UCLA Extension Boot Camps

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.

I do not understand how this course has above 4.5 stars, this is definitely a money grab. Be very careful when picking a boot camp to attend, the teacher I had was let go after 3 months of work, and no explanation was given to the students. Our 2nd teacher was much better but 3 months of course work was lost. The coarse work is just repeated from the last sections of the courses, and the grades are irrelevant. The career help that they offer is lack luster and more of someone telling you how to apply to a job, and hopefully you are in the course they build the schedule around or most of the events will be going on during your class. I would highly recommend looking into other courses, the prework was pretty much useless as they continually did not use the technologies they had you download and work with during the class, or they would say that they hardly use these technologies in the real world. I understand tech moves at an unbelievable rate but I would have thought this course would keep pace but they dropped the ball time and time again. 

If you are still thinking about taking this course, just realize you can probably get this same exact material from Udacity, Udemy, Codeacadamy and it will probably be taught with better understanding of the material. 

Also, they market this coarse for working professionals, expect to take your career service calls on your lunch break or you will miss them, Overall this class has put a very bad taste in my mouth for UCLA who I would have held to a much higher standard, you also will have a hit or miss tutor that is assigned to you that is barely ahead of you in classes. The tutors are simply following along a structured plan rather than being able to teach it from their own knowledge if they are able to teach the material at all.

Once again I highly recommend researching other boot camps, but just know what you are getting yourself into if you do signup for this boot camp.

The Coding Boot Camp experience at UCLA was an amazing experience where I made invaluable connections with both peers and professionals alike. I am known for being very wordy and rambling, so I'll try my best to keep myself concise. Just as a general background information about myself before the program, I'm a UCR graduate of 2015 with a Bachelors of Arts in English in Literature. I had zero experience in anything to do with programming before this experience, and now I'm employed with an established financial tech company in DTLA, and learning tons (DevOps, Full Stack Development, Automation, etc). 

Curriculum - Being a complete novice with all things web development, this curriculum turned me into a capable programmer qualified to get interviews and getting job offer(s). There was a wide range of students in this program, one was a professor in data science, some in the cohort had also taken other boot camp courses (General Assembly) and/or online degrees (i.e. Udacity), some with a Computer Science degree, and some who already had several years of experience in the tech industry as developers. I felt that for serving such a wide audience, the curriculum was capable of teaching people with no experience and those with experience equally well. If anyone seemed to fall behind, the instructor was willing to set aside time outside of their own regular office hours. 

One thing that one should consider is that the curriculum (even in a part-time program that's extended over 6-7 months), the topics are mainly taught to a point where you will have a good understanding. Mastery or even advanced skills comes from one's own work ethics, and drive to educate themselves on said topics further. One of the many reasons why I think part-time coding boot camp was such as wise decision is that it gave me time in between the lectures to truly absorb the material and study it, rather than cram it in a single day. 

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Instructors - I've had Omar as my instructor and it was with his successful style of teaching that I was able to absorb content so quickly, all the while being able to research and create more projects (I went into AR/VR games, a little bit into ML but never published to public repo since it was a pet project, and much more exciting projects). It was through his informative lecture and guidance, that I was able to absorb a great volume of content in a short amount of time. 

Another thing to consider is the fact that Omar took extra time outside of his work hours to help students, something that I think should be commended to the highest degree as it shows true passion and support for students' growth. Many instances of him launching Zoom meetings on Sundays or other days to review and go over any questions anyone had throughout the curriculum (from other schools across the country too). Stellar dedication and wisdom from years of experience in the field, what more can you ask for a mentor? 

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Job Assistance: This is the portion that I think many people have been pretty harsh on their reviews with. Without getting too specific, our program initially had another career counselor who was in charge of our UCLA cohort. They were engaged during the first week of the course, but as soon as the third week came around, they disappeared and communication was close to null. It was later announced that we would be getting another career counselor already in charge of a huge program at another school. 

Judging simply from the background story, anyone can guess that only means that this career counselor would be in charge of multiple cohorts, not just a single set like it was designed to be. So why did I give this program's Job Assistance score an amazing score of 5 stars? It's because the individual in charge of various cohorts including ours, Jenna Fuentes, did a stellar job even with double or even triple the amount of responsibilities she had compared to the norm. 

