UNH Boot Camps

I can describe my UNH Coding Boot Camp experience in one word---Transformative! 
 When I think back to my coding knowledge, skills, and abilities at the beginning of boot camp and where they are today, just 6 months later, I am amazed. I’ve learned a lot. While I have a lot more to learn, I’m confident that I’ll be able to secure an entry level web development job and add value to a team. 
   I expected the pace to be fast (and it certainly was) since there are many topics to cover in a full stack program. The program was rigorous and most weeks I spent 15-20+ hours outside of class on homework and review.  
  
 The curriculum was well-designed and full of hands-on activities that reinforced the lessons, weekly homework assignments and three team projects. The instructional team was knowledgeable, experienced, and supportive. My classmates were of various ages and backgrounds and getting to know them throughout the course was a highlight. We worked hard, encouraged each other, and had fun. 
  
 I had almost no coding experience prior to the boot camp, and I felt overwhelmed at times. However, there was a lot of support available to students: Instructor and TA Office Hours (before and after class), tutors, online support, and a Student Success Manager. The Student Success Manager took feedback from the weekly surveys seriously and worked hard to ensure students had the support they needed and had a positive and meaningful learning experience. 
   The program was well worth the investment (tuition, time, and effort). The program left me energized and inspired to continue my web development journey. Plus, I have a portfolio of projects that I am proud to share with prospective employers.

I can describe my UNH Coding Bootcamp experience in one word---Transformative! 

When I think of my coding knowledge, skills, and abilities at the beginning of boot camp and where they are today, just 6 months later, I am amazed. I’ve learned a lot. While I have a lot more to learn, I’m confident that I’ll be able to secure an entry level web development job and add value to a team. 

I expected the pace to be fast (and it certainly was) since there are many topics to cover in a full stack program. The program was rigorous and most weeks I spent 15-20+ hours outside of class on homework and review.  

The curriculum was well-designed and full of hands-on activities that reinforced the lessons, weekly homework assignments and three team projects. The instructional team was knowledgeable, experienced, and supportive. My classmates were of various ages and backgrounds and getting to know them throughout the course was a highlight. We worked hard, encouraged each other, and had fun. 

I had no coding experience prior to the boot camp, and I felt overwhelmed at times. However, there was a lot of support available to students: Instructor and Teaching Assistant office hours (before and after class), tutors, online support, and a Student Success Manager. The Student Success Manager took feedback from the weekly surveys seriously and worked hard to ensure students had the support they needed and had a positive and meaningful learning experience. 

The program was well worth the tuition and the significant time and effort. The program left me energized and inspired to continue my web development journey. Plus, I have a portfolio of projects that I am proud to share with prospective employers.

You will learn a lot. Not just HTML and CSS but JS, Node, express, react, performance, storage, how to deploy and databases as well. That being said you will have access to your teacher, teacher assistant, student success manager, career services (take advantage) and a tutor session which help the learning process so much. I know so much more now than when I started the class. The knowledge you gained will make it possible for you to create and deploy a MERN stack application on the web & phone across OS as well. My classmates were a great group of people and you will gain some friends as well. Take advantage of this opportunity. 

Six months ago, I may have looked just like you do right now. I was contemplating joining this camp, but the leap was so scary. Will the time and investment be worth it? I had never coded a day in my life. 

Today, I am graduating and very happy with the program. 

Instructors: The main teacher has been in the industry for many years and had did a great job explaining complex concepts in simple terms. On top of that, he constantly offered real world advice and really helped us experience what the industry is like and what we need to do to be part of it. The assistant teacher worked with people well outside of office hours and really cared about helping everyone reach their full potential. 

Content: They update the content every couple of months to make sure they are teaching the cutting edge. It comes at you fast, but you will get it if you practice daily and ask for help when you don't get it. Be aware, that even though this course is "part time",  you need to treat it like a full time job. Many of my peers and I studied well over 20 hours per week on top of jobs and family. It can be hard, but its also fun and worth it.

Career Services: For those willing to go the extra mile, the career services team really steps up. The whole department's goal is to make you employable and help you get a good job. They helped me update my resume multiple times, get a professional linked in profile, and much more. More importantly, they stay with you months after you graduate as a resource. 

To summarize, this course was everything I was hoping it would be. I recommend it to my friends in person, and hope that if you are on the edge right now, it helps you rest at ease that you are making the right choice. 

