University of Minnesota Boot Camps

Throughout the 24 weeks this bootcamp lasted, I had doubts on whether I would be able to complete it. I can say after that 24th week, I am glad I sticked to it.

I was interested in finding a new career path since I dropped out of college after my first year. I was studying computer science and it just was not fit for me. I started looking into cybersecurity more and was very interested in all the different paths you could follow. Through my employer, I looked at bootcamps they provided and found this cybersecurity bootcamp through the University of Minnesota. I read what the journey through the 24 week course looks like, and I decided to jump in for the long haul. My experience with this bootcamp was beyond phenomenal. From the instructor to the TA's, you could really tell they wanted every single student to succeed. I could tell it was just as hard for them as it was for us students, but the passion they poured into this course was amazing. One of my favorite aspects of this program was working with my peers to complete projects. It was awesome to see how easy it was to work with them and how friendly everyone was. If I had to give advice to future students, I would recommend to make connections in your class and work with each other, whether it's on the weekly assignments, or if it is on the projects you have to complete. Having those connections will improve your quality of life during this bootcamp, and can also be helpful after you finish. I will miss this bootcamp, it was a great course and taught me tons of information. 

I enrolled in the University of Minnesota Cybersecurity BootCamp. This was one of the best decisions I ever made in my life. The training was rigorous but was worth it. It fast paced so you have to stay on top of things. I only wish the instructor did not show open favoritism towards specific students and indirectly make others feel unworthy. I am naturally a resilient person so that did not bother me at all but for the sake of others, I think this should not be. Overall great experience. I will not be rating a 5 for this reason

It's hard to believe that I am already halfway through The Full Stack Coding Boot Camp program! The journey so far has been nothing short of transformative, and I'm honored to share my experience.
The decision to pursue a career in coding wasn't an easy one, but it was undoubtedly one of the best choices I've made. Having recently graduated from the Data Analytics and Visualizations boot camp at this same prestigious university, I found myself at a crucial juncture. The fast-paced evolution of technology and my desire for a dynamic, challenging career led me to explore coding as a viable option. The Full Stack Coding Boot Camp stood out to me as a comprehensive and immersive program that aligned perfectly with my goals.
My experience with The Full Stack Coding Boot Camp has exceeded my expectations in many ways. The curriculum is not only relevant and up-to-date but also delivered in a way that fosters a supportive learning environment. The hands-on projects and collaborative nature of the program have been instrumental in solidifying my understanding of coding concepts. The mentors and instructors are incredibly knowledgeable and always ready to provide guidance, making the learning process both engaging and enjoyable.
One of my favorite aspects of the program is the emphasis on real-world applications. The practical skills I've gained, coupled with the simulated work environment, have significantly boosted my confidence in tackling coding challenges. The sense of accomplishment after completing each project is unparalleled, and it's these moments that make the program truly rewarding.
To prospective students considering The Full Stack Coding Boot Camp, my advice is to embrace the journey wholeheartedly. Be prepared to put in the effort, stay curious, and don't hesitate to seek help when needed. The coding community at the boot camp is incredibly supportive, and there's a wealth of resources available to ensure your success.

Taking the part-time full-stack programming class. WAY TOO FAST PACED. The activities are terrible because everyother one is supposed to be an example of how to do the next activity. Who ever put these together forgot how to explain how to do what it is your supposed to get done."Drives me flippn insane"  Apperently one is supposed to do a challenge while learning a new concept every week. If somthing doesn't make sense or you get stuck, you don't have time to practice or get the hang of it because they will move right along to next week and expect you to be able to code in a new language or use a new program and have the knowledge to speak about it technichaly. Learn JavaScript in a week!?????? wtf.  I have learned more from recourses outside of the bootcamp that have step-by-step instructions and explain what is happening with the code. Example: Edx, learnprogramming.online, codecademy. This bootcamp says if you have no prior knowledge of coding thats ok... IT'S NOT. This is set up for people that have experience in coding. Its funny that I tryed to find a bad review for this bootcamp and couldn't find one. Defenantly feels like people just want to get 10k from you. My class started with over 30 and has about 20. I have been under so much stress I literally got hives from this bootcamp. Very weird because even when I was active duty and deployed to Iraq I never got stressed out enough to get hives! The good things are: the recourses they have to help students with a career path, building a portfolio, tutors, and help with the interview process.  Other than that this has been an absolutly terrible experence for me and would strongly recomend people with no prior knowledge to look into other programs. 

