The University of Connecticut Boot Camps

I had a bit of knowledge in web development prior to enrolling in the UConn Full Stack Flex Bootcamp. I had been teaching myself through FreeCodeCamp, Udemy courses, and just reading and trying stuff on my own. While these methods gave me a decent foundation, I was having trouble understanding concepts and didn't really have any direction of what to build or do. I was also skeptical of signing up because it's a lot of money to spend if the program doesn't end up working out.  In short, I wish I had enrolled in this bootcamp sooner. My instructor, Michael, (and in his absence Ross) were incredible at teaching us and helping us learn complicated topics. My TAs were wonderful as well. Nathan and Chris were always willing to meet early/stay late with us to help us with any homework or projects we were struggling with. I honestly cannot say enough good things about this bootcamp or the people who work it. While EXTREMELY fast paced, I feel I learned an incredible amount and it was worth every penny.

As someone who is not very computer savvy I quickly found out how much I didn't know about how my computer works. If you're coming into this as some one with no experience, do your self a favor a get on coursera or udemy and get your feet wet before the boot camp begins. I wish I had done that. The pre-work is designed to give you a pre-view but all it did was confuse me more since I didn't know what these terms or things were yet.

I always felt like there wasn't enough time to get a good understanding of topics before we moved on to new ones. At one point I was ready to give up. But luckily and I didn't and I graduated.

Lastly there was some confusion on career services and access to help from an individual versus the resources. That did leave a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.

Now on to the good parts. 

Our instructional staff Michael Labieniec (teacher), Nathan Sartain (TA), and Chris Bonifacio (TA) are a large part of why I completed this course.  The staff went above and beyond. I had high expectations of the staff, considering the cost of the boot camp. They met and then exceeded those expectations time after time. They were patient, helpful, and knowledgeable. Even when I had what felt like the world's dumbest questions I'd come away not feeling dumb for asking and with more arsenal for my code tool belt.

Lastly it's imperative you reach out to your class mates.  I worked in an industry for the last 10 years where collaboration really wasn't a thing. Thus I was a little intimidated at the idea of reaching out to people who I would see on zoom for few a hours every week.  Luckily two of my class mates took it upon themselves to create study groups for anyone who wanted to join. Those study groups were also a large part of my success. The idea of open source doesn't just apply to the code, it applies to how you should interact with your peers.

My last piece of advice would be in terms of homework assignments. At first I was one time (maybe a day late) submitting the assignments.  Although they said several times don't get behind because it's hard to climb out I found myself behind about 10 assignments.  I let notion that I couldn't produce something I thought was good enough from trying to produce anything at all. So don't be like me. Just try, if you get a bad grade on an assignment you can revisit it and improve upon on it. 

Overall this was the shortest longest 6 months of my life but I would absolutely do it again!

I am very pleased with the Uconn cohort managed by Trilogy.  I entered the course with a very small amount of self-taught knowledge of coding and can confirm that by the end of the course I am definitely able to build my own web based applications.  The staff was excellent and my fellow students equally so.  The only issues I had with the course overall were pacing and group projects.  Regarding pacing, I believe the students would benefit more by extending the course a month and having more assisted coding sessions where the students are live coding and instructors are bouncing around supporting.  This would sim well with how job interviews during covid are and establish more opportunity for students to ask questions.  I felt that many classes had short coding exercises but the time to complete them was too brief.  Group projects were where I learned the bulk of what I should've learning in class.  The application of what we were taught truly got me passed many things that were glossed over quickly in class.  The only gripe I have with group projects is that I felt that one person typically did the lion's share of the work.  This is consistent with many group projects and I'm sure the to support the staff, however, I'd have liked to see more individual projects.  I also think that Trilogy should mandate a tutor to each student for the entirety of the course on day one and have some sort of active board to share screen shots for advise similar to stack overflow.  This would make a more personal experience for the student.  Overall, I came into the course wanting to learn to code and feel that this course provided enough fundamentals that I can do so.  It was too fast paced for myself, balancing a full-time job, to feel like I was able to devote enough of myself to feel job ready at the end of the course but I will continue to work individually on my own to further my knowledge and prepare for the job market.

This was a fantastic experience. I truly enjoyed this program; the instructional staff, the whole team, and the tutors were of great support. I recommend this course for the ones with some basic coding experience, most important, JS knowledge. You will learn a lot, but only if you genuinely want to ;-) My strategy was to invest 100% into it, everyone got other responsibilities, but it all comes down to how you truly want it. If you choose to pursue, be ready to create a studying guide and weekly check-ins with a tutor that will make this intense boot-camp easy to manage. 

