Protect your data
We use cookies to provide our services, improve the user experience, for analysis and marketing purposes. By giving your consent, you also agree that your data may be transferred to the USA by the use of cookies. You can revoke your consent at any time. You can find further information in our privacy policy and cookie policy.
RefactorU is closed
This school is now closed. Although RefactorU is no longer accepting students or running its program, you can still see historical information and RefactorU alumni reviews on the school page.
RefactorU is a selective, 10-week, hands-on, immersive web application development bootcamp in Boulder, CO. Students will create applications and build a portfolio of projects to share with employers while developing a peer and advisor network for life. RefactorU collaborates with students to find jobs they love. Before, during, and after students' 10-week experience, RefactorU's career team works very hard to introduce students to hiring managers in the Denver/Boulder area as well as in other technology hotspots across the country.
RefactorU's curriculum is composed of a combination of front end, back end, and other technologies, tools, and skills. Graduates of the program will leave having mastered HTML5, CSS3, AngularJS, Node.js, JS, Sockets, MongoDB, JSON, command line skills, source control, deployment, pair progamming, Agile/Scrum, behavior-driven development, Sublime Text, interviewing, and more.
As of February 2016, RefactorU now offers Post-9/11 GI Bill Benefits.
These reviews are always a tricky thing and quite frankly I always take them with a grain of salt. In all my years I've never written a review of anything online. Unfortunately when it comes to my writing style it's sort of a "go big or go home" style so I appologize for verbosity up front.
As far as the learning to code goes I have zero regrets in my performance. If you go through the learning process and aren't faced with challenges, halted by ob...
These reviews are always a tricky thing and quite frankly I always take them with a grain of salt. In all my years I've never written a review of anything online. Unfortunately when it comes to my writing style it's sort of a "go big or go home" style so I appologize for verbosity up front.
As far as the learning to code goes I have zero regrets in my performance. If you go through the learning process and aren't faced with challenges, halted by obstacles, driven to frustration, but in the end coming away with more answers than questions, you didn’t try hard enough. I was proud to of hit all of those metrics in my experience and walk away smarter. To quote a mentor and founding father of it all:
"Writing software is a very intense, very personal thing. You have to have time to work your way through it, to understand it. Then debug it."- Vint Cerf
So why the rating levels?
To be clear this is not a "it didn’t work, woe is me review". By RefactorU standards I'm statistically a success story of their program. Most of it had to do with the expectations going into the camp. Most of those expectations are set by the marketing used by RefactorU. Marketing sets both tone and expectations of the customer segment you’re marketing to, in my case they failed on an egregious and costly level. VETERANS and GI BILL APPLICANTS LISTEN UP
EXPECTATIONS OF OVERALL EXPERIENCE:
- 1 star (Job Placement) This one I wasn't really to concerned about going in, I wasn't banking on RefactorU for the "%96 job placement in 12 weeks" but it certainly gave me a warm and fuzzy. Especially considering I was coming from the east coast. My expectation was that I had pretty good odds on getting a job in new area if I so desired to stay in Colorado. But there’s something I take issue with in their statistical reporting and it's in the fine print under the pie chart in the link above. For integrity sake it is displayed as of the date of this review:
The sample size of that %96 percent is based on
*Population size: N = 122
122 graduates as of the year 2015. Great, so we're talking roughly 117 people getting jobs within 3 months right? Wrong!
*Sample size: n = 49 (40% response rate)
40 percent!? Yeah, let that sink in for a minute. RefactorU pulled a Bryan Fantana. How does %40 of 122 graduates equate to %96 percent? At best what you can state accurately is
*of 122 graduates for year 2015 49 responded with employment inside 12 weeks
* %40 of graduates respond with job placement in 12 weeks
I'm not going to comb through all the stats but the numbers simply don't add up even when factoring percentage of the 82 graduates listed on LInkedin that include 2016 grads, or those that went on to start their own firms. I get that RefactorU is at the end of the day a for profit business so marketing has to err on the side of value proposition. But again the expectation from my experience was set months prior to me stepping in the classroom. Sure I saw the website, and maybe those numbers in fine print were there but it isn’t very clear even during the blatant sales funnel that is the pre student screening process either. For a point of comparison on transparency in graduate reporting of coding boot camps, here is a pretty good example from a not for profit code school in the Denver area. There is a lot more I can say about the red flags in this category during my time at RefactorU, including but not limited to the current ratio of employed grad from my cohort almost 12 weeks later (hint: not %96), the cohort prior to mine (18 weeks after graduation) or the number of graduates I met from cohorts as far back as 2015 at Job fairs, Boulder Startup week, meetups, tech conferences, or corporate open house. At the end of the day the issue I take with this is that this is a very risky game that RefactorU is playing with. If you market such an expectation and predicate your business on this standard, then by definition your business is offering a service that fails customers roughly %60 of the time. Even on this site where less than %15 percent of RefactorU graduates reporting, results are still markedly and numerically biased from a third party.
