Coding Bootcamps....

I don't think I had mentioned this in my blog, just at meetups, but my job plans to outsource our help desk within the next six months. So in order to speed up my learning to code, I decided to start investigating coding bootcamps again. I had looked into a few a while back but ultimately have two top contenders.

Northwestern Coding Bootcamp is in Chicago, IL (about an hour from me) and is the better priced option. The downside is they do not have Java, which I have a strong interest in. The bootcamp is $10,000 but you get $1000 off if you pay in full ahead of time. They have the backing of the university so it must be a good program, but the bootcamp is so new there are not many reviews online to find out more about it. Northwestern does have paid parking available for all except the Chicago campus day program. https://codingbootcamp.northwestern.edu/full-time

The Software Guild in Louisville, KY is $13,750 with a possible $2000 women in tech scholarship. They are working on renewing it for 2018 so it is not official yet. It is more expensive and it would require housing, but it is more in line with what I see myself doing in the future. They have really good reviews from previous students. With this bootcamp, if you take the Java course, you also get access to the .NET curriculum which is a plus. And they offer an online Android course if I decide to complete that in the future. https://www.thesoftwareguild.com/

I only applied to one other and was denied. The Recurse Center, which is in New York and has a very low acceptance rate about ~10%. The Recurse Center is free and they prefer people who already know how to code and just want to work on projects and improving their skills or learning a new language. However, some who are new to coding have been accepted.

I do want to mention that I investigated the majority of bootcamps in Chicago. I spoke to many alumni at the meetups I attended, read reviews, and still visit many of the campuses when they offer free courses. They all offer very similar front end and full stack programs, Most are higher priced between about $14-$18,000. There are many reasons I decided against most of these: the cost, no Java (when I attended the Chicago Coder Conference just about every booth was looking for Java developers plus I have a strong interest in learning it), poor or expensive transportation and parking, expensive temp housing in the area, and one had too easy lessons.  The instructors and course material seem similar. I did find it to be true that those with the more difficult acceptance rate tend to have better final projects and higher paying job placements advertised. I watched several final presentations and was impressed most by those from Full Stack Academy.

I am leaning towards The Software Guild for numerous reasons: going away from my family I can spend more uninterrupted time learning to code, they are a well established bootcamp having been open longer than most others, they are on the top of many lists of the best bootcamps, the instructors are all developers with many years of experience (not just former students), housing/parking are affordable, my already underlying interest in Java, and the entrance process is not too easy where anyone can get in.

I have been accepted to both Northwestern Bootcamp and The Software Guild both of which start in January and I will update my blog with more info about my decision in a future post.