed full-stack developer.

The curriculum is well put together. Many people felt overwhelmed the first few weeks because there is a lot of info covered quickly. However, it’s done quickly because the stuff learned during this time will be used throughout the program, so these skills continue to grow throughout the class. After the web development intro stuff the program teaches you how to learn new technologies. The class work and projects encourage learning of a new technology or framework within the confines of the main weekly goal. This type of process taught us how to learn new things for ourselves instead of relying on being taught by someone else.

The instructors and the entire team at Rutgers Coding Bootcamp is amazing. My instructor didn’t just teach the class he connected with everyone in the room to make sure that our needs were being met. He was inspiring and found ways to make the content more digestible. The TAs were always reachable and their real world experience with the stuff we were learning was invaluable. I never hesitated to reach out to anyone involved in the program because I always felt like they were there to help me. The student support and preparation for the job market is awesome.

At the end of the program I took a programming job with my current company and could not be happier. To do my due diligence, I did take one job interview that came as a direct result of the partnerships set-up by the job search team at Rutgers Coding Bootcamp and the demo day at the end of the class.

Overall it was an amazing process and I got more value than expected from the experience. I have already talked with a few people extremely close to me about doing the program because it was so great. I would definitely recommend it to you (whoever is reading this review).

Prior to Rutgers Coding Bootcamp, I had been working at an Apple Retail Store for 4 years. During my time there I became interested in software development, but they didn't really have much in the way of assistance in transitioning from Retail to Corporate doing anything other than retail related things.

I started looking around for coding bootcamps and spent about a year studying ruby which was what most coding bootcamps at the time focused on. Eventually I applied and was accepted to several coding bootcamps but took my time weighing my options. I was determined to make the career change, but all of these were expensive with no option for financial aid or student loans (which RCB does offer).

At the time, Rutgers was about to start the first coding bootcamp in New Jersey. I applied and was accepted. After speaking to the instructor and a few people running the program, I decided to go with RCB. I'll admit I was initially skeptical and afraid I had made the wrong choice. They had never done this before. The first day of class put most if not all of those concerns to rest. Rutgers has a fantastic staff determined to sure you succeed both in the classroom and when applying to jobs.

Our instructor was incredible. One of the best developers and human beings I've ever met. Throughout my school years, I could always tell whenever a teacher or instructor didn't fully understand the subject they were teaching. I never got that once from our instructor. Usually class would consist of a lecture, explaining what we were learning, then he would build apps from scratch live and in front of us, breaking down everything he was doing and why it worked that way. Then it would be our turn, the last half of class was lab time where we would be building the same site or app from scratch in groups.

I had some programming experience prior to starting, but class was still challenging and interesting without being completely overwhelming for someone who was brand new. I was happy and proud of the homework assignments we turned in every week. Each one increasing my understanding and building upon my portfolio.

A lot of what you learn at Rutgers Coding Bootcamp is HOW TO LEARN. So there's a lot of reading documentation, asking for help on stackoverflow, googling. This is literally half of what a software developer does at work in the real world. So finding answers to unfamiliar problems is a skill in and of itself. You do get plenty of help and support from instructors and TA's, but thing's aren't just spoon fed to you because the idea is to train you to be able to work a developer job after or even before the program ends.

About 4 and a half months into the program, I quit my job. Not suggesting anyone else do so, and it was actually uneccesary for me as well, but I was determined to make sure my next job was a developer role. Approximately 2 weeks later I was hired by our instructor to help him with a couple of projects he was working on. I learned more in my first month working a full time developer job than I did in the entire course so far. But I was prepared to take on the challenge and learn the new technologies I was being paid to build real world apps with. 

Shortly before finishing Rutgers Coding Bootcamp I expressed interest in being a Teaching Assistant for the program. I felt as though I had already gained so much from the program that I wanted to give back and make sure others had as great of an experience as I had. My cohort was the very first, but there was one that started a few months after. I would guest teach assist that course to sort of try out for a month before it was made official. I was surrounded by people who wanted me to succeed the entire time.