Recent grad here! I went in with zero coding experience. This full stack course at UConn was extremely challenging! It feels so rewarding having finished. It's been a grueling 6 months! The instructional staff was excellent and it blew me away how knowledgeable the teacher was. Everyone was friendly and easy to talk to. Whenever I had  a question for the instructional staff or administration they worked with me and were always very helpful. The class is very fast paced and it is easy to fall behind, but bootcamps are supposed to be fast paced! Luckily I took advantage of the weekly one on one tutoring regularly. My tutor was awesome and would always help me towards a solution. I really liked the curriculum and think it will provide a strong foundation for what is to come. I would recommend this course to a friend for sure!

I recently graduated from the UConn Coding Boot Camp in September 2020. I must say I am very grateful for the experience and support I received from the staff and instructional team. In addition, we were provided weekly tutoring and online one-on-one learning assistance support whenever needed, which turned out to be really great when you got stuck trying to figure a problem. Looking back, I had no idea I was capable of completing this program, because I had no prior knowledge of coding, but with the caliber of instructional staff, course material, career services, and support staff design to help students succeed, made it possible. I am very proud of my accomplishments and the vast amount of knowledge I have gained in such a short period. 

My suggestion to anyone considering this program is to try to at least learn the fundamentals of web development and completing the pre-work that is sent to you. This will greatly help with the transition into the program and to keep up with the pace of the class. I believe UConn did a lot to prepare us but I also believe we needed to dive in a little more to help prepare ourselves.  

I highly recommend the program to anyone interested, as the curriculum covers what is needed to thrive in a full-stack web development position. They provide you with the starting blocks and guide you through crafting your employee competitive portfolio including your resume, Github profile, while learning the best interview skills and practices, with the help of their career advising team.

Special thanks to Michael Labieniec, Luis Garcia, Jeana, Patrick Lake, and Corey Bott 

The UConn Coding Boot Camp was one of the most rewarding and challenging endeavors I have ever taken on. I was very impressed with the level of material we covered in six months and the caliber of the instructional and support staff employed to help students succeed. They provide an incredible amount of workshops and resources to compliment the class time and projects that are covered in the curriculum. I am excited about my new skills and the foundational level of knowledge I gained in modern web development technologies and computer science and programming principles. I highly recommend the program to anyone interested in learning in a supportive and collaborative program. I feel ready to begin my job search and feel confident with the skills that make me ready for the job hunt and employer-competitive. 

I recently graduated from UCONN's Full-Stack Program this past month. I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to learn from and work with such passionate, knowledgeable and most importantly supportive staff members. 

Our instructor is a Princeton graduate with over 20+ years of experience in the industry and is currently the Software Development Manager at Amazon Web Services. Our TA is coder for the Defense Department and our Program Success Manager was a positive force that encouraged and supported our cohort, especially when the going got tough.

And the going definitely got tough. Our cohort was faced with many unprecedented circumstances - from the COVID lockdown and loss of family members, the unfortunate death of George Floyd, and intense storms that caused power outages/downed trees on our homes. Stressed was an understatement. However, the level of support, encouragement and understanding I received from all of our staff during those tough times is something I will forever be thankful for. It was evident that they truly cared about our well-being above anything else.

Our instructors and support staff were also available beyond program limitations. In addition, tutor support is available as needed as well as office hours before and after every class. This course is no walk in the park so I absolutely encourage future students to take advantage of these opportunities.

If you are thinking about enrolling in this course, I 100% recommend that you do. To give you some insight into the program:
Our cohort met via Zoom (due to the pandemic) 3x per week. From 6:30-9:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays and 10:00-2:00 on Saturdays for a period of 24 weeks. 

My advice for a successful Boot Camp experience:
1. Begin self-studying NOW - the more background knowledge you obtain before the program begins, the better and more confident you will feel. (look into HTML, CSS, and JavaScript basics)
2. Complete all of the pre-course work
3. Save any homework skips until the very end. You will be juggling a final project and presentation to prepare for, as well as catching up on any final assignments.
4. Take advantage of Career Services - they will help you tremendously with your portfolio, resume, and interview practice.
5. The homework assignments are very demanding! Create a schedule for yourself to work at it every day and ensure you are submitting things on time
6. Embrace the challenges! Things will get tough, but I am proud of my self for preserving and making it until the end.

Again, I cannot thank the instructors and staff members enough. I started the program without knowing how to read a single line of code. Now I am able to create full-stack, dynamic, and interactive websites and web apps. I cannot wait to see where these newly obtained skills will take me.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!