Much like the course (including the curriculum itself), you get what you put into the job search. Jenna set up a comprehensive session that seemed to target as wide of an audience in the graduate pool. I think it's a flawed to rate Job Assistance low based on job placement after graduation since the junior-dev job market is quite competitive with so many other boot camps producing developers, along with the typical pool of CS graduates and self-taught programmers. 


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To be perfectly real with those looking into getting any form of accelerated path into development, if you're in it to get a job as soon as possible. Just know that it's competitive and you need to put in the effort to get as much return on your time invested in this program. But like any other job market, if you have friends/familiy members in the industry, you will likely get an easy-way into the industry yourself via referral (from what I've noticed from majority of those that got employed fairly early). So definitely listen to your career counselor and instructor on networking as much as you can, or be prepared for the job hunt. Good luck to future aspiring developers joining this program, and just realize that taking a program like this will give you invaluable skills that you will likely benefit from even outside of a full stack development position.

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. 

My reason for taking this course was to get ahead of my Computer Science program at my university. I have a background in biology and chemistry but had a great interest in coding and programming and didn't know how to be up to par with everyone in my undergrad program. CBC not only give me the skills and the tools to learn how to program but also gave me the closest thing to experiencing real world situations or experiences in the computer science field. in the program  you get to work on your own as well as in teams where you can learn more technologies and learn from other students that may be more experienced that you. The instructors and the TAs are the best resources you could ever ask for. They are highly experienced individuals that have and are working in the field that we all are trying to get in. The career and student support team are amazing as well. They will make sure that you are getting all the help you need as well as support you need through your whole journey. Trust me you'll want the emotional support when you go through the course haha. I definitely got what I intended to get from this program plus so much more. Worth every penny and worth every moment of struggle through this program. This was not an easy course I'll tell you that. I know I'm ready to face the challenges I'll be facing when I go back to my university next semester!! 

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! 

I was a product manager at software start up with no technical background before starting this bootcamp. I researched many bootcamps and narrowed it down to this and General Assembly. I chose UCLA for 2 reasons: the curriculumn seemed more relevant and focused, and the price was considerable cheaper. I also took some online courses on Udemy before class startd which I would highly recommend you learn as much as you can beforehand.

The great: The class itself was great I really loved going to school everyday. I had Clark Nielsen as the instructor and he is really great at teaching, fun guy, and genuinely cares about you. The TA's were great as well, super willing to help and knowledgable. I will saw the limited contact I had with the part time teacher and TAs made it seem like they full time crew is MUCH better. 

The (minor) bad: Career Services has great intentions, but its very clear they are stretched too thin and are working with too many students at a time. They are NOT going to find you a job. However it is worth talking to your career counselor so they can point you in the right direction in terms of your resume and linkedin. I think somewhere like GA probably will help you more with finding a job, but really it comes down to your skills and how hard you hustle for yourself. I knew from reviews career services wasnt as good as GA going into it but I chose this bootcamp anyway.

The end result: Its been about 1 month since the bootcamp ended and I have received two job offers for developer roles at companies I really like. To be clear, that was from me applying to jobs on my own and actively networking and going to meet ups. I would highly recommend this bootcamp if you are serious about becoming a developer but be ready to work. Theres nothing magical that happens at bootcamp, you have to make it happen for yourself by learnin and networking, but this will provide you with the knowledge you need to be succesful.

This program is great for all levels of students, from first time coders to students with CS degrees. The program is really well designed and structured to build upon the previous weeks lesson and assignments.

Even though this is "part time", it is very much a full time commitment. While I have a CS degree and have been coding for some time, full stack was still new and at times it was a challenge to keep pace with the homework assignments AND work a full time job. Working fulltime and enrolling in this program is possible, but I would highly recommend discussing with team at UCLA Extension if you have the technical foundation to work full time and complete the homework and projects. Classes are essentially total approximately 12 hrs per week, then you will be working on your homework and projects between 10-30hrs per week. Even if the homework is easy, the more you put into this program, the more you will get out of this program. That goes for both the technical AND the career building aspects of this program.

I was already employed as a backend developer and took this program to learn the overall "stack" and the tools and technology involved. While the specific technology taught is not part of my day job (I code in python), learning Javascript and NodeJS, along with the essential base engineering for web appliations has greatly improved my abilities at my current position. The career building information was also fantastic and has given me a great foundation how to present my skills and apply for a new job when I'm ready.

