UNC-Chapel Hill Boot Camps

I completed the bootcamp in May of 2018.  After graduation, I worked for Trilogy as a Teaching Assistant as well as a Video Curriculum Engineer on their Enterprise Curriculum Team, and I recently got offered a position as a UX Developer with Fidelity. 

Overall Experience: 
I had a good overall experience in terms of the sheer amount of material that I learned throughout the course as well as in securing a job in the field afterwards.   A++ to my Instructors, Student Success Manager, and the new Career Services Director.

Incoming Knowledge: 
I came in with almost no experience, but this course made it easy to succeed with the right amount of effort outside of class (which absolutely varies from student to student).  I did work during the bootcamp as well, which was difficult but manageable.

Course Advice:
Even though this is a part-time course with only ten hours a week of in-class time, what you put in outside of class is essential for success.  From experience in my own cohort and from being a TA, it is pretty consistent that the people who put in the most work outside of class are the most successful (including students who work hard being more successful than students with prior knowledge).  The course sets you up very nicely to learn how to learn, but there is so much information out there that you need to be prepared to take the class activities and use them as a jumping off point for deeper learning.  Additionally, you can do just enough learning to get through the homework, but spending the extra time while you're in the cohort and have the instructors as resources is pretty invaluable in terms of growing your coding skillset for life after the bootcamp.
Final piece of advice: do not get behind.  Keep up with the classwork and homework, because the courseload grows expoentially as you dive into more difficult subjects, add projects, and start job hunting. With that in mind, if you are ever struggling, there is one other huge perk to the bootcamp, which is access to free(!) tutors who can work with you outside of class.  

Career Services:
I would have given career services no stars because they were completely unhelpful during my cohort.  However, the new director who has taken over is terrific!  She made the effort to follow up with former graduates like myself, had incredibly useful advice for job hunting, and is as hands-on or hands-off as you prefer in terms of scheduling followups and coachings.

Post Graduation:
I got funneled into working for Trilogy almost right away, which was a great way to get my foot in the door in the development world.  You will come out of the bootcamp with a lot of knowledge and skills, but very little experience on your resume.  However, If you are persisitent about keeping up with your learning (show that on github!), actively working on side projects (again with the github), practicing talking about what you know (maybe buy a whiteboard...), and being proactive about your job search (make a spreadhseet), you will definitely be set up to find a good job!

TLDR:
This course is definitely worth it! You get what you put in.

The UNC full-stack coding bootcamp is one of my favorite memories of being a student. It taught me the skills to learn new technologies fast. I landed a full-time, well-paid, internship at the end of the course and used the skills that I learned to continue growing as a developer. As an example, I learned Wordpress, Twig, Timber, and a bit of PHP within the course of a week and a half in order to build a web-page for the new company website. I would not have had the confidence to do this if it had not been for my experience at the UNC bootcamp. The professors and TAs were extremely supportive. Whenever I needed help they were there to assist. I never got the feeling that I was stupid when I did not get anything, because it was taught that coding is HARD and that even if you don't get it right away you WILL get it eventually as long as you keep practicing it and keep working hard. 

I had a very positive experience with the UNC Web Development Bootcamp.  Like many other students, I didn't know quite what to expect; however, the Bootcamp exceeded my expectations, particulary with the instructional staff and overall curriculum. 

My instructor was fantastic.  He was able to teach to both novice and experienced developers alike.  Not only did the instructor present the material in an engaging way, he always refered to instances in the real-world where the concepts would apply.

The curriculum is mult-faceted, which was my favorite part of the bootcamp.  The lessons cater to new programmers, however, they also provide additional depth for programmers with some background.  While a novice developer will benefit tremendously from this course, I would recommend that anyone interetested in the bootcamp look into basic javaScript concepts first.  I had some previous development experience, and this allowed me to grow substantially as a developer during my 6 months with the bootcamp. 

The TA's were also fantastic.  They were all patient and knowledgeable, and provided great real-world insight into the material.

