2015 Course Report Alumni Outcomes & Demographics Study

CODING BOOTCAMP ALUMNI REPORT A 38% INCREASE IN SALARY.

Liz Eggleston

Written By Liz Eggleston

Last updated on October 23, 2020

Course Report strives to create the most trust-worthy content about coding bootcamps. Read more about Course Report’s Editorial Policy and How We Make Money.

Overview

Want the most up-to-date findings? Check out our 2016 Alumni Outcomes & Demographics Study.

We're excited to present the results of our latest and most comprehensive survey of graduates in the coding bootcamp space. We surveyed graduates from 44 qualifying coding schools and received 665 qualified graduate responses.

The majority of graduates of coding bootcamps are finding full-time employment, and 66% of graduates surveyed report being employed in a full-time job requiring the skills learned at bootcamp, with an average salary increase of 38% or $18,000. This year's Student Outcomes & Demographics Study dives into bootcamp graduate success, analyzing not only demographics and outcomes, but also how previous experience, income, location, and other factors impact a student's average salary and ability to get a developer job.

 

Thanks so much to the schools who participated in this study and helped distribute it to their alumni networks!

 

Key Findings

In our second annual graduate survey, and the most complete cross-school study of its kind in the coding bootcamp industry, we found strong evidence of salary growth, with respondents reporting a $18k average increase in their first job after attending a coding bootcamp.

Key Finding 1. Avg Salary Change

Change in Avg Salary Before After
All Respondents $46,638 $64,255
Employed Full-Time $49,221 $67,178

Key Finding 2. Median Salary Change

Change in Median Salary Before After
All Respondents $40,000 $62,800
Employed Full-Time $45,000 $65,000

 

In addition, bootcamp attendees are more likely to be working full-time after graduation.

Key Finding 3. Change in Employment

Change in Employment Before After
Employed Full-Time 53% 62%
Employed Part-Time 8% 2%
Employed Freelance 6% 7%
Self-Employed 8% 3%
Student 8% 2%
Unemployed 16% 21%
Other 1% 2%

 

As students continue their job search after graduation, job placement trends upwards, with 89% of graduates being placed within 120 days of graduation.

Job Placement within 120 Days

27.17%   61.23%   78.99%   88.77%
placed   placed   placed   placed
30 DAYS   60 DAYS   90 DAYS   120 DAYS

 

The outcomes report also finds:

  • 66% report working in a job requiring the skills learned at bootcamp, compared to 5% working as full-time programmers beforehand.
  • The average student paid $11,852 in tuition.
  • The typical attendee is 31 years old, has 7.6 years of work experience, has at least a Bachelor's degree, and has never worked as a programmer.
  • 36% of bootcamp attendees are female.
  • Graduates report an average satisfaction rating of 8.42.
  • Use of external lending partners has increased drastically since 2013 (from 4% in 2013 to 25% in 2015). 

The "Survey Results" tab shows interesting insights like:

  • Undergraduate Music majors saw the greatest salary jump after attending a bootcamp. Foreign Language majors are most likely to be employed as developers after graduation. 
  • Graduates working in Palo Alto boast the highest average salary of the cities in this report (California has the highest average salary of any state, but check out where North Carolina falls!)
  • Coding bootcamps provide a $36,000 lift in salary for low-income students, compared to a $2,000 lift in salary for high-income students
  • Students with Associate's degrees experienced the highest lift in salary after graduating from a bootcamp: $30,133. 79% of bootcamp graduates also have at least a Bachelor's Degree, but does this impact success? 
  • Students who learned Python have the highest average salaries after graduation (~$80K). Students who learned C# at a bootcamp are most likely to be employed as a developer after graduation. 

 

 

Results

Tuition

Average tuition for a coding bootcamp is $11.8k, with most students paying for school themselves or with the help of family (Table 6). Some schools offer tuition reimbursement for students who receive job placement through the school, but only 5% of students report receiving such reimbursements. 

Table 6. Tuition & Funding

 Tuition Mean Standard Error
 Tuition $11,852 $106
 Source of Funding % Standard Error
Self 49.17% 2.96%
Family 20.83% 2.26%
External Loan 18.97% 2.28%
School (Scholarship) 3.40% 0.80%
Employer 1.71%% 0.26%
School Financing 5.92% 1.80%
 Tuition Refund for Job Placement % Standard Error
Yes* 5.36% 0.32%
No 94.64% 0.32%
* For those who received a refund, the average refund was 34% of the tuition cost ranging from 2% to 100%.