For someone who had little to no knowledge about coding before enrolling, I am so happy with the result of my decision to enroll in the UNH Coding Bootcamp. I was definitely nervous going into the first week of class but everyone from my classmates to my instructor and teaching assistant to my Student Success Manager and Career Services team were nothing but extremely helpful, encouraging and supportive every step along the way. The course can feel fast paced at times but there was never a time that I didn't feel like I didn't have support. If anybody is considering this bootcamp and has the time and commitment to dedicate 6 months of hard work, I have nothing but good things to say and highly recommend taking this next step! 

I am so happy I decided to enroll in this boot camp. I had little to no experience in programming before starting. I now have a portfolio of apps and projects that I can show to potential employers as well as a great programming foundation to continue learning upon. 

The instructional and support staff were incredible. I was amazed by their intelligence, knowledge, and how they made difficult concepts easier to understand. However, this program is rigorous and difficult. The more you put into the program, the more you will get out of it. 

I have learned so many new skills from taking this program. I would recommend it to anyone!

Everyone I worked with from enrollment through graduation was engaging, knowledgeable, and helpful. 

I entered the program with very little programming knowledge, but that didn't hold me back. The program provides resources to help get you up to speed before classes begin, and once classes begin the instructors are so thorough that you don't need to worry about being left behind.

The projects we worked on helped me build a portfolio that I am proud to present to recruiters and employers.

I cannot recommend this BootCamp enough.

At first I was very nervous and had little idea what I was getting myself into. I knew i wanted a career change and to better myself. But after six months of the course i will say i didn't realize how much I would change. Not only did the instructors, TA's, and tutors go above and beyond to help me at any time, but the "guidance counselor" was always there to talk and help me walk back off the edge so to speak. They helped put things into perspective and were always there to help build a game plan to conquer the homework's and projects. They are there to educate and 100% see you succeed. 

It's crazy how much you can learn in such a short time! Things that used to seem completely foreign are now second nature. Documentation explaining how Javascript or some related technology, used to be impossible to read, and now it's my go-to for a clear-cut explanation. It wasn't easy but it was worth it. I'm someone who didn't have any post-secondary education and was tired of working jobs where I wasn't appreciated unless I worked myself like crazy. Who wants that?

My recommendation when taking this course is to use your time during class to do what is best for your education. All classes are recorded and available for viewing afterward so don't worry if you didn't understand something because you can always go back and watch it again. Sometimes something will make sense during a lecture-like session but then when it comes time for the activity you will feel lost. It happens to the best of us.  My preferred method of note-taking is taking my notes directly in the code in the form of "comments". Code comments will not affect your code when it's running. Comments will be ignored by whatever is running it (web browser, hosting platform, etc.). Leaving notes in the form of comments makes it easy to know what code you're referring to because you can leave a comment right next to code in reference In-class activities will sometimes be too challenging to do, or just plain won't make sense to you. They do provide the completed code and I recommend you utilize that if you need to. If needed I would go through the completed code and research what I didn't understand and leave notes in the code (as comments) explaining what is happening. Each activity builds off the previous and getting lost on one activity will keep you lost on the next. Do what works best for you so you don't get lost. If you didn't get the last activity then go back to it until you get it. You can always complete any missed activities on your own time. To avoid the above from happening, you could get a jump start on the new week's lesson by utilizing the resources provided to you in an email at the beginning of each week. Sometimes life gets busy and you're not able to do so, then refer to the above recommendation Homework doesn't always have to look pretty. Your code should be clean but websites don't have to look pretty. Focus on functionality and user experience. Take the time you would have used to make it look pretty and instead work on other projects or some form of coding/programming. If you want to be more of a visual designer (web designer) then focus on that. Though, it is easier to learn design concepts than it is to learn cleanly coded, functional, and easy to use applications. MVP is something you'll learn about. MVP stands for Minimal Viable Product. An MVP application is functional and gets the job done. Anything not considered essential can be added later. Following the "user story", "acceptance criteria", and the grading rubric will result in an MVP style application. The only exception to this is group-projects, there will be enough people working on the application that this is achievable and worth it. Group projects will be a nice addition to your resume so a good looking website is a win.  You'll be in a Slack workspace (like DIscord) with your teacher, teacher assistants, and other classmates. Teachers and TA's are available through this so don't be afraid to ask questions during non-class hours. Here you can message with classmates and create study groups or just talk about random stuff in the Random chatroom (we posted a lot of memes and nonsense, I totally recommend it!) Overall try to have with your code. The chances are you won't be using homework assignments on your resume or portfolio page at the end of the class. You can be silly in these, give things funny names, use memes instead of other photos, whatever you need to laugh. Homework is designed to give you practice using the technology you learned, as long as you're doing the MVP you have leeway for some ridiculousness.  Sticky notes are awesome for terminal commands you'll use often as they can be easily accessible when you need them. 
Hope this was helpful!
- Brendan