Overall, I would recommend this Bootcamp to anyone looking to level-up as a web developer and javaScript programmer.  Note - to succeed, even with some previous experience, the program requires a substantial time commitment.  I would absolutely do it again!

I had a great experience at the UNC Chapel HIll Coding Bootcamp. The instructional staff(instructor and TAs) were super helpful and extend themselves to provide a supportive environment for the students to be able to feel confident and give their very best at the curriculum. The group projects helped me understand the importance and dynamics of team work and building rapport with team members. The course overall is very fast-paced, intense and demands hard work, dedication and focus throughout! The technologies and skills learnt are very relevant to the current job market and leaves you ready to take the next step in your career with confidence.

Since I had no previous experience in coding, it has been a truly invaluable learning experience for me. The course was very organized, well-focused, and designed in a manner that learning is not limited. However, this course is very challenging and fast phase. Instructor was very engaging and made the class enjoyable which made significantly stress-free for the newbies like me. Additionally, the professionalism and the support being extended by the tutor and the admin team was really great, and I am thankful to them.

Buyer beware!  I had a terrible experience in this BootCamp. The TA's in my class were weak at best.  One of them quit a month into the camp, the other one had to be let go.  They routinely sat in the back and talked about personal matters or would go against class teachings. Mainly, they were just not helpful in completing assignments or learning the subject matter.  Job placement is a joke with this program as well.  One of the TAs was just a student from the last class who didn't find a job.  We finally got some good TA's, but it was halfway through the class.  

Then there was a problem in my initial group project where a student was abusive to me and other teammates.   I reported the problem to my instructor and to class organizer several times, both of whom told me to tough it out, and it was in my best interest to power through.  I ended up learning nothing on that project and losing a lot of confidence.   It put me further behind.

Our instructor and the curriculum are really good, but all the other needed support is lacking.  No one in my class who was working full time was able to keep up and its even harder to keep up when the class is run this poorly.  I ended up giving up on this class and am just working through the curriculum at my own at my pace at home.  I have a lot of IT experience, so this is actually working much better for me!  In summation, its not a complete loss, but i definitely don't feel i got the value promised.

I came into this program with  only a small amout of prior programming experience.  And that mostly came from online courses and sites learning on my own.  After a lot of research into other programs in the area I settled on the UNC boot camp and I'm glad to say I'm not disappointed.  I began the course barely able to put up a simple web page and left writing and deploying stand alone web applications complete with server code and a database.  It's a thorough curriculum that will not only make you competent in full stack web development but also give you the tools to continue to grow and learn new technologies that arrive in the ever changing world of software development.  

I really enjoyed my time in the Bootcamp. It's tough, challenging, and can be overwhelming at times, but the sense of accomplishment that you get when overcoming these obstacles is one of the best feeling in the world. The classroom materials are excellent, and the instructors and staffs are extremely helpful and passionate about their job; always willing to go the extra miles to help their students, even late at night. The technologies that I learned are very relevant to the job market's demand, and compared to six months, my skills as a developer grow tremedously. I feel very prepared to face the job market after graduation.

For anyone looking for an honest opinion about the UNC coding bootcamp....I finished in December 17 and will give my opinion.  The curriculum is created by trilogy and is used at many bootcamps they host.  It is good and there are great examples provided for each subject, but it is just an overview of each topic. You learn enough to have a basic “working” knowledge of each language.  You must take that and go deeper into the languages yourself. This is really at any bootcamp because there is so much taught in a short time.  Overall, I was happy with the academic portion of the class.  It was challenging, but I had great teachers.....HOWEVER.....if you are like me and many of the students who take this course with the intention of finding a job after....I MUST WARN YOU......the career services is completely aweful....they promise a lot of things throughout the course and very little of them happened...... I hope that they improve this for the students sake....but as of now....CAREER SERVICES IS A JOKE.....you would be better off not even using them.....This has been my experience and that of many of my fellow students....