If you're thinking about joining a coding bootcamp, you're probably not completely satisfied with some part of your life. Maybe you aren't happy or making enough money at your current job. Maybe you'd like to be a tech entrepreneur but want more experience and confidence. Or maybe you'd like the chance to follow your passion. If you are determined to put in the work, you will succeed. It's something you'll need to dedicate time and energy towards, it's not something that will just happen if you're passive and do just the bare minimum. But work hard and you'll finish this course with the knowledge and the skill to transform your life into whatever it is you want it to be.

I had graduated with a masters in biotechnology two years prior and knew I didn't want to continue with it.  I played around with the idea of coding for a while, and finally decided to pull the trigger when I learned about RCB. Truthfully, the coding bootcamp concept didn't sit too well with me at first but as I got to talking to the people who run the program in the interviews I felt that it was a good investment.

I was part of the very first cohort- the instructors and TAs were dedicated every step of the way to making sure that we think like engineers and problem solvers. They were available for questions outside class time and were always excited to help us understand and diagnose the things that were blocking progress.

Since I was working while I was doing the bootcamp I wasn't rushing to find a job and didn't really rely on the job support aspect of the bootcamp.  I applied around to a few different companies after graduation and kept in contact with the awesome career advisor to talk through my thoughts in navigating the murky waters of interviewing.  She always listened carefully and gave me good advice.

About two months after graduating from the program I left my job at a global pharma company to work as a developer.  I'm really happy that RCB helped me make that change in my life.

If you are looking to add a new dimension to your career or change up your career, and are also hungry to learn, then this program is definitely for you.

I enrolled in Rutgers Coding Bootcamp's Full-Stack Flex program with very little experience in programming. Having gone through the program, I can't begin to recommend this bootcamp enough. I feel as though I've been given all of the tools necessary to not only get begin my career as a developer, but to become extremely successful as I continue on in the field of software development. 

The instructors for my section of the class were incredibly knowledgeable and were always willing to go the extra mile when I was feeling lost. I always knew that if I got stuck I could ask any instructor at any point in the day and they would go above and beyond to make sure that the core concepts were clear and that I felt comfortable applying these concepts to the projects I was working on. At certain points, some of the instructors were even willing to drop what they were doing to start a Google hangout so that we could share screens and walk through code line by line together. 

The biggest reason for recommending Rutgers Coding Bootcamp is because they worked extremely hard to make sure we had the confidence necessary to go into our first round of challenging technical interviews. They were quick to point out strengths in your work and provide constructive feedback for areas of opportunity. Despite the many points of frustration that come with learning to code, the instructors were always there to keep you on track. 

All in all, my experience at Rutgers Coding Bootcamp gave me the skills and confidence needed to start a career in software development, and I strongly encourage anyone looking to break into the field to apply for this program. 

From beginning to the end it's broken promises. They fly through the material and don't get through the lesson plans and tell you if you have any questions to google it. The instructors don't help you at all . During the admission process they make it seem like it is a very selective process but no one is turned away. Any one who can pay the tuition will be accepted . The  people in the class are mostly high school drop outs looking for a fast way to make money. So there is no way a person will be successful in theat type of environment.

I found the same course online which is totally free and you can learn at your own pace . Homework is not graded, feedback is not given, and when they do help they do the work for you which defeats the purpose of learning . Save your time and money don't make the same mistake I made.  During the entry process they make coding some easy and it's not. They don't offer books and everything they teach is not even used in today's market. I graduated received my certificate and every job offer I received was 14-16   Dollars an hour as a entry level developer. Spend the extra money and go to a real school

The student success manager is very manipulative she will sweet talk you all the way through and let you continue drowning . Once the course is over they will tell you, that you do not qualify for job assistance since all the course requirements were not met.  The rules are made up as the course is made. The name is Rutgers but is actually a 3 Rd party who runs the course. They offered me to teach the course after I graduated which goes to show how desperate they are for help. I have a masters in mathematics so I know I am not dumb. My instructor that was teaching the course was a front end developer which is a entry level developer.

The instructors and tas come in 5 minutes before class starts when they are suppose to come in 45 minutes earlier before class starts to help students but they don't . The deadline to drop the course is 2 weeks. The first 2 weeks are the best, after 2 weeks when you are locked in to the contract that is when they really show you the course is going to be. 

I have shared my experience read all the reviews before making a commitment. The positive reviews look like inside reviews.