UCF Boot Camps

My experience with UCF Boot Camps - Full Stack Web Development has been nothing short of fantastic! This course built on my fundamental understandings and supplied critical information that has significantly supplemented my frontend, backend and database skills. The course specifically provides real world challenges to complete that greatly assist in the learners journey to becoming an effective problem solver with the MERN technology stack. Working with the instructors, TA's and tutors has also been a wonderful experience. The instructor continuously supplied high value discussions, examples, real world scenarios and demonstrations that clearly and efficiently impacted the learning process in a significant way. With access to TA's and tutors that were knowledgeable and experienced, difficult topics were elucidated quickly in a way that kept me on track for success and provided the necessary support to allow for a high rate of information retention. Overall between the course material, instructor and student support I highly recommend this course for anyone looking to move into engineering in the web development space for end to end solutions with light weight but highly effective technology stack.  

Completing the Data Analytics and Visualization Bootcamp was truly transformative, exceeding my expectations. The program's hands-on approach equipped me with comprehensive skills, from data cleaning to advanced visualization, providing a strong foundation for the dynamic field of data analytics.

The well-structured curriculum, led by knowledgeable instructors, simplified complex concepts with real-world examples. The emphasis on industry-standard tools allowed me to apply my skills immediately, and the collaborative learning environment enhanced the overall experience.

The support from teaching assistants and the program's community was exceptional, fostering a supportive atmosphere. The program also contributed to my confidence in applying my newfound skills in my current job.

In conclusion, this program not only broadened my skill set but also laid the groundwork for my successful career in data analytics. Highly recommended for those seeking a comprehensive and practical learning experience.

This review will be long and easy to dismiss after the first couple of sentences for lack of time, but I promise that this will be the rawest and most truthful review you will read on this page.

After a lifetime of trauma, pain, and abusing alcohol I went into rehab in South Dakota to treat my alcoholism and start a new life. Upon graduating from the rehabilitation program I pursued my lifelong dream of moving to Florida. There, I met my husband, and together we brought my beautiful, intelligent, spicey daughter into the world. My previous education and passion had brought me into the world of Veterinary medicine as a Veterinary Technician where I found myself exhausted and overwhelmed, unable to enjoy time with family. I quickly realized that to enjoy watching my daughter grow I needed a change. A passing, "What if?" brought me to the homepage of the University of Central Florida as I read about these "boot camps" I had been hearing about. Before the end of the day, I was on the phone giggling and swapping stories with an admissions counselor for the University. An important thing to note, I have severe clinical social anxiety and it's very hard for me to hold a conversation longer than 10 minutes; I had signed up for a phone call with this counselor, chickened out, and canceled. By the end of the hour, my phone rang with a call from this counselor, eager to bring me into the wonderful world of the University of Central Florida's full-stack coding boot camp. Without her, this story would have ended here. I thank God every day now for that woman.

If you're still with me, you might be asking if I'm ever going to get to the review of the boot camp itself. We're there, folks- thanks for hanging in there. My boot camp began with the pre-work. This was a class to prepare me for the boot camp itself. I was crying by the end of it. My submission comment for the last activity in the boot camp was, "I have no idea what I'm doing :(". I walked into the boot camp on day one defeated, broken, and pessimistic about my capabilities. But I was coming up on 9 months of sobriety at that point and knew that if I committed to believing in myself, I could get through this. Within minutes, we were off to the races. We met our Student Success Manager, Barbara Murphy. She radiated confidence- I could see in the webcam of each of my classmates that we were scooting closer and closer to the computer as Barbara prepared us for greatness. Then, she passed us off to our professor, JW Dinsmore.

Professor Dinsmore can be best described as the King of Hype. As royalty myself, being the Queen of Pessimism and Self Doubt, I was excited within seconds of him talking to get started. I can't discredit his ability to be realistic, however. He cautioned us that this would be the hardest thing we would do in our lives, and he wasn't wrong. I was hesitant at first about how one professor could handle teaching a two-year degree in three months, especially with approximately 55 other students. John came well equipped, though, with some amazing developers at his side in the form of teacher's assistants. Seth Wooten, Ross McWey, Donaldson Roessling, and Mark Elliott took us under their wing and guided us through the program's highs and lows with all the faith in the world that each of us could come out of this boot camp as complete rockstars and ready to jump into the industry of full stack developing. And we did.

While attending the bootcamp I experienced a number of hardships. I lost my home, moved across the state, was hit by two hurricanes, developed a seizure disorder, gone to the hospital and multiple occassions, and only have a roof over my family's head because of the selflessness of my in-laws. All of my belongings are currently in a storage unit and we're living out of a suitcase. Internet access has been difficult to maintain and I fell extremely behind in my coursework. Through all of this, my professor, TA's, and student success manager have supported me as I raced like The Flash through my coursework to catch up. With my social anxiety, I was finding it difficult to ask for help and they noticed me falling behind and suffering in silence and proactively sought to help me. Finding that kind of help in continuing education over remote learning is critical, essential, and life changing. Without their support and the help of my fellow classmates, this life changing opportunity would have fallen through my fingers and I would have had to return to the long suffering business of Veterinary Medicine. (Off topic, folks, but please be kind to your veterinary professionals. The suicide rate in that industry is the number one in the world and seven times the rate of it's succeeder for a reason. If you're still reading at this point, thank you, and please consider sending those amazing people flowers, healthy food, and caffeine.)

I truly can't describe the transition each of my classmates and I went through from day one at the boot camp to now, a week before the presentation day of our final projects. A day one activity, for example, was changing the main header to read, "Student Bio". I'm now working on building my react portfolio and trying to add the game "Duck Hunt" to it. We're all sharing our portfolios with each other and amazed at the creativity, skill, and talent that shows in each portfolio. As God is a witness because I've said it in my prayers for their success if I had Elon Musk's fortune to build a programming company I would hire every single one of my classmates. There aren't enough adjectives in the English language to describe them. They're artists, engineers, teachers, postal workers, Uber drivers, anime enthusiasts, comedians, and family. Our cohort is strong and laced with friendship, respect, and comradery. And now they can add one more adjective to them- developers. God bless, classmates. This was a wild, exciting ride and I'm so grateful I got to do it with all of you as Knights from the University of Central Florida.

