UCLA Extension Boot Camps

This class was exactly what I needed! I am from a business background who currently runs an E-Commerce Magento Website. I wanted to be able to develop on my own website and be able to do basic/intermediate things. This class is very fast paced... this class will give you 2 year headstart in developing within 6 months. If you want to truly jump careers, this is a great place to start. Developing is such an individual sport in the sense that there is so much to learn and resources to read. It is more like a lifestyle because it is impossible to learn everything. It is also a team sport because you cannot build a truly meaningful app without a team. This class gives you both experiences with all the focused homework, and 3 Group Projects. Every experience was integral in learning what developing is really like. 

I run a large company and have a family. I spent alot of sleepless nights trying to stay on top of things. If you take this class, I recommend you are fully devoted as if it was a 40 hour a week job. That is how you will gain the most from this class. Just trying to master the concepts taught in class will be a full time job. 

I do not recommend this class if you are already a seasoned developer looking to master a more niche topic. This class is for those who are looking to change careers from a non developing background. They are very dedicated in landing you the "job". 

Note, developing is such a deep skill that involves alot of "struggle". This class makes the struggle alot easier. 

When looking into the program you are directed to a Trilogy "admissions" specialist who is a salesperson trying to get you to fill a spot. They will push you towards an upcomming cohort to fill the class but many of things they "check for" (ie distance to the campus) are irrelevant (people lived 2 hours away from campus). Check to make sure that you are provided the appropriate invoice, I was provided one amount, then another amount, and then finally another amount in the form of a refund since I overpaid. The pre work gets you through week 1, which just happens to be the drop period to receive a refund. The pre work also provides structure to assist with learning, such as links to articles, a related exercise, and is "modular" -  building off of each lesson. 

Day 1 of week 2 begins and the prework is irrelevant and the structure is gone. I signed up for the full time course and regretted it week 2, as you go over multiple important concepts in 1 day, and there is no time to catch up if you don't grasp the concepts with no helpful links or exercises that build upon each other. As a result, I spoke to the class admin because I was unable to keep up with the course but was already told that I was past the drop date (in week 2!). My classmates who were doing well were not focusing on the class, but on CodeCademy and other supplemental learning, and many had not focused on the homework (either not completing it or finding completed assignments online).

The attendance requirements should be loosened since being in class could be watching a fumbling teacher who has no idea what files you are accessing. This makes you feel like you could be more productive at home watching videos from YouTube (this was in fact more productive to understanding concepts). I was part of a class whose curriculum was being used for the 3rd time, on a first time Trilogy instructor. There was little guidance from the TA's who were fresh out of code bootcamps themselves. After a few weeks I was able to receive a pro rated refund after jumping through the hoops Trilogy set up, despite being told I could transfer to a part time cohort. I decided that I needed to stop the class because of the stress it was inducing: constant homework assignments where you are provided little to no direction, you are not told what is important to focus on during class, the pre work does not help you beyond week 1, TA's are former students, they test new curriculum with new teachers, a rigid refund policy compared to other programs.

Based on the responses to reviews here, it seems that UCLA Extension is fine with this. My teacher told me that the class is not conducive to my "literal learning style" (his words) which had ultimately pushed me to drop the course - I wasn't grasping the concepts quick enough. Later, I learned that the teacher has been replaced making me think that it may not have been my "literal learning style" but perhaps the instructor that could have been the problem. They weren't explaining what they were doing during lecture, they would not provide guidance for the homework, they had no idea what kind of information the students were receiving, and little direction when it is clear you are struggling. Who is responsible for monitoring the instructor during a cohort? UCLA Extension? Trilogy? It seems to be no one. I was told that I could "re apply" to the part time program and repay the whole fee. If you are interested in the full time program I would suggest significant time invested in Javascript, don't worry about the pre work, don't focus on the homework, speak up and speak loudly, and complete a course on GIT. U

ltimately, it didn't seem like anyone was concerned with teaching, it was more like a cluster each day of lecture and activities. 10 min lecture on a topic accompanyed by a 10 minute exercise, then repeated, is the curriculum. Save yourself stress with a program that has a more flexible refund policy so that you have better options when there is no one able to provide helpful details. You are trying to learn a mass amount of information and a new kind of logic, I don't think that UCLA Extension is doing an adequate job auditing this. 