---------------------------------VETERANS MUST READ----------------------------------
-2 star (RefactorU accepts GIBill) This hurt the most. As I said earlier on the day of graduation I had no regret. Two weeks later however, I did and it had everything to do with RefactorU's handling of the GIBill. But let’s take a step back. I know how frustrating the GiBill and VA benefit process can be for so many, civilian, dependent, and veteran alike. For the GIBill there are some misconceptions that need to be cleared because they directly impact how you use them with institutions like RefactorU or codes schools in general.
This is false and if you are of this mindset you are part of the problem. Chapters 30 and 33 of the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 are known as the Montgomery and Post 9/11 GI Bill respectively. They are a voluntary financial investment asset requiring a termed payment of approximately 1 year of military pay with an optional "kicker" bonus payment after said term for US service men and women to invest. This investment asset is backed by the US Government. Rate of return is guaranteed to equal a set number of disbursements over the course of 36 months of educational training after several years of investment maturity. Meaning even after a veteran must pay into the asset it can’t be touched for several years until service members are qualified to access the benefits on its rate of return. Very much like a college 509 savings plan, or loosely based you can think of it as 401k for education but with a higher ROI. Point is, I paid an investment over time, it sits, I received a matured return on my investment that is still owned by me but controlled by the VA. I mention this to make the point that when I say I paid the insane amount I did for RefactorU it was not the amount agreed to with RefactorU. As a veteran I was not the only one victimized.
How does this apply to RefactorU's 2-month training course that they so graciously offer a %20 military discount totaling an alleged cost of $10,800?
It gets tricky but stay with me. RefactorU is not an accredited degree granting institution. As a result, disbursements are disproportional to the typical cost of semester based training. This allows, for profit, vocational institutions to file as "non traditional" Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL) with the VA. In the case of RefactorU I sent my COE paperwork in early March asking what their filing status with the VA was since they were not listed on the VA WEAMS List of Institutions as of 02/16. My goal, like most VA students who file ahead of class start date, was to have my Post/911 Chapter 33 paperwork cleared prior to April 2nd start date so that disbursement would coincide with the class/training schedule. Coming from out of state I needed to rent a place to stay and that monthly stipend for living expenses was the expected offset.
In gathering my paperwork I realized that RefactorU's %20 discount as an IHL qualifies them very clearly as a candidate for the GI Bill Yellow Ribbon Program. Again RefactorU would not disclose if they were an IHL at the time and only responded by saying "we do guarantee acceptance of the GI Bill and we are listed and registered with the Colorado Department of Higher Education" this was a red flag from the start. I pressed forward in the assumption that they would be operating as an IHL considering the CDHE registration and the dubious "U" of RefactorU.
Furthermore, I noticed that RefactorU was not listed as a Colorado Yellow Ribbon Participant (a provision within the Post 9/11 Gi Bill) ironically hurting their bottom line by doing so. To participate schools need to fill out VA Form 22-0839 and submit to VA electronically. I sent this form with the instructions, corresponding information, and volunteered to file it with the VA myself on behalf of the school in my early March email. Unfortunately, it went without response.
Upon arrival of day 1 and meeting the other veterans in my cohort (%30 of our class were vets), we all realized the school had yet to file with the VA. Anybody who deals with the VA knows the wait times. So all of us expecting that $1,800 housing stipend scheduled on the 1st of each month during training realized it wasn’t coming and we would be lucky to receive it all during the course of the 10-week training. According to the schools VA cost calculator there is clear distinction in cost between Montgomery and Post 9/11 benefits. After several joint phone calls to the VA we realized the school had not submitted the documentation to the VA until week 2 of class! As a result, we didn’t receive our benefits until 7 weeks into our 10 week class. Leaving many of us to rely on out of pocket expenses and credit during unemployment to cover living expenses. Of course this only adds to the stress of the class but it was unnecessary and easily avoidable. When it was all said and done, I later learned that not only I but the other vets in the class were charged for 8 months ($14,056) of our annual $21,085 entitlement for a 2 month class that should, even with military discount, be $10,800. Clearly there is a problem here and quite frankly it's not entirely RefactorU's fault, this is also systemically erroneous on the part of the VA, however RefacorU chose to wing it in an area they clearly weren’t qualified or experienced to handle. Most schools have a trained POC for VA administration. The fact that RefacorU decided against that and filed, while misrepresenting their status as an institution of higher learning with the VA is negligence. When your marketing roughly 8 cohorts a year with an average class size of 20-30 students which should be 200 but let’s just stick with the 122 documented as graduates at a rate of roughly $13k per student, as business you have well over 1.5 million in annual revenue to invest in a certifying official with experience in the VA but RefactorU doesn’t and I would call that Gross Negligence!