Originally, I was a little skeptical when i signed up for this bootcamp. I'd been reading reviews and researching online to find out what exactly I would gain from this program, and there seemed to be a 50/50 split between those who said it help and those who felt it was a waste. People told me that I would be about to teach myself everything that i would learn in the program, and at little to no cost when compared to the tuition that I would have to pay to attend (I can promise that is not the case). Since you're reading this review, you can tell i obviously went through with the program (the full-time cohort), and i can confidently say that it was the best decision i've ever made. The amount of material that was covered was astounding, and the help that you were able to receive from the staff if you were stuck was second to none. They refused to allow you to quit or fall behind because despite what other people had wrote, they want to see you succeed more than anyone else. That being said, you still need to work your butt off and it is still one of the most challenging things you will ever do. In the end though, it makes you realize just how much you are capable of if you take the time to really dedicate yourself.

John Dinsmore was the instructor for my cohort, and is one of the most capable and competent individuals i've ever met in the software development field. His knowledge of Full-Stack Development and Web Development is so extensive, its hard to image how one person could know so much. He also has had so many experiences in so many different fields that he can pretty comfortably talk about just about anything with confidents. He showed up every day with a smile ready to tackle whatever the subject was that day, and easily handled any problems we threw his at him. He never quit or gave up once he started on an issue, and always saw it through until the end.

Dan Rosenbaum was out TA for the class and was one of the best resources that we had at our disposal. He pushed us when we thought we were never going to succeed and kept us going when we became frustrated with a topic. He made sure that we stuck with it and that we believed in ourselves as much as him and John believed in us. He made sure that we knew that with practice and dedication we would make it through and could become awesome developers.  Dan was a big part of my success in this course, and i cant say enough how lucky we were to have him with us during that time.

Gemini Sanford was our SSM (Student Success Manager) during this time, and she was constantly checking in on us to make sure that we were doing well and had all the tools we needed to succeed. She was available day and night, and never turned away a student who needed help. She cheered us on every week, and put us in contact with individuals to help us grow as we went through the program. She truly loves her job and is a huge asset for this program.

The last thing i will say is this program is a huge time commitment and the full-time program should not be taken if you intend to also work while doing it, so take the 6-month program if that is what you want. The program is not for those looking for an easy track to big money and YOU GET OUT WHAT YOU PUT IN. You are given everything you need to succeed, but it is up to you to use it. You CAN NOT slack off and you need to put in the work. You NEED to make connections and you NEED to be there for the right reasons. If you go in half hearted then things will not end well. My experience was great because i knew this is what i wanted to do and i was surrounded by awesome individuals. I went in telling myself i would succeed.

We run a multi-million dollar business and struggle with social media marketing. We were considering hiring a social media manager but came across an ad for the Digital Marketing Boot Camp and jumped on it. We are at the halfway point of the class and haven't even begun the Social Media unit, but I have already learned so much and have applied what I have learned. My favorite aspect so far has been learning how SEO works and Google Analytics. It really helped me understand the improvements we need to make to our website. 
My advice for anyone looking to take this class would be to be dedicated to the program. The boot camp style is fast and packed with information so you will need to spend time outside of class working on homework and projects. Try to be present for office hours so you can review subjects you need more help with. There is tutoring available if you need more help. Be present and interact during class. This program is a great jumping spot to you your feet in the digital marketing world. 

I signed up for the first part-time Data bootcamp in September 2018. I think this was the best opportunity for me, as I prefer in-class to online learning. It was a great learning experience and we had a good group of students for group project. We had different strengths and helped us work well as a team.

Sondra as an instructor was engaging and friendly and helpful. The skills learnt eventually helped me to make the career switch I wanted. It was hard work as I stayed up for late nights for projects. It was all worth it at the end. All the TA's and career services were also helpful, and I hope the job market improves in the Orlando area but things seem to be looking up. 

I think this is great for people in colleges to learn job-relevant skills and also for people like me who needed some different skills to switch role to my interest. I would highly recommend this Bootcamp to people looking for courses in this area.

This is a review on the online "Coding Bootcamp" from UCF. It really should be called "Web Development Bootcamp." It says "Web Development" on their website https://bootcamp.ce.ucf.edu/coding/ but I did not see this page when signing up for the class. This program was a referral to me from a family member and I talked with a recruiter for the class over the phone. I told her what I was looking for (mostly interested in C++ or other low-level programming) but she did not make it clear that it was a web development program. After a little over a month with the six-month program and realizing the direction of it, I wrote a dissatisifed email to the program director asking to be removed with a refund and was told I was not within the 2-week cancellation period so nothing could be done for a refund. I dropped the course still and tried to salvage my investment by speaking with the Career Director to see if I could use their Career Services (helping you set up self-marketing and networking to find work) for IT in general and was told "as a matter of policy, I am unable to work with students who do not complete the program." This was a complete waste of $10,000 which is especially crippling when I am still trying to even start a career.

As for the content of the course, it explains the basics of programming very nicely in the first several lessons where you are given coding challenges to try to solve basic and intermediate mathematical and logical problems within the Ruby language. After that, though, is the HTML section which is horrendously short for what is supposed to be a web development course. The HTML lessons are very rushed to get you into the Ruby on Rails section which is a large portion of the course. You start frequently seeing in the lessons "how this works isn't important" or "this will be explained later" ("later" often being a synonym for "never") which is honestly fine for teaching practices in very subtle moderation but when so much explaination of how Ruby on Rails and HTML works is skipped over and rushed to get you to the end of the class that it becomes so difficult to follow. I found myself looking up my own tutorials online and just clicking the next within the bootcamp website beacause the teaching material just was not there. I did not get far enough into the course to see how teaching Javascript was handled but it's good to see that it's included because Ruby on Rails is a very niche and not widely used framework whereas Javascript is a useful skill in many, many more jobs.