Notice in Table 8 that the use of external lending partners has increased drastically since 2013 (from 4% in 2013 to 25% in 2015). This is likely due to new lending providers like Affirm, Earnest, and Climb, who lend specifically to coding bootcamp students. The most popular lending partner is Climb Credit (Table 7). For 107 students who used External Loans, on average, about 87.11% of the tuition cost was covered by a lending partner. The distribution of lending partners is shown below for those 107 students who used External Loans.

Table 7. Lending Partners

 Lending Partner % Lending Partner %
Climb Credit 21.50% Avant Credit 0.93%
Lendlayer (now Affirm) 19.63% Former Employer 0.93%
Not Disclosed 9.35% Group Lend 0.93%
Earnest 8.41% Lending Tree 0.93%
Upstart 7.48% Ontario Works 0.93%
Wells Fargo 5.61% Regions Bank 0.93%
Credit Union 2.80% TD 0.93%
Prosper 2.80% TFC Tuition 0.93%
FinanceIt 2.00% Turing 0.93%
LendingClub 1.87% Vectra Bank 0.93%
Pave 1.87% Vouch 0.93%
"Student Funder" 1.87% Western Union 0.93%
Affirm 0.93% WorkBC 0.93%

 

Table 8. Year over Year Comparison of Funding Source

 Type of Funding By Year 2013 2014 2015
 Self 58.02% 57.81% 46.34%
Family 20.38% 22.59% 19.18%
External Loan 3.67% 7.58% 24.71%
School (Scholarship) 5.93% 1.89% 3.59%
Employer 3.28% 2.46% 1.36%
School Financing 8.71% 0.42% 4.91%

 

 

 

Student Demographic Profile

Respondents self-reported demographic information such as age, gender, and race. The student profile is summarized below in Table 1.

Table 1. Demographics

 Age Mean Standard Error
 Mean Age 30.95 0.77
 Gender % Standard Error
Female 36.3% 2.96%
Male 63.1% 2.96%
Non-Binary 0.6% 0.29%
 Ethnicity % Standard Error
American Indian 1.0% 0.09%
Asian American 14.0% 2.48%
Black 5.0% 1.83%
Other 17.2% 1.48%
White 62.8% 3.06%
 Hispanic Origin % Standard Error
Yes 20.3% 2.87%
No 79.7% 2.87%
 Citizenship % Standard Error
Yes, born in the US 78.2% 3.60%
Yes, naturalized. 9.7% 1.85%
No 12.2% 3.15%
 Education % Standard Error
Drop high school 0.2% 0.14%
High school 2.6% 2.31%
Some college 14.2% 3.22%
Associate's degree 4.1% 0.66%
Bachelor's degree 62.1% 3.65%
Master's degree 14.2% 2.98%
Professional degree 1.5% 0.09%
Doctorate degree 1.1% 0.49%

 

Many coding bootcamps offer scholarships for women, so we compare our findings on gender enrollment to the 2014 Taulbee Survey, an annual survey of computer science programs at accredited universities. The Taulbee study estimated that 14.1% of 2014 bachelor degrees were awarded to females. Our study suggests that bootcamps compare favorably to traditional computer science departments (as well as masters programs) on gender diversity.

Pre-Bootcamp Work Experience

Most respondents were not employed as software developers prior to attending bootcamp, with an estimated 13% reporting developing software at work, and only 5% programming full-time prior to enrolling.

Table 2. Programming Experience

 Programming Background % Standard Error
 Full-time at work 5.18% 2.24%
Some at work 12.75% 2.63%
Some in my free time 44.49% 2.99%
None 32.63% 2.94%
Other 4.95% 1.16%

 

The average work experience among students is ~8 years, although 16% report being unemployed prior to bootcamp enrollment, as shown in Table 3. 

