Data Science Career Track Reviews

The curriculum is excellently designed and does not require any programming or computer science experience for anyone to participate. I am a biologist and absolutely did not had any experience in data science. I took the Data Science prep course first, which taught me python programming in just 4 weeks. Then I enrolled on the Data Science Career Track. The course is expected to be completed in 6-9 months, so one has to be ready to invest at least 4 hours of time every day in learning. The best thing about the course is it teaches the entire curriculum using public resources, which include DataCamp, LinkedIn, Youtube, Harvard lessons and other useful public forums. This is great because you know after the course completion where to continue your learning and find resources related to a specific subject. Every unit has a number of mini-projects to practice that increase your confidence in your learning. 1 to 1 mentor calls every week is a great benefit, as you will be interacting with an industry expert to review your projects and they will help you to streamline your learning and choose a better career path. At the end of the course, you will be proficient in python programming, mastered in essential statistical concepts and you can independently work on data science projects. I strongly recommend anyone who is looking for a career in data science to opt this course, as every minute and penny is worth plus job guaranteed.

I successfully completed springboard curriculum. It was lackluster and average as it was mostly based on other resources. Mentorship was the only worthy part of the program. Job search began where I always went above and beyond on the number of networking and jobs conditions. I also kept my own records for these applications and networks as well as log them in their own website. After 6 months, I opted for the job guarantee extension. I kept up my job guarantee. Then, couple of these to my knowledge I logged my requirements in; however, due to technical difficulties, it didn't show on their server. Let's keep in mind, I have records (emails for job applications and linked in for networks) of when I did those activities. Despite actually fulfilling these requirements, springboard basically said "oh you had technical difficulties/system glitch, that's too bad, our system if flawless, there are no issues, even though you have proof you applied to such and such job, we are going to ignore that and take this opportunity to make sure you don't qualify for job guarantee". Their job guarantee was only 6 months, I was able to keep that up for over a year. If you value your time and money, don't let the job guarantee be the factor why you choose this institution because they'll take any opportunity that arises to say that you messed up.

Just to provide some background, I’m a former teacher of 11 years, hoping to make a career transition in data science/analytics.  I just recently completed Springboard’s Data Science Career Track certification program, and here are my pros and cons.Pros:- Being paired with an expert mentor for the entire duration of the course is incredibly helpful. My mentor pushed me to go deeper beyond the curriculum and helped my projects really shine. - This is my preference, but I appreciate the self-paced online nature of the program, as opposed to live lectures. There are numerous case studies throughout the program that give you a guided opportunity to practice what you just learned, which is really helpful.- The two required capstone projects are great for your portfolio, and really help you see the data science life cycle from end to end.Cons:- The statistics curriculum is really lacking. Having no background in statistics, I found it hard to keep up with as they covered difficult topics superficially with speed. Part of the statistics curriculum is reading a book called “The Art of Statistics”. Unless you have prior background in statistics, this book is not easy to understand.- The program does its best to cover many common machine learning algorithms, but they don’t really go into detail on how the algorithms work. You’ll watch some pre-recorded online lectures from Harvard, but it’s hard to learn from a one-off lecture without really building the fundamentals of how basic algorithms work. I am just beginning my job search, so I cannot speak to the quality of the job support.  From what I understand, you meet with a career coach biweekly to help you with your job search.  To qualify for the job guarantee, you need to apply to 4 jobs per week and make 7 networking connections per week and do 2 informational interviews per month.  They definitely emphasize networking as the main way to get your first job, as opposed to cold applications.All in all, I definitely learned a lot from this program. If you are an independent learner and are OK with taking additional courses on statistics and ML after completion, I would definitely recommend this program.

Pros:Mentor support, career services, job guarantee, curriculum content, flexibility.Cons:Curriculum deliveryThis was my second bootcamp experience, after having a misunderstanding about the job guarantee with the first one. Once I vetted Springboard's job guarantee, it was a no-brainer to sign up. At the time of this writing (March 2022) I had an option to pay only after I received a qualifying position, or else I wouldn't have to pay at all.The curriculum is outstanding for the small timeframe that it's delivered in. My only wish is that it was delivered in a different format so that I could have used my phone to work on it instead of having to be at my computer for it.The mentor experience and career services are absolutely top notch for Springboard. My wife had a baby in the middle of my cohort, and Springboard allowed my to pause for a very generous amount of time with 0 repercussions to the job guarantee or completion. I cannot put into words that amount of relief that washed over me once they gave me that option. Great overall experience, with small matters for improvement, but nothing that really detracts from the course. I definitely recommend Springboard to anyone looking to change careers.

