University of Arizona Boot Camps

I'm a 48 year old who works in IT currently, but the techology changes so fast that I needed a way to advance my skills. 

Because of my age and the fact that all the apps and systems I work on seemed to be moving into a web browser (and I knew nothing about web development); I looked for a Full Stack Developer Bootcamp. After looking at a few I chose the U of A bootcamp because it was in person (I learn better that way), it's a major univeristy and it was a reasonably priced compared to other coding bootcamps.

This is a bootcamp and requires a lot of effort, but they provide lots of support with teacher assistants, tutoring, excellent instructors and a very good curriculum. I've been able to learn so much about Full Stack development and more importantly I feel I have the ability to keep updating my skills on my own.

The best part for me was after telling my employer I was taking this class my manager was able to get me a 6.5% (our normal has been 1.5% to 2 %) merit increase because I was taking this course. The merit increase for this year covers more than half of the cost of the class.  After two years it will have paid for itself!

 

As a recent graduate of the University of Arizona Web Development Boot Camp, I am excited to share my incredible experience with this program. Choosing to pursue a career in web development was a decision that has completely changed my life. After thorough research and understanding the need for skilled developers in today's digital world, I knew this was the right path for me. The University of Arizona Boot Camp stood out to me for its reputation, structure, and commitment to student success.

From the moment I applied, the Boot Camp team was supportive and welcoming, making the process seamless. The real game-changer, however, was the quality of the teaching and support staff. Our instructor was not only knowledgeable but also genuinely passionate about helping us succeed. The teaching assistants were equally amazing, always ready to offer guidance, answer questions, and provide encouragement.

My favorite aspect of the program was the hands-on, project-based approach to learning. We tackled real-world problems, which helped solidify the concepts we learned in class. This practical experience was invaluable, as it allowed us to develop a strong portfolio and build the confidence needed to succeed in the industry.

To prospective students considering the University of Arizona Web Development Boot Camp, I offer the following advice:

1. Be prepared to commit: This program demands time, effort, and dedication. Make sure you are ready to invest yourself fully in your learning journey.
2. Ask for help: The instructors and teaching assistants are there to support you. Don't hesitate to ask questions and seek clarification when you need it.
3. Network with your peers: Your fellow students are valuable resources. Share experiences, collaborate on projects, and learn from one another.
4. Stay curious: Web development is a constantly evolving field. Embrace learning and continue exploring new technologies even after the program ends.

In summary, my experience at the University of Arizona Web Development Boot Camp has been nothing short of amazing. The knowledge, skills, and connections I gained have laid the foundation for a successful and fulfilling career. I highly recommend this program to anyone looking to dive into the world of web development!

I've always hated doing reviews. In all honesty, it feels like the equivalent of being asked to wrap an entire chocolate factory into one small candy wrapper. But if it weren't for University of Arizona(UofA) working with my circumstances I would have had precious little positive avenues to focus my attention on. "Worst Year", well, I will let you be the judge. Does the following constitute the term "Worst Year": 1. Major Car Accident  2. Cancer Diagnosis  3. Deaths of dear friends  4. Battle with health insurance for needed mediation  5. Let's not forget the complete loss of employment due to COVID19.  The most important thing to mention, handling all of these with a smile on your face since I care for an elderly relative with Dementia. If I loose my cool than she (elderly relative) gets worse in her condition.  Regardless if you agree or not about the "Worst Year", I am confident that you will agree smelly stuff happens and what you choose to Do with what is given you is the most important. I chose to stay in my bootcamp program and finish. If it weren't for the staff at UofA that would not have happened. I wanted a new future for myself and most of all didn't want my circumstance to dictate how far I would go to accomplish that. Thank you UofA! I will be back eventually to finish my Bachelors! 

For a long time, I wanted to transition out of my career. I didn't know what my options were. Going to school for a traditional degree seemed expensive, and didn't necessarily guarantee that a job would be waiting for me on the other side. I always considered myself a life-long student with a passion for learning. I knew that there had to be other opportunities for someone like me.

I tried getting into programming through some of the free options online that you might have heard of. But I quickly realized that I needed more of a structure and goal to work toward. I talked to a friend that had recently graduated from the UofA Coding Boot Camp for Full-Stack Web Development. It sounded like a really amazing opportunity! 

I enrolled in the boot camp shortly after speaking with my friend. I just graduated a few weeks ago, and can say whole heartedly that this was the best professional decision I have ever made. The instructional staff was amazing! From the tutors to the career services staff. Everyone is there to support you and see you succeed. 

Its going to be challenging! You have to put in the effort and the work. You will get out of it what you put into it. But you're going to be better off for it! This was an invaluable experience. I'd recommend it to anyone who has been thinking about getting into software engineering. 

