UW Coding Boot Camp

I took this course because I needed a career change. I signed up for the in-person course because that's how I feel I learn best. Then BOOM, about 2 weeks in COVID hit and we were all online. The transition was effortless. Our instructor John kept everything rolling like nothing has changed. Our TA's Ben and Abdul never let up on the support. There were a lot of late night Zoom calls, because they wanted to make sure we understood the content. Not gonna lie, about half way in, I wanted to quit. I was overwhelmed with the amount of information that we were learning and I felt like I was too far behind to complete the course. The conversation I had with John, Abdul and Ben convinced me to stay and I'm glad I did. In just six months, I have a whole other skill set that employers are looking for and I'm ready to get out there and see what this world has to offer!

This bootcamp was an amazing experience and I highly recommend it to anybody that's interested in learning how to code. The instructor (John) and TA's (Ben and Abdul) were so knowledgeable, patient, and encouraging. They really cared about each individual student and took the time to make sure that we were each grasping the concepts. This class was intended to be an in person class, and after 3 weeks got switched to online because of Covid. I thought that the bootcamp and the instructional team did a great job of transitioning to online learning and keeping us engaged, and I still feel like I got just as much out of it. It's a lot of information to pack into 6 months, and it requires a lot of hard work and studying outside of class. But the bootcamp offers lots of resources to help you such as tutors, learning assistants, and office hours before and after every class for individual help. If you're reading this wondering if it's worth it, or if you can really learn the fundamentals of coding in 6 months with no prior experience, the answer is yes!

I chose UW Bootcamp after months of researching of what can be the best value and UW did not disappoint. This program was thrice a week over a period of 6 months but boy does this get intense! We met in person for less than 3 weeks and then pandemic hit. I honestly feel our instructional team did a fab job at the transiton . Our instructor John and TAs Ben and Abdul helped us anytime we had questions or doubts. Extra tutor hours were given to cope up with the hectic curriculum. Office hours are before and after class to help the students, I do not regret joining UW and if any of you want to learn how to code even if you haven't coded once before this is what you should consider. This journey is not easy, you have to give atleast 3-4 hours of study everyday, but it is all worth it. :)

As a working professional with a business background, I decided to pursue coding and web development to gain expertise on something more technical.

I have had a great experience while enrolled in the program. The staff do a good job preparing incoming students for the amount and type of work to expect. They do this by assigning prework and sending out emails with plenty of resources to explore. An entire team is dedicated to the students' success (e.g. an Instructor and two TAs, a Career Material Advisor and Career Director, and a Student Success Manager). Due to COVID-19, my cohort had to attend class using Zoom, but that did not at all diminish the quality of this boot camp.

For those who want to learn how to code, a UW Coding Boot Camp is a great place to start. My advice to prospective students is to be ready to dedicate 20 hours a week outside of class practicing and working on projects. The great thing about enrolling in a formal program instead of trying to learn on your own is the abundance of resources at your disposal! Be sure to make use of office hours, tutors, and study groups, and work with Career Services as early as you can to prepare for the job search after graduation.

My experience with the University of Washington full-stack web development bootcamp was exactly what I had hoped for. The instructional staff was knowledgeable, helpful, and responsive. Our cohort started the same week that UW cancelled in-person learning due to COVID and the instructional team made a seamless transition to an all-remote format. The pace of the course is break-neck but that's exactly what I was hoping for. I would definitely say that, if you have no prior experience, it would be very difficult to be successful in this course if you were also trying to work more than maybe a few hours on the weekend - it requires an immense amount of time! But it was totally worth it. I definitely came out of it confident that I have a very solid base and, even if there are skills that I haven't picked up yet, I'll be able to figure them out on my own - which, I'm confident, will prove impressive to employers.

The Career Services department associated with the program is decent - the workshops are informative and, when you finally get it, the feedback is valuable. Make sure you START THIS PROCESS EARLY, though. I was under the impression that getting feedback on professional material and meeting with you career coach would be reasonably easy but that is not the case. Turn around on career materials reviews is 5 business days - that's often 7 actual days, so it can easily take 3 weeks to get your resume worked out. Scheduling with career directors is more than a month out. Don't wait until the end of the class to start this process - allocate at least a couple hours per week to work on these things so that you're ready to start applying the day that you finish the program.