I have a BS in Mechanical Engineering and 2 years of experience working as an engineer. I pursued this course full time, working approximately 30-50 hours a week towards it. I was able to complete the course with Advanced ML Specialization in 5 months. I now have a job as a Machine Learning Engineer, with a base salary that is 23% higher than my previous salary.I believe that this course is great for people who have a STEM degree and who have some technical work experience or technical project experience. If you do not have these things, I think it would be wiser to either pursue a technical degree or one of Springboard's other courses, such as their DA or DE courses. I rate the coursework three out of five stars. The structure of the coursework was immensely helpful in guiding my journey to learn the steps in the DS/ML workflow, and it kept me organized and disciplined in my studies. The early course material does a good job of explaining the basics of Python, SQL, and the DS workflow. However, the depth of the course material starts to lose its quality in the sections covering statistics, ML algorithms, and the specialization material. There are mini-projects related to the major algorithms (regression, classification, and clustering) and statistical concepts (CLT, AB tests, etc.), however, these sections sometimes skip over critical details that are commonly discussed in technical interviews (such as assumptions of linear regression). Additionally, the ML specialization did not provide projects related to the topics of deployment. Overall I would have liked to see more depth and detail in the later content. I will add that most of the content is either coursework on DataCamp or proprietary Jupyter Notebooks created by Springboard. Many of my peers agreed that the DataCamp coursework does not retain well since they are simple fill-in-the-blank exercises. The notebooks are more useful since they show practical examples of how an algorithm or concept would be applied, but overall the content has a perceived low value since the DataCamp membership can be had for a low price.The mentorship was also hit-or-miss. I was lucky to have a mentor with a background in statistics, so he was able to explain some of the advanced concepts that I really needed help with understanding. Some of my peers had mentors with backgrounds in MLE or analytics, and they were not of much use to my peers. Therefore I would say that the value of the mentor is dependent on luck.I believe that the true value of the course comes in career support, portfolio projects, and the alumni network. Springboard actually does a great job of aggregating good articles for how to pursue a career in DS, how to tailor your resume, and how to network. The career coaches are very experienced in recruiting and HR practices, so they give great advice when it comes to resume design and how to approach interviews. The course also includes mock interviews for behavioral, coding, project presentation, and general DS interviews, which are invaluable in preparing for real interviews.The portfolio projects are vital when it comes to catching the eyes of hiring managers, so I would recommend tailoring those to the companies you want to work for. Most of all, I found value in the alumni network. I was able to secure a couple of interviews easily because I reached out to Springboard alumni at companies that were hiring.I would recommend Springboard to anyone who is looking to change careers, but I would only recommend this DS course for individuals who have a technical background since companies typically look for some form of technical background for this type of role. As mentioned previously, I would recommend individuals with little to no background to pursue another path with a lower barrier to entry, such as Data Analytics or Data Engineering.

This program is a total waist of money. You can easily learn everything they teach you here and pay 1/6th of the price tag. ALL of the coding lessons come from data camp, so right there you can easily just pay for the data camp data science career track and you just saved yourself a pretty penny. Then they just copy and paste some web articles into the curriculum. Its absolutely ridiculous that you have to pay thousands more for data camp with a bunch of hype. I still haven't found a job and its been over 6 months because people don't take the career track as experience. My 'Mentors' didn't really teach me anything to be honest they just tell me to look stuff up online. Again this program is a joke and you are the punchline, don't be dumb enough to give scam artists your money. This program is exactly what it smells like a diploma mill churning out class after class of dumb sheep who are too embarrassed to admit they bought in to the lie. A total waist of time and money DO NOT BUY THIS COURSE !!

My experience with Springboard's Data Science Career Track was excellent.  The curriculum was up to date, detailed, and relevant.  There was a good balance between guided work and individual projects.  My mentor and career coach both helped me tremendously and were very flexible when trying to schedule calls after work or on weekends.  I would recommend this course to anyone interested in Data Science.

SpringBoard is the best schooling experience I have ever had. I learned more in the last 6-8 months than I did over 4 years of university. The curriculum is extensive and thorough, the mentors are extremely helpful (I cannot recommend Ben or DJ highly enough),  and they provide so many opportunities for additional learning. In addition, it was refreshing to be a part of a learning environment that was so accommodating and tailored to suit every students' learning styles. Rather than having students memorizing a bunch of facts then regurgitating it all on a test like traditional schools, SpringBoard takes a hands-on project-based learning approach where a student's success is measured by the quality of their work rather than grades. This program doesn't just help you develop the technical tools , but it also prepares you for all things career-related. Overall, this is the most comprehensive educational platform I have ever found and is guaranteed to put you on track for a successful career.

