Student Testimonials & Reviews

I chose to attend this program to further my career in Project Management. I knew that I wanted to become a technical project manager; however, to get into that track, web development experience/knowledge is needed. I was part of the initial group to do the boot camp entirely online through the University of Central Florida. The program was extremely challenging. At the risk of sounding very vain, I would consider myself an intelligent, fast learner, but I still spent at least 20 hours each week on homework on top of my regular 40hr/wk job. I would not recommend this program to anyone who isn’t good at self-motivating because it’s a LOT of work. That said, my mentor (Ed Orsini) was incredible and kept me motivated and interested throughout the program. The group project was also a challenge because classmates were in different cities and had different schedules, so it was hard to find times to collaborate, but our team leader (Juan Lavieri) did a great job keeping us on track and moving. Career Services was the last aspect of the program. My career services mentor (Alisha Patterson) was wonderful. We met bi-weekly when possible after I completed the program to discuss job searching, applying, and interviewing. She helped me so much to land my new job. Ultimately, this program was well worth the money, time, effort, and stress. I was able to more than double my salary and get a job in my goal industry.

I had a great experience. Roger was a fantastic teacher. I worked really hard. I stuck to the minimum of 20 hours a week of [additional] work on the assignments. I completed every homework activity and never received less than an A. I enjoyed … this program and I am really looking forward to my new career.

My previous job dabbled lightly in tech, and I discovered I really liked that aspect of the job. I was thinking about making a career change to something that was more clearly employable and would earn more money. I had always been intrigued by boot camps when I heard about them, so I started looking into them. I had a friend who took a Trilogy course at George Washington and highly recommended it, so I decided to quit my job and do the full-time course to focus as much as I could on learning. I knew I could try to learn on my own, but I wanted the structure, guidance and overview that the boot camp could provide. The course was excellent, as were the instructor and TAs. John Dinsmore did a great job of not only teaching the material well but continually encouraging us to work hard and keep going. I made a decision early in the class to just trust that John knew what he was talking about and work as hard as I could. It paid off. I’m really looking forward to starting in this new industry and seeing where it takes me. I was honestly surprised [at] the salary and benefits for the job offer I accepted after leaving the class.

The bootcamp has forever changed my life. I’ve wanted to do web development since my freshman [year] of high school. I knew I had the skill to do it, but didn’t know which direction to go. The bootcamp offers a clear path that helped me flourish my skills and make me ready to get into web development field.

My experience in the boot camp was wonderful. I loved learning web development and had a wonderful instructor. It really challenged me and made me realize that coding was something I wanted to do with my life, instead of something I was interested in the concept of. It had changed my life because it has changed my career and career path. I am sure the transition to a new career over 30 will be a little rough, but I’m looking forward to the new challenges.

I chose to attend because I [needed] a change and I didn’t want to go to college again. [I] needed something that could get me a higher paying job in a shorter amount of time. Without this bootcamp I wouldn’t have a career.

My experience in the boot camp was a very good one. The reasons I chose to attend were mainly focused on how unhappy I was with where I was at in life. I have always struggled with direction unless there is something I am passionate about. I enrolled in the part-time boot camp with absolutely zero understanding of web development or any type of coding. The two most important things that the boot camp did for me was to help me discover a passion for coding and force me to learn new and difficult things that I don’t know I would have been able to get through on my own. That is why I would recommend taking this boot camp to others.

I had a great time throughout the program. I started off as a self-taught independent Game Developer, so I have programmed for 5-6 years before attending the camp. I tried applying for a couple of jobs as a software engineer, but I knew it’d be nearly impossible since I didn’t have a degree nor did I know how to display my acquired skills. I ended up stumbling upon UCF Coding Bootcamp and thought it’d be a great opportunity to attach a university to my name, while being able to experience what it’s like coding professionally. I learned a lot more than I expected, met a lot of interesting people, and gained a better understanding of how to get myself out on the market. Graduating from the bootcamp has opened the gates for me, giving me the chance to grab many opportunities that I never came close to having before.

