University of Richmond Boot Camps

I always had a thing for coding. Even before signing up for the coding bootcamp, I use to watch videos and try to code myself. Unfortunately, that didn’t take me as far as I would’ve hoped. While learning, I came across the advertisement about University of Richmond Coding Bootcamp. I talked to my dad about  it and he said if this is something you want to do then go ahead. So, now that I’m done, I feel that I made the right choice in taking this course. I wouldn’t have been able to learn everything that I’ve learned without the help of instructors, TAs and even fellow students. I’m thankful to everybody that was there to support me through the tough days. This absolutely proved to be a life changing 6 months.

I came into the course with a lot of worries about the material and timeframe for the course. I honstly carried these worries thru to the last 2 months of the program. The instructors and TA's were awesome to work with the entire time. The course does move at a fast pace so be prepared to spend extra hours in your offtime, but it's worth it. If you're planning on taking this course, I suggest delving into some of the topics like "javascript" as early as possible. Overall, I definitly recommend this program to anyone interested in in web design.

Good luck to a new future...

If you're on the fence about taking the dive, just do it. This is a fantastic program, and well worth your time and money. The instructors are awesome, and they are actual professionals in the industry. They geniunely care about you and your success. The TAs are very knowledgeable and supportive, and will devote a lot of their time to help you with homework or to understand a specific topic. The Administrator is there for anything you need. Needless to say, the support system you'll have as you learn is phenominal. 

As for the course itself, it is fast paced and challenging, but rewarding. You will find yourself just starting to grasp one topic only to quickly move on to the next, but if you stay disciplined, and use your resources and support available to you, then you will succeed. 

Coming out of this course, I have a broad range of skills that are in high demand. I feel pleased with my decision to take this life changing step in my life and this course has built a solid foundation for the start of my new career path. 

Students get the opportunity to present their final projects at a science fair-like hiring event, and I can only tell you that it was one of the best experiences I have ever had, and I feel like I made a lot of great connections.

After years of collaborating with developers in my design career, I wanted to improve my digital skills and become a developer myself. 

But to expand my knowledge and skills to this level seemed virtually unattainable.  I was a beginner and never really went beyond HTML/CSS. I had no time to attend a full-time curriculum path and I found it easy to get lost in my “self-taught” pursuits.

When I learned of UR’s Full Stack program, it seemed like a solid solution for me. 

Turns out - it was a great decision and has already exceeded my expectations.

The program’s core curriculum is well developed and organized, has solid coursework progression and the staff and career support system are tops in their field. Their investment into each student is what really makes the program. They're quick to provide their resources and support to help you succeed with your understanding of the material.

It’s immersive, fast-paced and intense.  You’ll get frustrated and overwhelmed at times. But it’s very rewarding and you have the support of the instructors, TA’s, support staff and fellow students to help motivate you to push through.  It’s a big investment of time and effort but you’ll get out of it what you put in and meet some fantastic people in the process.

It's already given me the knowledge and framework I need to dive into the industry with confidence. I’ve learned some powerful fundamentals, best industry practices and overall core skills that will help merge me into my new career path after graduation.

Nothing but high praise for this program. It has impressively delivered all that it said it would and much more!

The pace is very fast, but I knew that before I started.  I struggled some in the beginning and I had days when I said I made a mistake in choosing to take this bootcamp while having a full-time job and a family.  But I got into the routine of it and I've learned a lot!  I think I could have gotten an even better grasp of everything if I had more time, but it is possible to get through the program while working.  I have already had a few interviews for jobs that incorporate my current skills with what I'm currently learning, so I'm hoping to be in a new position soon that will be more enjoyable and more what I would like to be doing.  I was feeling very boxed in at my current position doing something that I don't really enjoy.  So this program has given me some hope.  I feel very good about what I've accomplished!!

If you have loads and loads of free time and self-motivate extremely well,  you can ABSOLUTELY learn everything from this course for free and on your own for a lot less.   That was not me... 

I took the course in the evenings, 2 nights a week and Saturday morning class.  (10hrs class time a week and roughly another 15-30 hrs of coursework outside of class depending on assignment)   I worked 40-50hr weeks at my job.  That was it.  This will be all you do for 24 weeks, and that was exactly what I wanted/needed.  Without the hefty price tag as motivation constantly,  knowing myself, I would have flaked / lost interest.  

If you are expecting to be hand held and shown every little detail,  this is NOT the format.  This is about YOU figuring out as much as you are being instructed.  Curriculum is not entirely relevant or completely up to date.  Instruction was a bit disjointed at times, not because of bad instructors, but because of some gaps in material and how it was cobbled together for presentation/lecture.  Many things were updated as we went along.  The instructional staff (we had an awesome TA crew) was always able to let you know what was most important, and what was dated.  You WILL feel constantly behind and overwhelmed with new material.  It's a rigourous but effective way to learn.  I enjoyed the rapid pace.  Kept it interesting. Your main coding projects will give you a leg up and some foundation to build on when you move in to the professional job search. 

Am I a great coder now? No not yet.  Got everything to get there though.  Leaving thins course,  you will still be a master of NONE,  but you will get comfortable picking up unfamiliar technologies extremely quickly, and I feel pretty satisfied with that.   

Career services as a whole is pretty in-consequential.  If you have absolutely NO idea how to look for a job or any exposure to what that is like, then I would say it could likely be helpful.  I did/do not find it to be much of a value add to the course.  What I've accomplished in the job hunt has been achieved through personal networking and persistence.  Nice team of folks though.  

As a total career change opportunity,  for me, the course was worth it.  I have never been one for traditional educational structure.  This was focused on exactly what I wanted.   Technologies listed are exactly what is taught.  Best of luck.   

Going in to the bootcamp, I had a little bit of programming experience, but not enough to be dangerous. By the end, I felt comfortable to speak intelligently on most everything we learned. The instructor and TA's were always happy and willing to help when I needed it.  The material isn't spoon fed and you should expect to spend some time learning outside of class. I didn't use Career Services much, but I kept my LinkedIn up to date.  A few weeks following the bootcamp, I received a few job offers as a result of the knowledge-set acquired during the course and the interview prep. I recently accepted one of the offers and I am super excited to put my new skills to good use!!

I was in the very first cohort at U of R (started October 2017, graduated April 2018). This class is pretty intense, hence the name "Boot Camp". You learn very little programming theory and jump right into coding. I am a programmer (LAMP stack) and had little to no experience with the MERN stack. Even with my programming background, I found this class to be somewhat difficult (and intimidating) that required a lot of independent learning (expect to spend 20+ hours/week doing research and homework). Add in 10 hours of classtime/week and you get an idea of the workload. Do not spend your money on this class unless you're absolutely 100% prepared to spend a lot of time and energy learning this material, it moves quickly and you don't want to fall behind. You'll be required to turn in weekly homework assignments and participate in three group projects. While this class is billed as a "beginner" class with little or no programming experience required (and most of my classmates did fit this qualification -- and did graduate), I think it that having *some* programming experience will help greatly. I came out of the class with a very good understanding of all the material and I'm ready to start coding in JavaScript now (I love JavaScript now). I'm glad that I took the class, it was very rewarding. Please note that I did not utilize any of the career services aspects of this class as I am currently employed and just wanted to learn the material. My only real complaint is that homework assignments weren't graded in a timely manner. This was probably due to growing pains since I was in the very first cohort.