I can't express how transformative this course is. You go from having zero knowledge to competing with other developers for positions at top-tier tech companies. Not even ten days after my final project, I've been approached for an internship at Microsoft.

The teachers, teaching assistants, and support staff are all overwhelmingly positive and supportive. They make it easy to genuinely fall in love with learning how to code and build apps.  If you're considering a change-up to your career, this is a fantastic option. I now have the ability to make any kind of software I can imagine, it feels like the whole world is mine for the taking. 

Shoutout to Brian Duimstra, Jason Roundtree, Lawrence Fiesta, Jen Alexander, and Rebecca Klasson. If any of these people are on your team for class, you're going to get an amazing education.  

I had an amazing experience taking the full time web development course at UW. I didn't have any background in coding, but with the support from the instructor, TAs, tutoring team, and hours upon hours of study, I made my path to this line of work. It was not an easy task, it required hard work and dedication, and it payed off at the end.
The instructor was amazing and his teaching method not just made the materials understandable, but a deep understanding of why and how each line of code does what it does, plus, he kept the class atmosphere positive and fun at all times. The TA team were knowledgeable and great with going around and help students individually, and in groups, with a positive attitude and with the intent to lead students to the answer instead of giving the answer to the students. I had the utmost fun in the class, and I feel like I did learn a lot, and I'm ready to start my new career path in an ever growing industry. 

I have absolutely loved and enjoyed my time at the boot camp. I enrolled myself at the bootcamp after a long maternity break which made me a little apprehensive in the beginning because I wasn't sure If I would be able to do it or not. Neverthless to say the entire staff of the UWB bootcamp - teachers, TAs, student coodinators, career managers and everyone else has been very kind, understanding, helpful, supportive and have given me my space to be able to mentally get ready and finish this course. 

I had absolutely no knowledge or background of the entire course of material I have learned throughout the term, as my previous background was finance and banking. To be able to learn and become a full stack web developer has been a big achievement. Also, having a different background helped in making different kinds of projects without having to spend  more time on research.

Our instructors and TAs are part of a very big reason why we were able to accomplish this feat today. No one refused for any kind of extra help. They would also go above and beyond in trying to help us whether be it staying outside of office hours, replying to messages from home, setting up video tutorials for diffiicult or popular topics, sending tones of extra material and resources etc. 

I also liked the way the curriculum was set up. Though it might seem confusing in the first class or so,  but the key is to stay consistent and keep reviewing all the topics learnt in class. The lesson plans are build on the previous ones so its actually easier to review and keep on track of what's happening. I have recently started my conversations with our career manager for job assistance and so far the experince has been very helpful and pleasent and I am sure it 'll continue to be the same in the next couple of months.

Overall, I would defintely recommend this boot camp for anyone looking for a fresh start, portfolio enhancement or a challenge in the IT industry.

I'm a new UW Coding Bootcamp grad and took the class from May to November 2019 which was the 24 week class. 

This class was stupendous. The instructors were knowledgable and we learned very valuable, real world programming languages/frameworks such as Vanilla JavaScript, jQuery, MySQL, MongoDB, and React.

Some additional great things about the class were:​

• The assignments. There were no tests but you did need to test in websites you created using such technologies as GitHub and Heroku. With Heroku we deployed websites that included MySQL and MongoDB databases.
• Group projects. We did three group projects and that was very valuable experience, including how to use GitHub while working on multiple computers at the same time.
• Algorithms. We focused on JavaScript algorithms and usually did them before class. Also, we had a week on algorithms and discussed Big O nation (optimizing algorithms to run faster).
• The cost. As of May 2019 I paid under $11,000. Yes this a lot but it less expensive than other bootcamps out there like Coding Dojo. You can also pay this as you take the course as it doesn't need to be paid all up front.

Some improvements for the bootcamp could be:

• Cutting some technologies from the curriculum, like Firebase (a Google database). I don't believe that Firebase is used most places. However, it is an easier database to use.
• Focusing more on job-interview JavaScript algorithms. For example, going through algorithms or getting resources for interview like at Amazon.

Good luck with your search!