Table 3. Work Experience and Salary

 Work Experience Mean Standard Error
 Years 7.65 0.61
 Salary Mean (USD) Standard Error
All respondents $46,638* $2,820
Those working full-time $46,221** $1,337
 Pre-Camp Employment Status % Standard Error
Employed full-time 52.28% 4.18%
Employed part-time 8.24% 2.14%
Employed freelance 6.48% 2.32%
Self-employed 8.26% 2.32%
Student 7.92% 1.39%
Unemployed 15.94% 3.06%
Other 0.58% 0.40%
 * Median salary for all respondents is $40,000
** Median salary full-time working respondents is $45,000

Applications & Student Expectations

Most graduates report applying to a coding bootcamp in order to gain a job as a programmer (85%), although 8% report attending in order to start their own company. Less than 1% report attending bootcamp to get a promotion or change jobs with their current employer.

Table 4. Research & Application Process

Table 4. Applications

 Number of Applications Mean Standard Error
 Number of schools applied 1.40 0.07
Number of acceptance 1.29 0.06
 Reason for Attending a Bootcamp % Standard Error
Getting a Programming Job 85.43% 2.63%
Starting a Company 8.29% 2.00%
Getting a non-technical job 0.02% 0.32
Other 4.45% 2.27%
Freelancing/contracting 1.07% 0.27%
Getting a promotion 0.74% 0.10%

 

Finally, the most important factor to a future bootcamper when deciding between bootcamps is the Quality of Instruction. Average ratings (Table 5a) give some idea about the importance of factors. Quality of Instruction is the most important factor, then Location, Tuition, and the Teaching Language have about the same importance level, and Scholarship and Quality of Facilities are the least important factors. Another way to look at this question is by Selection Rates of these factors (Table 5b).

Table 5a. Average Rating of Factors when Choosing a Bootcamp

(1-Most Important , 6-Least Important)

Factors Average Rating
 Quality of Instruction 1.83
Location 2.97
Teaching Language 3.04
Tuition 3.35
Quality of Facilities 4.50
Scholarship 5.31

Table 5b. Selection Rates of Factors when Choosing a Bootcamp

(1-Most Important , 6-Least Important)

Factors 1 2 3 4 5 6
 Tuition 10.2% 18.9% 24.5% 24.5% 25.8% 13.5%
Location 19.2% 20.1% 24.1% 21.8% 11.0% 3.9%
Quality of Instruction 55.0% 22.7% 11.3% 7.9% 1.8% 1.4%
Quality of Facilities 0.7% 5.6% 14.1% 19.6% 41.9% 18.1%
Scholarship 1.7% 3.5% 4.1% 6.5% 21.6% 62.6%
Teaching Language 13.3% 29.2% 21.9% 18.5% 10.2% 7.0%

 

 

 

Student Outcomes

Post-Bootcamp Employment

Overall, 66% of graduates report being employed full-time in a job requiring the skills learned at bootcamp. Among those, most (63%) are in salaried, full-time position, with others reporting working as an independent contractor or running their own business.

Table 9. Post Bootcamp Employment Status

 Post Camp Employment Status % Standard Error
Employed full-time 62.36% 3.31%
Employed part-time 1.97% 1.59%
Employed freelance 6.67% 0.92%
Self-Employed 3.14% 0.45%
Student 2.03% 1.03%
Other 2.35% 0.26%
Unemployed 21.48% 3.25%
 Employed in a Programming Job % Standard Error
Yes 65.89% 3.07%
No 34.11% 3.07%
 Salary (USD) Standard Error
All Respondents $64,255 $1,706
Employed Full-Time $67,178 $1,519

 

As students continue their job search after graduation, job placement trends upwards, with 89% of graduates being placed within 120 days of graduation

Table 10. Time to Accept a Job

27.17%   61.23%   78.99%   88.77%
placed   placed   placed   placed
30 DAYS   60 DAYS   90 DAYS   120 DAYS

School Services and Satisfaction

Many schools offer services to help prepare students for the job market. Almost all students report receiving some form of assistance: resume prep, apprenticeship, on-site interviews, and more.

Table 11. Career Services

 Resume Preparation Assistance % Standard Error
 Yes 93.27% 2.22%
No 6.73% 2.22%
 Apprenticeship/Internship Placement % Standard Error
Yes 53.26% 2.90%
No 46.74% 2.90%
On-Site Interviews % Standard Error
Yes 55.79% 2.90%
No 65.34% 3.01%
 Job Guarantee % Standard Error
Yes 34.66% 3.01%
No 65.34% 3.01%

Most coding bootcamp graduates have one job after graduating- 59%. 35.73% still work at the first job they got after graduation. For students who have had more than one job after graduation, the average length they spend in their first job was about 7.2 months ranging from 1 month to 32 months. As bootcamp graduates accept second and third jobs, their average salaries also jump (Table 14). 