TLDR:
After going through the full six months Bootcamp and three months of career services, I can 100% recommend this program. However, this is only if you are willing to commit 30+ hours a week to classes, homework, and practice. If not, save your money and stick to cheaper or free options.


Overall Experience:
I entered this Bootcamp with 5 years of agency web design experience and also after having done a Codecademy course and Treehouse course on front-end development. I also spent a month or more on the Pre-Work assignments that they provided. (These are extensive, so do not wait until the week before to begin them.) All combined, these things helped me feel "ahead" the first three weeks or so. After these initial weeks, I was in the same boat as everyone else and everything we learned was completely new.

The material was taught in a way that you can come in with no design or coding experience and be fine. It ramps up in experience level quickly and I often found myself spending hours after class taking additional courses to dive deeper or even understand the initial concepts taught in class.

This is by design though. As a developer in the real world, you don't know everything already. You constantly have to learn each day and knowing where to look is a huge skillset. The Bootcamp teaches you the art of "Google-Fu", as much as it does the syntax of React or MySQL. This is very important.

This program is extremely time-consuming. You get out what you put in and if it is less than 25 hours, you will fall behind. If you put in 30+ hours you will learn more than you could imagine. I did this during the beginning of the pandemic while working a 50-70+ hour a week job. It was not fun. But it was completely worth it. Having the career you want and feeling good about what you get to work on is worth it.

Every week my classmates and I were growing. It was happening so fast that we often didn't even realize it until our teacher pointed out our growth. We went from not knowing what javascript was, to deploying full-stack MERN apps on our own in a matter of a few months. That is huge.

It became so apparent that this program was worth it, that 5 months in, I quit my job to focus on this full time. I don't regret this decision because this program taught me more in those 5 months than I had in 3+ years since getting interested in code. And it taught me how to leverage all of my design experience into fully functional products. I now have an actual career in web development because of it.

Before I mentioned my classmates. They are pivotal to the success and completion of this program. We formed close relationships with each other and helped each other out as each of us got stuck. This was highly encouraged by the instructors. We learned how to work together as a team and months after the Bootcamp I am still talking almost daily with them about code, life, and memes.   


Curriculum:
The material is very structured and covers a lot. I repeat, it covers a lot. You will not become an expert in any one language through this course. Rather, you will get exposed to many technologies and will learn how to teach yourself new ones. From there you can see if front-end, backend, or a mixture of both suits your fancy. After the Bootcamp, you can then go deeper.

While there are definitely presentations and development theory/methodologies discussed, most of the Bootcamp is spent actually coding. The Instructor demos a new concept and then you and your classmates will practice it. Each week there is a large homework assignment that covers those concepts. It is a very effective mixture of instructor guidance and the freedom to try things and make mistakes without judegment.

My only critique is that I wished we stayed a little longer on each core subject. (CSS / JS / Servers / Databases / React) This goes by fast and making this an 8-9 month program instead of 6 months, would have been well worth the money to me.


Instructors:
I can't stress enough how awesome my instructor and TA's (teacher assistants) were. They made everything mentioned so far, actually valuable. Our instructor TJ, was patient, accommodating, and innovative in how he communicated to our class. He was a true pro and in the rare case he didn't know the answer right away to our questions, he was humble enough to say so. Then he would take extra time outside of class to look up and the answer and teach it to us. Our two TA's Ceaser and Phil were also stellar. All three spent so many hours with us after class to debug, answer questions, or give career advice. I don't think I would have learned as much as I did without their support.


Job Assistance:
My Career Director Amber helped me take my newly learned skills, combine them with my past experience, and make the final package marketable to new employers. We worked together for 3 months and by the end, my materials were completely transformed. She helped me in our meetings and offline, by providing many resources and tips on how to interview in the tech space.

I definitely felt the impact of "imposter syndrome" now having to compete in a space that I have 6-8 months of experience in. Amber helped by listening and then encouraging me or challenging my assumptions. Because of that, I felt a lot more confident as I started to apply and interview.

She called our time together "a partnership" and I think this is very well-reflected in my experience. The interview process is rough, but I never felt alone through it.

Career services is a lot of work, even though the actual Bootcamp is over. But let me tell you it is worth investing in. I ended up landing interviews with the two dream companies I have always wanted to work at. 


Conclusion:
Paying thousands of dollars for a Bootcamp and committing over 6 months of time and effort is not a small decision. In my experience though, it was completely worth it.  If you are willing to put in the work, make an effort to form relationships with your classmates, and are lucky enough to get a great instructor—it will change your career. 