So what is the cost of RefactorU to veterans under the Post 9/11 GiBill?
How does a 2 month course marketed at a cost of $10,800 to veterans cost more than the actual $13,500.00 price of admission to regular students?
The take away here is that veterans using the GI Bill pay a "premium" above the $13,500 cost to attend RefactorU.
This is ultimately why schools like ITT Tech, University of Phoenix and the several other for profit "institutions of higher learning" get mired in scandal. A result of negligent financial practices that are predatory to government backed student financial assets. Schools like RefactorU do not take the due diligence to understand the VA system and only recognize it as "guaranteed money" to the school without disclosing impact and true cost to the students.
Your best bet as a vet is to take the %20 discount and finance that through a third party which RefactorU does offer. Do not use your GI Bill with RefactorU. Or better yet, as one of the vets in our class did after realizing RefactorU was not meeting his expectations, enroll at Flatiron Community College and get a certificate from them over the course of one semester at a cost less than %60 what RefactorU charges. Except where he went to apply his Gi Bill benefit in that program the VA informed he had no more money left because RefactorU cost depleted his money unexpectedly.
EXPERIENCE OF INSTRUCTORS
-1 star (world class instructors): To be honest, I liked everyone of their instructors as people. I respect their skills as developers and they are without question brilliant folks. However, when I interviewed with schools in most cases I spoke directly with the instructor designated for the class I would be in. In almost all case they had decades of experience, multiple advanced degrees and even in the case of Iron Yard my instructor to be was former VP of Google's product development. RefactorU is growing so more talent is added to the team every day but again this is a review of my experience that exposed me to 3 instructors. The two leads, who I absolutely appreciated and respected are not world class developer or instructors for that matter. They both have, on paper, less than 5 years of documented experience as devs and are both RefactorU alumni. A company that started in 2013. So assuming they had years of experience prior to attending RefactorU, which seems prohibitive, they are by definition in any other technical trade “journeyman” level developers. Not craftsmen level, let alone master level, certainly not world class compared to other code schools. I would have been fine with this except that again in the marketing when you say you have word class instructors (and it seems to be redacted now) you set an expectation. In comparison to other code schools and my own experience in the IT sector, world class actually means something.
I was looking forward to at least a published SME, or even CIS major. 1 of the 3 actually was but he was leading another cohort and generally unavailable. He later left the company but they have been hiring great replacements that are true craftsmen of thier trade and arguably master level since!
-2 stars (classroom management and availability) As a former instructor in the military and corporate trainer I know something about classroom management. Ask any college educator or public school teacher for that matter and they will explain to you what this entails. The facilities RefactorU is housed, in combination with the lack of instructor (I’m not saying developer in this case but their experience as "instructors") ability made classroom management difficult and presented distractions throughout the 10 weeks. They recognized, attempted to fix it, but failed, as advertised, as they were learning on the job.
Availability was an issue because not only were instructors limited to about 1.5-3 hours at most of lecture in an 8-hour day, the other 5 hours of the day were generally spent playing video games or going to off-site lunches and corporate stand-up meetings during designated student hours. Again swell folks all around but not up to my expectations as advertised "world class". Even by Gladwell logic of 10k hours to achieve mastery these folks have only been "instructors" (again referencing experience as instructors not developers) for a couple years at best in a non-accredited institution that adopts zero VARK style learning modalities or education standards. "Coding Coaches" would be a more appropriatte marketing term. The TA's on the other hand I would argue are world class developers with some having 20+ years of experience but again they aren't the instructors. Huge discredit is done by underutilizing the TA's who are some of the most brilliant minds in the building.
EXPERIENCE OF CURRICULUM
-4 stars
EXPERIENCE OF JOB ASSISTANCE
- 1 star My liaison for recruiting and career counseling was often late for scheduled meetings. Things happen I get that but it can be a hindrance to balance coding time and assignment deadlines like finals when switching gears. The other red flag was when reviewing my resume, the liaison explained that mine was "to technical" in verbiage despite applying for technical roles. Top it all off with the fact the liaison was switched half way through the course and again after graduation.