If you are looking to start in web development and make web pages this may be a good choice for you. Personally it's not what I wanted to do. The main reason for the low review is that the bootcamp staff seems to care more about taking your money and keeping it than they are concerned about helping you start a career. Now I have a $10,000 student debt and no job to pay it off. For this reason I will never recommend UCF's programs to anyone.

I've been working as an IT technician for my current company for over a year.  I was looking into growing with the company and I was told Web Development was the way to go.  I taught myself some CSS,HTML and JS, but I felt that I had to show I was serious about my growth I had to enroll in a boot camp.  My company offered me some tuition reimbursement and I signed up at UCF BootCamps. 

So far this has been a great help and experience.  The pace is fast and to the point, great instructors and assistance.  I've learned a lot and fast.  It has help me feel more confident when speaking about moving to the developing team at my company and they are already starting to give me projects while I continue to learn at the bootcamp.

If you arae planning to learn coding a bootcamp is a great choice but be aware that is a lot of work and fast paced environment.  Be ready to spend a lot of time coding and researching.  Time flies and you will have a valuable new skill. 

I attended UCF part-time web dev bootcamp. Although it is fast paced and challenging, I felt the material covered will help me to prepare for the future. I had an excellent intructors, and my TA's were top notch, and I truly believe that my success is because of how thorough and passionate they were about me understanding the material and succeeding. Through out the program carrer service has help get "job ready", and since graduating career service has been in constant contact to go over job option and make sure I am ready to interview.

I have been programming for more years than many of my classmates have been alive... I know this because I finished a final release of my first turn key application just before my son was born, and he is at the far end of the millennials.

Well, I love programming (I will disavow this while debugging at 3 a.m.) but my 'first language' is MS Visual FoxPro 9.0 by way of FoxPro, FoxPro for Mac, FoxBASE, and dBase III.  And now those languages rank with Sanskrit.  I wanted to learn the languages of the web.  I wanted to be able to build applications of the same complexity and usefulness there.  Lots of resources on line...lots of books in my library.  Maybe too many.  Where to begin? 

I attended a local meet up of Girls Do IT, and had a long conversation with a delightful young woman who was 2 weeks away from finishing the UCF Full-Stack Web Development Boot Camp. “It is intense,” she said, “but I’ve learned SO much.” 

I did some research and made the awesome commitment to sign away half a year (and  a  not insignificant amount of money) to attend.  I am now at the half-way point, and consider this to be the best investment in my skill set since I got my MS in Computer Information Systems at NSU.  I am confident that Trilogy has taken the pulse of the industry.  They are teaching the skills that local employers are looking for.  The course builds from front end to back end tools and crafts exercises that cement concepts and build muscle memory.  They don’t go too deep, but make sure you understand the place each tool holds.  The instructors I’ve had are in the industry and know that they are training employees they will want on their teams.

The pace is furious… Don’t miss a class.  Do every exercise.  Watch every video resource.  Do the tutorials.  Get a good study with your classmates.  Leave enough time – more time than you think – to do the homework.   But when you do, pieces begin to fall into place.  You may not realize it at the time, but when you see a tool or technique again (and you will) you’ll realize that you understand it.  And that will give  you confidence in your ability to learn the next new tool, and the next;  development is constantly evolving.

By the time I’ve completed the course, I am confident that I will be able to take my skills in analysis and design, and implement them on the web.  A new tool set,  a new platform, a new way to solve the puzzle.

This program delivered all that it stated in the beginning, and more.  I started the program with minimal experience (mostly HTML) and I won't sugar-coat it - it was tough all the way through.  I learned more than I ever thought possible and while I am not quite an expert in some of the more technical languages, I feel sufficiently equipt to work with them moving forward.  The instruction was great, and having the TA's in class was instrumental many times when you needed that extra assistance, or just another perspective.  I did not participate in the Career Services portion as I completed this program as part of my existing employment, although I was very impressed with the level of support and guidance they offered from the beginning.  Be prepared to work hard both in and outside the classroom, as I put in at least 20 hours a week beyond class.  That said, I highly recommend this program for those wanting to learn more about web development (front and back end), and for those with experience seeking additional knowledge and guidance. 

​Prior to enrolling in the camp, I was a Game Developer so I did walk in with some programming experience. But within the first few weeks of class I learned wayy more than I expected to. The program has exposed me to such a large variety of programming languages that I didn't know anything about, along with many ways to go about coding effeciently.

The amount of resources and help that is provided within the camp is what I appreciated the most.The teachers and teacher assistants are very knowledgable and are always giving a helping hand to all students. Utilizing the career services helped me land freelance jobs all while I was still a student at the bootcamp. Becoming a Web Developer through this camp has made me become a better programmer overall. For me, programming went from being a hobby to becoming a profession.

The only tools you need to be successful in this boot camp is effort and the ability ask any questions in order to fully grasp the concepts taught in class. Just take everything you learn from class and apply it to things you like to do in your daily life to use as practice. Practice is key.

I enrolled in the July-Sep 2018 Full Stack Bootcamp, and landed an amazing job within 3 months of graduating from the camp.

The instructors and supporting staff are seriously passionate about helping you along the somewhat painful process of rapidly developing the skills of a full stack web developer, and they do an excellent job. John, the lead instructor when I attended the camp, has a lot of experience as a developer and he really has a deep understanding of the curriculum and the areas that tend to trip up students. The curriculum is certainly challenging and really does cover everything you need to be prepared for the workload of a full stack developer. To cover all of the topics the full time camp has to be a grind, and I believe that those students that are committed to putting in 30+ hours a week outside of class to study and work diligently on the assignments reap massive rewards for their efforts. Even complete beginners should feel confident enrolling in the full time course. The TA's from my class, Mark and Tamara, were constantly checking in on me and were just as knowledgeable and helpful as the main instructor. They do an excellent job of not letting anyone fall through the cracks, as long as you are willing to put in the effort and time.

