UCLA Extension Boot Camps

When I joined the program, I had previous exposure to Computer Science Courses through college. These courses focused on older technologies compared to this program which focused on much newer technologies.  With that being said, that previous exposure was able to assist me for most of the curriculum for the course. However, there were times where I really had to invest additional time to get up to speed to get better understanding on certain topics. Overall, it appears the program itself is more suitable for a student going through additional Web Development training, a student who is computer science major or someone who is NOT employed during the time of the course unless it is related to Web Development. The whole "Part-time" as how it was advertised when I joined is not really there. If you do fall in the category of having a Job and important matters during the time of the course, you will need to cut and invest personal time in order to complete the curriculum and expand more of the knowledge. Also, one thing to remember, the learning will need to continue even after the course. Aside from that, the instructors are great, especially Omar Patel who is always willing to help students improve their skills and break things down with real life scenarios, I have a significant amount of respect for him as an instructor. Also Jonathan Arellano, one of the TAs and who has been a close friend of mine prior to the course, is a great instructor who would stand up to the plate and assist Omar on multiple occasions during class lectures. I am not saying that because he is a friend, other students will express the same. As far as the career portion, I was not fond of, there were tips that were more of opinions and unrealistic approaches.  Overall the course has provided me with the tools to continue expanding my knowledge, I am grateful to have taken it.

Coding booting exposes students to a lot of technologies. For those that thrive in a formal class room setting and being able to interact with teacher hear other students this is the course for you. Omar P. if your lucky enough to get him is an solid instructor thst has really master the craft of engaging student and has the ability explain complex concpet in a simple manner. Cheers to him!

This course is tough! They say the class is part time however the work load can easily take 20 - 30 hours a week to complete. If you have a family go ahaead and just tell them you'll see them in six mounths since you'll spending all your free time coding. Plus having a full time job and taking this course is extemely challenging and physically taxing. Every week you're learning new technologies and just as you begin to feel comfortable with the matrial your start working on a new technology. During this difficult times I found working/pair programming with  other students and TA's assist my time of fustration. 

Tip's: practice, practice, practice. Learn javscript asap!

When I signed up for this course, I was only a high school graduate and barely starting my first year in college. At first, I really did not know what to expect, and just came in ready to learn. I was learning different technologies every week, and spent long hours coding to either review the material or finish homework.The course was extremely fast-paced, and challenging. However, I was grateful that I took this course because it was a great experience. I was the youngest in my class and needed a lot of help. I received a lot of support from my instructor and TAs. They were all very helpful and took the time to sit with you to explain the material if you were ever lost. They were also easy to talk to, and made you feel comfortable when asking for help. It was obvious that they really cared about the students and were willing to go the extra mile to help students learn and understand the concepts being taught. This course not only taught me about web development but also how to manage my time better, network, and not to give up. In order to succeed in this course, you need to put a lot of time and effort. Not only by going to class and doing/following the in-class activities but also going home and reviewing the material, watching videos about the different technologies you're learning, and spending time doing homework. Expect your days to consist of coding, coding, and coding. Overall, this course was extremely difficult but definitely worth it. 

I am a EE graduate that decided to switch careers and get into web development.

What this course does for you: it provides you the structure and guidelines to learn all the fundamentals of web development. You will learn to work with many different technologies and really learn how to learn. To reiterate, you will get as much as you put in, that means bringing your own passion and work ethic to topics being covered. You will find that web development (and programming in general) is a blackhole of information. This course allows you to make sense of all the noise and truly learn. Some of the topics towards the end of the course seemed to be a little less structured but I think they will become stronger in the future. I




What this course does NOT do for you: It will not make you an expert programmer in 6 months. You are most likely not going to land a 6 figure job right after graduating. 

What you need to do to succeed: Put in the time and the effort and you will be rewarded. The help is there for people who help themselves. There is little hand holding involved. Pair program often. While working in groups, make sure you have a firm understanding of the code you are writing by trading off coding and navigating. Get your resume and portfolio ready early before graduation.

Strengths: excellent instruction and competent TAs. These are the backbone of the course and they deliver well. 

Cons: I would say the network of employers that work with the program is sparse and not particularly interested. The services are decent but could go more in depth with each student.

 

If you're serious about becoming a job-ready web developer and you're not just going on a whim, the Coding Boot Camp at UCLA Extension is worth the money. You see, web development is no joke. You can't BS your way through coding; you either learn and work the long hours to truly master the concepts, or you don't... Even with some programming experience under my belt, I struggled tremendously.

I took the part-time version of this course (~20 hours per week), but I imagine the full-time one would be similar in its approach and results, just much more intensive. For half the course, I had a full-time job, and during the second half, I committed myself fully to the course.