-1 star This partly ties back to the statistic of %96 but also includes the sheer volume of previous cohort members I even had to compete against for jobs I applied to. In many cases I felt bad for that they had gone so long without employment and simply looked elsewhere but often found Refactor grads from several months prior out there being proactive but struggling to find work. This directly impacted my level of competiveness in the local labor pool.
WHAT WENT WELL?
The community manager Pattie Kettle is by far the hardest working person in that building and will bend over backwards, at times to her own sacrifice, to make sure your experience is successful.
Shirrone went out of her way to assist with lodging prior to my arrival since the of the 4 bedrooms in housing they offer for a marketed class size of 20-30 people you have about a %15 chance to get in there. Regardless Shirrone provided several well researched and viable alternatives. I respected that from RefactorU
Again I do respect my instructors and there’s no way I come out positive in this but I didn't spend $14K+ to make friends. Regardless Rob Camp is amazingly gifted in the area of patience when coding can be such a frustrating task. You need an even keel on hand to guide you through. Rob is that keel, refreshingly so.
My final project left something to be desired on demo day in my mind and this mostly had to do with cranial burnout from coding for close to 52 hours in the classroom the weekend before final trying to tweak and then having my web server compromised the day before final. But I didn’t really mind come demo day because quite frankly I knew the level of effort I put into it and where I could take the app as a concept to help others. Even after graduation I've done that and now a federal cyber lab I've worked with in the past picked up the concept and I will be submitting comment on the federal registrar for it. You can read more about it hear. I owe that much to my experience at RefactorU and the folks I met in Boulder.
In conclusion:
The ingredients are there for RefactorU to be great institution. Unfortunately, like most startups, it susceptible to startup fallacies and I will say RefactorU is constantly changing and working to address its shortcomings even as they were pointed out to them on-site. I do respect the dynamic of their position but the facts are facts as stated above in my experience. More than likely you will not have this type of experience in the future with RefactorU because they are ever changing. The Devry partnership is a great step forward. their job assistance program was later completely overhauled. But unfortunately my experience left me very disappointed in expectations at such a high cost to me. For what I paid and what certainly other GIBILL vets will pay, along with the expectations that were set by RefactorU the value simply wasn’t there.
Ed Powers of RefactorU
Chief Operating Officer
Sep 22, 2016
I was in the same cohort as "My Takeway? Confused." and I second everything from that review.
I applied to RefactorU in part because I wanted a shorter school and faster turnaround time to working. RefactorU's program is ten weeks, most similar programs are between twelve and fourteen. I assumed RefactorU had a killer curriculum that taught the same material but in less time. Wrong. Ten weeks is a business decision. In the final week a few of us students were talking to an instru...
I was in the same cohort as "My Takeway? Confused." and I second everything from that review.
I applied to RefactorU in part because I wanted a shorter school and faster turnaround time to working. RefactorU's program is ten weeks, most similar programs are between twelve and fourteen. I assumed RefactorU had a killer curriculum that taught the same material but in less time. Wrong. Ten weeks is a business decision. In the final week a few of us students were talking to an instructor and the CEO and we said we wish we had more time in class; the CEO and instructor both confirmed that previous cohorts also wanted the course to be two weeks longer. So why don't they extend the course? I quote: "Because if RefactorU was twelve weeks it would cost the same as every other bootcamp." Think about that! That's essentially saying "We don't offer a better product than our competitors, we're just cheaper, because we give you less product." This really upsets me because it is an educational institution making a business decision that actually harms their educational product. That's prioritizing your advertising over your educational outcomes.
The oft-repeated phrase that RefactorU will turn you into a "world-class entry-level developer" is nothing but a slogan and an outright falsehood. You will not be a world-class entry-level developer, you will be an entry-level developer with serious holes in your game. You probably won't want to show your final project to prospective employers until you can put more time into it. A lot of us didn't fully grasp or know how to implement core aspects of web development; for me it was authentication, which I had to teach myself after graduation. Unit testing is another important tool in the field but we only had one cursory lecture explaining what it is. I either have to invest my own time - when I'm not earning any income - in teaching myself these things or I have to walk into interviews and say "No, I don't know how to do that."
I think the school/front-office has a general problem with soliciting genuine feedback and acting on it. The first instance of educational feedback came in week seven (of a ten-week program) because the intern happened to come outside while we were venting about the previous lecture. There was a feedback session on Monday of the final week because the front office had become aware of what a nightmare week nine was. The presentation was pretty tense. It felt more like damage control than soul-searching. I asked the CEO "In week eight students were skipping class, instructors weren't being asked for help, and then in week nine everybody is desperate for help and the instructors are slammed. I don't know how to fix that, but isn't that something to be concerned about?" The response was "Those students who have been missing class need to show up or they won't graduate." (Everyone graduated.)
