UCF Boot Camps

I attended this last year for one of the sessions at the Orlando campus. It was a horrible experience. They do a tremendous job marketing this as a life changing experience for those with little to no coding experience, but realistically it's a disaster if you have no previous coding experience.

I had signed for one of the courses that had classes on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons along with Saturday morning with an instructor (Bob) and it was a fiasco. He has no previous teaching experience, so he's not a very good instructor. He knows how to code, but he doesn't know how to teach to code.

The TA's weren't that helpful, as there's a ton of students and there's only a handful of TA's (about 2-3 max per course).

The worst part is that they'll give you excercise and expect you to learn in 5 minutes before they continue along and if you get lost, then hey, you get lost. It doesn't matter to them as they already have your $8,000 (if you sign up early) or $9,500 if you sign up later.

There were people in class with previous coding backgrounds, so they knew a lot, so the instructor would pace the class around them, which as a mess for those of us without that much previous experience.

I got visibly frustrated a lot and one of the instructor (Bob) one day noticed and told me if I felt uncomfortable, to get up and go home if I wanted to as it was only going to get harder... Really?!?! That's the best advice you can give someone who's paid their hard earned money to attend this disaster?

I continually kept in contact with the organizer (Ricky Cuellar) as my reviews of the course continued being negative. Once I informed him I wouldn't be attending anymore, he just sent me the links to the YouTube videos with the excercises and I never heard back from them again, plus I couldn't get a refund as I had already stayed a month hoping I could catch along, but it was impossible the mess they had already made.

Overall, one of the worst experiences of my life. I totally regret handing over $9K of my hard earned money to these people. Avoid at all cost.

I was enrolled in the UCF coding bootcamp in February 2017. This is a terrible program. It was very unorganized. You can only get a refund in the first week of classes. They try to keep interested until then. The professor or instructor had no teaching experience. He missing three classes and the first absence did not tell anyone he was not coming. They had to have one of the TA's to teach the course for that day. This all happened in the first month of the course. They use PowerPoints from the previous year to teach the course. The PowerPoint will have the dates of the previous year and for $9500.00, you would think it would be a better experience. The classroom is always hot when we come in. They did not want to turn the AC on earlier to have the class cool when we get in. They said the classroom is expensive and the AC turns on the minute classes start. That is not what you want to hear after paying $9500.00.This course is strictly for beginners with no coding experience at all. The admission process tries to make it seem that admission is difficult or for people with code experience but it's not. I told the admission rep (Kenneth Yee) my coding experience. All he was interested was getting he into the program. When I was not enrolled, he would call me whenever I email him a question. I emailed him with my poor satisfaction and I never got a response. I'm a Computer Science student at FAU and I've already done took a Full-Stack with Udacity, but I did not finish it because I had some persobal issues. I told Kenneth this and it was hard to learn online, but he still did not advise me that I maybe too advance for the bootcamp. WhenI got all the stuff they tried to treach I learn already throung Udacity or through my Computer Sceince major. So, they had no interest in guiding me correctly just want to get student in. This program cost too much money. Udcaity is a lot less and was a better option and they give a refund of 50% if you complete the program UCF does not do anything. Please think about this for a very long time before chosing this coding bootcamp. It's too basic and the markert is there but $9500 it too much. If you want to email r2s112@hotmail.com, I give you my honest opinion. I'm not an advisor or work in the industry..etc, but I want to save people from making the same mistake I did with this program.

Enrolling in this boot camp was definitely one of the best decisions that I have made. Before I joined this boot camp I had been trying to learn web development on my own for a few years without much success. The problem was that I didn't know where to start or what I should focus on.

The curriculum is really well structured, and focuses on gradually developing the skills you need as you become more proficient with the technologies that are being taught. There is definitely a lot of material, but it is manageable because you use many of the same technologies again and again and reinforce your understanding until it becomes second nature.

I can confidently say that I have learned 100 times more from the 6 months in this course than my failed attempts of learning on my own. This course was definitely the jump start that I needed to enter a career in the tech industry and connect with people with the same mindset.

Lastly, the support that I received since day one was amazing. Ricky from admissions was very supportive throughout the program. The Teaching Staff and the career director we're very knowledgable as well and were the key to turning my professional ambitions into a reality.

I am a recent graduate of this program and I must say it was a fantastic experience all the way around! The coursework is well structured with clearly defined benchmarks and the curriculum is layed out such that you get a chance to learn the theory, see the code, and then apply that knowledge during hands on coding exercises. When I came into the program I had little to no knowledge of programming and had minimal experience with html and css. In 6 short months I learned the full stack and was able to successfully apply the concepts and knowledge in my final project. In addition to the instruction, the support staff including the teachers assistants, program coordinator, and career director are all easily accessible and are there to provide guidance and support to help you achieve your goals.  I had several offers of employment upon graduation and made a huge leap ahead in my career. I highly recommend this program to all!