I was in the Data Science Career Track course. This course was a bit expensive, but I was motivated by the job guarantee, and that a data science job would help me to afford the loan payments at the end of the course. I was able to get a job the month before I completed the course! I am making $78,000 at my entry level Data Science position in Texas.I was applying for Data Science jobs since before starting the course, and as I progressed I saw improvements in my applications. Having the Career Service advisor's help looking over my resume and LinkedIn. After 2 months I began receiving skill assessments from my applications, 3-4 months in the course I was finally getting into the first round of interviews, and after 6 months I was getting call backs for 2nd round interviews. The assignments early on prepared me very well for the skill assessments I was receiving. I applied to IBM for an entry level position early in the course, and I felt confident just from what I had done in preparation for the Guided Capstone (the first project SpringBoard has you work on). While I didn't pass this assessment it was good to see that what I was actively learning was something I was going to see out in the real world.  Now in my current job, I am already utilizing the skills I learned during this course at my job.The course however is tough to keep up with, and it did take me 8 months instead of the advertised 6. I felt like a lot of important information at the end was very glossed over, while the middle of the course had some very in-depth projects. I understand it's done this way on purpose so you can focus on your final project but I do wish there had been more information in times series, SQL, and tools we would likely be asked to use on the job (like Power BI, Tableau, etc.). My current job is very Excel heavy and using pivot tables, and a quick assignment covering some of the basic skills a we might use (beyond the normal basics) could prepare a new hire for success.

I am really satisfied with my Springboard experience. Access to on demand mentors every day if need be, while still working 1-on-1 with a Data Science professional once a week for assistance on capstone projects that help build up your resume. A lot of content, a lot of resources, career assistance, and a very welcoming community online willing to help each other out.  While it may not be the cheapest bootcamp, I feel that I have been set up for success in the future. I would recommend this course to anyone who is trying to break into the Data Science industry, or anyone who wants to increase their knowledge and build up their portfolio.

As someone who had no technical skills coming into the course, Springboard made learning easy and motivating. The curriculum was designed in a way to actively teach relevant technical skills and reinforce knowledge through projects. My mentor was amazing and helped me dive deeper into my learning by providing me industry level perspective and knowledge. My career coach helped me gain confidence and navigate the job market. The student support was very responsive to any questions or requests I had during the course. And, there was even 1:1 on demand mentor calls for when I was stuck on a project mid-week and wanted help before my weekly mentor call. Because of all the support and well-designed curriculum I was able to get a great job offer quickly despite having no work experience or previous technical knowledge! I am confident that the technical skills and statistical knowledge obtained in this course will set me up for success in my Data Science career. I highly recommend the course for anyone who is considering switching into Data Science!

Prior to springboard I have been getting tons of interviews with a wide range of companies for data science roles such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Hubspot but was unable to make it past the technical interview stage. Knowing that if I did things the same I could only expect the same result. I took the plunge and signed up for Springboard in order to quickly learn and develop the skills I needed to be a data scientist. I ended up securing a job 80% through the course and along the way had turned down dozens of interviews.

Springboard is set up with an emphasis on mentorship. You have a data science mentor that you meet with weekly. You can also schedule meetings with other mentors if you have more questions that week. They have career mentors you can meet with whenever you would like. They also have excellent mentors for different types of interview trials (Behavioral, Coding, Data Science Project, and Data Science). Their actual curriculum is a mod-podge of college lecture videos, articles, DataCamps (from datacamp.com), and a few projects. It was laid out well, but at times felt like it could be a little bit more cohesive. I learned a lot, especially from the independent capstones. 

PROS:Comprehensive curriculumExposure to excellent analytical and predictive tools and projectsGreat support system from support staffHelpful office hoursFlexibility in course completionAwesome mentorship program including getting help from other mentors if neededCourse extension of up to two and a half months or so, if neededMultiple chances for retaking mock interviews in order to qualify for money-back guaranteeCONS:Always check to ensure some mentors actively participate in projects supervision

I could not be happier I chose Springboard for expanding my data science skills and kickstarting my career in the data industry. They provide lots of ways to support you including weekly mentor calls with an industry expert, career coach calls, access to student advisors and an online community on Slack, etc. There are also weekly office hours for asking your questions as well as learning about career advancement. You should however note that you will always be the main driving force behind your progress and all of this is not going to be helpful to you if you don't put in the hours to learn the material and make progress. The curriculum is great in my opinion as well and carefully put together.

Before the course I was self taught with Python. I did a project where I went scraped data but the project stopped since I didn't know how to analyze data. After taking this course I believe I have progressed greatly with my Python skills to the point where analyzing and modeling data is becoming second nature and a strong point of my skill set. Also, having a mentor was great because I was able to learn from well established data scientists.