The Bootcamp helped me take the next step into a new career that I believed was unreachable for me at this point of my life. It helped me gain the confidence I had back in my college days that I could indeed still code.

I loved the program! The instructor and TAs were wonderful. It was very fast paced and some weeks were better than others but overall I learned so much and I am very happy that I decided to go through the program.

Amazing program with a great curriculum. The instructor and TAs were really geared towards seeing all of us succeed and get the most out of the boot camp. The career services team also was great assistance after as well. Deanna P. checked in with me often to make sure I was on track toward finding a new job. Thank you to everyone who was a part of this journey!

I chose to attend as a last hope to gain a meaningful career without having to go back to school for a long time again. The program exceeded my expectations and has completely changed my life. I feel fulfilled in my career and I’m making enough money to start a new and exciting life.

I chose to attend due to lack of passion in my current job as a dental hygienist. Through web development I’ve been able to harness my creativity and continue to learn new techniques/skills that my past dead-end job was not able to provide me with. The program went very well for me as I prepared tremendously beforehand by learning basic HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The program allowed me to learn the most in-demand skills quickly in a structured fashion all while having a great support system via teachers and career services. It has impacted my life by allowing me to change my career and landing a paid internship that will grow to full time in three months in a field that I am passionate about.

The bootcamp was an amazing experience, it really helped to learn the fundamentals of what it takes to learn different languages and how to go out on your own and keep learning afterwards. Having a great cohort was a huge part in the success of this bootcamp. Having like minded people around you just helps push you to see it through, and most importantly starts the networking everyone needs to succeed.

My experience with the program was very positive. It was very hard but I never quit and just kept pushing forward. The hard work paid off in the end with my new role as a Software Engineer.

When I started UCF Coding Bootcamp I was very scared of not being capable enough to complete the program. I’ve never attended a single class in the United States since I moved from my original country but one morning I took the decision and I am so happy I did so because it changed my life. Not even a month later I already felt comfortable but very challenged, I found out the Bootcamp has an excellent structure that covers the most used technologies in the market and innumerable support. I met so many knowledgeable professionals, people with the same hobbies as me that also shared my passion for coding and technology. Graydon Scates is one of the smartest, kindest and most patient teachers I’ve ever had. My best advice will be: [match] your mindset to your goals and don’t let anything distract you, use all the resources the Bootcamp offers, attend Virtual talks, use Career Service, use your time with the TAs, get ready for interviews ASAP because they will come, work on your network (probably the most important thing to land in your first job) and of course, never stop practicing and learning. Good luck to all of you. Thank you UCF Coding Bootcamp!

I’ve been feeling stagnant at my current job for a while so I started looking to increase my educational background in hopes to increase my income. So far this has had a massive impact on my life.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the program, fellow students, and the staff of the program. I chose to attend the boot camp because it was directly related to my daily duties and included technologies I have been interested in for some time like the python language. This program has given me new knowledge and skills I can use in my duties as a Data Analyst and in my business and freelance projects I develop.

It has helped me get the certification I needed to pursue other career goals. I’m a private person and even my military service was secret level. I was able to gain experience in public speaking and presentations, expand networking, and learn new skills that I never had access to. In addition, I have friends in other cities who are now interested in taking a Data Analytics or Web Development boot camp [course] that suit their busy lifestyles. It saves time from going to conventional college or graduate classes, while allowing the hands on experience to learn necessary tools to succeed in a job transition (applies more so to me). Technology fields have been in demand, even in the medical field from my precious occupation. A lot more opportunities have opened up for me career wise, and I can incorporate what I learned to begin a new career path that is much more fulfilling at this moment in my life.

The Bootcamp gave me what I was missing in my career, structure and focus. I was able to tie loose ends when it comes to putting the big picture together. I have a better understanding of what I know and what I do not know and the gaps I need to fill.