Another great quality of the camp is that all of lectures are recorded, all of the assignments are saved on your computer, and all of the solutions will be available to review and study during the camp and beyond. Even if you struggle to keep up during the camp or feel that your assignments were not of the same quality as the other students, I believe you are still learning and growing a lot more than what is immediately evident. Once the camp is over, as long as you continue to study and work diligently at your own pace, I believe you will notice many of the concepts that seemed bewildering during the camp will start to click. Your ability to problem solve and learn new things as a developer will carry you the rest of the way. Those hours of grinding and working through challenges as a team, wading through documentation, and building projects is the best form of practice because that is what developers do on the job anyways! As a recently hired developer I can seriously say that I still spend most of my time searching for answers to difficult questions, reading documentation, brainstorming with my team, and building projects just like I did during the camp.

I could go on, but overall I have nothing but good things to say about the experience and highly recommend it to anyone that is serious about changing their career and being a successful developer.

 

This program was tough no doubt about it. I had already came in with a good understanding of programming, and thought it would be a breeze. This was entirely incorrect, after the first few lessons you begin to learn about new technologies and the pace is extremely fast. Even in part time it was hard to keep up with at times.

You literally learn basic HTML all the way to writing complex Rest APIs and then using React.js to communicate with the API. Once you complete the bootcamp you have to continue to learn through other means as technologies are constantly changing. Initially I was quite hesitent to sacrifice 6 months of my life, but coming out of it I would do it again in a heart beat. 

All the instructors and teaching assistants were helpful, and always looking to assist you. 10/10 would Bootcamp again.

The admissions staff, teaching assistants, and instructors are very clear that the course will take a tremendous amount of work and there is no substitute for putting in that time. It is not unusual to spend 30+ hours outside of class working on homework assignments, reviewing activities, and studying concepts more deeply that were only briefly covered. You will always feel like the course is going too fast, but if you can just stick with it, you'll keep absorbing and being able to apply more and more of it. Still, you have to be okay with feeling overwhelmed at times. At this pace, it's is inevitable.

For the students that took the putting in time advice seriously, I think the course was absolutely worth it. We were exposed to all of the languages and libraries advertised, though some much more than others, and also learned important coding best practices that will definitely be needed in the workforce. The curriculum does a good job of balancing breadth and depth of content and there is very little I would have changed in terms of time spent on topics.

My instructor and TAs were amazing and definitely helped keep everyone positive when students were struggling - and everyone will struggle at some point. The career help was pretty good, though I think job recommendations could be more structured after graduation. With that being said, my career coach recommended a company for me to apply to, and I was hired there a few weeks after graduation.

If you are looking for a program that lays the foundation and gives all of the tools needed for a full career change into software soon after graduation, I would recommend this bootcamp. However, if you are looking for a guarantee of getting your certificate one day, and a job the next or if you aren't willing to make a serious time commitment for 6 months, this isn't for you. How much you get out of the course will all depend on how much you put into it. 

I was a student of the Full Time UCF bootcamp, enrolling in it was nerve racking itself knowing that I just quit my job and was about to start something I had no idea about and would have to put my full efforts towards it. But boy was it a good decision! The support I received from the Instructor, TA’s, Student Success Manager and everyone who was involved in the staff was amazing. The material was hard which I knew it would be but with them I was able to get through the course with out breaking my computer or regretting why I signed up for this course. It was a great ride where I met great people. A lot of networking went on and I made some of the best connections in my life in this course. I was recommended this course by a friend who also had a wonderful experience and I would strongly recommend this course to who ever would be interested as well!

I attended the UCF Coding Bootcamp from January to August 2017. 

I came to the bootcamp after 12 years of being a mom and homemaker, and although I was from a technical background, such a long time of being out of touch had made me practically a novice.

The course work is very challenging, but if you are diligent, you can surely be successful. It equips you with a lot of latest technologies, but most importantly it teaches you the skill to learn and grasp new things. It instills the confidence in you that you can.

My instructors were extremely helpful and knowledgeable. No question was ever left unanswered and they had unending patience. Our TA's were always by our side, helping us when we were stuck, troubleshooting, but most importantly, pointing us in the right direction, enabling us to figure out things by ourselves. They even conducted extra study groups, so that we had all the support we needed.

I made awesome friends at bootcamp. The work was intense, but there was a team spirit that is so very encouraging. The group projects helped me during my interview process. The group presentations taught me proper techniques to showcase my work. 

Our Career Director Amber is simply superb. She is very intelligent, patient, perseverant and knowledgeable. She analyses each candidate individually and her suggestions are tailor made accordingly. She was always available when I needed her and always extremely encouraging. Her energy is infectious :)

Ricky, our Student Success manager is a great motivator and always ready to help.

I felt like I was a part of a big family and that they always had my back.

Immediately after I finished my bootcamp I had to take a 3 month break due to personal reasons. But when I was ready to start looking, the whole team was right there beside me, and I got a job offer within a month.

One of the best educational experiences of my life and highly recommended!!

I attended the Web Development Full Stack program 12 week program from May-Aug 2017

Every instructor that I had the pleasure of working with at the UCF Bootcamp Bob, Justin, Josh and Ricky were passionate, patient, funny and knowledgeable individuals who helped grow my coding skills throughout the program. The culture that Bob instill onto the students is something that I cannot put into words. No, literally I cannot.. you just have to experience Bob’s teaching style for yourself.

It is quite clear that UCF does not just hire anyone to be an instructor. They are not only knowledgeable but also can effectively communicate and empathetic with the students. They take feedback seriously. They are quick to adjust if something is not working.

I also appreciated the fact that their responses to my questions allowed me to discover the answer on my own but with careful guidance. It wasn’t just about googling the answer it was about asking our classmates for help and learn together.

From building my resume to strategically structuring my LinkedIn profile, to mock interviews, to negotiating, to handling interview anxieties, my instructors and career services were there every step of the way. 

There is a interview to get in but they just want to make sure you’re a functioning human being with an actual work ethic and desire to learn.

It really is hard work and day to day you will leave each day exhausted but recharged the next morning. 

You get what you put into it.

Thank you Bob, Justin, Josh, Ricky and Alexis.