The past three months have been both some of the most stressful but most rewarding of my life. I came into this Code Camp looking for something new and something challenging and I got exactly that and more. I made friends, I learned an awesome new skill and now I can take steps forward in my career as a developer. Our instructor was awesome and made things so light-hearted and fun, and our Teacher-Assistants were extremely diligent and helpful. They gave us so many resources to help us with our homework and general resources that will be helpful down the line. It was a tough experience but made so much more fun and rewarding from the support from the staff and the friends you make along the way.

Before starting this bootcamp - I was lost, I didn't have a clue on what I really wanted to do but I did know I needed a change.  I needed that nudge to turn on my creative outlet and have a chance to better my future with it.  I absolutely love the routine of having class, working on projects, and building a portfolio.  I have learned so much from this class and created things I never thought I would ever make.  It is a continuing circle of knowledge and development. Having the opportunity to complete this bootcamp has been incredible because I did not have the means of taking 2-4 years of schoolwork, but 6 months flew by.  The pacing of this class was perfect for me - it was challenging but realistic.  I will always be eternally grateful for this class and the people I met along the way.  I will cherish it the rest of my life.

I completed the Part-time Full Stack Web Development Boot Camp in April 2023. 
SUMMARY: I learned a lot about web development from this course, but I'd love to see the curriculum and practices improved. An emphasis on learning the concepts, and providing tools to put that information into practice, is sorely needed. The function of the course as I experienced it was much more in the way of, "scramble to turn something in, regardless of your grasp on the information. 
CERTIFICATE: What you earn is a pixelated image that is supposed to be sent to you digitally within the weeks following your completion of the course. Setting aside the fact that I believe the least the organization could do for students that have paid 13k and made it through 6 months of arduous instruction is to send a hard copy, I didn't even get mine. Apparently there was an error so I had to additionally reach out and make sure I even got a copy (which I did print and frame you better believe).
TIME MANAGEMENT: I Initially enrolled in the full time version of the course as it was advertised at around 18 hours/week plus homework time. I immediately realized that the pace of the class and workload would make it impossible for me to continue working 20-30 hours a week while enrolled. You have 7-10 days (?) at the start of the cohort to switch/drop/etc, so I used this window to transfer to the next part time course so I could keep my job. In talking with other grads, the consensus is that in order to have a solid grasp on every topic and tech addressed you'd have to put in 100 hours/week. Even in my part time cohort, several of the top students marveled that most of us had jobs, stating that they're having a "hard time staying on top of things" even dedicating the majority of their time to the course. The bare minimum I think you need to put in would be 3X class time. 
TUTORING: I also found that the successful students spent additional time (and money) on tutoring. To clarify some amount of tutoring was included with the course, but the time was limited, and the tutors left something to be desired. When I was struggling I asked every TA and the instructor about additional tutoring. I was told by another student that staff were not allowed to tutor us, so I asked them for a recommendation, and they did not have one. I spent some time googling and connected with a tutor that did help me at some stuck points quite a bit. In reference to assignment requirements vs level of instruction provided my tutor exclaimed, "Wow they are really just throwing you into the fire here."
CURRICULUM: The course is extremely fast-paced. Class goes like this--> 30-45 minutes of opening lecture on the topic(s) of the day (reading off informational slides), followed by activity time. This ~2 hour portion of class consisted of the instructor introducing a sub-topic and then sending us into breakout rooms with 3-5 other students to complete an exercise of listed requirements (finding a bug, writing function(s), or notating the existing code). This is problematic since the real "how" of the course is executed sans an instructional team member. Breakout rooms usually started with 5 minutes of silence followed by either a student going, "yep I got it," or all of you going, "nope I don't get it." Now the person who "got it" is not an educator, so they're often unable or unwilling to walk the rest of the students through their discovery. Perhaps more frequently no one "gets it" and the squad dives into an endless Stack Overflow chain, getting more confused by the second. Sometimes a brave soul calls a TA into the room to try and help out. Around this point "time's up!". The instructor then walks through the activity, and takes questions. The issue with this is that due to the number of activities, and the number of possible questions/stuck points, there's actually not any meaningful time to delve into questions/responses. Complete 2-4 more activities and mix in a 10 minute break, and that's a class. At the end of the week you get a challenge assignment (your graded homework for the week). The deadline for these was stressed (particularly at the start of the course), along with a policy of being able to re-submit each challenge one time within 48 hours after receiving a grade. This timing window became a huge point of stress for students. We were frequently cramming after classes (the deadlines were 11:59pm and due dates were always class days when class ended at 9:30pm). A late policy was never referenced, leading many of us to assume late work was simply a 0. It came out later (literally 6 or so weeks into the course) that work would actually be accepted up until the second to last week of the course without penalty. This proved extremely problematic as it contributed to the instructor never reviewing past assignments in depth (which would have been very helpful for those who fell behind), as they didn't want to essentially give away answers to those whose projects were not yet complete. Missing the instructional step of "here's how I would have done it" was extremely detrimental. Students never understood certain units/aspects, and just submitted something at the end of the course. 
ETHICS: Around 50% of my class completed the course (from 70-X in week2 to 30-X in week 23), and I don't think that's right. I understand not everyone in a class passes etc, but for a certification of continuing education that is marketed to lower income working adults, I expected better. The pace of the course, the lack of individual support, and the intentional concealing of information like the late policy, forced many students out. Whether out of malicious intent or ignorance, this is not acceptable. Another murky aspect of the course was plagiarism. Often referenced but ill-defined, plagiarism seemed ambiguous. How much example code from activities could we copy and paste in our challenges? The answer seemed to be "most" as it was often suggested we do just that, but was never specifically addressed. Tools like Github Co-Pilot were discouraged as learning aids, but not disallowed. Pair-programming using tools like Live Share was discouraged but allowed (given that collaborators were listed etc). These policies (or lack thereof) left me confused at best. 
ADVICE: If you're considering this course or one like it, do it, but do the following. 1. Take a shorter (free) Bootcamp before you enroll. This gives you a head start and sense of the subject matter along with some tools to take into battle when you do enroll. 2. Give yourself the absolute maximum amount of time to grind. If you can possibly lean on family/savings/etc to dedicate 100% of your time, do it. 3. Make the most of that initial 7-10 day transfer period when the course begins. Switch to a different speed (part/full), audible to a different Boot Camp, or roll the dice with a different instructor/team. 