In the month since graduation I've been teaching myself web development and working on my final project. I have not yet applied to any jobs. I think I gained a good foundation from RefactorU but it could have been better. My cohort probably had one of the worst experiences in school history, but it seems like those problems were there to begin with and the stress of having 1.5 full cohorts at the same time only made it worse. I don't know what other code bootcamps are like but this was my experience at RefactorU.
Final notes:
To be honest, this isn't even my full list of grievances with the school. I was there for ten weeks, I TA'd there another two weeks, I talked a lot with students in my cohort and the one after, I talked with staff members off the record... During finals and even weeks after graduation I'd end up in hour-long conversations with different classmates about RefactorU, about the problems, potential solutions, trying to figure out why these problems are there in the first place. I tried to keep my review limited to the school's educational experience and leave out the other nonsense.
I wanted this to be a wonderful experience and to have a really great relationship with the school, but this is how it turned out. I would rather have written a glowing review.
When the "My takeway?" review was posted everyone in the cohort got a phone call from the school. Mine went to voicemail; it was message that Fluid Consulting was still available if we wanted assistance with our job search.
Ed Powers of RefactorU
COO
Apr 28, 2016
To be honest, I'm not sure what to think of my experience at RefactorU. The program started off on a high note. Then the bumps began.
Like, having TAs who didn't know Angular, or anything really. That lasted the entire cohort and seems unlikely to change. From what I've learned there is no process that vets TAs. They will literally hire them right upon graduation or just allowed people's friends to come in help out. That being said, there are a few TAs who are amazing.
To be honest, I'm not sure what to think of my experience at RefactorU. The program started off on a high note. Then the bumps began.
Like, having TAs who didn't know Angular, or anything really. That lasted the entire cohort and seems unlikely to change. From what I've learned there is no process that vets TAs. They will literally hire them right upon graduation or just allowed people's friends to come in help out. That being said, there are a few TAs who are amazing.
During our midterm and final project we had to fight for the chance to get help on our projects. There were 27 of us and two instructors. During our midterms there were not enough TAs. During the finals, there are a decent amount but due to a lot of them being incompetent this really didn't help. The newer cohorts have 11 and 9 people so clearly this won't be/isn't an issue for them.
I believe in week six is when the new cohort started. We got to be guinea pigs for the doubling up of cohorts. While some cohort had to be, it really really sucked. They hired a new instructor and we never got the benefit of having him lecture for us. Some days there would be two instructors with the newer cohort (of 11 people) and one instructor for the 27 of us!
I'd say one of the biggest failure of this program is the supposed teaching of the back end. Truly, we got about a week and a half of learning it. They either need to spend more time teaching it or scrap it all together. For example, one lecture instead of learning useful information, we learning how to "hack" websites. A cool topic, but not necessary for us to learn in our limited time there. We got about seven weeks of lectures, which in a ten week program is not enough! I think they should bump it up to 12 weeks total, with ten weeks of lectures.
The job assistance... they're trying? They've partnered with Fluid Consulting. Which could be helpful if you've never held any sort of job before. The career advice we got was basic and about as generic as it comes. The two women who work for Fluid, while nice people, never agreed with each other. Contradicting advice is confusing when switching fields. Their one on one resume and cover letter prep was great but the lunch time lecture were totally useless. There was no techincal interview prep or whiteboard prep. Both of which have let me feeling helpless.
Overall, I'd say I got a good foundation but I don't feel like it was strong enough to prepare me. Which means, I'll be doing a lot of studying on my own. So, for $13,500 I feel a bit ripped off. Would I do it again? Knowing what I know now, I'm not sure.
I would like to preface this review by stating that this bootcamp offers rewards for graduating students who write reviews online. I am not accepting an award or compensation for writing this review. RefactorU is an interesting experience. Some of the instructors are excellent and some of them are not excellent. There were only three instructors for our class of 20 something students. The lessons and curriculum was well considered and thorough. I felt that a lot of effort and plannin...