I had a great experience at the UCLA boot camp. It's tough so make sure you have time dedicated to studying. You'll learn a little about a new language each class but it's your responsibility to study up at home and familiarize yourself with it or you will fall behind. Trust me on this one! Also, take advantage of the resources. We didn't find out we had a tutor available for free until the end of the course. The teacher and TA's were great! Make sure you're in Charlie or Tristan's class. You will by far get the most for your money and understand the material much better. They are very knowledgable and patient. Take this course, it's worth it!

I recently completed the boot camp.  This is a pass or fail class so the grades are just for you to know how you are doing.  You will learn a little about a lot of different topics, and will need to spend 30-40 hours every week working on the homework and learning on your own.  The TA's are very helpful, but find the one you like best and always go go them when you can.  It helps to build a working relationship, because they will know your code and be able to help you better.  Plus when you are looking for work, you have a current reference who knows your work when an employer asks for it.  The homework assignments will keep you on your toes, and take more than the part time hours they claim.  This needs to be a full time commitment, and if you make it you will come out knowing a lot.  It will seem overwhelming at first, but remember writing code you are going to be breaking and fixing your apps over and over and over again.  You will fail you will make mistakes, but the most important thing is to learn from them. 

The only part I think needs improvement is the Career help.  It was partly due to the fact that our orignal Career Success Manager was promoted, and we were left without anyone or any help for 2 weeks.  Then our new manager was just tossed in, because they did not bother to hire a replacement.  She is nice, but months behind on helping us.  There is career homework, and despite turning it it in on time it took months to get feedback if we got any.  We had to turn in the the social media links we were required to have accounts on, linkedin, stackoverflow, github, and our portfolio and resume.  We did not get feedback on them until 3 weeks before class ended and we were suppose to be looking for work 2 months before it ended.  She was also to give presentations to help us, but never showed up prepared and just made it up as she went along.  Then the demo day is a waste of time, do not bother going.  They waited until the last minute to schedule it and only 6 people showed up, most of whom were not hiring.  Then she stood there giving lame excuses as to why nobody showed up, and how it was beneficial to have fewer people there.  Then a month after finishing she is finally asking for a copy of my cover letter, and still has not given me feedback on it 2 weeks later.

Summary, learned a lot about web dev but got very little, very late career help.  I am still looking for paying work.

I recently graduated from the Trilogy/UCLA program. UCLA, and other schools, are partnering with a company called Trilogy. The owner is a former educator now capitalizing on the boot camp hype. He knows nothing about programming himself.

I was originally sold on the program because it was part time over 6 months rather than full time over 3 months. This seemed to me a better way to really absorb the material, because it's not realistic to code 12+ hours a day for 3 months and retain much, like many of the other boot camps try to do. The brain just doens't work that way. I was also sold on the UCLA name thinking it would hold more weight than many of these code schools, which are all incredibly new and don't have much of a reputation in the real world.

Ultimately, I made a poor decision. While the program started off reasonably well, towards the end, the last third of the program (2 out of 6 months), it pretty much fell apart, for the following reasons:

1) The curriculum kept changing. Originally we were to learn Angular, PhP/Laravel. But sometime through this was changed to React, React Native, and Java. Ok, no problem you might say. Except that each of those complicated topics got no more than 3 days of attention. So the time used to cover these topics at a very introductory level was pretty much wasted.

2) Overall the curriculum tries to cover too many topics. You cover a lot of topics but at a very introductory level. And the time weighting for topics is distorted. For example, you spend the first couple of months doing basic HTML/CSS/jQuery/JavaScript, but then breeze through topics like Node, Express, databases, React, etc. Sure, you have to set the foundation in the beginning, but you can't breeze through complex topics and claim they've been taught.

3) There is a big gap between teaching and learning, meaning that the typical process for any given topic goes something like this... "Here are steps 1-3...now go do the homework/projects incorporating steps 8-10. Figure out steps 4-7 on your own."