Table 12. Average # of Jobs After Graduation

Number of Post-Graduation Jobs % Standard Error
0 29% 3.88%
1 59% 3.97%
2 9% 3.39%
3 3% 0.73%

Table 13. Average Salary Change for Grads with >1 Post-Grad Job

Avg Salary Change USD Standard Error
From 1st job to 2nd job $13,055 $1,646
From 2nd job to 3rd job $22,111 $5,040
From 1st job to 3rd job $14,285 $4,666

 

Table 14. Most Popular Post-Bootcamp Job Titles

Job Title Count
Software Engineer 101
Developer 42
Web Developer 35
Software Developer 27
Front-End Developer 21
Junior Developer 21
Full-stack Developer 12
Teacher Assistant 10
Associate Software Developer 9
Intern 7

School Satisfaction

Graduates report an average satisfaction rating of 8.42/10 and would recommend their coding bootcamp to a friend 8.46/10. 

Table 15. School Satisfaction

Overall Program Satisfaction   Standard Error
Satisfaction (1-10) 8.42 0.14
Recommended (1-10) 8.46 0.19

 

 

 

Success Insights

Because of the stellar participation in this year's survey, we were able to analyze post-bootcamp success by a number of factors, including location, race, gender, educational attainment, and more. The following tables dig deep into analyzing the types of students who see the most success after graduating from a coding bootcamp. 

Income

The average bootcamper reported an $18K lift in salary after graduating from a bootcamp. Do low-income students experience the same increase in salary as middle and high income students? We find that low-income students see a lower average post-bootcamp salary than middle and high-income students, but a high lift in salary after graduation (~$36K lift). Pre-bootcamp income seems not to have a significant impact on ability to land a job as a developer after graduation.

Table 16. Pre-bootcamp Income vs. Post Bootcamp Success

 Post-graduation Salary Mean (USD) Standard Error
Prior income ≤ $30,000 $55,463 $1,403
$30,000 < Prior income ≤ $50,000 $63,646 $1,374
Prior income > $50,000 $75,529 $2,386
 Change in Salary after Graduation Mean (USD) Standard Error
Prior income ≤ $30,000 $35,620 $1,779
$30,000 < Prior income ≤ $50,000 $23,257 $1,726
Prior income > $50,000 $1,809 $1,702
 Employed full-time in job requiring bootcamp skills % Standard Error
Prior income > $50,000 67.52% 3.44%
$30,000 < Prior income ≤ $50,000 70.28% 3.32%
Prior income > $50,000 63.27% 1.75%

 

Educational Attainment

The average bootcamp graduate reported a post-bootcamp salary of $67,000. However, there is a strong relationship between pre-bootcamp educational attainment and post-bootcamp salary. Students with a Doctorate degree reported the highest average salary of $111,399. 

Bootcampers with a Masters Degree are most likely to be employed as a developer after graduation (~72% reported being employed). One caveat to note is that students with an Associate's Degree experienced a the highest lift in salary after graduating from a bootcamp- $30,133. Even students with only a high school degree or "some college" saw positive outcomes (Table 17). 

Table 17. Educational Attainment vs. Post Bootcamp Success

 Post-graduation Salary Mean (USD) Standard Error
High school $55,000 $1,270
Some college $52,078 $1,626
Associate's degree $60,857 $1,185
Bachelor's degree $64,439 $1,388
Master's degree $74,950 $2,773
Doctorate degree $111,399 $2,402
 Change in Salary after Graduation Mean (USD) Standard Error
High school $10,000 $8,890
Some college $10,383 $2,166
Associate's degree $30,133 $467
Bachelor's degree $21,793 $1,618
Master's degree $22,705 $1,386
Doctorate degree $28,888 $2,569
 Employed full-time in job requiring bootcamp skills % Standard Error
High school 62.06% 1.67%
Some college 52.52% 3.88%
Associate's degree 58.92% 4.99%
Bachelor's degree 67.12% 2.81%
Master's degree 71.72% 2.07%
Doctorate degree 67.07% 4.18%

 

Programming Experience

As expected, students who had more experience in programming before attending a coding bootcamp tend to have higher average salaries and are more likely to be employed in a programming job after graduating. However, for bootcampers who reported that they worked in a full-time programming position before attending a bootcamp, the average salary lift was quite low (Table 18). 