Here are the pros, the vital benefits of the boot camp:

1. Structure = ACCOUNTABILITY. The greatest value in the course is that it forces you to sink or swim. Web development must become a priority in your life. It no longer is an afterthought or an aspiration; you will live, breathe, and dream in JavaScript. Having to go to classes, answering to an instructor, getting graded, working with group members and fellow students will do that. At first, it's a shock especially if you're lazy like me, but you grow into the habit of learning this new skill.
2. The instructor and TA's were suprisingly helpful and competent. They knew what they were teaching, and they were very pleasant at the same time. You always wonder if techies are going to be weird, but these folks were very approachable and endearing. Their advice was always helpful, and their mentorship, which still continues to an extent even after you finish, is invaluable.
3. Course content was well-structured and had a very logical flow. One lesson transitioned with ease into another, and the way they laid out the tech stack made a lot of sense. In hindsight, it was very apparent that whoever built the curriculum knew what they were doing. So, if you truly pay attention and practice at home on your own time, you will be job-ready by the end of the program.

I attribute what I know as a developer to this program, and if I had to learn what I learned on my own, with no assistance, I imagine it would have taken much longer (honestly, a year or more). The guiding nature of this program brings you tricks, tips, and best practices, which are small individually, but over the length of the course, they add up to make you a strong and well-rounded junior developer.

Also, please take the course seriously. It will be so easy to slack off. Imagine if you were NOT paying attention in the first few weeks; because the concepts build on each other, you basically have to do some extreme catch-up OR you lose all the value you can get out of the program due to your stupidity. It's like making a jump from one rooftop to another: either go HARD or go HOME, lest you break both ankles.

Some cons:

1. Depth is not their strong suit. Although there are so many topics to cover and just not enough time to really get into the nitty-gritty of everything, I would have liked a more in-depth treatment of certain topics such as JavaScript and React. These are more advanced topics and are difficult to follow, but I believe teaching or having these materials available to students would have been super helpful, especially for the job hunt. This is where books and other video courses online filled the gap.
2. I realize it is supposed to be a beginner-friendly course, but it would have been awesome if they had some supplementary lessons on Internet marketing, SEO, web design, analytics, and other very practical aspects of building websites and apps. I am realizing after the fact that this knowledge would have come in handy. If you are planning to launch your own websites, make sure to research this stuff on your own.
3. Job assistance was lackluster. They are going to get you up and running with the very basics: your resume and LinkedIn game will be scrutinized. There are career assignments and activities that will force you to work on your networking and interviewing skills. However, "job assistance", in the way I wanted it, never really came. Ideally, I would've LOVED to be put in a room with 100 recruiters who are actively looking for junior developers just like me, but I would have settled for just 20-30. The amount that actually came in was a slow trickle over the length of the course, and I don't know if any of my classmates were able to capitalize on those very few leads. For me, those leads didn't convert, but I guess that says more about me. However, the staff were super helpful with career advice. The one saving grace that I can offer was that the instructor took us out to external networking events, and helped us talk to people. Our success manager actively passed us job opportunities and linked us with important people. I just wish that they threw more substantial networking events for us, ones where we can just give out our resumes like candy. However, it was a good lesson in understanding that you can't rely on external parties to promote yourself. You have to adopt a go-getter attitude to land that job or anything worthwhile in life.

Despite flaws, this boot camp is worth it.

I first took this course because I wanted to gain more knowledge in web development. Even though the course was really challenging but I did learn a lot of different technologies. The experience was awesome, I got to meet other classmate that came from different background but we all want to learn and have the same goal. I did recieve a lot of support from the instructor, tutors and classmate. To current and future student, you need to put in a lot of effort into reviewing in class materials and homework. You need to have time management in juggling reviewing and homework, also I would recommend codewars to gain advancement in programming. Omar is a fantastic teacher, he's really hand on and engaging. He will goes the extra mile in explaining the lesson and checking in with you to make sure you are not struggling in class. I would definitely take his class again if I can. Overall, its a great course and a good learning experience. 

I found this course in a time in my life when I was in a very tough place and needed to grow. And when I looked into the program it became the right decision more and more. I came into the course with no knowledge of software engineering but came out of the course feeling so confident and powerful. You have to make this course work for you! What did you come here wanting to accomplish? Who do you want to become? How do you want to grow? Just because you sign up don't think that's the end. This course is about hard work and dedication. It's about consistently going out there and building those dreams you came in wanting to accomplish. If you're ready to change your life, yourself and your career make the commitment and take this course. The instructors are great, the staff is dedicated and everything that you need to achieve your goals is provided. The only thing needed is heart and you'll make it happen. 

I am so happy I took this course. I had always had an interest in coding and web design but was somewhat scared to take the leap into it. I remember starting the class nervous and worried — since my background was in marketing/writing. However, I was quickly met with challenges and a vast amount of support from the team at the coding bootcamp.

One of the biggest challenges for me was breaking code and making mistakes. I was scared of mistakes but I quickly learned to be comfortable with making mistakes and ultimately learning so much in such a short amount of time because of my new comfort and the support of the TA’s and instructor. No matter how mistakes I made I was always met with encouragement and support.

