The University of California in San Diego is one of the coolest campuses in the state. Campus culture is incredible, and the surrounding city is a blast to hang out in. San Diego fosters some of that old-school SoCal attitude, and the residents genuinely love their city. For those of you lucky enough to live in (or move to) California’s southernmost big city, there’s an excellent new career training opportunity waiting for you. UC San Diego Extension recently teamed up with Trilogy Education Services to start the UCSD Bootcamp. There are dozens of university coding bootcamps already in existence, and the effectiveness of the curriculum Trilogy uses in its courses is proven. Now, students and non-students in one of America’s finest cities get their own opportunity to break into tech or hone their programming skills. In this article, we’ll go over everything you need to know about UCSD’s excellent coding bootcamp, along with some links to help you through the process.
UCSD Extension Bootcamp Review
When it comes to coding bootcamps, few sites offer a better and more well-known platform than Course Report. This site is currently the premier source for direct student comments about these programs, and it can really shed some light on the quality of a course. The University of California San Diego’s coding bootcamp already has its own page, and the reviews paint an encouraging picture. This should come as no surprise, as Trilogy Education Services has a history of producing excellent results with students. As of August 2019, the UCSD Extension Bootcamp has an overall score of 4.76 out of 5 stars, which is excellent. Over two dozen students left detailed reviews about their experiences in the program. One student succinctly stated, “For me, and after six months only, I can confidently say ‘I am a full stack web developer,’ where I used to say, ‘I don’t know anything about web design.'” We think this brief review sums it up pretty well—and the other reviewers echo this sentiment.
UCSD Extension Bootcamp Instructors
What does it take to become an instructor at a Trilogy-backed coding bootcamp? The selection process isn’t easy to get through, as instructors must be both skilled at their trade and willing to teach. In most cases, coding bootcamp instructors are well-received, but there’s only one way to know for sure—time to check those Course Report reviews again. Unsurprisingly, the students at UCSD’s coding bootcamp rate their instructors highly. One student wrote, “My instructor prepared us with knowledge and best practices that will be relevant in our job hunt. The TAs are also very knowledgeable and willing to help when you get stuck (trust me, I got stuck a lot).” This student echoes the sentiment of the vast majority of UCSD’s coding graduates. The instructors at this program work hard and work with students to ensure everyone reaches their maximum potential. To sum it up, the same student wrote, “I believe that those who continue grinding out and working hard will succeed in this program.” We agree—and the evidence supports the quality of UCSD’s coding bootcamp.
UCSD Bootcamp Cost
Cost is always an important factor to consider when choosing a coding bootcamp. Generally speaking, most coding bootcamps cost between $8,000 and $20,000—a broad range, in which Trilogy programs often fall on the low-end of the spectrum. This program costs right around what other Trilogy programs cost, starting at $10,500 for the part-time, full stack ‘flex’ web development course. The part-time data science and cybersecurity courses cost $11,495, which is still well below average. The costliest of UC San Diego Extension Boot Camps is their full-time web development course, which costs $11,995. While these prices may seem intimidating, there’s no need to stress when you think about the value of the program. Additionally, plenty of excellent scholarships are available to students, so be sure to check them out. Career Karma also wrote an extensive article on coding bootcamp scholarships, many of which can save you hundreds (or even thousands) in tuition costs.
Schedule
Trilogy coding bootcamps typically follow a standard full- and part-time schedule. UCSD Extension Bootcamp is no exception, and the hours are exceedingly reasonable. This coding bootcamp’s part-time program runs for just 24 weeks, and students attend evening classes during the week. Weeknight classes last from 6:30 to 9:30, twice a week, and the Saturday classes run from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM.
The full-time course lasts only 12 weeks, with classes Monday through Friday from 9:30 AM to 2:00 PM. In this time, students will receive extensive coding and technical education—so it’s vital not to miss any classes. If you want to get the most out of the program, attend every class you can and prepare before even showing up to the program.
But students aren’t finished when they leave for the day—you should expect an extra take-home workload that can require hours to complete. Each student will vary, but you should set aside some significant time for homework.
Curriculum
The curriculum at the University of California San Diego’s coding bootcamp is intense and requires your utmost attention to complete. Despite the technically dense nature of the work, it’s not impossible to succeed—in fact, many students with absolutely no coding background are enormously successful in the program, simply from motivation and excellent study habits. The full stack web development course teaches the basics, such as HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. In addition to these fundamentals, students also learn React.js, jQuery, Node.js, Heroku, Git, Responsive Design, along with User Authentication, MySQL, MongoDB, and others. As you can see, that’s quite a heavy load. UCSD’s data science course is a little less code-heavy, but students still learn the fundamentals of Excel, Python, JavaScript, SQL Databases, and Tableau.
UCSD Extension Bootcamp on Reddit
Oh, Reddit—what better online forum is there to find an honest review about a coding bootcamp? That question was rhetorical of course, but there are still several reasons why somebody would want to check Reddit before applying to a coding bootcamp. The site offers insight into how people really think and gives people a platform to share their post-graduation experiences out in the workforce. While there isn’t much information about UCSD’s coding bootcamp on Reddit, we did find a very interesting comment on this thread about the subject. A Redditor writes, “The big takeaway for me was I learned how to learn code. I just graduated last month, and my last day of my internship is tomorrow. I haven’t really [started] applying too heavily yet, but I have landed a few interviews that are coming up this week and next. One of my classmates has already landed a full-time job.” Overall, the sentiment seems optimistic. Redditors have strong opinions about coding bootcamps, and they’re free to say whatever they want—so remember to take the good (and the not so good) with a grain of salt.
Job Placement
Trilogy coding bootcamps don’t publish job placement statistics. It’s difficult to determine how well every bootcamp’s specific graduates do because individuals all act differently and succeed at varying levels. Although we can’t provide an exact number, we can look at some of the reviews online. One student on Course Report details how UCSD bootcamp helped them land a job. They wrote, “Since the program’s parent company operates nationwide, it’s easy to get the educational support you need at a time that suits you; you get both the benefit of a tested and up-to-date curriculum of a MOOC, as well as the region-specificity of a local bootcamp. This is crucial in helping land your first job nearby to gain experience.” Most students who mention their job directly attribute their success to the coding bootcamp. Also, it’s worth noting that most coding bootcamps (that advertise job placement statistics) claim between 70% and 90% of students land a job after graduation. Overall, it looks very promising.
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