Table 18. Programming Experience and Post Bootcamp Success

 Post-graduation Salary Mean (USD) Standard Error
None $59,774 $1,608
Some programming in my free time $63,662 $1,489
Some programming at work $69,525 $3,126
Full-time programming at work $74,900 $420
Other $72,384 $1,199
 Change in Salary after Graduation Mean (USD) Standard Error
None $14,2013 $1,667
Some programming in my free time $21,924 $1,841
Some programming at work $21,034 $1,762
Full-time programming at work $1,400 $1,520
Other $23,612 $687
 Employed full-time in job requiring bootcamp skills % Standard Error
None 62.43% 1.96%
Some programming in my free time 66.00% 3.85%
Some programming at work 73.18% 2.53%
Full-time programming at work 38.86% 4.90%
Other 81.47% 3.27%

 

Race/Ethnicity

Coding bootcampers who identify as Asian American have a higher average salary after graduating from a coding bootcamp and are most likely to be employed as a developer after graduating. Memo: American Indian was not included in Table 19a as there were only three cases.

Table 19a. Ethnicity and Post Bootcamp Success

 Post Graduation Salary Mean (USD) Standard Error
Asian American $78,135 $1,881
Black $61,476 $1,086
Other $60,734 $1,758
White $61,159 $1,702
 Change in Salary after Graduation Mean (USD) Standard Error
Asian American $18,238 $2,068
Black $15,555 $2,993
Other $14,153 $3,097
White $21,139 $3,377
Employed Full-Time in Job requiring Bootcamp Skills % Standard Error
Asian American 73.37% 2.19%
Black 60.12% 0.39%
Other 57.67% 3.04%
White 65.63% 2.58%

 

Table 19b. Ethnicity and Post Bootcamp Success

 Post Graduation Salary Mean (USD) Standard Error
Hispanic Origin- Yes $64,062 $1,734
Hispanic Origin- No $63,379 $1,310
 Change in Salary after Graduation Mean (USD) Standard Error
Hispanic Origin- Yes $10,741 $1,932
Hispanic Origin- No $21,319 $3,793
Employed Full-Time in Job requiring Bootcamp Skills % Standard Error
Hispanic Origin- Yes 67.36% 3.48%
Hispanic Origin- No 65.68% 3.06%

 

Gender

Women make up 36% of the coding bootcamp industry; Women also reported a higher average salary after graduating from a coding bootcamp. Men and Women are equally likely to be employed as a developer after graduation. Memo: "Non-binary" was not included in Table 20 as there were only four cases.

Table 20. Gender and Post-Bootcamp Success

 Post-graduation Salary Salary (USD) Standard Error
Male $59,379 $1,742
Female $69,747 $1,479
 Change in Salary After Graduation Mean (USD) Standard Error
Male $14,839 $3,431
Female $25,283 $1,918
 Employed full-time in job requiring bootcamp skills & Standard Error
Male 65.98% 2.51%
Female 65.92% 3.89%

 

Programming Language

While JavaScript has been gaining popularity in coding bootcamps since 2014, graduates who learned Python report the highest salary after graduation and the most drastic change in salary after graduation (Table 21). Student who reported learning C# are most likely to be employed as a developer after graduation (71%). 

Table 21. Programming Language Learned and Post Bootcamp Success

 Post-Graduation Salary Mean (USD) Standard Error
C# $65,390 $3,088
Objective-C $53,506 $2,944
Java $37,500 $2,500
JavaScript $58,837 $4,392
PHP $44,626 $2,735
Python $80,368 $1,872
Ruby $60,333 $1,615
Other $52,365 $2,682
 Change in Salary After Graduation % Standard Error
C# $16,298 $4,568
Objective-C $12,125 $3,757
Java $21,500 $1,500
JavaScript $12,773 $10,589
PHP $-2,228 $9,342
Python $33,713 $3,281
Ruby $19,787 $2,042
Other $15,531 $3,219
 Employed full-time in job requiring bootcamp skills % Standard Error
C# 71.1% 6.5%
Objective-C 48.4% 8.3%
Java -- --
JavaScript 53.6% 3.2%
PHP 76.5% 5.1%
Python 65.6% 5.6%
Ruby 67.7% 3.7%
Other 48.9% 6.2%

 

Location

Cities with the highest average salaries remain the large tech hubs with plenty of developer jobs: Palo Alto, San Francisco, Denver, New York City, Chicago and Boulder were among the cities with highest mean and median salaries (Table 23a). States like California, Colorado, New York, Illinois, and North Carolina were among the states with highest mean a median salaries. Note: Only cities with five or more cases were included in Table 22a and only states with 5 or more cases were included in Table 22b.

