Northwestern Boot Camps

I recently graduated from the full-time Full-Stack Web Development bootcamp at Northwestern this past April, and would highly recommend this program to anyone considering a coding boot camp. On first signing up, I was nervous about the lack of information and reviews I was able to find online. However, this was just due to the newness of the program, and I'm glad I didn't let it deter me.

The curriculum and especially the instructional staff were 5-star. CJ was a terrific instructor and very approachable, and so were all the TA's (Leah, Esdras, and Sabah). The teaching team truly exceeded my expectations, and I think my cohort was especially lucky in this regard. There was a good balance between project time, lectures, and class activities.  I always felt like I was learning a lot and was never left feeling bored or stagnant. I do agree with some of the other reviewers about the importance of commiting 25-35 hours outside of class to work on code, but also want to note that this is actually easier to accomplish than it sounds. I always wanted to spend more time out of class on the code we were learning - it didn't feel like work I had to make myself do most of the time.

I also want to mention that the main language taught in this program is definitely Javascript, which wasn't clear to me when signing up (I knew it was going to be taught, but Python was also advertised as being taught. We spent the majority of the course learning javascript and a couple days optionally learning Python). A few other things that the course stressed were learning how to use Git and Github while collaborating on projects, and Agile methods for developing a new product. 

Another thing that was great to see was how diverse the cohort was - I was expecting to be one of the only women in the class, and this wasn't at all the case. Students came from all different backgrounds (from CS degrees to no coding experience at all, and everything in between), but everyone was awesome and it was a very inclusive environment overall.

Attending this boot camp was a blast and I learned more than I could have imagined in a span of 3 months. I was definitely sad when it was over, but I left feeling confident that I now have a marketable skillset with which to enter the job market as a new developer.

When I first signed up for the Northwestern Coding Bootcamp I did not really know what to expect. I was really nervous but that all died down after a week or so. The intructor and TAs were all really helpful and were very patient teaching us and all my classmates where all very friendly. Although it was not as much work as I expected you still needed to keep up everyday in order to fully comprehend what you were learning. It was more about what else you can do with your project or if you can learn a new method on your own time. Each project was different then the next and the level of difficulty grew pretty rapidly. If you kept with your work and tried to challenge yourself throughout the course I believe this course can be very beneficial. Although, their Career services are a bit slow and it is hard to keep up with all the homework and the projects along side with it. Overall, I enjoyed my time with the class and the course. not only leanred a lot but learned how to use my skills with a group/dev enviornment. 

When I was looking for a full-time coding boot camp to join and saw that northwestern offered one for web development, I was pretty sure that was the route that I wanted to go, but of course I had my doubts. The program seemed pretty new, and the reviews, while generally positive, were sparse. The recruiter I spoke to on the phone alleviated my concerns and I went ahead with it.

Fortunately, it exceeded my expectations in almost every way. First off, let me say that my instructors were absolutely fantastic. Shout outs to CJ, Leah, Sabah, and Esdras for making the experience educational, engaging, challenging, and, somehow, fun. If you put in the time and effort to understand the concepts, they would always be willing to help you out and make sure you were not quagmired in some simple issue and were able to move forward.

The content was very relevant. I feel that the coursework was changing as we went, which, in my mind, is a very good thing. There was a constant desire to make sure that the content being taught was as valuable as possible to the students, and that we would be released into the world with some very useful tools in our belts, and not with technology that may be falling out of favor.

In addition to the technologies and coursework taught, relevant career skills were engrained in us. From day one or two, we were taught how to use GitHub to commit changes and collaborate with others. Group projects forced us to work as a team and practice agile methodologies while managing common industry issues on a smaller scale, like writing thorough requirements and managing scope creep.

The one area that felt inconsistent was the career services aspect. To be fair, I believe that our cohort was caught in the middle of an employee transition, but the initial offerings were a bit glitchy and were missing the polish that the rest of the program offered. I am still working with the career team, and things have significantly improved since. The recruiter also mentioned that big-name companies frequently stop in to view group projects, and I never saw any of that, so that felt a bit misleading. Regardless, any rough patches here do not affect my overall opinion of the program.

To echo what some others have said, this program gives you what you are willing to put into it. They estimate that you need 40 hours of outside-class time per week to really do well in this class, and that felt pretty accurate for the time I needed to set aside to get things done. So, you might have to clear your social calendar for 3 months, but, If you work hard, and have cool projects to show when you graduate, your portfolio will speak for itself when it comes time to job hunt. If you are like me, and thrive when given educated direction, deadlines, insightful reasoning for the "why" behind things, and the power to make cool stuff that you can share with the world, then I highly recommend this program to you.