This program was worth every penny spent and very happy to have enrolled and recommend it highly! 

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.

Do NOT take this course...Do NOT make the same mistakes I made.

Trilogy people are EXTREMELY helpful, always there to help you  - literally calling you two, three times a day to ask if you made your decision and if you were ready to pay for a deposit...Always helpful until you pay for the class and no longer can get your refund.

We are promised TAs who will be avaiable to help...they were not. I was in the Tue/Thu class and we were not lucky with our "help." Meanwhile Mon/Wed class had the BEST TAs. TAs were not accessible on Slack, and when you asked them questions, they never really had answers. 

We were promised support with the "sucess manager" - ours (JP Alferos) was a liar (caught him lying TWICE and I have records on emails) and he left (got fired?) halfway through the course. We then had NO support for awhile...

The reason I picked UCLA was because I thought that having the "UCLA" on my resume would carry a little weight AND because the office told me class would have about 20 students. I regret it so much and I am still paying for my mistake. Trilogy folks never told me or anyone else that two classes would merge on Saturdays and therefore making the class much bigger and harder to get help from TAs.

Our instructor (Omar Patel) wasn't the greatest either. It seemed like he didnt want to be there at all. Every class, for a lot of subjects he'd teach us, there was always a "I hate this," "this is so stupid" and so on. How can someone who doesn't seem interested at all be there teaching us when we paid 10k to take this course? We had a sub a couple of times (Clark) and he was the best. He was always excited to teach you and had a positive attitude - completely different from our main instructor who seem to hate a bunch of the subjects. He was also never prepared. Once topics got harder, instead of spending a few minutes before class to go over the material, he would troubleshoot and confuse us even more than what we should - he kept saying that it was fine, that we should see him troubleshoot, that we'd go through that in the real world, and I appreciate that, but I didn't pay 10k to watch you move from file to file, trying to find out whats going on and hope that we are following him - spoiler alert: WE WEREN'T.

Save yourselve the headache - save a bit of more money and go take the course at GA. Truly smaller size class and I felt they were WAY more supportive with students.

I wasn't going to waste my time reading reviews, but I thought if this review could stop ONE person from making the same mistake I made, than it is worth it! 

This program is a bootcamp, so be prepared to invest some serious time and energy outside of class to really keep up. The program is perfect for those working full-time or who have other obligations. The staff are constantly checking in with you and are available for extra review of concepts. The career assistance has been on of my favorite aspects of the program, which includes company tours, guest speakers, resume and LinkedIn profile help. This program is a great introduction to programming concepts and provides a solid foundation for aspiring web developers. I would describe their approach as pragmatic rather than academic. 

Before going into detail, it's important to explain the context around my particular objectives.  I'm an experienced startup exec on the business side of things who wanted to learn to code, not to change careers, but to become a better tech entrepreneur.  So my experience is about learning, more than the career-change aspect of the program. Before starting the program, I'd only just started to try and learn to code.  Having stumbled through some online courses, I realized that, being a classroom learner and people person, it'd be a lot better to learn with others, and to follow an integrated curriculum.  I reviewed all of my options for bootcamps, and since I needed to attend a part-time program, The Coding Bootcamp at UCLA emerged as the best part-time option for me.  It is a 6 month program, and it is fairly intense, especialy if you have a full-time job.  Expect to put in about 10 hours in the classroom plus 15-20 on homework and projects.  You will definitely learn, a lot, perhaps too much!  The curriculum is very up to date with the latest frameworks, libraries, and technologies.  To be clear, learning to code like an expert will take you several years, and will be a lifelong activity, since there is just so much material to cover.  You will not be an expert after 6 months, but will learn a lot and become very confident about how to find the answers.  You will also have a roadmap for further learning.  By the end of the program, you will have coded dozens of applications (at least one per week, for the homeworks) and 3 group projects (two of them fullstack).  The teachers are great, and very commited.  Shout out to Michael, who is a coding/debugging machine and might even have a superhuman brain...and to Omar, who is also super smart, funny, engaging, and goes above and beyond helping students.  Gabrielle, the career counselor, is incredibly good at her job, and the classmates are amazingly supportive.  The community definitely makes the learning more fun and effective. I miss it already, and would definitely recommend the program to anyone who wants to learn to code.  I would do it again in a heartbeat.