Should You Try the UCF Coding Bootcamp?

Whether you're hoping to advance your career, learn new skills or jump into a new field altogether, bootcamp courses can be a great, cost effective option. The University of Central Florida (UCF), based out of Orlando, offers several boot camps focused on in-demand skills. Programs include data analytics, user experience (UX) design, coding, and digital marketing boot camps. These programs are offered through UCF Division of Continuing Education in partnership with Trilogy Education Services.

In this piece, we delve into UCF's Coding Boot Camp, which helps participants "become proficient" in both front-end and back-end programming. But is it the right course for you? Read on to make the decision for yourself. 

How does it work?

According to UCF's website, all of their bootcamps combine "an interactive virtual classroom experience with dynamic curricula taught by experienced instructors." Based on our research, UCF's Coding Boot Camp appears to be no different.

The UCF Coding Boot Camp is an online, immersive coding course that teaches participants a range in-demand skills and technologies needed for a job in web development. The online coding bootcamp simulates a professional work environment, requiring participants to do hands-on, collaborative work with their peers. During the program, participants work on immersive, real-world projects that they can use for job or GitHub portfolios.

Participants also receive access to a range of career services including resume support, technical interview preparation, portfolio reviews, coaching and more.

The UCF Coding Boot Camp offers two tracks: full-time (12 weeks) and part-time (24 weeks). The differences between each track can be found below: 

Full-time:

• 12-week program with live online sessions
• Instructor-led classes online Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
• Requires 20 hours of scheduled in-class time per week and 25+ outside of class on projects/assigned coursework 

Part-time:

• 24-week online program
• Blend of scheduled instructor-led online classes two days a week and self-paced content
• Requires 4 hours of scheduled in-class time per week and 20+ outside of class on projects/self-paced learning

What do you learn?

Taught by industry professionals and teaching assistants, the course follows "Industry-Driven Full-Stack Curriculum" which covers skills for both front-end and back-end programming. The UCF Coding Boot Camp works closely with employers to ensure instructors are teaching the most in-demand technologies including Javascript, Node.js, MySQL and React.js. On the UCF Coding Boot Camp website, the program declares that participants will emerge from the bootcamp with the coding skills needed to become a full-stack web developer.

The program's curriculum includes:

• Key data structures and algorithms
• Computer Science applied to the programming language JavaScript
• Databases (MySQL, MongoDB)
• Server Side Development (MERN Stack, Progressive Web Applications)
• Browser Based Technologies (HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, Bootstrap)
• Deployment/Command-Line Fundamentals (Heroku, Git)
  API Interaction (API, JSON, AJAX)
• Quality Assurance (Unit Testing, Linting, Continuous Integration)
• Supplemental Self-Study Topics (Python, Java, C#, Amazon Web Services)

Who is it for?

If you have little to no coding experience, no need to worry. UCF advertises that their coding program is built for "a wide range of individuals." Past participants range from college students to full-time working professionals. 

According to their website, the UCF Coding Boot Camp is geared toward three groups of people. Those interested in....

• Advancing their careers and learning coding skills to open up new opportunities
• Switching careers to become a professional web developer
• Learning web development to advance in their current roles 

The UCF Coding Boot Camp is available to people of all educational backgrounds and no experience in coding is necessary (although it is helpful). If you're completely new to coding, the program offers pre-course tutorials that will help prepare you for the bootcamp. For more experienced programmers, the bootcamp's curriculum may just come easier to you.

How do I enroll?

First, you'll have to fill out a contact form and select the program you're interested in to receive more information. From there, you'll interview with a program advisor who will discuss details about the program. After that, you'll fill out a short application and complete a multiple-choice critical thinking and problem-solving assessment. Don't worry though; no industry knowledge is required to complete the assessment.

Once you successfully are accepted into the program, you'll be asked to sign the enrollment agreement and pay a deposit. Once these steps are completed, you can begin officially enrolling in the bootcamp! 

What have people said about it?

There have been mixed reactions online from past participants. One Reddit user praised the bootcamp, calling it the "greatest decision" of their life. However, they did note that it's up to the participants of the bootcamp to put in the work if they want to get the most of the experience.

"It's basically a full time job between class and homework. You will go to class for 13 hours a week and you should spend about 20 hours a week on homework. If you can put in the time, code every day, you'll be successful. If you can't put that much time in, it's gonna be harder." 

Other positive reviews talk about the fast paced, challenging nature of the program, and how much instructors care about the progress of participants.

On the other hand, some reviewers have less positive things to say. According to one Reddit user, the program is not worth its $10,000 cost. Additionally, they mentioned that every participant in the program received the final certificate, regardless of how well they performed and how much effort they put into the course.

I did it. Don't do it. Definitely not worth that money. I might recommend it if it was significantly cheaper but the value of that program is trash. I came out doing kinda well as I had existing HTML/CSS knowledge but a good 50% of my class that had minimal to no knowledge really struggled and honestly ended the program pretty clueless. And there really isn't much of a standard of who receives the certificate. Everyone got one regardless of their progress, which makes it meaningless. They market the program as a foundational course and it's up to you to build upon that knowledge but that really shouldn't cost 10 grand.

Is it right for me?

Participating in the UCF Coding Bootcamp can be a great opportunity if you're looking to advance your career or pursue a new job in full-stack web development. However, if you decide to make the investment, be ready to put in the work and fully commit to the program. The bootcamp does not come cheap, but it's possible that the program could open many doors for you.

👉 Read Next: Create the perfect software engineer cover letter