As an April 2018 graduate of Northwestern’s Full-Stack Web Development Bootcamp, I can happily say that the 12-week, full-time course was one of my most challenging yet rewarding educational experiences.

The course-work is definitely presented in “bootcamp” style: There is a vast amount of  challenging material covered in a very short period of time. For someone with no prior coding experience, the pre-work was essential in preparing me for those first few days of class, enabling me to build the confidence necessary to grind through the majority of the course-work.

The knowledge and dedication of the instructional staff was exceptional. The Instructor and the TA’s all had extensive subject-matter experience and were able to clearly demonstrate the various technologies. They were available before and after class to assist in answering questions and, most importantly, help us learn how to find the answers for ourselves.  During the more difficult material, they provided weekend reviews when requested.

Success in this course required devoting considerable time outside of class to understanding the material. The workload easily demanded 20+ additional hours per week. Some of that time was devoted to homework or project assignments, but a good bit involved independent research and review.

Finally, there is a career services component to the program. During the course, the interaction with career services seemed formulaic and one-size fits all. As an older “non-traditional” student, I was hoping for individualized advice specific to my situation. Now that the program is complete and I am working one-on-one with a career services counselor, I am expecting that to change.

All in, I found this course to be worth the expense and would recommend it to anyone looking to gain an understanding of full-stack web development to either alter or enhance their career path. Even as an individual with no prior coding experience, I feel that I am suitably prepared to pursue a career in the web development field.

A few months ago (Jan 2018), I enrolled in the Northwestern's Coding Bootcamp and went for the full-time program. I have a technology background, and I had a goal of updating my skills toolkit to reflect the prevalent skill set that is in wide use today. I prefer learning in a structured environment, and this program appeared to be a good fit. 

I'm coming from a background in legacy systems, and enterprise system development.  I felt this was helpful for me to pick up concepts fast, but I'd like to also note that within the cohort, other students who were less exposed to technology than myself, done very well and had some awesome projects and HW assignments. If you don't have a technology background, that should not deter you.  What will get you through this course is a passion for learning new things, and a bit of grit and self-determination!

The shining star for me was the teaching staff - the instructor (CJ), and the TAs (Leah, Estras, and Sabah) were outstanding!  They worked hard to teach us to tools, languages and development concepts in lecture.  I was highly engaged every day, through interactive lectures, homework, and projects.

The pace was fast throughout the 12 weeks - but the instructor and TAs checked in regularly with us, and tutor services were available to those who needed additional support. 

The career services support was helpful as well.  It was good to have some insight into what employers are looking for, and interview strategies to help us be as successful as possible, to land that first job out of the boot camp. 

Final thought - You get out of it, what you put into it. It's a demanding course, but worth it!

For anyone who is interested in transitioning to a web development career, I would recommend this course.  It also helps that this is one of the less expensive boot camp courses out there, compared to others from what I've seen.  

I throughly enjoyed the Northwestern University Full-Stack Web Development Bootcamp, I attended the full-time session in the winter of 2018. I found the material to be relevant and the pass to be at a good clip. The instructional staff was amazing. I've been out of the program for just under a month now, I'm still waiting for career services to really kick-in. I'm what you'd call an "untraditional candidate" and I feel that some of the career advice during the program was a little too templated, so I'm looking forward to the one-on-one sessions provided post-graduation for the full-time cohort. 

I decided to take the bootcamp because I'm also working on getting my master's in computer science from DePaul; however, that program does not really teach programming skills, more fundamental and advanced concepts, but unfortunately, a lot of the assignments with that program involve coding and this bootcamp was a nice compliment to that. 

I definitely would reccomend this program to first time programmers, or those looking to further thier skills and become a full-stack developer. I think the time and money for this program are well spent given the level of academic rigor and instruction that is provided. Finally, I'd say that this program definitely attracks some of the nicest people to its program, our entire cohort still meet up and have been supporting each other throughout the post-grad job hunt. And less than a month out I already have interviews and one freelance gig lined up. 

If you are someone who craves opportunities for creative problem solving, then this course will be a perfect fit for you. You also need to have discipline and be self motivated to learn the materials if you wish to truly excell during the program. The instructotional staff is awesome, and will help you a long the way, but you will need to spend a lot of time outside the class really nailing down the material if you want to stand out. I came into the program with little knowledge of web development and by the end was able to build full stack web apps that I could truly be proud of. Wether you are looking to start a career in web development, or just looking to pick up some new skills, I highly recommend the full stack web development bootcamp at Northwestern!