I would like to preface this review by stating that this bootcamp offers rewards for graduating students who write reviews online. I am not accepting an award or compensation for writing this review. RefactorU is an interesting experience. Some of the instructors are excellent and some of them are not excellent. There were only three instructors for our class of 20 something students. The lessons and curriculum was well considered and thorough. I felt that a lot of effort and planning went into designing the curriculum itself, the technologies we learned were "hip" and popular. The bootcamp also scheduled a lot of extracurricular activities and "fun" to help students relax after stressful and difficult weeks of material. Overall I would say that I learned a great deal at RefactorU. Where they really let the ball drop was after graduation. There was one networking event and a career fair. Very little effort was given to assist in job placement. There was absolutely no follow-up or feedback from RefactorU regarding job placement. I'm not sure where they get their placement numbers of 96 %. After I graduated I felt very little was done to assist in my career search. This wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't something the school promised they did as part of their. I do not regret my decision to attend RefactorU as I learned a great deal and believe it will be useful in the future. I am disappointed with the lack of support after graduation and the assistance in finding career opportunities.
PROS:
Learn a lot
MEAN Stack is very desirable
Good Curriculum
Cost - this is an affordable program for the amount you learn
Some instructors are excellent
CONS:
Room temperature is exceedingly hot all the time
Class size is large which limits personal instruction
Lack of alumni/career support
Some instructors are not excellent
Sean Daken of RefactorU
Founder & CEO
Mar 27, 2016
What I learned:
The worst $13,500 investment of my life! That doesn't even include all the hidden financing fees. The curriculum is so bad that many people in class were paying Udemy and other online learning sites to learn the concepts.
If you are looking for a code school, do not be attracted to the 10 weeks. It is a marketing ploy.
Internet crashes and slow connections would making it impossible to learn in class.
Nearly half the ...
What I learned:
The worst $13,500 investment of my life! That doesn't even include all the hidden financing fees. The curriculum is so bad that many people in class were paying Udemy and other online learning sites to learn the concepts.
If you are looking for a code school, do not be attracted to the 10 weeks. It is a marketing ploy.
Internet crashes and slow connections would making it impossible to learn in class.
Nearly half the class stopped coming because the instructors and curriculum were so bad.
No job guarentee.
Facilities are garbage.
Don't complain or they will cut off your job assistance and slack access.
Sean Daken of RefactorU
Founder & CEO
Jul 22, 2016
Warning: I was a grunt in the military, I'm not going to beat around the bush.
So I'm going to get a little personal here. Some people showed up for almost every day of the class (me) and others showed up for less than a week total, most of those days leaving by noon (Michael Mcbride). It might be in bad taste to name names, but I'm a pretty direct person and you're being a scumbag and misleading. I'm not sure how anyone can expect to go to a 10-week full-time course and literall...
Warning: I was a grunt in the military, I'm not going to beat around the bush.
So I'm going to get a little personal here. Some people showed up for almost every day of the class (me) and others showed up for less than a week total, most of those days leaving by noon (Michael Mcbride). It might be in bad taste to name names, but I'm a pretty direct person and you're being a scumbag and misleading. I'm not sure how anyone can expect to go to a 10-week full-time course and literally show up for less than 10% of the days and expect to have learned anything. You made poor decisions and instead of owning up to them like a man, you choose to blame others. I'm a vet (as are quite a few of the other students) and I find your work ethic is troubling.
Now for an actual review:
Cons:
- Very fast-paced learning that sometimes left some students feeling like they did not have adequete time to digest the material.
- There were noticable time gaps of scheduled instruction that did not actually end up happening.
- Some disconnect with styles of coding and conflicts between how one instructor would solve a problem vs another (I didn't think this was a con, as this is exactly the nature of programming. It did however confuse some of the students).
For me, those were the only problems I really saw with the course. Other students did voice concerns over the lack of teaching concepts like Test Driven Development, among other things. However, it's not like the school did not provide you with a course syllabus ("whhhaaatttt"). Guess what though, they even catered to those concerns and provided a block of instruction addressing it, even though it wasn't part of the course outline.
Pros:
- If you are willing to put in the time that one would expect to put into a fast-paced 10-week immersive course you'll learn a ton. (You get out what you put in, like anything else in life.)
- Instructors were very knowledgeable, with answers to almost every question I asked. There were some fringe cases that they weren't able to answer on the spot, but did get back to me on.
- I personally liked the variation of teaching and coding styles a lot. Seeing a problem hit from different angles of attack helps you understand the nuances of the problem itself.
Overall I would recommend this course given a couple of things:
- First and foremost, expect to put in a full-time amount of work into the course. (40-50 hours a week, apparently some people don't understand what that means)
- Come ready to learn and be challenged. You will be confused at times. You will feel like suplexing your grandmother through a table at times. Figuring out solutions to abstract and open-ended problems is what coding is all about.
- Do some research on the basic concepts of computer science. They will help you tremendously in understanding how to attack problems during the course.
The boot-camp was everything i expected and more. The instructors were great and really know the material. Career help and guidance was also great.
