UCF Boot Camps

I'm going to start by saying I don't know how to compare my boot camp to others, since I only attended my own and I haven't taught or assisted any others.​

I can say I consider it a good experience overall.  The curriculum was well designed and the pace kept enough pressure to keep you from disengaging or slacking.  The staff was well chosen and we had support and encouragement come from a lot of different directions.  We were well supplied with videos and resources to help us.  We did have some glitches with staff change or staff vacations, but those in charge kept us covered with good people all the way through.

I recently finished the 6-month part-time full stack dev course at the Lake Mary/Sanford campus. The primary question somebody would have (that I had) was "Is this for me?" I will try to answer that with the following use case examples:

Currently working in software development but not in a technical role: (This is myself since I've been a product manager for 10+ years.) Taking this class has already benefitted me greatly in my day-to-day duties as a product manager. I would recommend it for anyone in a similar role. Understanding what your dev team is doing and is capable of doing and being able to have more productive meetings will make you a better product or project manager. Your skills set will be more desireable in the marketplace. 

Computer Science Student or recent grad: Definitely worth taking this class. From what I've been told the C.S. degree work is heavy on theory but not so much on coding especially in modern cutting-edge languages. Many of the TAs were computer science students who graduated from the bootcamp. 

Looking for a career change: Much of the class is comprised of this use case. Definitely take some online tutorials on codecademy and whatever else you can find to see if you even like coding at all. It's probably not anything like you imagined it to be (it wasn't for me at least). If you find that you enjoy the challenge then go for it. 

I got exactly what I was hoping to get from the UCF coding bootcamp and more. The instruction and support are outstanding. On the admin side Ricky and Jodi are your pillars to lean on so use them. I can't say enough about the high quality of my instructor (Howard Salter) or our TAs. This is crucial: Take advantage of the FREE weekly 1-on-1 tutoring. It's free and it helps to have someone to talk it out with. Even with all the help you will have to do much of the learning on your own; learning how to teach myself new material is the key thing you will learn in this class. At least it was for me.

I attended the UCF Coding Bootcamp from January to July 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 that confidence in you.

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 2 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 !!

If all you are looking for is a solid base knowledge of full stack development, I have nothing but good things to say for the instructors and TAs of this program. They were all knowledgeable and helpful in every aspect of the course. They were all invested in helping you grow and make you into the best developer you can be. They encouraged you to learn and pushed you further than you thought you could go. A wonderful experience.

Now for the bad side, if you are looking to get a job right after completing this course then I suggest that you look elsewhere or at start with some free learning on other sites. The career services give you basic tips on pushing your resumes, hokey advice for researching interviewing advice and the majority of career advisors seem to have the wrong personalities for someone whose job it is to get jobs for dozens of people. Anything I have gotten after the course was completely from my own efforts.

I wish this program could've been everything I wanted it to be but sadly it fell completely flat on the career side and soured the experience of a solidly designed course.

I recently graduated from the UCF full stack coding boot camp in August. This boot camp literally changed my life, I had no coding experience before I attended this camp and was very nervous coming in. Reading the curriculum was very nerve wracking for me as I had no clue what most of these terms and "languages" were. But going in to the first day, my AMAZING instructor Bob and his TAs assured us all that we are in this together and will learn step by step. They make sure nobody gets left behind, but I do want to say one thing about getting the most out of this program. The TAs can only do so much for you, and can not always be right by your side for each assignment and homework. You have to put in the extra time and work outside of class. You can not just go home and start watching tv and forget about programming. You have to go home, do more research and practice, practice, practice. If you do that throughout the camp you will come out as one of the top developers in your class and be fully job ready for the real world. It is not an easy course, but it is not impossible either, it is an amazing opportunity that I would recommend to anybody interested in the tech industry.

