University of Richmond Boot Camps

I became interested in coding during my time as a music composition major taking computer music classes at UVA, and my interest expanded as my post-college career path lead me to software project managment and basic web production positions. I soon realized that despite my complete and utter lack of belief in my ability to do anything remotely math and science-related, I might actually have a knack for tech. I decided to go with my gut and take the plunge into a tech career by enrolling in the University of Richmond Coding Bootcamp, and I am quite honestly astounded by how much I've learned within the past 6 months. The course is JavaScript-focused and moves incredibly quickly. 3x/weekly classes and challenging homework assignments take a toll in terms of mental stress and limited self-care time, especially if you maintain a full-time job as I have done, but the experience is 100% worth it. The teachers and TAs genuinely care about your success and have been endlessly helpful in catalyzing the various coding epiphanies that have occurred in my brain throughout the course, and will hopefully continue to occur during my growth as a developer. In addition to being well-equipped to begin a lifelong career in software development, I finally feel that I am in a place to earn "what I'm worth" and to have fun doing it (as a young woman in 2018 with a degree in music composition, salary negotiation has not been much of an option in the past). Even if you have doubts in your abilities, this program will push you to succeed beyond your expectations.     

When I started the Bootcamp I was nervous about the amount of work that we were going to be covering in that short of a time, but I quickly realized how easy Trilogy makes it to maintain your workflow. The instructors and TAs are very knowledgeable and helpful. Before I started the Bootcamp, I thought I was a pro at CSS and HTML. Little did I know that my skills were just a scratch on the surface. The class moves fast but if you put in the time, you will definitely be ahead of the game. I came into this program knowing very little but I can gladly call myself a full stack developer. The career service is also very helpful. 

I came in to this course not knowing much about coding and I am leaving a very capable full stack developer. It is amazing how much we have been taught in such a short amount of time. Like other have said here though, you will only get as much out of the class how much you out into it. Plan on spending around twenty hours a week outside of class working on assignments and reviewing what was taught in class. If you are not willing to do this you will probably struggle. They offer many resource to you including help during office hours, tutoring sessions, and supplemental videos on course work. My experience with the instructors an TAs has been great. Everyone is willing to help and wants to see you succeed. In addition, the comrodary amongst students has been invaluable. I have already been offered free lance JavaScript work. It is definitely worth the investment in yourself and your future 

If you want to change your life, your earning potential, make valuable connections and learn not only full stack web development, but core things about yourself, I highly recommend spending the time and money on this course. It will be challenging, frustrating, but very rewarding and those "aha" moments are so worth it when they happen.

If I could do it over again, I would not have worked full-time while taking the course. I was prepared for the time commitment it was going to take. I had cleared the decks, told everyone I knew that I was going to be unavailable for those six months, but life happens and can throw you some curve balls. You need to really want it, be very self-disciplined and focused. Know that it is not just a three nights a week commitment. The pace is what they tell you, fast and intense. Not only will you be practicing your new skills in class, you also need to spend quality time reviewing, watching instructional videos, tutoring sessions (as needed) and exploring all the different ways one problem can be solved. Practice, practice, practice. And that takes time.

You will be well supported by instructors, student success managers, teaching assistants, career services, tutors and fellow students. They have all been quick to respond and very knowledgeable in their fields.

This program has offered me freedom and options. Not just a job, but a fulfilling career with unlimited growth potential. It really has been the best decision I ever made and I know you will feel the same way too.

This course will challenge you and will make you a well rounded web developer. Upon completing this bootcamp, you will be amazed at what you have accomplished and will have a portfolio filled with professional level applications. Please note: You will have to spend the recommended 20 hours outside of the classroom (at the very least).

I had little experience in coding and found the pre-work challenging, all the while wondering if I could even complete this course.  The course is designed like building blocks and begins with HTML and CSS. Each week an additional skill is added and I found my self confidence growing when I realized I could not only complete the course, I could excel at it.

This course requires you to dig deep and oftentimes you will feel like you don’t have what it takes.  The instructors do a great job of reassuring you that this is part of the process and I always felt like I had their support and they were always available for extra help if I needed it. 

Without hesitation, I fully recommend this course to anyone who wants to begin a new career path (oh yeah, they help write your resume and help you search for a job too)!  