I chose to attend the boot camp to give me a jumpstart into a new career in tech. It certainly did that job! It was a whirlwind experience, and there were times I wasn’t sure if I was cut out for the class, but I stuck with it and my perseverance and patience paid off big time. I now have the skills to continue learning coding technologies in and outside of work. I’m confident that I can continue learning and advancing my skills so that I am marketable in any developer market in the country.

I still struggle with impostor syndrome sometimes, but it sounds like that’s the norm for anyone in the developer field. I’m proud that I completed the program and I miss attending class with my cohort! They were a really fantastic group of instructors and students.

Ever since I was in my undergraduate years, I have always been curious of creatives and how they are able to design based on their personal inspirations. In school I met individuals who were well-versed in Adobe programs like Premiere Pro, Photoshop, and Illustrator. I did not know anyone knowledgeable in HTML or CSS. On top of the acknowledgement from the lack of programming skills among my network and the growing demand for professionals with some sort of basic programming knowledge, I started to teach myself through different sites like Lynda.com and FreeCodeCamp.com.

That did not last long for me, because JavaScript left me completely intimidated and confused. I knew that I needed a classroom environment to truly progress in my mission of learning how to code. Between the different 8-week, 12-week, 2-week, and 4-week front-end and back-end developer programs in South Florida, I thought that investing in a 24-week coding bootcamp with University of Central Florida to get a better understanding of all the languages, theories, and concepts was the best idea. Here are some quick remarks about my overall experience while working 40 hours a week at an advertising agency.

Sacrifice

Put away your Netflix series and lessen your Facebook check-ups, because your free time will be spent studying JavaScript, reviewing what jQuery “event handlers” are, and figuring out why your Webpack is not running correctly. You need to understand that you are training to be part of a whole new industry and it is not easy. You are joining a community of people with a skill, in our modern era, that has a very high demand! I am not saying you are not allowed to take a break, but the moment you fall behind is the instant that your boot camp experience will double in difficulty.

No Dumb Questions

The terminology was always so confusing and you will be surrounded by people who are going to be catching on to languages in different speeds. There were many times where I was confused and I did not even know how to ask the question! Even if you cannot word your question to make sense, ask it to the best of your abilities. Your teacher and fellow assistances are there to help you and acknowledge your confusion and they accept that you are a novice. Take advantage of their minds. Use them as your training wheels as you chip away at a new programming language.

Persevere and Patience

Just get through the classes. Do not get frustrated. The most overused phrase that echoes through my mind is “Get it to work first, then do it correctly.” Do not worry about perfecting every single project during your time in the bootcamp. Understand the purpose of a language, grasp the syntax, take note on concepts that you want to research later, and connect it to how it fits in with the other languages you have learned and will learn. Endure and resist the impatience and frustration. You can do it! Just get it done!

Stay Curious

Some weeks will be easy and others will be difficult, but do not forget why you started to code! Whether it is for a career switch, adding to your skill set, or pure curiosity, never stop being curious. The tech industry is constantly changing and there are so many avenues you can take to solve a problem. You want to be part of the conversation that will decide between using MySQL or MongoDB, Bootstrap or Materialize, Angular JS or React JS. There are even less familiar frameworks that you may prefer! I swear there is an NPM package for just about almost every error I have faced. Just read through coding documentation with a calm mind and you will be alright!

Going through a coding boot camp was one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever been through. It was definitely also the hardest, but I would do it again! I got to meet amazing people with different backgrounds and cultures with the same mission of being Fullstack Developers. I can confidently say that we will all be successful with our new skills. As for my own personal future with programming skills, I plan to explore Angular JS further or maybe React Native? I have a couple ideas in mind!

I knew that my skills needed sharping and the best way to do that was to do a boot camp. I was thrilled to find out that my alma mater offered one. It was hard but worth it. I learned skills that I knew needed work on and information about current needs in the field. I do not think I would have been able to be in the position I am now without the help provided.