4) Instructors are hit and miss. Some instructors are incredibly involved, both in class and outside of class, other instructors show up for class and that's the only time you hear from them. So outside of class it's up to you and the other students to figure everything out. There are "office hours" before and after most classes, but when there are 30 or so students in each class, there is only so much attention you're going to get.

5) Project work can be hit and miss and it completely depends on which people you are teamed up with. I ultimately had a very poor project experience because on two of three projects half of my teams decided they just had no interest in making an effort. There are no negative ramifications for students not participating other than they don't learn. So of three projects I was supposed to have I ended up with a single project to present. That's not very impressive to employers when over a 6 month period you were able to pull together one project, a project that was done over a single two week period.

6) Project work is very, very rushed. You typically get no more than 2 weeks to develop a full project, and while you are working on your project you are bombarded with new material that you are expected to fully digest and in some cases were expected to incorporate into your in-process project. This was just ridiculous. As such, most of the material taught during project weeks was competely ignored by most students.

7) Demo day, which is the day you get in front of "partner" companies, was less than impressive. Less than half of the students (out of 60 or so total) participated and of those only a couple got offers from those partners. Other than that, I don't know of anyone that has even had an interview with those companies.

8) Career services consist of the boot camp making sure you're sending out a bunch of resumes and some guy in another state sending you daily emails of job links, even though he knows nothing about your market, what you're looking for, etc. Some people have gotten jobs, but many others have sent out well over 100 resumes and gotten little to no response. Some people already had jobs and aren't looking. You have a mix of experiences. But overall the program, even the UCLA name, appears to carry no weight in the market. This could vary by market and school.

One helpful thing Trilogy has implemented is weekly continuing training sessions for graduates and current students alike. The topics include both new topics not covered during the program as we all job search tips, like how to write a resume, cover letter, how to focus your project portfolio, etc. But ultimately it comes down to sending out a ton of resumes and networking on your own, as you would expect for any job. Don't expect direct job placement from the program.

Overall, what the program provides is some structure around learning. But just keep in mind that you're only getting a very high level introduction to a bunch of topics and will not come out of the program being well-versed in any one topic, unless you can become so on your own time. The students that did well are those that had some experience coming into the program. Most of those with no experience struggled a great deal or rode on the coattails of the more experienced folks. Even the experienced folks sometimes had problems.

I'm sure the program continues to improve because my cohort complained quite a bit in the weekly surveys and during class. And hopefully Trilogy is listening. But personally, based on my experience, I can't recommend the program.

PS: You'll notice all of the glowing reviews of the program (I know all of these people) and you'll notice the wonderful response from the program. Remember, they are trying to sell you to enroll. And honestly, the program doesn't do well with negative feedback. Much of the response during the program was to push the blame back onto the students. I don't know any other business that works this way.

This class was excellent! Definitely helped me in both my skillset and my career. One great thing about this program is that it cultivates a support system within the cohorts. We were encouraged to seek help not only from our teachers but from other students as well. Another good thing about this bootcamp is that teachers and career advisors were amazing at hearing our concerns. Help is certainly there when a student would need it. All in all I would definitely recommend this bootcamp and is a great way to enter the technical field! 

Definitely loved everything about this bootcamp. It was a great experience for someone who had no idea how to code in any sort of language. They taught the fundamental and developed a base of strong foundation to the "newbies" and the patience that the TA's and instructor had with all the students was quite commendable. The staff were always encouraging and pushing all the students to higher heights while also creating great relationships that helped with "awkward imposter syndrome" that normally occurs in the beginning of a program. I was hired to my engineering department near the end of the program and I/m applying a lot of foundational knowledge I learned from this bootcamp at my current job. They work with those who are workign full-time as well so if you're dedicated then you'll definitely be able to change careers! 

The UCLA Full Stack Part time boot camp has been both a challenging and rewarding experience.   The intstructional and support staff are extremely supportive and helpful and genuinely interested in helping you succeed.  The added benefit is the career services and extensive help developing  resumes and online credentials to really prepare you for the job search.  The curriculum is covered relatively quick but it give you an excellent foundation to be able to continue your growth as a develper.