Wether you have years of experience or none at all.  This course will help to open your mind to a different way of thinking.  At times, It will be challenging and stressful, but luckily there are several outlets for support.  From day one you are introduced to your Student Success Manager, who is really there every step of the way to help guide you through the program.  The instructors and TA’s are great and easily reached to help out with any problems you may encounter.  Even though you will spend a lot of time in frustration...  The satisfaction of figuring it out will become addictive!  You will learn that there are multiple ways to work out any problem.  You will be not only learn coding.  You will learn things about yourself and what your really capable of.  I’d recommend this course to everyone!

This program was an amazing experience. I have no Computer Science background and all this is a compete career change for me. All program I was just driven by my love to creativity and constant challenges. If you are like me, then Coding Boot Camp is for you.

The Boot Camp Team will always be there to support and help you. You should understand though, that this is a fast-paced program. Being new to coding, I had to leave my full-time job, and stay part-time, to succeed in studying. But it was totally worth it.
To get a help from Career Service, all you need is to keep up with curriculum and do Career Service homework on your best. You will get many great advices how to become career ready and get a nice job.

I entered the program with no background knowledge in coding, now I am capable of building web applications at professional level. And, moreove, we were trained how to learn independently and not to be scared of jumping into totally new technologies. This will be extra useful after graduation, so we can continuously expand our skills in tech field.

Before starting this course, I was certain I wanted to be a web developer. I wanted to build apps, utilize data from various sources, create my own databases for user-created information, etc. I had experience from building wordpress sites and other template/hosting platforms, as well as a couple codecademy modules under my belt - enough to know there was a lot I did not know. If I was going to be able to build all of the things I was interested in, I would need a help piecing together the thousands of different resources online. A friend had done a bootcamp before and raved about the experience, so after reviewing UR's curriculum and seeing it matched up with what most job descriptions were calling for, I signed up.

Almost 5 months later, and I'm very pleased with my decision. It is a ton of work. You are frustrated or confused in class most of the time. You will feel lost for days/weeks at a time. The curriculum starts with the basics then adds layer upon layer until you are using current tecnologies, libraries, methods and conventions. The course is a simulation of roughly the past 5 years of Javascript, and the tech surrounding it, compressed to 5 months. I am constantly revisiting old classroom exercises because of the sheer volume of information presented is difficult to fully absorb in one pass. However, the instructors and TAs are well versed in the material and eager to help. You might feel lost, but you aren't alone in the wilderness. Our instructor has been in the field for 20 years and frequently talks about how each piece of the coursework translates to what you do in the real world.

The job assistance is a non-factor for most of the course. To date, their focus is mostly on helping you with your resume and online profiles, as well as some interview tips. There doesn't appear to be any process in place to help you generate leads. That being said, as I have looked at job postings and had questions about the descriptions/titles/companies/etc., the career services team is very responsive. There is a lot of great insight from them, but you have to ask for it. 

Sign up if you:

• are 100% positive you want to be a Javascript-based developer. The time and financial commitments are too large for this to be a trial run.
• have tried codecademy or freecodecamp or some other online tutorials, and you enjoy coding, but still can't grasp the big picture. The instructor/TA team pieces this together for you and they are worth their weight in gold.
• can self-teach when you are tired. The classes are at night and you'll be doing your homework in the margins of the day.
• can work in groups. The instructors, TAs, the person sitting next to you, your project group - you will be sharing a lot of time with these people.
• are a glutton for punishment that likes hard work. And lots of it.

Do NOT sign up if you:

• are looking for a line item on your resume that will "get you a job."
• heard web developers make a lot of money and think you'll have that handed to you.
• have to understand everything before you leave class for the day.
• don't like Javascript.
• don't want to do the leg work in your job search.

This is a fantastic course, and an amazing opportunity, especially for those that are already working full time and looking for a career change.

I had already developed a static webpage, learning html, css and javascript through an online platform, and that piqued my interest in development. Through this course, I've learned so much more than I ever could through an online module, not just beyond the languages I was already (somewhat) familiar with, but also so much on what I thought I knew enough about.