I had always wanted to learn more about tech and find a career in the industry. When my girlfriend was due to have a baby, I decided that now was the time to get started in changing my career. This boot camp was the perfect solution to quickly learn and get into the field.

I have learned a lot from the program and continue to learn after it. The new job that I will be starting due to this program will be just the beginning of my new career. I believe I will be able to spend more time with my newborn baby and my family.

I started the UCF Coding Boot Camp with little to no prior coding experience. The application process is a little intimidating. It’s not just “you can pay, you’re in.” You have to go through a phone interview where they assess your cognitive skills. You also take an assessment online.

Each class has 30 students with 1 teacher and 2 TAs. You meet two days a week (either Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday) and you also have a Saturday morning class in which you join another 30 student class. Since you are spending 3 days a week with your classmates, you very quickly become family.

The Boot Camp encourages tight knit relationships – providing your class with a Slack channel, requiring two group projects, and giving you some of the coolest TAs to bounce ideas off of and receive feedback from.

As far as the teachers go, each teacher has their own teaching style, with everyone following the same lesson plan, class activities, and homework assignments. Whats awesome about the boot camp is they film the classes from both Mon/Wed and Tu/Th, so if you find you aren’t understanding something, you can easily watch the same lesson again, taught by a different person.

Overall, other than coding – the Boot Camp emphasizes the lifestyle of a coder. We got to take field trips to technology companies and see what their day to day was like. Most Saturdays we had guest speakers – most of them being influential people in the Orlando Tech Industry, who might potentially be future employers. We were encouraged to go to MeetUps, do Google Hangouts, and put ourselves into the job market.

As far as finding a job, the Boot Camp helps you with your resume, LinkedIn profile, GitHub Repo, and portfolio. As a part of your graduation, they host a Demo Day, where you show off a final project of your choice to potential employers.

Upon finishing, they help get you job interviews with their employer partners, in exchange for applying to at least 10 jobs a week. Before I graduated, I was already offered 2 freelance positions, and look forward to seeing where the future takes me!

If you are considering a Full Stack Web Development course, and want to be surrounded by serious, like-minded people who care about your goals and career path, definitely do this boot camp!

I was 25 already in a dead end job doing something I did not care about. I wanted a change and have always been very into the idea of programming as a profession and have tried to teach myself it countless times in the past. This Bootcamp came at the right time in my life. With them having multiple locations and times, it made it easy to find one that fit my schedule. Once I was in I was hooked. Both the professors I dealt with on a weekly basis, Dan and Bob, were better than I would have ever hoped for. They truly have a passion not only for programming, but sharing their knowledge with others.

Now it being called a Boot Camp made me prepare for the worst. Even though we met 3 times a week, there is enough work to keep you busy day and night for the whole week, and made it fit the Boot Camp name.

There is an extensive amount of support for learning the challenging topics they cover in the short amount of 6 months. There were a total of 4 TAs, 2 professors, 2 administrative helpers (to answer any job/career, financial questions you had) all of them available just about 24/7. Always online to chat, and each Friday they would have an open Google Hangout for about 2 hours, even if no one showed up, just to be available to dive into your code and help you debug any issues you are having.

The languages that were taught are the languages that I now see day to day working in the industry, They even made changes in what languages to teach as they saw the interest of the class shift. No one wanted to learn Java in my class, so they switched it out with more PHP or Angular if we wanted to learn that. All tools we used to communicate and submit our work are the tools used in the industry today to communicate and share work.

Now this class only walks you through the first few languages (HTML, CSS, and some JavaScript) and after that they really push you to learn how to research and find resources on your own. But if you ever get stuck they were more than happy to take all the time you need to help you get through it.

When I left that class I not only got a great understanding of the main languages used today, but also coding basics that help me adapt and figure out other languages on my own. I have an extensive portfolio, and very detailed and connected LinkedIn profile. I also am still connected with the students, TAs, and professors of my class and have worked with them on projects. This class is exactly what I needed, when I needed it.

