UCLA Extension Boot Camps

The course material is very interesting and the way the class is structured is pretty good, it takes your hand with baby steps even if you have no background about coding or engineering. The instructor "Omar in my case" stressed about the concepts way more than the technology used which is very helpful as you can venture in any language you want on your own.

I would extend the period where we learned ES6 and React but either than that I think the course's pace was pretty good for me. I ended up with 2 Full-Stack web apps and a mobile app, which was a great experience.

I highly recommend the course if you want to learn something new and even take a new career route.

The UCLA Coding Bootcamp provides an in-depth introduction into all the lanuages and tools you will need to pursue web development. If you are someone who needs to hear information, interact with educators and have structure to jump start your learning I highly recommend this course. Please note that the course is very classroom, homework and project based (no testing). This is beneficial because it will prepare you for the inevitable collaborative, team-intensive professional environment and project management tools (GitHub), however, I recommend testing yourself or asking the TAs and instructors to challenge you to ensure you retain information and develop proper thinking. I personally appreicate testing for the different type of feedback it provides; I learn where I am competent and where I need to study more. I would have liked more testing.

Furthermore, there is an incredible career support team that will help you develop all the skills and materials you need not only while you're in the course but until you land a job afterward! This is an invaluable resource as landing a job requires different skills than just technical! The "Milestones" are more like check-ins and provide just enough feedback. If you need more personalized attention and assistance definitely schedule and build a rapport with your career coach. To supplement the career services, there are online workshops for behavioral interviews, talks with industry professionals, how to write a technical resume, negotiating salary, etc.. 

Like with anything, the more you put into the course, the more you will get out of it! Be ready for class. Get sleep and eat well. Utilize office hours and career and tutoring services. Practice logic on Code Signal or Code Wars (highly recommended). You will set yourself up for success. And remember to rest, not quit.

The class was great. There were times where I felt the class was moving way too fast - but for the most part it moved at a steady enough pace. I learned quickly not to dwell on a topic for too long if I wasn't fully grasping it to avoid falling behind on new/current topics.

One negative thing I felt is that some students tended to hog TA Help time and/or questions/answers during class which made it difficult to get a word in sometimes. Also some of the conversations between students in class before/after class started seemed a little inappropriate at times - maybe set better 

Would recommend the program. Easy to get to in Westwood, CA. Right next to the beautiful UCLA campus. Plenty of parking. Clark will no longer be teaching the class but I have confidence his replacement will be great.

Prior to choosing a program, I researched a number of options. What gravitated me towards choosing this one was both the price point, as well as the content of the curriculum. For a much lower price compared to other bootcamps, in this course you learn tools and technologies both for front-end as well as back-end development. Not only that, although the full-time course is much more rigorous and you have less time to digest the material, working through solving problems with others and making connections in class was invaluable.

I am happy and grateful to have been part of a class full of students eager to learn and work together. Our instructor, Clark, was an incredibly valuable resource and skilled lecturer. Having two TA's in the class was very effective in getting extra help both inside and outside of class. Despite the fast-paced nature of the course, the material was covered in such a way that was clear and to the point. I found that the structure of the class (lecture/activities/homework/projects) was effective in being able to learn a large amount of material in a short period.

It is important to note that there is no magical course or book that will make one a skilled developer. It takes hundreds of hours of practice. This course gave me the knowledge, tools, and skills I needed to be a developer, but beyond that, it is up to every student to take the initiative to continue to polish their skills. This course will give you just that --- the skills and problem solving strategies needed to take a dive into being a developer in the field. Beyond the course, career services does a great job in guiding and encouraging you through your job search.

Looking back on my experience from the program, I got what I wanted and more. In hindsight, I'd definitely choose this course again.

I was a product manager at software start up with no technical background before starting this bootcamp. I researched many bootcamps and narrowed it down to this and General Assembly. I chose UCLA for 2 reasons: the curriculumn seemed more relevant and focused, and the price was considerable cheaper. I also took some online courses on Udemy before class startd which I would highly recommend you learn as much as you can beforehand.

The great: The class itself was great I really loved going to school everyday. I had Clark Nielsen as the instructor and he is really great at teaching, fun guy, and genuinely cares about you. The TA's were great as well, super willing to help and knowledgable. I will saw the limited contact I had with the part time teacher and TAs made it seem like they full time crew is MUCH better. 

The (minor) bad: Career Services has great intentions, but its very clear they are stretched too thin and are working with too many students at a time. They are NOT going to find you a job. However it is worth talking to your career counselor so they can point you in the right direction in terms of your resume and linkedin. I think somewhere like GA probably will help you more with finding a job, but really it comes down to your skills and how hard you hustle for yourself. I knew from reviews career services wasnt as good as GA going into it but I chose this bootcamp anyway.

The end result: Its been about 1 month since the bootcamp ended and I have received two job offers for developer roles at companies I really like. To be clear, that was from me applying to jobs on my own and actively networking and going to meet ups. I would highly recommend this bootcamp if you are serious about becoming a developer but be ready to work. Theres nothing magical that happens at bootcamp, you have to make it happen for yourself by learnin and networking, but this will provide you with the knowledge you need to be succesful.