WARNING:  Quite lengthy review

This bootcamp is the best educational experience I've had.  The curriculum is designed to give you a taste of all the facets of full stack web development.  It's extremely fast-paced and not for the faint of heart.  You definitely need to do a lot of learning outside of the classroom.  You are taught the basics of each technology and then it's up to you to use the tools available to explore it further.  At the end of the course, you know which technology(ies) you are most comfortable and interested in and it's up to YOU to continue to explore them.

Teaching staff

The instructors, Bob and Lisa were great.  Each were different in their teaching style.  One was fast-paced and will answer your question with "Google it" or "Ask your classmate".  The idea is to teach you how use research the answer to your problem rather than run to the "boss" for the answer.  Although this approach is frustrating for the student, it teaches you to go to your "boss" as a very last resort.  The other one is slower-paced, a bit more hands-on and will spend the time to help you find the answer.  While this approach is great for the student in need, it can take up class time needed to move on to the next topic.  In the end, both covered the material for the topic of the day.

TA - teaching assistants

I believe that the TAs are probably the most important.  While it is the teacher's job is to introduce you to the technologies, it's the TAs job is to help and guide you in using them.  I was thankful for the very talented TAs we had - Ronny, John, Dwight, and for a short while Justin.  Each have their own expertise and you soon discover whom to ask what.  Actually, the TAs seemed much more dedicated than the teachers.  Use the TAs to your full advantage.

Curriculum

The curriculum is designed to introduce you to the techonogies most used today.  I was very impressed with the order of the topics.  Each technology taught built upon the previous one.  In a million year, I would never have been able to put it all together and learn it on my own and understand how each technology builds or works with the other.  One little complaint I might have is that too many weeks were spent on javascript and not enough on more complex topics like Laraval, PHP, React.  Not to mention, we didn't even get to touch on Angular which was in the curriculum.

Job Assistance

Throughout the entire course, Amber constantly reached out to us to help with our resumes.  Amber is the Career Director.  Even two months after graduation, Amber is still reaching out to us with resume assistance and posts job openings constantly.  Take advantage of this and use her as much as you can.

Suggestions

Making suggestions is about making it a better experience and eliminating the complaints.  The reality is that there's no way to satisfy 100% of the people 100% of the time. Here are some of the complaints I heard firsthand:

• I have zero programming experience or knowledge.  I don't understand Javascript.

• The teachers are going too fast.

• This is boring.  I already know this.  They need to get to the stuff I don't know.

• I finished the course and still can't get a job.  They promised that I would have offers left and right.

There are many more but this is a gist of it.  My suggestions:

• Design a more rigorous process in choosing students.  Yes, I know the bootcamp wants everyone's money but satisfied customers are important and will bring more long-term revenue.  Rather than just a 15-minute phone interivew with a silly scenario about coffee and sugar, it might be better to have a written test.  This test can be designed to determine who has the mindset of a programmer.  Maybe you should require that they at least have some knowledge of programming logic.  There was a lot of time wasted with Javascript because people couldn't understand a "for loop".
• Design a full disclosure and have each prospective student initial each bullet point and sign it.  This disclosure should cover all the qualms and make it clear what will be expected from the course and the student.  One of the things might be that the student is aware that they need some kind of programming knowledge.  Also, make it clear that no one is guaranteed a job.  Full disclosure can go a long way.

I recommend this bootcamp to everyone who has a passion for technology, has some knowledge of programming, wants to get introduced to new technology and is eager and willing to take that knowledge and run with it.  Good luck to you all!!!

For anyone that wants to quickly learn the skills to get into the field of being a web developer with a crash course in it this is a great option. It is not the for faint of heart and it one of the hardest thing I had done. That being said you are given all the tools for success along the way. The teacher and TAs are extremely involved with your success and you get all the tools you need to do so. From class instruction and work to homework and group projects your skills are built upon so you do not feel lost when something new is brought up. Overall I give this course high praise, it is not an easy, but you will get back what you are willing to put in.

I recently graduated the UCF Coding Boot Camp just this past May and I must say that it is a challenge. Material came in waves and it's basically learning something new every single day. The way I described it to friends when they asked was, "You know how in college, there are prerequisite intro classes you have to take and pass for a few semesters in your freshman and sophomore years before you go onto the core classes in your junior and senior year? This is basically all the core hard classes almost every day," However, because it is challenging, it is very rewarding. 

The instructional staff of Bob, Josh, and Justin were very engaging and they'll do what they can to help students understand and succeed. Ricky is also very helpful if any student needs extra help, he'll help them get in touch with central tutoring to combat the material that may seem extra difficult. One of their goals is to teach you how to learn this specific material. 

Off the top of the head, the material includes HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, JavaScript, jQuery, Github, Node, MongoDB, Mongoose, MySQL, PHP, React, Json Packages, APIs, and Laravel. 

There are many ways to succeed and you have to remember that everyone from your fellow classmates to the instructional staff wants to see you succeed so no matter how much you feel like you might be drowning in the material, reach out because there is always support around. You don't feel like you're left there on an island by yourself. 

You will get out of it as much as you put into it. Even though the material was tough, I personally like the aspect of self reliance. The instructional staff will you put you in a position where you might have to find things on your own. They're not doing that to be bad guys. They're doing it so that you yourself can understand why something is right or why something is wrong. If you were just given the answer, it'd rob you of that moment when you do discover the appropriate answer. I don't want to say "right" answer because with a lot of the material, there are more than one way to solve something and it just depends on how you. Even after the class is over, it is up to you to look for and apply for your next career as well as continuing to work at the material to get even better. They will introduce the material and give you the tools and it is up to you to use them. You have to be the one to put most of the hours in and if you do, you will have a way better chance to succeed. There's only so much support that they can give you to where you have to do the rest.

The full time program is three months, but those three months blew by. There is so much work to be done and material to be learned that it'll go by quick. I'll never forget it. I'll have life long friends because of this program. It is certainly an awesome experience. 

I had a great experience at the bootcamp. I found the staff to be very knowledgeable of the curriculum provided as well as vested in having the students learn how to do things properly.