They ended the class with a Demo Day, where they invited people from the industry to come look at our projects we had to share. I ended up picking up a programming job on the side while going through the class, and the professors let me make that my Final Project, and gave me great advice of working on client work. they helped me bid out jobs, and come up with a good estimate of how long it would take to make it. At Demo Day, I was given about a dozen business cards and two job offers.

DISCLAIMER! If you want this to be a cheap college alternative, this is not the class for you! This class is an intensive coding BOOT CAMP, there were nights I would go home and be so mentally exhausted by the amount of learning and critical thinking that is involved. If you are expecting to be spoon fed, you will waste your money and everyone’s time.

I entered the UCF Coding Boot Camp with what I would say a beginner to intermediate level of coding experience focusing around languages of C/C++/Java and a hint HTML/CSS. I stumbled on the course advertisement online while looking for resources to learn/teach myself JavaScript at home. After some research on Coding Boot Camps in general, I decided to go make the leap and apply to UCF’s Boot Camp. Upon applying I was given a brief questionnaire that tested problem solving and linear thinking abilities along with a phone interview that covered personality and background and some general questions on why I was interested in attending. I like that the camp took the time to interview and sort their applicants to make sure they were taking in people in they wanted.

This reflected in class well as fellow classmates came from all types of professional backgrounds and reasons to be attending. But all shared a drive to be there and seemed genuinely interested in becoming a full stack web developer, either it be for a total career change or just general interest and to expand their current skillset. The camp is organized to force collaboration through Slack chats and in the classroom. This was honestly tough for a shy person like myself, but goes with the culture they create and you fall into it willing or not, but most definitely for the better.

The pace of the course is relatively fast but will ebb and flow based on how the class is absorbing the content, allowing classmates that are confused on a topic to get help from classmates or TAs around them that are getting the concepts. This cycles throughout the course and a reason to be social and connect/help others and creates the group learning environment. I attended the Orlando West Valencia Campus and had what I thought to be an amazing Instructor and TAs. If you sign up for this course, I advise you to take it with Bob, Dwight, or John. Bob was my instructor for this I could not have been happier with him or the TAs, Dwight and John. Whom were not only great personalities to have in the class but were always willing to help out and knew their stuff.

The course encourages group work on the weekly assignments given to help grasp the content. The course has 2 main group projects, of which our group stayed together for each and was really enjoyable, but you are free to shuffle groups as you please, within a max group size constraint. For projects, you are given a list of technologies you must use and are free to decide on what to create as a team and then present them in a combined, two-class meeting on Saturdays. This makes the projects great and there were some amazing ideas/apps that came from both classes and allowed us to use what we just learned the 2-3 weeks prior to create something of our own and not just crank out “homework” assignments. The group project aspect was probably my favorite feature of the camp.

There is a big final project which leads to the end of the course and “Demo Day”. This project can be done in a group or alone. Most chose to take on this project alone as presenting on Demo Day is a great opportunity the camp creates in which you present your final project to prospective employers or other tech industry professionals and can lead to some great connections and job opportunities. Our demo day I think had about 94 attending employers.

Post-graduation support was great. You are assigned a career advisor to help you land a job. Zach, who was mine, literally handed me I think 2 interviews of which I did absolutely nothing for, all I did was set the time to go in. The continued support and feedback you get from their advisory team is invaluable in my eyes.

I was offered and accepted a job for a local company here in Orlando who is not in the camps network and have been happily titled a “Jr. PHP Developer” for a couple weeks now and using the full stack day to day. I am also doing contract work for a company here in Orlando the camp put me in direct connection with. I cannot thank the UCF Coding Boot Camp and staff enough for their help and support for making a dream of mine come true.

Tldr: Took the camp, was a blast, learned a lot, you get out what you put into it. This isn’t the matrix, you cannot just plug in and 5 minutes later you are Fully Stacked. Bob’s the man, TAs were awesome, landed a job, happy with my investment, 10/10 would do it again.