My name is Chris and I had not owned a computer for years before signing up for this class. I remember getting to a point and thinking to myself "so javascript is not the same as Java". I remember struggling with HTML and CSS and now Im making full stack applications in React.js and learning about Socket.io. The experience has been incredible and I feel that I have made some connections that will help me continue to become a better developer. If anything the resources I have gathered in this class has truely helped with my professional appearance on social medias like Linkedin. 

 

My instructor is one the best teachers I have ever had. Not only does he care about my well-being but he is really passionate about what he does. Having an actual developer as an insturctor has really made a huge difference in the student experience. He tells us things about how he started as a developer after school and what to expect when entering the developer community and carreer field. His insights have really lowered the stress of learning something new and being worried that Im not grasping the concepts as fast as others or as fast as I should be. It was fun to be a part of this class. 

 

It has always been my dream to go to school at the University of Arizona and I have finally lived my dream while changing my entire life in the process. I'm so grateful for the opportunity given by this boot camp. Im confident that any one willing to put the time and effort in to learning something new to change their lives can do so by attending a coding boot camp. This is not for the light hearted. You will put a lot of time, energy, and tears in to this. It is very fast paced and you will learn a ton of concepts all at once. The beautiful thing about the design is while some concepts you will learn are no longer used in the industy the will teach you a valuable fundamental for the next concept and overall understanding of programming languages. 

I reviewed the University of Arizona Bootcamp as a means to enhance my current job and experience. I noticed, at the time, the core functions of my job were moving to automation and I wanted to be involved. I also wanted to change direction and push towards working with databases.

I looked into the University of Arizona Bootcamp and spoke with recruiters for the program. I was interested and decided to give the program a try. One, because it was a field I had previous interest. Two, to improve my current job situation and knowledge. Three, to get exposure to database work.

First, the program requires dedication. There is a lot to learn and the pace is fast. The pace can be overwhelming at times and there is a fair amount of struggle. Here is the catch, you have support. At no time during the program did I ever feel alone. The support from the instructors and the assistance was always friendly and professional. The support from the facilitators for the program was professional. The assistance from the staff that graded our projects and homework was amazing. A last but not least, the support from your classmates, who are in the same situation as you, in most cases, working a full time job and have a family, was invaluable. 

You will learn more than you know by the end of the class, no matter how much or little you may struggle. You will learn th network and you will find the instructors and classmates are going to become your first contacts into this new world, and they will become friends you keep in touch with.

The program provides so much more than it advertises. You just need to commit to the struggle and stay the course. If you ever find yourself wavering, lean on your team. You will all make it together. I do not and will not regret my decision to take the Bootcamp.

 

-Charles Bess, Jr.

As a designer I never really wanted to learn how to code. I felt it was not ever going to be a part of my career choice. After having designed in the athletics industry for 10+ years, I left my company due to a buy-out. So I began to look for work as a designer. There were none, and I decided to learn code and start a semi-new career. I was terrified I was old. I did not know what to expect.

Today I had my first interview with a leading company in Tucson to be a React front end developer and designer. I admit that I did not know EVERYTHING there is to know about React. But I built my portfolio with the skills that I have and it got me in the door. Our instructor Dave is probably the best instructor I've had in any subject. He cares about code and cares about our success as students and hopefully employees.

But I must admit, I was completely lost in the beginning. The key, in my opinion, is to NOT GIVE UP. Keep going to class, keep not understanding, keep being frustrated. It is PART of the PROCESS. You have to be frustrated in order to understand. It feels weird. It is but guess what, it is WORTH IT.

I am not the best coder. I didn't get A's on every assignment. I missed a couple of sessions. But I tried and I listened and I asked questions. I got a tutor (thanks John D!) - and these couple of things made a difference.

GET A TUTOR. It is included. Once a week for 50 minutes. It HELPS SO MUCH.

I recommend this course to anyone that has ambition and is serious about learning. It works.

If you are if iffy, or if you don't really want to learn code, or if you treat it like "school" and not like an opportunity that can pay off, than skip it.

BUT, if you have a little experience doing css or html, are ambitious and attentive, then go for it. LEARNING FEELS SUCKY, that's why people quit. LEARNING IS UNCOMFORTABLE. 

But man oh man, in the end it is a great accomplishment. And you actually know stuff. 

Get ready to work your butt off! This class is tough and every part of the application process will remind you of that fact. If you're willing to put in the time, the effort, and the sacrifices that will be needed to succeed for the next 6 months, you'll come out with extremely valuable skills and insights into an evergrowing industry. The staff is top-notch, TA and career assistance is fantastic, and projects will push you to extremes that will improve not only your coding skills, but also your leadership, project, and time management skills.

I would encourage others to enroll in the Bootcamp if you're truly serious about learning this industry. All of the experiences that you'll go through from start to graduation will all be worth it and you certainly won't regret it.