 

I already had a job in a related field before the bootcamp however had I not I feel that I would have been prepared to take on an entry level web developer position after this course.

 

You definitely get what you put in to a course like this and I felt the cost was justified. Give it a shot if you really want to get involved with becoming a developer. 

I came into the program with no coding experience.  I was unable to program even the simpliest website.  As a  graduate of UCF Coding Bootcamp, I am now able produce complicated full stack websites.  The educational staff is top-notch.  Bob, Josh, Justin, and Ricky, are very knowledgable and helpful.  They did an excellent job of teaching the material and assisting students to futher their understanding of complex concepts. They also teach you how to learn and how to think of the solution yoursellf.  I think that is one of the most valuable lessons teachers can give students.  

The course material covered a lot of different languages, libraries, and databases.  We were immersed in HTML, CSS, JavaScript,JQuery, MySQL, MongoDB, React, and Express, just to name a few.  

The UCF Coding Bootcamp is challenging, especially for those coming in with no experience.  Like any life changing undertakings, it is a lot of hard work.  If you are willing to put in the work and learn the skills needed for the next phase of your life, you will be greatly rewarded.  

While you are learning these new skills, the career services staff is helping you to market yourself and improve your online presence.  Jessica and Alexis provided great insight and suggestions.  

Overall, I think this is a great program.  I recommend it to anyone looking to learn news skils or change the direction of their professional life.

If you're ready to change your life and work REALLY hard, UCF Coding Bootcamp is for you.  I attended an Orlando part-time cohort for 6 months - and it was intense (but awesome!).  The curriculum is fast-paced and non-stop.  

My instructor (Bob) was very intelligent and great at explaining concepts and applications in a way we could follow and apply to in-class activities and homework.  While his pace could be very fast and his Boston accent was horrible (just kidding), I felt that he really prepared our class for the fast-paced nature of the industry, and he shared with us knowledge beyond the level of the curriculum - about code, frameworks and languages, software and technologies that could propel us forward as developers, and real-world application of the tools we were learning.  Our TA's (John, Ronny, & Justin) were excellent and made themselves available regularly outside of class (almost weekly held study group open and available for everyone). Sometimes the pace of in-class instruction can be very fast, and in order to get the entirety of the lesson the instructor(s) had to keep moving, and the TAs would always stop and assist on the side if you truly couldn't keep following along, as well as being consistently ready and willing to assist via Slack (messaging app) outside of class hours.  

As the class came to an close, I felt that we would have benefited from the curriculum being a bit more balanced.  Of course, with most students coming into the course with no prior coding knowledge, we required sufficient time to devote to the basics (HTML, CSS, Javascript), but I felt that we would have benefited from spending more time on the higher-level frameworks (React, PHP/Laravel) - as these are the skills truly necessary to land a Junior Developer role.  That being said, I was lucky enough to land a great job as a PHP developer before the class came to a close.  I didn't use much of the post-course career services, but they are very active, offering weekly webinars, and are consistently availble to assist my fellow classmates in landing a job (as of today we are just over 1 month outside of graduation).  All in all, there is no way I could have absorbed the amount of knowledge I did through this course in 6 months, especially if I was trying to learn on my own.  This course was life changing for me - I've completely transformed my career and found what I believe my brain is supposed to be doing.

TLDR; Take the course, but only if you're ready to work intensely hard.

 Coming from someone who didn't have any tech experience prior to the course, I would recommend this program to those who are passionate about the industry and willing to work hard to achieve their goals. I will say the curriculum certainly demands your full attention if you are new to the tech environment. I worked countless hours to grasp particular concepts and absolutely exceeded my own expectations in reference to my capabilities and what I anticipated the course to provide. My particular instructor was extremely knowledable and dedicated to our cohorts learning process. I had guidance when I needed it and was able to teach myself how to learn without having to approach others to help me with a solution. At my demo day at the end of the course I prepared my best and recieved plenty of attention from the employers who attended which precipitated into several interviews. Career services was also able to line up an interview for me which lead to an internship right when the course ended. Overall this was one of the best experiences I've had in my lifetime and I've also made some lifelong friends in the process. Thank you UCF Coding Bootcamp for jump starting my new career!

I graduated from the first full-time course at the UCF Coding Bootcamp, and it was the best decision of my life. Everyone says you get out of it what you put in, and that couldn't be more true. This course is designed for people like me who came in with no experience, all the way up to computer science graduates. It teaches you the fundamentals that you need to become a web developer, and it gives you the resources and skills you need to keep learning. 

Being the first full-time cohort had its cons, the holidays we had took us a little off course, and so did group projects. But the instructional staff didn’t let that hold them back. They constantly did their best to make sure we learned everything we needed to, and took all of our feedback. They took weekly reviews on BootcampSpot seriously, and made changes that made sure everyone got the most out of this experience.

The best part of this bootcamp was definitely the instructional staff. I had what I call the "dream team" aka Bob, Josh, Justin, and Ricky. They genuinely cared about each one of us. Josh would to stay after and help us out, whether it was going back over fundamentals, or going over homework solutions. Justin is an amazing example of a hard worker. He graduated the bootcamp right before mine, and you could tell how much he loved coding. He’s a Javascript and git master, which was super helpful to have. Bob was the best instructor I could’ve got. Going through an intense bootcamp like this, it was so refreshing to have someone like him not only teach us, but be supportive and care. Learning new coding languages is hard, but his teaching style is the best Ive ever experienced. Him and his humor truly made my bootcamp experience.

Another amazing part of the bootcamp was Central Support. In the full-time bootcamp, we got 2 tutoring sessions a week. Jared was an amazing tutor, and having that extra support was incredible. Central Support also gives you the opportunity to become a tutor, which I did a few days after I graduated! The opportunities you get with this bootcamp are second to none!

I got an offer letter to join a company 2 weeks after I graduated, and am so grateful to everyone that helped me make this happen. I would definitely do it again!