Table 22a. City and Post Bootcamp Success

City Sample Size Mean Salary Median Salary
Palo Alto 5 $93,000 $100,000
San Francisco 42 $84,889 $89,720
Denver 23 $73,565 $70,000
New York City 17 $71,706 $72,000
Chicago 24 $66,733 $65,000
Boulder 13 $66,157 $70,000
Los Angeles 5 $65,160 $70,000
San Diego 7 $62,857 $60,000
Seattle 16 $60,075 $69,900
Santa Monica 5 $58,080 $62,400
Salt Lake City 10 $52,526 $46,800
Miami 8 $50,563 $50,000
Provo 10 $48,760 $50,000
Portland 9 $46,100 $45,000
London 6 $42,767 $40,800
Vancouver 11 $39,331 $40,000

Table 22b. State and Post Bootcamp Success

 Post Camp Employment Status Sample Size Mean Salary Median Salary
California 91 $77,119 $75,000
Colorado 43 $73,582 $72,000
New York 17 $71,706 $72,000
Illinois 31 $64,229 $62,500
Washington 24 $62,857 $69,500
North Carolina 13 $61,465 $65,000
Oregon 11 $44,082 $45,000
Florida 10 $47,670 $47,500
Texas 5 $47,700 $52,000
British Colombia 13 $39,818 $40,000
UK 9 $38,400 $38,400

 

Undergraduate Major

Does a students' academic background affect their success after a coding bootcamp? For respondents who reported earning Bachelor's Degrees, the highest salaried students studied IT, Art, Economics, English, and Engineering. Music majors saw the most drastic change in salary, and Foreign Language majors were most likely (100% in fact) to be employed as a developer after graduating from the bootcamp. 

Table 23. Undergrad Major and Post Bootcamp Success

 Undergraduate Major Sample Size Mean  Median Salary Change Employed in a job requiring bootcamp skills
IT 4 $79,667 $80,000 $19,000 75.00%
Art 10 $75,300 $68,900 $11,300 50.00%
Economics 2 $72,000 $72,000 $7,000 0.00%
English 44 $71,270 $72,000 $33,575 72.73%
Engineering 33 $69,610 $70,000 $3,100 63.64%
Foreign Language 10 $68,444 $62,000 $21,143 100.00%
Life Sciences 55 $67,043 $62,000 $29,120 76.36%
Political Science 44 $66,311 $65,000 $27,621 63.64%
Business 76 $65,985 $65,000 $11,362 68.42%
Graphic Design 6 $65,625 $57,250 $17,875 66.67%
Mathematics 13 $64,583 $60,000 $16,406 69.23%
Communications 25 $62,927 $65,000 $14,577 72.00%
Music 12 $60,113 $60,700 $37,843 66.67%
Other 20 $59,471 $54,200 $18,221 65.00%
Computer Science 18 $57,950 $55,000 $10,857 66.67%
Philosophy 10 $54,844 $65,000 $19,289 70.00%
Psychology 25 $54,506 $56,000 $14,631 64.00%
Health 8 $51,833 $51,000 $24,533 62.50%
Education 2 $37,440 $37,440 -$4,160 0.00%

 

 

 

Tuition

Average tuition for a coding bootcamp is $11.8k, with most students paying for school themselves or with the help of family (Table 6). Some schools offer tuition reimbursement for students who receive job placement through the school, but only 5% of students report receiving such reimbursements. 

Table 6. Tuition & Funding

 Tuition Mean Standard Error
 Tuition $11,852 $106
 Source of Funding % Standard Error
Self 49.17% 2.96%
Family 20.83% 2.26%
External Loan 18.97% 2.28%
School (Scholarship) 3.40% 0.80%
Employer 1.71%% 0.26%
School Financing 5.92% 1.80%
 Tuition Refund for Job Placement % Standard Error
Yes* 5.36% 0.32%
No 94.64% 0.32%
* For those who received a refund, the average refund was 34% of the tuition cost ranging from 2% to 100%.