I was in the May 2016 cohort with Steve Halase and Michael McBride, featured below. First, I will address my personal experience at RefactorU, then go into more detail about the strengths and weaknesses of the course.
My Experience:
I will come right out and say that I enjoyed my ten weeks at RefactorU. I enjoyed the pace, I met some great people, and I learned more interesting, applicable knowledge in ten weeks than I did in any one of the ...
I was in the May 2016 cohort with Steve Halase and Michael McBride, featured below. First, I will address my personal experience at RefactorU, then go into more detail about the strengths and weaknesses of the course.
My Experience:
I will come right out and say that I enjoyed my ten weeks at RefactorU. I enjoyed the pace, I met some great people, and I learned more interesting, applicable knowledge in ten weeks than I did in any one of the eight semesters I spent at a university. The facilities leave much to be desired, sure. I forgave that on account of being a startup and the stringent relocation restrictions involved in being accepted by the GI bill, but I can see how others would be disappointed. The instructors were knowledgable and approachable. If they don't know an answer (which happens. They aren't a bunch of graybeards who have worked in depth with every language, framework and library in existence) they will guide you toward resources which may have the answer, or, more often than not, do the research themselves and get back to you later in the day. That resonated with me.
The course:
In terms of the pace, I was comfortably challenged. Outside of midterm and final prep, there's new material virtually every day; sometimes two brand new topics in one day. At no point did I feel my head was completely above water. That's how I learn best. If you like your hand to be held every step of the way, consider other options. The principle at RefactorU is to teach you as much as you need in order to teach yourself the rest. I liken it to "Here's A, B, and C. Got it? Good. Now here's an assignment for each, and two for D and F." I find that far more useful than step by step instructions. You will have at least 10 visits to StackOverflow a day, but with the baseline knowledge in place to know what's useful and pertinent. Again, if you can't find the answer, ask an instructor and they will nudge you in the right direction a few times before walking you through it if you truly are stuck.
The curriculum is calculated. You learn (HTML, CSS, Javascript) Angular, Node, Express and MongoDB, with some neat little libraries woven in. You do not learn React, Ruby on Rails, SQL anything, or any other framework or architecture in which you may be interested. The purpose is to get you a job NOW. Not when this new tech becomes mainstream, not 5 years ago when this other tech ruled the world. These are some of the most sought after knowledgebases in the industry at the moment, and statistically more likely to land you a job in tech in the near future. If you're not into the MEAN stack, look elsewhere.
So here's the synopsis:
Pros:
Cons:
Do with this what you will. I liked it. You might not. Bootcamps aren't for everyone.
For only being ten weeks long, this bootcamp transformed me from a novice developer into a fully confident full-stack web developer, without making me loose my sanity in coursework. I can now create, impliment, and deploy a fully functioning website with ease, thanks to the 10 weeks at RefactorU
The instructors can be hit or miss. During my cohort, one instructor was usually unhelpful, and tended to keep to himself instead of making himself available. The other ...
For only being ten weeks long, this bootcamp transformed me from a novice developer into a fully confident full-stack web developer, without making me loose my sanity in coursework. I can now create, impliment, and deploy a fully functioning website with ease, thanks to the 10 weeks at RefactorU
The instructors can be hit or miss. During my cohort, one instructor was usually unhelpful, and tended to keep to himself instead of making himself available. The other instructor was amazing - he answered questions clearly, and helped you towards an answer rather than just give it to you.
RefactorU provides 10 weeks of intense web development training. What you put in, is what you get out of it. You are accountable for doing your own work. Having said that, the lead instructors are fantastic at helping you understand concepts throughout the whole program.
Pros: Course content/coursework: The overall structure and content of the bootcamp were fantastic.
Instructors: The lead instructors are some of the most talented and knowledgable developers ou...
RefactorU provides 10 weeks of intense web development training. What you put in, is what you get out of it. You are accountable for doing your own work. Having said that, the lead instructors are fantastic at helping you understand concepts throughout the whole program.
Pros: Course content/coursework: The overall structure and content of the bootcamp were fantastic.
Instructors: The lead instructors are some of the most talented and knowledgable developers out there. Furthermore, the instructors were committed to seeing you learn, understand, and succeed. Not only were they highly supportive of their students, they were consistent & thorough in their teaching of concepts.
Classmates: I have met some truly incredible people in this class, that I can confidently say will be life-long friends, and helpful peers as we dive into our professional tech careers. Since instructors were often busy assisting other students (which is great, as the instructors took all the time necessary to address individual questions/problems) I found my fellow students to be a goldmine of knowledge and it was very encouraging to see other students working together and helping each other.