As a recent graduate, I'm very pleased and confident I've acquired marketable skills. I'm currently working with my career counselor who is helping me connect with recruiters and potential employers. My pre-class expectations were threefold: 1) to be presented with a curriculum that would teach me how to code a web server to deliver interactive content; 2) to access professional developers as instructors who could teach coding, troubleshoot code, and describe real-world professional web development practices and experience; and 3) to leverage tuition financing and career services through the UCF organization. The experience exceeded my expectations on all counts. For my final project, using a CRNA skeleton, I deployed a MERN stack web application that includes browser and mobile (native) elements. The course starts with web fundamentals, so it's conceivable a student could begin with zero prior experience, but I had some non-professional programming experience and found it quite challenging. It was like having a second full time job. To maximize success, you must read documentation and write code every day from day one, and ask for help when you need it. Was it perfect? Nothing is, but the product is as described, and the people were responsive to any issues that arose. The classroom staff -- instructors, TA's, success manager and career counselor -- all very accessible and clearly worked hard to deliver a quality product. Upper level managers visited classes fairly frequently. Again, I'm very pleased with my decision to enroll.

I entered the UCF Coding Bootcamp with what I would say a beginner to intermediate level of coding experience focusing around languages of C/C++/Java and a hint HTML/CSS. I stumbled on the course advertisement online while looking for resources to learn/teach myself JavaScript at home. After some research on Coding Boot camps in general, I decided to go make the leap and apply to UCFs Bootcamp. Upon applying I was given a brief questionnaire that tested problem solving and linear thinking abilities along with a phone interview that covered personality and background and some general questions on why I was interested in attending. I like that the camp took the time to interview and sort their applicants to make sure they were taking in people in they wanted.

This reflected in class well as fellow class mates came from all types of professional backgrounds and reasons to be attending. But all shared a drive to be there and seemed genuinely interested in becoming a full stack web developer, either it be for a total career change or just general interest and to expand their current skillset. The camp is organized to force collaboration threw slack chats and in the classroom. This was honestly tough for a shy person like myself but goes with the culture they create and you fall into it willing or not, but most definitely for the better.

The pace of the course is relatively fast but will ebb and flow based on how the class is absorbing the content, allowing classmates that are confused on a topic to get help from classmates or TA’s around them that are getting the concepts. This cycles threw out the course and a reason to be social and connect/help others and creates the group learning environment. I attended the Orlando West Valencia Campus and had what I thought to be an amazing Instructor and Ta’s. If you sign up for this course I advise you to take it with Bob, Dwight or John. Bob was my instructor for this I could not have been happier with him or the TA’s Dwight and John. Whom were not only great personalities to have in the class but where always willing to help out and knew their stuff.

The course encourages group work on the weekly assignments given to help grasp the content. The course has 2 main group projects, of which our group stayed together for each and was really enjoyable, but you are free to shuffle groups as you please, within a max group size constraint. For projects, you are given a list of technologies you must use and are free to decide on what to create as a team and then present them in a combined two class meeting on Saturdays. This makes the projects great and there were some amazing ideas/apps that came from both classes and allowed us to use what we just learned the 2-3 weeks prior to create something of our own and not just crank out “homework” assignments. The group project aspect was probably my favorite feature of the camp.

There is a big final project which leads to the end of the course and “Demo Day”. This project can be done in a group or alone. Most chose to take on this project alone as presenting on Demo Day is a great opportunity the camp creates in which you present your final project to prospecting employers or other tech industry professionals and can lead to some great connections and job opportunities. Our demo day I think had about 94 attending employers.

            Post-graduation support was great. You are assigned a career advisor to help you land a job. Zach, who was mine, literally handed me I think 2 interviews of which I did absolutely nothing for, all I did was set the time to go in. The continued support and feedback you get from their advisory team is invaluable in my eyes.

I was offered and accepted a job for a local company here in Orlando who is not in the camps network and have been happily titled a "Jr. PHP Developer" for a couple weeks now and using the full stack day to day.  I am also doing contract work for a company here in Orlando the camp put me in direct connection with. I cannot thank the UCF Coding Bootcamp and staff enough for their help and support for making a dream of mine come true.

                Tldr: Took the camp,was a blast, learned a lot, you get out what you put into it, this isn’t the matrix you cannot just plug in and 5 minutes later you are Fully Stacked, Bobs the man, TA's where awesome, landed a job, happy with my investment, 10/10 would do it again.

Prior to enrolling in the UCF Web Dev Boot Camp, I had read a couple of reviews here on Course Report that helped me with the decision to sign up. Now that I’ve completed the course, here are my thoughts.

I was in the September 2016 cohort that finished up a couple of months ago. The program is 24 weeks of instruction, but mine took longer chronologically because of winter break and a few other holidays in the middle. My particular class met Mon/Wed 6:30-9:30pm, then we joined up with a concurrently running cohort for a combined Sat 10am-2pm session. A new topic was introduced weekly that we would slowly build on over the course of the 3 classes. The instructor would lecture for a while, then we would be given activities to complete to reinforce the learning. There was also a weekly major homework assignment, with the idea being to use it to build out our portfolio. In addition there were also three major projects along the way in which we had freedom to come up with an idea, plan it out, execute it, then finally present it formally - all to practice what we might face in our future careers.

For anyone thinking about signing up, I would say make absolutely sure you’re willing to put in some hard work, and some long hours. They tell you that you should plan to put in 15-20 hours outside of class, and I would say that’s more like a minimum. I found I was often putting in closer to 20-30 hours between going over class material, re-doing class activities, completing homework, researching more deeply, and so on. The pace is also relentless. You can’t ease up because if you decide to mentally check out for a week, it’s extremely difficult to catch up again. However, life happens, people get sick, etc., so they tried to account for that by recording the class lectures and offering 1-on-1 sessions with the instructors to get caught up again.

The instructor we started with, Sean, was excellent. He really knew how to break down difficult concepts, and despite clearly being very knowledgeable and experienced, was able to speak at the level of those of us with no prior experience. Half way through the course we had a change of instructors which was a bit disruptive, but the new instructor, Bob, was also excellent. The other person I want to really give kudos to was the student success manager, Ricky, who was beyond awesome. He was always there to help out anytime any issues came up, whether personal, or class related. There were also a couple of TAs around in each class, and they were always ready to help too as needed.