Before deciding to take this program, I'd been dreaming about moving into the field of Cybersecurity for quite a few  years. The course exceeded all my expectations. I took the live online version. It's intense, covers all major segments of the industry, and it's very well-composed in a way that you really do gain knowledge, including very hands-on experience. There was a lot of homework (and I mean A LOT :)) I feel like during the six months in the Bootcamp I've learned more than I did  in college many years ago. My previous IT experience was somewhat useful to successfully get through the material, but interestingly, almost everything we learned was actually new to me. Those who were completely new to IT/Security also did very well in class, it was nice to see how fast the guys were becoming future security professionals. The main instructor was great! Very knowledgeable, helpful and friendly. The classes were never boring, very engaging.  The teaching assistants were also awesome, with different diverse experiences in the field. Super helpful and responsive.  Really enjoyed working on the four larger projects that you must finish to graduate. I even landed a good job in Cybersecurity before graduation. 
Definitely the best learning experience I've ever had. Highly recommended!  

I was ready for a change and ready to take the step to a better life for my family and I. Cybersecurity was it . I had been watching a man on youtube that taught cybersecurity at U of M and the way he taught on youtube was easy for me to understand I knew that was it . Plus U of M has a prestigious reputation . My experience in the boot camp was out standing . There is alot of info to be learned very quickly . But U of M and staff really make it understandable and take the time to help you with whatever is needed and whenever its needed . The support and felling of being welcome was outstanding  . Now i am shineing in the class and able to help others . For others considering this please go for it theres nothing to loose and soo much to gain . the staff will help along the way. Ask questions . The most important advice is get excited for a new life , a new career, and new finincal stability . You will not regret the U of M cybersecurity bootcamp it is truly life changing. That means alot coming from a 37 year old man i do not regret the career change .

Great instructors, they gave myself and my group members support whenever we needed it. This bootcamp made me realize that I like doing UX/UI design, I'll be joining that bootcamp soon. My advice to a new student would be to USE A TUTOR, save up your money, sick time and vacation time before starting this program, you'll need it and be happy you did so. Everything was great except "Ask BCS" was not helpful. I tried "ask BCS" twice and they were uninterested in helping so I decided I wouldn't waste my time.  It did however help other students out. So, give it a try.