GW Boot Camps

I am a little over halfway through the 24 week full stack web development boot camp.

Everything has been great, and I have received a lot of support.

• The instructors are experienced, humorous, and engaging. They work full time in web development.
• The teaching assistants help us if we get stuck on an exercise during class or on homework.
• The student success manager keeps the overall program on track and checks in with each student periodically to ensure they are having a positive experience.
• The career support staff has helped us improve our LinkedIn profiles, resumes, and elevator speech. They have also facilitated some practice behavioral interviews. This is the best career support I have ever received.

Before enrolling, I was wary of the boot camp model. I did a lot of research and talked to two friends who went to GW. I wanted to make sure this was legitimate. My fears were unfounded. This has turned out to be a worthwhile experience.

My section (about 20 students) meets Monday and Wednesday nights 6:30 - 9:30 PM. There is another section on Tuesday and Thursday nights 6:30 - 9:30 PM. Both sections come together on Saturday 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM. Saturdays are usually focused on group projects and breakout activities.

Periodically, I have had to switch from a Wednesday night to a Thursday night, and it has worked smoothly. The students and instructor in the other section are welcoming and supportive.

I usually attend in person. Hoever, some people usually attend remotely via the live video feed. If we are going to do a group project, they encourage us to attend in person.

Most of my classmates are younger than me, but they have been very welcoming.

Each week, I work 40 hours at my job, attend 10 hours of boot camp classes, and do 10+ hours of studying and homework. There is so much to learn that I could spend 20+ hours on studying and homework. I wish I had more time. The homework and projects are not easy, but I have learned a lot.

I cannot think of anything that the boot camp could do to improve.

Overall this is an excellent program. Before even gradutating I was receiving serious consideration from employers. The career services portion could be a little more hands-on, or at the very least one additional person should be hired to manage all the graduates needs, however the career services homework assignments have significantly improved the appeal of my resume'.

Based on the strength of my resume' and class projects I am consistently interviewing, and even turning some employers away, which is something I would've never considered doing prior to attending the boot camp. 

The technologies covered in the curriculum are in line with the hottest trends in tech right now. And the instructional and support staff are excellent at hearing and attending to each students needs.

Ultimately you will get out of this program whatever you put in. This is not a magic bullet, but it will set you up for success if you commit yourself to the process and power through.

My experience with the course has been poor. I was excited when I first joined assuming the high cost and GW name meant better quality than the online courses that I done before, unfortunately that was not the case.  

The instructors that taught my course were great however, I felt they were restricted due to the amount of material, student to teacher ratio and the lack of flexibility in providing additional support.  

At the end of the day, expect to get exposure to a lot of things. Do not expect to be taught or be able to do things independently at the end of the course.

If you are new to programming don’t take this course, I do not believe the cost is worth it and I recommend finding a tutor or keep plugging away with online courses and books.

Update: My response to the GW Rep

     "We understand that you chose GW Coding Boot Camp for expert guidance in navigating the fundamentals of web development."  

What? I didnt take the web development course, and if you dont know how valid are all of your comments?  

      "This is a fast-paced course and rather than spending extended periods of time on one topic we pride ourselves on teaching individuals how to learn, building a strong foundational skillset"

Teaching how to learn is not "Go to Google" and "When you copy and paste this in your homework"

     "We strive to provide in-depth academic support" 

Doesnt "In-depth" conflict with your prior statement above and why dont you tell everyone what happened to our instructor midway through the course? 

    "TAs that work hard to assist leaners both in and outside of the classroom"

Pretty dramatic and outside of the classroom?, Come on, man. I liked the instructors and TA's alot however, please inform everyone in your response what the actual expectations of TA's are.  Feel free to include the how long you get with your online tutor as well.   

I don't appreciate you turning your response to my comment into a selling point. If you want to talk, feel free to reach out otherwise let my review stand on it own please. 

GW Boot Camp offers the MERN-stack (MongoDB, Express, React, Node.js), and related techonologies toward them, unlike other places where the curriculumn is like a jumbalaya of different technologies. I understand that DMV area has a lot enterprise businesses that may use Angular, but as time goes on, React is becoming more and more popular, so that was my main focus point for choosing GW Boot Camp (At the time of writing this review, Microsoft enabled React Native on all of their platforms, including Windows, Xbox, etc..) 

The instructor seem very knowledgable, and the TA's were very encouraging, given they finished their cohort prior to ours. The Student Success Manager (SSM) is also very kind, and very helpful, her goal was to make sure we passed the course and we were treated fairly.  

Regarding career services, they are available to help you, and I personally got the help to write a resume and a cover letter. My counselor personally helped my by making sure I was actively looking, which YOU HAVE TO DO. 

Overall, I do recommend GW Coding Boot camp. It was a life changing course because you know that if you want to be a developer, you are willing to be a forever-learner. And that's what the Boot Camp taught me. How to learn, and how to effienciently apply what I learned. 

I was very hesitant to write this review, however I feel as though I owe it to future students to paint an accurate picture of the GW Boot Camp Experience.  I tried discussing my concerns with the "Student Success Manager", but unfortunately my several emails went unanswered.  Seeing the long, buzzword-filled responses to other reviews, it certainly appears that GW (Trilogy) cares far more about the outward appearance of this boot camp than the experience of current students.