I recently graduated from the UCF Full Stack Coding Bootcamp in Aug. 2017.  I took one programming class in college 15 years prior but never pursued it much after that.  I researched all the different options before signing up and most of the others have gone out of business since then and the reason for that is as follows:  From the first day to the last day we were full steam ahead.  We covered everything associated with full stack development.  Within a couple weeks I knew I was in over my head and asked for help.  The T.A.s, the instructor and even the UCF Coordinator swooped in and got me set up with a tutor who was another student in a different program who was further ahead than us.  This is what made all the difference.  They really did want to see me succeed and help out where they could.  They checked in regularly and helped me focus on what I needed to improve.  I couldn't be happier with the experience and I do think it was worthwhile.  They have a really good partnership with the university and plenty of people rooting for your success.  Now its up to me to put it work.  In terms of what this bootcamp can offer - they go over everything from HTML, CSS, JavaScript, NodeJS, React, PHP, MySQL, MongoDB, and a few others.  If I could recommend one thing it would be to come in humble and ready to learn because the amount of information can be very overwhelming but with a little effort and asking for help this could really change your life for the better.  Put in the time and use every resource they offer.

I graduated on August 2017 and I would say it is a pretty great and extensive experience! I was working 40 hours a week throughout the 24-week program in Fort Lauderdale at the time. 

I was expecting a lot of challenges and I defintely got more than that. I just wanted to master HTML, CSS, and Javascript and go on my way. I ended up learning much more and studied languages that I never imagined that I would understand the basic concept. If you are looking for a career switch, the instructors and career professionals are committed to helping you get to where you to be. If you are looking for a bootcamp that will add to your skill set, which is what I used it for, this is the perfect course for you. 

I wrote an extensive article on what to look out for and what I think is the best way to go about this course. Here is the link: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-survive-coding-bootcamp-what-expect-kelvin-medina

Hopefully you decide to take on this challenge! Good luck! 

I was 25 already in a dead end job doing something I did not care about. I wanted a change and have always been very into the idea of programming as a profession and have tried to teach my self it countless times in the past. this Bootcamp came at the right time in my life. with them having multiple locations and times it made it easy to find one that fit my schedule. Once I was in I was hooked. both the professors I delt with on a weekly basis, Dan and Bob, were better than I would ever of hoped for. They truely have a passion not only for programming, but sharing their knowledge with others.

Now it being called a Boot Camp made me prepare for the worst. Even though we met 3 times a week, there is enough work to keep you busy day and night for the whole week, and made it fit the Boot Camp name. 

There is an extensive amount of support for learning the challenging topics they cover in the short amount of 6 months. there were a total of 4 TA's, 2 professors, 2 administrative helpers(to answer any job/career, finacial questions you had) all of them available just about 24/7. Always online to chat, and each Friday they would have an open google hangout for about 2 hours, even if no one showed up, just to be available to dive into your code and help you debug any issues you are having. 

The languages that were taught are the languages that I now see day to day working in the industry, They even made changes in what languages to teach as they saw the interest of the class shift. no one wanted to learn Java in my class, so they switched it out with more PHP or angular if we wanted to learn that. All tools we used to communicate and submit our work, are the tools used in the industry today to communicate and share work. 

Now this class only walks you through the first few languages (HTML,CSS, and some Javascript) and after that really push you to learn how to research and find resources on your own, but if you ever get stuck they were more than happy to take all the time you need to help you get through it. 

when I left that class I not only got a great understanding of the main languages used today, but also coding basics that help me adapt and figure out other languages on my own. I have an extensive portfolio, and very detailed and connected LinkedIn profile. I also am still connected with the students, TA's, and Professors of my class and have worked with them on projects. This class is exactly what I needed, when I needed it. 

They ended the class with a Demo day, where they invited people from the industry to come look at our projects we had to share. I ended up picking up a programming job on the side while going through the class, and the professors let me make that my Final Project, and gave me great advice of working on client work. they helped me bid out jobs, and come up with a good estimate of how long it would take to make it. At Demo Day I was given about a dozen business cards and 2 job offers.

DISCLAIMER! if you want this to be a cheap college alternative this is not the class for you! this class is an intensive coding BOOT CAMP, there were nights I would go home and be so mentally exausted by the amout of learning and critical thinking that is involved. If you are expecting to be spoon fed you will waste your money and everyones time.

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.