This program is great for those who want to continue working full-time. I would say the six month program is one of the few coding bootcamps that you can do while continuing to work. The support of the both the instructor and the staff helped me transition from my marketing manager position at work into a junior web developer.  I am so happy I chose to take this course, although it was challenging, I was able to have fun and actually looked forward to every class.

The Coding Bootcamp was one of the most intense yet amazing experience I've had so far in both my education and working career. The entire faculty has been very supportive and have provided students with enough help to be successful in class.

Coming in with very little experience with programming, this program has definitely increased my knowledge and enabled me to create simple websites to very functional applications. As a designer, It enabled me to access different realms of advancement and has truly increased my expertise making me a more valueble candidate for employers.

Please take note however, it's a Bootcamp, you better be ready to put in the work or you're going to get your butt kicked.

This full stack web developer bootcamp is the best decision i had made for my career. I was planning to attain grad school; but then choose this bootcamp instead to learn new technology. I have a bachelors degree in computer engineering, even though i didnt know how to properly make a full stack application. This course taught me how to make a full stack web application using all the new technology (MERN stack) and it enabled me to quickly grasp other relevant important technologies like MEAN stack as they are one and the other. The instructor, tutors and career support is phenomenal; they always respond to my pings/queries in less than an hour when i am not in class. 

Instructor (Omar Patel) was extemenly helpful and have a tendency to explain things in simple terms,terms that we can easily understand and hard to forget. Tutors were also very helpful in teaching and solving queries. I mostly worked with Jonathan (tutor), he's great and always tries to push me to learn other things. Career support is also helpful, they organized many career sessions where you can meet with potential employers. 

I strongly recommend to take this course at UCLA extension to the people who wants to change their field to IT or who wants to improve on their programming skills. I engouraged many of my friends to take coding bootcamps instead of studying a course in the college because bootcamp gives you practical knowledge while college course gives you theoratical knowledge.

TL;DR

Ignore bootcamp stereotypes, focus on yourself and what you want.  The harder the struggle the better the payoff, if its too easy, step it up! This bootcamp will definitely challenge you but reward you by introducing you to new things, people, and ideas.

If you're here it means that you're searching around for some way to better yourself and either improve on skills or learn new skills for a possible career. I was in the same boat about 9-10 months ago, searching for a place where I could learn something entirely new to help change my life around.  

Fresh out of highschool, I was accepted into Cal Poly San Luis Obispo's computer engineering program, I thought I would be able to keep up but I soon had to drop out due to my grades and other difficulties.  Shortly after, I spent 4 years getting a bachelors degree in IT and working customer service/help desk jobs, not being able to break into the industry doing what I wanted to do for the next few years. After changing direction and doing web design for 6 months, I appreciated the work I did with that and wanted to pursue that but only found out (at the time) in order to get into web design and development you needed a Computer Science/Engineering degree.  I kept hearing this everywhere I went so I did research and wanted to go back to school, but since I already had a bachelors degree, alot of places were limited and would not let me apply.  Schools not for everybody I guess right?

It was then I heard about coding bootcamps, but of course there was a trail of negativity and stereotypes behind them.  I looked into SO many, but none of them really fit what I was trying to accomplish or I couldn't afford them or I couldn't attend full time due to other obligations.  But there comes a time in your life when you need to drop all your excuses, forget everyone elses opinions, and just go for it.

I spoke with Alex to address all of my concerns about bootcamps, what I will be learning, possible career options, and much more.  Alex was very helpful and answered all of my questions patiently (I think we spoke for over an hour).  After talking with Alex, I was a little more at ease about the program but still somewhat skeptical. I needed to just jump in and do it.

What was great about this program was that it wasn't a WYSIWYG: it was a dynamic, challenging, frustrating, tiring, fun, and emotional experience (for me at least).  I didn't just learn "Full Stack Flex Development" or just strictly Javascript, I was taught how to learn so that If I ever want to learn something outside of development I have the ability to do so. Major props to the instructors, TA's, staff, and peers who made that possible and who gave me the drive to succeed.  

In conclusion, you're going to find a lot of places and hear a lot of things.  The decision is yours, but I am highly recommending The Coding Bootcamp at UCLA Extension because of my experience and outcome.

Omar Patel is a great professor. He's very hands on and engaging. He's very open to new ideas of teaching to better engage students and get them excited about learning the subject. He makes himself available outside of class, puts in the extra effort to get you the help you need, and wants you to succeed. With every problem, he challenges you to figure it out on your own, but gives you the tools you need to get to the end result.

The course is challenging and requires a lot of studying outside the class. You will succeed with the help provided, the TA's and Omar are great, but if you aren't willing to put in the work or seek out assistance when behind, it will be extremely difficult to catch back up.

When taking this course, expect to be challenged and expect to put in the work every week, and be ready to take advantage of all the assistance provided outside of class time.

On top of teaching the material, Omar provides a lot of assistance in finding jobs, more than would be expected of him.