Notice in Table 8 that the use of external lending partners has increased drastically since 2013 (from 4% in 2013 to 25% in 2015). This is likely due to new lending providers like Affirm, Earnest, and Climb, who lend specifically to coding bootcamp students. The most popular lending partner is Climb Credit (Table 7). For 107 students who used External Loans, on average, about 87.11% of the tuition cost was covered by a lending partner. The distribution of lending partners is shown below for those 107 students who used External Loans.

Table 7. Lending Partners

 Lending Partner % Lending Partner %
Climb Credit 21.50% Avant Credit 0.93%
Lendlayer (now Affirm) 19.63% Former Employer 0.93%
Not Disclosed 9.35% Group Lend 0.93%
Earnest 8.41% Lending Tree 0.93%
Upstart 7.48% Ontario Works 0.93%
Wells Fargo 5.61% Regions Bank 0.93%
Credit Union 2.80% TD 0.93%
Prosper 2.80% TFC Tuition 0.93%
FinanceIt 2.00% Turing 0.93%
LendingClub 1.87% Vectra Bank 0.93%
Pave 1.87% Vouch 0.93%
"Student Funder" 1.87% Western Union 0.93%
Affirm 0.93% WorkBC 0.93%

 

Table 8. Year over Year Comparison of Funding Source

 Type of Funding By Year 2013 2014 2015
 Self 58.02% 57.81% 46.34%
Family 20.38% 22.59% 19.18%
External Loan 3.67% 7.58% 24.71%
School (Scholarship) 5.93% 1.89% 3.59%
Employer 3.28% 2.46% 1.36%
School Financing 8.71% 0.42% 4.91%

 

 

 

Participating Schools

Respondents in the 2015 Coding Bootcamp Student Outcomes & Demographics Study graduated from the following 44 bootcamps:

 

 

 

Methodology

We surveyed graduates from 43 qualifying coding schools, commonly referred to as "bootcamps." We received 769 responses from graduates, 665 of which met the criteria described below. The surveys were sent to graduates and all figures are self-reported by the respondents.

Inclusion Criteria

Coding bootcamps: to qualify for inclusion in the survey, a school must (a) offer full-time, in-person instruction of 40 or more hours of classroom time per week, (b) not be degree-granting, (c) provide programming-specific curriculum (schools specializing in product development, design, or marketing were excluded). Many schools offer courses at multiple campuses across a wide range of curriculum.

Graduates

To qualify for inclusion in the survey, individuals must have completed a course offered by a coding bootcamp (as defined above) prior to September 10, 2015.     

Incentives

Participation in the survey was voluntary. An incentive for a $500 Amazon Giftcard was offered for participation.

Post-Stratification

Because bootcamps likely varied in the extent to which they distributed and advertised the survey to students, it is unlikely that our raw sample is representative of the overall population of students. To adjust for varying sampling probabilities across schools, we post-stratify the sample on school using the known (2014-2015) bootcamp sizes from a recent Course Report survey. Respondents are weighted such that the in-sample distribution of respondents across camps matches as closely as possible the known distribution of bootcamp sizes. Therefore, our estimates rely on a much weaker assumption than random sampling—we only need to assume that respondents are effectively randomly sampled within school strata.

Missing Data

Some respondents elected not to respond to certain questions (such as salary). Unless this non-response is completely random, dropping these respondents when calculating means would induce bias in the estimates. The current best practice for dealing with missing data is to impute multiple estimates of the missing values using a statistical model and the observed data. We use the multiple imputation algorithm developed in King, Honaker, Joseph and Scheve (2001) and implemented in the Amelia software package for this purpose.

About Course Report

Course Report, founded in 2013 by Adam Lovallo and Liz Eggleston, operates https://www.coursereport.com/, which helps potential students find and research coding bootcamp programs. Course Report offers a directory of schools, course schedules, thousands of reviews, and interviews with teachers, founders, students, and alumni.

 

 

 

About The Author

Liz Eggleston

Liz Eggleston

Liz Eggleston is co-founder of Course Report, the most complete resource for students choosing a coding bootcamp. Liz has dedicated her career to empowering passionate career changers to break into tech, providing valuable insights and guidance in the rapidly evolving field of tech education.  At Course Report, Liz has built a trusted platform that helps thousands of students navigate the complex landscape of coding bootcamps.

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