I enrolled in the inaugural class of the UCF Boot Camp. It has been the best school experience that I have ever had. I am very proud of what I have accomplished in this boot camp, but I would not have been able to do it in this short of a time without the support of my teachers, TA's and support staff. This boot camp is not easy, but it does give you everything that you need to get a great start to a career as a Full Stack developer. UCF has hired the best developers to teach this class, they have an amazing curriculum and they give you the tools that you need to succeed. Any time that you have a question, you can either ask it on Slack or you can meet with the TA's before or after class to get it figured out. 

The development of the curriculum is really top notch, they have it down to a science, this is what you need to know in order to get a job as a developer today. Of course you don't learn everything that there is to know, this is a 6 month course after all, but once you get through it, you will know where to find the answers and how to it out on your own. 

All of the staff have so much enthusiasm and help you get through and to realize how much you have accomplished. Throughout the boot camp you will develop applications that you can use for your portfolio, you will work in teams and on your own making applications that will look amazing and then the Career Director will work with you one on one to help you make a plan for your next step and build a resume, enhance your linkedin and how to really show off your portfolio. 

The best advice I have for future students in this boot camp is to use all of the services that they provide, you have paid for, use the 1-on-1's with the TA's for help understanding concepts, show up early and work with your fellow students. This boot camp may seem like it will take a long time, but trust me, time flies and you will be graduating before you know it.

I joined this course due to my background in analytics. The job market wanted me to know a few variations of the 10 offered in this course. I was excited to jump in and had high hopes.

The first two weeks are lovely. There is a great lecture on data science and the world of data, you learn things you never knew about excel (even for the advanced excel folk like me), and then into VBA. That is the place in the curriculum where you have to make the choice whether or not to withdraw from the class or not for your refund. That is where the first red flag was for me. I made it clear I had zero experience with development and coding during my phone interview, and I was told that was fine. This is not fine. This is not a course for someone who has zero experience with either. After that withdraw period, you learn things that are nothing like excel or VBA, and I felt I wasn't given a fair preview of what I would be learning the rest of that course.

There was not any communication prior to class on the structure of the course. We have class 3x a week for 3 hours, plus an assignment due weekly. Each assignment took me roughly 8-10 hours to do. That doesn't include the time I reviewed class material, (which was needed due to the fast pace of class), time with the tutor, or the time I spent practicing on my own. When I broke it down, I dedicated 40-50 hours a week to this boot camp, I was only told that 3 classes a week and 15 hours were "on average" required (which would have been 30 hours). 

The TA's and instructors are SO INCREDIBLY HELPFUL. Willing to help with anything. However, with the help, a tutor, and dedicating all extra hours to outside course work, I still was struggling. With all that said, I cannot even begin to tell you how many times in class we were told to google code, google how to fix things, or google troubleshooting.

Up until the very end, many students I spoke with after class regretted signing up and it was not as advertised. Wishing they would have learned it on their own. 

In the end, I dropped this course. I felt as if I could have learned all of this in one year, via independent study with Google and Youtube, create a polished GitHub portfolio, and secure a data job without a certificate. This was even suggested during my research of this Bootcamp, and I should have listened. Most job requirements in this field do not require the certificate, just that you have knowledge or can show you have that skill. 

The more there is a mixture between good and bad reviews the more you can verify they are not fabricated and genuine. Now I don’t necessarily want to say my review is one star but I had to catch people’s attention who wanted to apply to this program like me.I figured I’d write this review out of concern from a red flag recieved. First off, I want to say I can start a company called Starbucks sucks ass that serves coffee and can legally get away with that.My family got in contact with the associate dean of ucf. The dean said that he’s never heard of ucf coding boot camp. So just keep that in mind people. At first Joel from the data camp made me interested. But there was a lot of questions not exactly answered. I then talked to Susan h(won’t mention last name for privacy ). After talking with her the way she pitched it made it sound like a for profit useless degree like full sail, a college I attended. Their career service department sounds like it doesn’t have connections and uses google to find leads that you can find on your own. I am in a crossroads between this and finishing my second 4 year. Sorry for the bad review but just putting out my 2 cents. I can graduate from ucf with my comp sci major and start a start up like this company. I can slightly alter the name from the college and allude people that it’s assocated with ucf.