UCLA Extension Boot Camps

• yes, this is an awesome program
• it has very complete and very applicable curriculum, 
• outstanding support from instructor, TAs and student success staff
• make sure to sign-up to be Omar's student, 
• enjoy the ride!

First off I want to say that I am truly grateful to UCLA and Its staff for providing me an opportunity to better my life. My passion for Ux/Ui has grown tremendously through out this experience and the professor and TA's could not have been better.

For those of you afraid or hesitant to make the jump in giving this bootcamp course a chance I can relate. To some like myself who is not financially well off it may be a bit of a big investment, didn't graduate college for financial reasons, but like me, the financial staff at UCLA help me get approved for Sallie Mae and were very helpful in trying to make this opportunity come true for me. Now 6 months later I can't thank them enough. 

Managing a bootcamp course and a full time job was very hard at times but now that I have graduated time flew and I find it very rewarding. Over the course of the 6 months I've learned so many things and met some great people along the way and I look back at it now and realize I've gained so much more than just knowledge on Ux/Ui. I walked away from this class with a newly lit fire in my heart and some great friends.

The class itself was tough at times (could just be my 30yr old brain that hasn't been in school for almost a decade) but as long as you pay attention and ASK QUESTIONS you willl never walk out of that class feeling lost. The professor and ta's always made sure that I understood fully before moving on or provided a time to come help me to make sure I got it. Its the little things like these that they do right and has me writing this review and recommending it to you all.

Take that leap of faith, Trust your gut, 6 months later it will ATLEAST be the one thing you DON'T REGRET doing in your life. If my review has helped even one of you it was well worth it.

I would recommend this bootcamp to anybody. Byfar, it is the cheapest bootcamp around but that does not reflect on the education you acquire.

I had awesome classmates and a terrific instructor, Clark! He could answer all our questions in the way that each individual could understand. Everybody in my class was immersed and interested, so their filtering system to apply for the class is spot on! 

What you get out of this is what you put into it. I, literally, studied 6+ hours a day, outside of class. I had zero experience going in and came out feeling confident that if I keep learning, I could be in the programming field.

Obviously, this will not put you into a programming position right away. DO NOT BELIEVE anybody that tells you, you can learn to be a fully functional programmer in 3 months, 6 months, maybe even 1 year. You will have to keep learning and keep making yourself a better programmer. My instructor taught me exactly that. He taught me how to teach myself so when I have completed the course, I can continue learning technologies by myself.

The curriculum was great for the time allotted. I feel like some parts did not need much explaination and spent too much time on. It is understandable that you can not teach everything in the 4 hours per day, 5 days a week, in 3 months. I wanted even more work and more knowledge, thats how captivating my intructor made programming to be!

I did not participate in the career/job assistance part so I have no opinion about it. But they do seem to want to help every student.

I thought the boot camp was a good experience. One thing for people taking this course to keep in mind is that YOU WILL NOT BE A SENIOR DEVELOPER AFTER TAKING THIS COURSE!

This course will give you the ground work of being a web app developer. The course is fast paced especially after Jquery (about 3rd or 4th week). So you will have to spend a lot of time codeing, refactoring, restarting, and reseaarching what you are working on.

The course definitely could use some adjustments to make.

1. If groups cannot find a client then they should be given goals to complete by the instructor.
2. Projects should be looked at before hey are presented. There were a few groups that claimed they implemented something like React but when you look at their code they did not have anything react related.
3. Homework should be cumulative. It would be better if the homework kept building up to a complete project that incorporated all the work from the class.
4. Portfolios should be required completed projects that are graded by the TA's and looked at from a interviewer perspective. This could be the cumulative from #2
5. There should be better documentation like how to docs for installation of ALL the software used in the course. It would also be good to have this as items the students can look back to as reference for other things like how to start up the server etc.
6. The assignemnt names should match whats in bootcamp so its easier to know where assignments are to be turned in to.
7. Projects should incorporate work done inclass and from Homework and be part of the requirements and what the group uses should be approved by the TAs/instructor. Ex: APIs that the group wants to use should be approved by TAs and instructors to ensure they are something that should be used. - its one thing to use a random API/NPM its another to use one that is actually usefull.
8. The in class repo should be kept up to date with current best practices. Many times the instructor for my group had to update the repo to current best codeing standrads.
9. Bootcamp spot should work better. For a web development course having the site be as buggy as it is/was is very disturbing.

I only have high praise for this class and its instructors. If I could break down my whole experience it would be the following:

1. Coding is not easy, but they make it manageable

The course provides tons of practice materials and an instructor (Omar Patel) who makes it fun. It will take a strong determination and dedication to the course materials and what the instructors recommend to truly master the material. Do not only rely on these instructors to get you through the class. It is recommended minimum of 25 hours to truly be job ready. After the course I completely agree with that number. If you are not used to working 65 hours a week (assuming you work 40 hours a week) do not take this class. If you are set on this, you will have all the tools you need to be successful. 

2.  Get your schedule ready

The instructors recommend that you have a solid routine to master the material. They provide recommendations and coaching materials on how you should structure this. This was great because you don't even need to plan your own schedule, just follow theres. If for some reason it doesn't fit into yours, then they will work with you to figure something out.

3. They CARE

This is not a money grab program that is just looking to get you to commit and then leave you in the desert to fend for yourself. The instructors care about your success, the people in the class care about their classmates, and at the end of the day they really care about making you and the program successful. They will stay the extra ten minutes on a late Monday/Tuesday night after class, they will talk to you on Slack on weekends, and they talk to you about things outside of coding. This class will wear and tear on more than just your work schedule, but they are there to help beyond course material. 

Final Summary: Worth every penny, they give you what you need to succeed and they are a caring group of instructors. Be ready to put your head down and work but you can succeed if you do. I am a product manager and by the end of the course my engineering colleagues and other teams noticed the change in my terminology, knowledge, and confidence speaking to technical solutions. It helped take my career development to the next level.

The course is very well thought-out and organized. The in-class assignments, homework, hw-solutions and videos are so thorough that just about anyone that makes an effort could follow along. Likewise, my instructors Clark, Elton and Paige were so helpful and way more patient that any instructor I had in college. Likewise, the classroom environment was extremely welcoming. The students in my class were all there to learn and help each other understand and progress. If you're looking for a challenging class that's equally rewarding, then I recommend this couse. Also, the building is really nice.

This course has everything you need if you want to become a junior web developer. The teachers and TAs were great, very informative, and helpful. The information in the bootcamp is incredible, and if you take it seriously, study hard, and really work for it you can succeed as a junior web developer after doing this course with no experience previously. If you're looking for a career change, or an alternative to a degree this could be great for you. It is an INTENSE course, and not at all the same as a 4 year degree, so be prepared. You will have to study all day and night to succeed, but it will be worth it in the end.