The one place where the program did trip up was when it came to Career Services. We were told there would be many speakers from the industry who would be brought in to talk, that we’d be introduced to employer partners, that we would go on tours to potential employers, that there would be personalized coaching for facing interviews later, etc. The person in charge of career services for our cohort got promoted to a different position soon after we began, and they never had a proper replacement through the running of the boot camp. For this reason, while we did get some cursory help, it wasn’t quite what was promised. (I know this was unique to my cohort because I’m now working as a part time teaching assistant in the subsequent cohort, and can see they’re getting far superior career guidance already.) However, after course completion, they do have another career services division that takes over, and I’m now working with them to find a good position. They’ve helped fine tune my LinkedIn profile, clean up my GitHub repositories, critiqued my portfolio site, and more. As with the class work, for this career work phase I still have to put in my efforts too by reviewing job listings, applying, going to meetups to network, etc.

Overall, my experience was a good one. If I had to do it over, yes, I would still sign up. As others have said in their reviews, you get out of it what you put into it. They provide you the tools, and the instruction, and the support, but you have to do the work. If you’re willing to, I see no reason why anyone can’t be successful.

I came into this program with some self taught web development experience and was making some decent headway going that route. I had always been skeptical of programming bootcamps, this place changed my mind. If you asked me 6 months ago if I could build what I am able to build now, I would have told you are crazy.

You will get out what you put into this course, I definietly had alot more time than other students in my class, but the staff was extermely accommodating to that fact even when I asked questions on topics we hadn't covered it. 

If your brand new to web development or someone looking to improve their skills and hesitating signing up for this course, my suggestion to you is ask yourself, are you willing to put in the time? If so, sign up!

 

I started the UCF Coding Bootcamp with little to no prior coding experience. The application process is a little intimidating. It's not just "you can pay, you're in". You have to go through a phone interview where they assess your cognitive skills. You also take an assessment online. 

Each class has 30 students with 1 teacher and 2 TAs. You meet two days a week (either Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday) and you also have a Saturday morning class in which you join another 30 student class. Since you are spending 3 days a week with your classmates, you very quickly become family.

The Bootcamp encourages tight knit relationships - providing your class with a slack channel, requiring two group projects, and giving you some of the coolest TAs to bounce ideas off of and receive feedback from.

As far as the teachers go, each teacher has their own teaching style, with everyone following the same lesson plan, class activities, and homework assignments. Whats awesome about the boot camp is they film the classes from both MW and Tu/Th, so if you find you arent understanding something, you can easily watch the same lesson again, taught by a different person.

Overall, other than coding - the Boot Camp emphasizes the lifestyle of a coder. We got to take field trips to technology companies and see what their day to day was like. Most Saturdays we had guest speakers - most of them being influential people in the Orlando Tech Industry, who might potentially be future employers. We were encouraged to go to MeetUps, do Google Hangouts, and put ourselves into the job market.

As far as finding a job, the Boot Camp helps you with your resume, linkedIn profile, GitHub Repo, and portfolio. As a part of your graduation, they host a Demo Day, where you show off a final project of your choice to potential employers.

Upon finishing, they help get you job interviews with their employer partners, in exchange for applying to at least 10 jobs a week. Before I graduated, I was already offered 2 freelance positions, and look forward to seeing where the future takes me! 

If you are considering a Full Stack Web Development course, and want to be surrounded by serious, like-minded people who care about your goals and career path, definitely do this boot camp!

 

The bootcamp I attended offered a meticulously structured course, which was immensely beneficial for someone like me who was seeking comprehensive training. The projects we worked on and subsequently included in our portfolios showcased vital skills that are highly sought after by employers. The course's clear progression, starting from full stack development and leading to the MERN stack, greatly expanded my knowledge in the realm of software development. I am now a certified full stack developer and am incredibly enthusiastic about launching my career in this field.

There isn't much more to say. My experience has been amazing and this bootcamp gave me every facility and opportunity to succeed. I currently have a 100% in the class and I can only thank my instructors, ta's, fellow students, and the course materials for that achievement. It isn't easy nor is it anything I would take lightly but if you are willing to put in the 15 to 20 hours of studying a week I promise you anyone can do it.

I had just graduated from a part time full stack web development bootcamp on June 2nd . I’d like to start with saying how amazing the academic team was . Our instructor, Michael , and TAs went above and beyond to make sure we not just completed the course, but actually understood the material. Here’s some pieces of advice from me , a 24yo who does not have a full time job, kids , or family. (It is important as I had a privilege of working 2-3 days a week and had freedom to study) 
- this bootcamp needs your absolute commitment. Aside from actual mandatory  classes which is 2 times a week , 2 hours each, I studied 20-30 hours a week . I personally would not have been able to keep up with course work without that time commitment .  It is a bootcamp camp for a reason . It is A LOT ! 
- as I mentioned above , it is A LOT !!! You are learning so much to the point where it feels like you had no time to “digest” the material and it’s okay . Do not be hard on yourself and keep going . This is a bootcamp, so you’re essentially just getting familiar with so much staff , you will figure out what you like most after and will be able to master whatever you like . Just . Keep . Going . 
- I personally had a very hard time mentally thought the bootcamp because I felt extremely overwhelmed with the material. My advice - start early . Request a tutor before even the first class (it might take up to a week to get assigned one) . Take advantage of those tutor sessions ,  you WILL need them . I was relying a lot on our academic team , they really are there for you . And sometimes, when you are stuck and just wanna quit , it’s always nice to have someone tell you “you’ve got this” .  

To sum up , I overall had great experience with the bootcamp. Personally, I would not consider this class as a part time cause I did put a lot of hours in . Be prepared to COMMIT and work hard . But it will pay off . I still haven’t landed a job , but looking back , I’ve learned SO MUCH . And I have that huge codebase , course work , and COMMUNITY to rely on .