I do not understand how this course has above 4.5 stars, this is definitely a money grab. Be very careful when picking a boot camp to attend, the teacher I had was let go after 3 months of work, and no explanation was given to the students. Our 2nd teacher was much better but 3 months of course work was lost. The coarse work is just repeated from the last sections of the courses, and the grades are irrelevant. The career help that they offer is lack luster and more of someone telling you how to apply to a job, and hopefully you are in the course they build the schedule around or most of the events will be going on during your class. I would highly recommend looking into other courses, the prework was pretty much useless as they continually did not use the technologies they had you download and work with during the class, or they would say that they hardly use these technologies in the real world. I understand tech moves at an unbelievable rate but I would have thought this course would keep pace but they dropped the ball time and time again. 

If you are still thinking about taking this course, just realize you can probably get this same exact material from Udacity, Udemy, Codeacadamy and it will probably be taught with better understanding of the material. 

Also, they market this coarse for working professionals, expect to take your career service calls on your lunch break or you will miss them, Overall this class has put a very bad taste in my mouth for UCLA who I would have held to a much higher standard, you also will have a hit or miss tutor that is assigned to you that is barely ahead of you in classes. The tutors are simply following along a structured plan rather than being able to teach it from their own knowledge if they are able to teach the material at all.

Once again I highly recommend researching other boot camps, but just know what you are getting yourself into if you do signup for this boot camp.

I came in with a background in Research, and I was considering a career shift into Software Development. This program was the best fit for me, given my circumstances. This program was fantastic, and I felt that at every level the instructors, TAs, and support staff were dedicated to our success. The challenges that I faced during the course were the sheer volume of information that was thrown at us. I had the great fortune to have a really great instructor, Omar Patel, who helped guide us through a lot of the very difficult topics.

While I found the course to be easy, I had some exposure to coding and software beforehand. However, I still found it very challenging because of the sheer volume of information that needed to be absorbed. Still, I don't think that there was any other way to learn this much information in this short of a time period. For prospective students, I would highly recommend making sure that you can dedicate the time necessary to succeed.

For career support, I'm currently still in the job search. However, I am encouraged after meeting with several industry insiders and career professionals who have offered me mentorship. They were very impressed with how much I had learned, and I think that that reflected very well on the course as a whole.

My biggest challenge during this course was being able to manage my time effectively. I worked full time while going to class, and I found time management very difficult. However, that was to be expected. Overall, I felt that this program was a very positive experience.

I recently graduated from the April 2017 - Oct 2017 Part Time Cohort. I have to say this was easily one of the best investments I've ever made for my career. Prior enrolling into the Coding Bootcamp at UCLA Extension I was researching many close competitors but UCLA was the best choice for several reasons: Cost, MERN Stack, Reputation, Part Time Options.

Upon enrolling in this bootcamp I had 2-3 months of coding experience under my belt and I have to say this program is extremely fast paced and intense. The rate of learning is unlike anything else I have experienced but it's the only way to make a serious career transition. Every week it's like climbing a new mountain as there is so much to learn and absorb. It requires full commitment inside and outside of the classroom to succeed.

What I enjoyed most about the program was the support from the instructional staff. We had a top notch instructor - Cameron Manavian who had 15 years experience in the field and several teaching assistants who were full time software engineers. No matter how difficult the class was - they were with us every step of the way and I don't think I would have been able to succeed without them.

In addition I saw myself grow as person and overcome enormous challenges while building strong relationships with classmates. It was a very positive learning environment and much different than your traditional college classroom. I fully endorse the Coding Bootcamp at UCLA Extension and believe it's a high quality program. Although I'm still in the job search process, I have returned to the program as a TA for the Nov 2017 cohort which I did not even think was possible for a fresh grad. 

If you are considering this program - I highly recommend it. My best piece of advice is to fully commit to the program while in it and trust the process which is not always enjoyable. This program teaches very in demand skills and it's worth your time. 

BTW - Alex Garret is a great student success manager if you get the chance to work with him. He will steer you in the right direction no matter what background you are coming from. 

The Coding Boot Camp experience at UCLA was an amazing experience where I made invaluable connections with both peers and professionals alike. I am known for being very wordy and rambling, so I'll try my best to keep myself concise. Just as a general background information about myself before the program, I'm a UCR graduate of 2015 with a Bachelors of Arts in English in Literature. I had zero experience in anything to do with programming before this experience, and now I'm employed with an established financial tech company in DTLA, and learning tons (DevOps, Full Stack Development, Automation, etc). 

Curriculum - Being a complete novice with all things web development, this curriculum turned me into a capable programmer qualified to get interviews and getting job offer(s). There was a wide range of students in this program, one was a professor in data science, some in the cohort had also taken other boot camp courses (General Assembly) and/or online degrees (i.e. Udacity), some with a Computer Science degree, and some who already had several years of experience in the tech industry as developers. I felt that for serving such a wide audience, the curriculum was capable of teaching people with no experience and those with experience equally well. If anyone seemed to fall behind, the instructor was willing to set aside time outside of their own regular office hours. 