My career has been in education, teaching Chemistry and Language Arts, before moving to a non-teaching ed-related role at a nearby high school. I am incredibly busy, working full-time, coaching wrestling and volunteering on a board of a charter school. Given my tough schedule, this surely hasn't been easy. At the same token, UR Coding Bootcamp, and our Student Success manager, have been very flexible and accomodating when it came to scheduling conflicts, allowing me to still learn the course work and not fall behind when things came up.

Of course, I've also put in a ton of hours outside of classtime working on homework or practicing actviities to hone my skills and gain a better understading of the material. The instructing team is top notch as well. They are very knowledgeable, but also real and incredibly accessible. They take the time to explain technologies thouroughly and how they've changed in recent years to paint a clearer picture for us. It's not easy, and we should expect to make mistakes, but that's how learning is done.

The Career Services Component is the least integrated aspect of the experience, though, they will help you understand interview processes, give feedback on resumes and online presence etc. I know the job hunt will fall on each of our own shoulders and we should expect to dedicate the hours for that as well.
 

I knew nothing about software development when I started this course. The prework even seemed mindboggling, even though it was psuedo-code and basic html, css, and javascript. My husband (a senior software engineer) would explain basic concepts in laymen's terms just so I would know what projects he was working on. 

Then, I met Mike, Brett, and Seth. This Teaching and TA team is amazing. Mike is self-taught and an amazing teacher. He knows where we've been and consistently improves on his instruction so we can learn the concepts in different ways. Brett went through a different program; he understands some of the frustrations that can come with learning at this pace. Seth is a 20 year-old wunderkind who knows literally everything.  

This team, and all the others at U of R, work to ease the stress of learning this quickly. I went from not knowing what an anchor tag was to designing and deploying my first group-created app within 8 weeks, and it was good. I've learned front- and back-end development, and although some camps start with React or something some might say is a little more relevant to the job market, the steps in the curriculum are built to create a foundation of understanding.

I had my first interview yesterday. It was a mock interview, though I had every right to be nervous. I was a schoolteacher for 6 years, and technical interviews are a whole new skillset to master. However, because of what Mike has taught me, and because of the curriculum, I was able to talk through all three problems I was given and write code reflective of my learning. Moreover, I got plenty of "style-" and "knowledge points" for adding in flourishes to my code that simplified it or circumnavigated potential issues. I couldn't have done this six months ago, and I feel confident that upon graduation, I will have a job.
 

I've got the skills. I have the portfolio. I've got the confidence. Now, I just need to network with the right recruiters. Thanks to this bootcamp, I will soon have a better job with better pay and benefits, and I can rest easy knowing that this investment was worth it. 

Pre-work is too easy and does not reflect actual coursework accurately. I strongly recommend a revision to the prework to better prepare future students.

The material is very challenging for non-coders to handle when dialogue is not a priority. The lexicon used in this environment must be included in the prework.

I place strong emphasis on speaking code because as a job seeker I have experienced less "whiteboard" interviews and more technical conversations as a means of assessing my abilities. 

It would be most helpful if career services would include technical discussions/interviews rather than spending too much time on resume composition.

I recommend having a comprehensive network of successful participants who converted into the field a means of sharing best practices, advice on snagging the first job, and ways to share meaningful projects as students are preparing for the job hunt.

If someone has the interest, aptitude, and perseverence to learn coding & web development, then without a doubt I would strongly recommend this course to him/her.  There are dedicated instructors willing to give 1 on 1 help during class and solve issues outside class time as well. The group projects allowed me to learn so much from other students. On homework and projects, the instructors provided helpful feedback and tips for improvement. So these 3 things are the biggest advantages over taking an online course.

When I started this boot camp, I only knew a little HTML barely. This course was in-depth. It was 24 weeks long with about 10 hours in class each week. (Well worth the money if you take advantage of everything.) By the time it finished, many students including me, were making professional-quality web apps.

The great thing about the curriculum is that it gives enough practice with the fundamentals before building on it. But there is room for improvement. I think there should be more teaching about networks, IP, XHR, REST and high-level architecture. But it may be difficult to fit in all that content. So far, career services were okay, but I am waiting to see if they help get me those interviews & job offers.

My job prospects are looking much better after taking this course. Since graduating from college, I had spent months trying to get in contact with good companies. Now, they are contacting me. I've got my first job offer (software engineer) less than a week after graduating from this.