Model: The number of coding bootcamps has exploded over the last couple years, and this immersive model is here to stay. As a long-time fan of alternative education, RefactorU has hit the nail on the head in terms of providing a specific high-demand skill-set to anyone with the grit and determination to become a software developer.
Location: RefactorU's location in Boulder is great for those interested in working in the start-up scene in Boulder. The Denver/Boulder metro area is an emerging tech hub and a prime gateway to enter a tech career. This was also helpful for attending the many Meetups, workshops, and conferences in the area.
Cons: Student to teacher ratio. We had three instructors for a class of 33 (we are the largest class yet). This is in contrast to 18 students in the prior cohort, and there were 11 graduates in the cohort prior to that. The classroom was far too small for this many students.
Individualized attention: while the instructors were fantastic, and true champs in terms of being overloaded with students, many of us felt that we did not receive as much individual attention as we would have hoped, and this is largely attributed to the very large class size. There simply weren't enough instructors or hours in the day to get assistance with the 1:10 ratio in our class. A huge shoutout to the instructors that showed up and gave their best every day. They were as enthusiastic about seeing us succeed in week 1 as at the very end of our program.
Class distractions: with such a large class it was an exercise in zooming in on our work and blocking out distractions. The overall classroom atmosphere was far louder and more distracting than I had anticipated. While each of us is responsible for doing whatever we needed to do in order to concentrate on learning, I was hoping for a more professional (and quieter) work/study environment.
Constructive criticism for the school: I am aware that the school plans to hold two concurrent cohorts for the next set of students, but a campus expansion/relocation would greatly serve to benefit the students, and with the high growth of RefactorU, the organization as a whole. Smaller class sizes are a must, or reducing the teacher:student ratio. I have high hopes for RefactorU moving forward, and I anticipate seeing great things from my fellow classmates.
Pros:
- Get your feet wet and a basis of what it takes to create websites
Cons:
- Totally disorganized
- No job support after you graduate
- Poor TAs
- No accountability (you can ignore all the exercises and activities and no one will probably notice or care)
- Accepts students who probably shouldnt have been accepted (In the last two weeks of the cohort there was a student in our class who still couldnt write b...
Pros:
- Get your feet wet and a basis of what it takes to create websites
Cons:
- Totally disorganized
- No job support after you graduate
- Poor TAs
- No accountability (you can ignore all the exercises and activities and no one will probably notice or care)
- Accepts students who probably shouldnt have been accepted (In the last two weeks of the cohort there was a student in our class who still couldnt write basic html.. and he wasn't getting any help.)
There was a TA that was supposed to show up once to help on a weekend and they just never showed up. They didn't have a style guide that they followed so certain instructors didnt know how to read the code in particular styles. During the final project where you were told that there was going to be prospective companies looking to hire there were no company recruiters that showed up. The job fair at the end of the cohort was a joke. There were only 5 companies there. Not all of them were even hiring.
Ed Powers of RefactorU
Chief Operating Officer
Sep 21, 2016
Description | Percentage |
Full Time, In-Field Employee | 93.3% |
Full-time apprenticeship, internship or contract position | 1.3% |
Short-term contract, part-time position, freelance | N/A |
Employed out-of-field | N/A |
How much does RefactorU cost?
RefactorU costs around $13,500. On the lower end, some RefactorU courses like Getting Started as a Web Developer cost $9.
What courses does RefactorU teach?
RefactorU offers courses like Advanced Backend Web Development, Advanced CSS Development, Advanced JavaScript Development, Advanced Node.js Development and 13 more.
Where does RefactorU have campuses?
RefactorU has in-person campuses in Boulder. RefactorU also has a remote classroom so students can learn online.
Is RefactorU worth it?
The data says yes! In 2015, RefactorU reported a 96% graduation rate, a median salary of $64,140, and 100% of RefactorU alumni are employed.
Is RefactorU legit?
We let alumni answer that question. 30 RefactorU alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed RefactorU and rate their overall experience a 4.1 out of 5.
Does RefactorU offer scholarships or accept the GI Bill?
Right now, it doesn't look like RefactorU offers scholarships or accepts the GI Bill. We're always adding to the list of schools that do offer Exclusive Course Report Scholarships and a list of the bootcamps that accept the GI Bill.
Can I read RefactorU reviews?
You can read 30 reviews of RefactorU on Course Report! RefactorU alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed RefactorU and rate their overall experience a 4.1 out of 5.
Is RefactorU accredited?
RefactorU offers Post-9/11 GI Bill Benefits.
Just tell us who you are and what you’re searching for, we’ll handle the rest.