One thing that one should consider is that the curriculum (even in a part-time program that's extended over 6-7 months), the topics are mainly taught to a point where you will have a good understanding. Mastery or even advanced skills comes from one's own work ethics, and drive to educate themselves on said topics further. One of the many reasons why I think part-time coding boot camp was such as wise decision is that it gave me time in between the lectures to truly absorb the material and study it, rather than cram it in a single day. 

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Instructors - I've had Omar as my instructor and it was with his successful style of teaching that I was able to absorb content so quickly, all the while being able to research and create more projects (I went into AR/VR games, a little bit into ML but never published to public repo since it was a pet project, and much more exciting projects). It was through his informative lecture and guidance, that I was able to absorb a great volume of content in a short amount of time. 

Another thing to consider is the fact that Omar took extra time outside of his work hours to help students, something that I think should be commended to the highest degree as it shows true passion and support for students' growth. Many instances of him launching Zoom meetings on Sundays or other days to review and go over any questions anyone had throughout the curriculum (from other schools across the country too). Stellar dedication and wisdom from years of experience in the field, what more can you ask for a mentor? 

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Job Assistance: This is the portion that I think many people have been pretty harsh on their reviews with. Without getting too specific, our program initially had another career counselor who was in charge of our UCLA cohort. They were engaged during the first week of the course, but as soon as the third week came around, they disappeared and communication was close to null. It was later announced that we would be getting another career counselor already in charge of a huge program at another school. 

Judging simply from the background story, anyone can guess that only means that this career counselor would be in charge of multiple cohorts, not just a single set like it was designed to be. So why did I give this program's Job Assistance score an amazing score of 5 stars? It's because the individual in charge of various cohorts including ours, Jenna Fuentes, did a stellar job even with double or even triple the amount of responsibilities she had compared to the norm. 

Much like the course (including the curriculum itself), you get what you put into the job search. Jenna set up a comprehensive session that seemed to target as wide of an audience in the graduate pool. I think it's a flawed to rate Job Assistance low based on job placement after graduation since the junior-dev job market is quite competitive with so many other boot camps producing developers, along with the typical pool of CS graduates and self-taught programmers. 


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To be perfectly real with those looking into getting any form of accelerated path into development, if you're in it to get a job as soon as possible. Just know that it's competitive and you need to put in the effort to get as much return on your time invested in this program. But like any other job market, if you have friends/familiy members in the industry, you will likely get an easy-way into the industry yourself via referral (from what I've noticed from majority of those that got employed fairly early). So definitely listen to your career counselor and instructor on networking as much as you can, or be prepared for the job hunt. Good luck to future aspiring developers joining this program, and just realize that taking a program like this will give you invaluable skills that you will likely benefit from even outside of a full stack development position.

The Good:

1. You will learn a lot. You will learn important skills. You need to be mentally prepared for this and adapt your work schedule to keep up accordingly. You will keep on learning after the course. However, you must be prepared accordingly. Watch JS tutorials. Read JS books. Finish the courses on code academy and if you want more preparation, get the highly reviewed $180 dollar courses on udemy when they’re on sale (hint: they’re always on sale for $10-$15).  

2. You will meet people in the same boat as you and at the end of the class they will be your future network. Each class has their own Slack channel for communication with each other. Don’t be afraid to message each other for help or support. You’re all there to learn and be better and more empathic developers.

3. The instructors and career service people are knowledgeable and nice. Really, I’ve never met a better group of people who wouldn’t go the extra mile for their students. Go to them for support in case of breakdowns, personal issues, etc., and they’ll understand. They’re all very nice people and you should get to know them on your journey.

4. Resources. You’ll receive many resources on what to learn, how to learn, what to put on your resume, how to structure your resume. The responsibility is going to be on you to go through these resources and study them, and take them seriously. You’ll be expected to do a lot of research on your own especially when it comes to creating your own projects.

The Bad:

1. If there’s something that I wish we did more of, that would be pair programming. I believe the programming is constantly evolving and they’re instituting it more in future programs, but I wish my cohort had done more pair programming challenges. Some people did not understand the importance of communication in programming, and I think many could have benefited from the lessons that pair programming can teach.

2. On that note, technical communication could have been emphasized more. We did do whiteboarding in classes, but more emphasis on technical jargon would be useful for future technical interviews at companies.

3. Certain topics on the curriculum were skipped over and I’d have appreciated them going over some SEO techniques. Some of them can be easily researched. 

4. More selectivity would probably be good for the program and the students. It seems like many students couldn’t hack the program and just disappeared. Some students also stuck with the program but seemed like they didn’t learn much from it from lack of trying. I believe they’re making the entrance more challenging, but they should really emphasize to prospective students that their hands aren’t going to be held the entire time and a lot of work would be required before the program even starts.

The Ugly:

1. Looking back at your code from the first two months and realizing that you have to refactor most of it to make it look presentable to other people.

TL;DR Learn to code, code all night, meet cool people, make friends, hang out in Westwood, get a new job, work hard, play hard, and keep learning.