UCLA's Extension program has been hosting this web developer bootcamp for about a year. They're partnered with a company that runs bootcamps called Trilogy Education Services. Trilogy works with a lot of universities, like UCLA (of course), and also UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, UT Austin, Northwestern, Rutgers, and more. I can only find favorable reviews of Trilogy online, who seems to have been doing such services for over a decade now. For what it's worth, their Northwestern and UCLA coding bootcamp are listed as number 2 and 3 in this ranking of university coding bootcamps by valuecolleges*. So it sounds like a decent program, but I do wish I could have found more reviews and specifics than I did. I wish someone had blogged their whole way through the experience so I could know what it was like in full detail. And since I can't find that, I'm just doing it myself!
So what is the program like?
There are two options, a part time 24 week and a full time 12 week, both covering the same material, though they mention that the curriculum is always subject to change due to market forces. They are (of course) stressing that the objective of the bootcamp is to get you prepared for a job. The 12 week program meets about 5 hours a day, 5 days a week, and the 24 week program meets Tues/Thurs nights around 6 to 9 and then for a few hours Saturday morning. The part time program sounds perfect for people working a full time 9 to 5 and looking for a career change. For me, a lot of savings, a little bit of bitcoin money, and room and board from my dad for the 3 months mean I'm lucky enough to dive into the full time program and get going as a web developer even sooner. It starts July 10th!
What does the program cover?
According to UCLA**, "HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, Bootstrap, Responsive Design, Node.js, React.js, Heroku, User Auth., MongoDB, MySQL, Java, and more." They're also offering career assistance, meetings with employers, and that students will build a robust portfolio with full-stack applications.
The cost is $10,000 in installments over the 12 weeks or you can get a $1,000 discount if you pay upfront.
As for the application process, it was relatively simple. I input my email to receive information, then got a call a few days later. I was told essentially all the information I've mentioned above, then that if I was interested, they would schedule a phone interview after I filled out an application form online and took a short test on basic programming and logic. They assured me you did not need to know much any programming at all for the test. It was mostly basic math like unit conversions and solving simple equations as well as some logic questions and then a few about html. I passed it easily. A couple days later I do the interview and am asked about my intentions with the program (to get a job as a web developer), what my schedule during the program will be like (totally available), and things of this nature. They were clearly looking for people who were going to take the program very seriously, and thankfully I was able to sell that easily because it's true.
Upon completing this interview there was a second one, scheduled for the next day. In this interview, I was asked questions to "see how I think", they said. I can't remember the exact details, but he first asked something like how I would go about gathering and arranging books from a large library to make a kind of display for some purpose. I simply let my mind run wild and let him in on every logical consideration that came to me. He sounded impressed and just stopped me at some point. Then there was another question like that I think and that was it. Within ten minutes after hanging up, I got a call from the first guy I had spoken with, telling me I was accepted. Then he set me up to pay for the course, gave me someone else's name who is the "student services coordinator", and she set me up with the prework (which I have yet to finish! Crap! Gotta get on that!). I'll talk about what the prework entails next post! Adios Steemians!
*http://www.valuecolleges.com/rankings/top-coding-boot-camps/
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