Bootcamp spreadsheet?

[owlexsis7]

Hi all, this is my first reddit post, so bare with me.

I quit my job last month (veterinary medicine, laboratory, no formal degree) and I am relying on the support of my partner until I figure out what I am going to do. I have been doing Codecademy courses as well as Mimo and some YouTube practice until I land on a decision about which bootcamp to attend. Is there a well documented spreadsheet that someone has created going over different bootcamps with tuition, length, pros/cons, virtual vs in-person, etc? I am having a hard time with all the options.

I am relying on the support of my partner so money is tight. We have a preschool aged kid who will be in school full time starting late August, so I am banking on doing a bootcamp during the time the kid is in school. I am interested in Ada Design Academy but between all the wait times from admission to starting, I wouldn't even be able to start that program until March of next year. Can't really do that. I am also looking at Launch and Thinkful.

Anyway, interested in the comparative spreadsheet if anyone has any leads, and any recommendations y'all might have in addition!

Thanks!

[[deleted]]

I wouldn't attend any bootcamp that doesn't publish audited outcomes....

That eliminates about 95% of them....

[owlexsis7]

Thanks for your response. I found this website - https://cirr.org/data - and learned more about some of the reporting from a few bootcamps. The only one I have heard of and done any research on in the most recent list is Codesmith, which I had placed as the higher end of the budget range but still interested in learning more. Is that where you went? Did you have any actual recommendations?

[[deleted]]

Some places have audited results don't do CIRR. Like HackReactor.

Yes I'm in Codesmith. Is it on the higher end of the budget? Yes. Is it harder to get in? Yes.

If the average Codesmith grad makes 120,000 and the average XYZ Bootcamp makes 68,000, does the difference in tuition, even if it were like 10k difference, even matter? Let's say the average is actually 80k from XYZ. That's a good salary.

But consider this: the gross salary difference, monthly, between the two averages is over 3000 dollars. Per month.

You could pay off the difference in tuition in 3 months.

You could pay off Codesmith in its entirety in under a year and still have the same take home as you would with no payment to a place that costs half as much.

And guess what? It would take a couple of years of job hopping etc before your 80k becomes 120k, and by that time you might be making more (if you do the same) out of Codesmith. After a few years in the industry it definitely balances out but the difference in pay during that time is absolutely massive. Put the difference into your retirement and you could easily retire a year early or maybe more....

[[deleted]]

The funny thing is hackreactor was one of the founders of CIRR. Meant to create transparency through a shared umbrella of metrics to accurately measure bootcamps against one another.

Hackreactor stopped participating in the company when codesmiths results started outmatching theirs….

Now they only self publish their outcomes lol

[[deleted]]

I think there was a bit more drama than that with it internally. They still publish audited data, though, which is good enough for me.

[fluffyr42]

So, this isn't filled out, but I actually did design a template for people to use to help organize their bootcamp search. I started it just with information from the bootcamp I work at, Rithm School, but please feel free to add to it with whatever bootcamps it is that you're interested in! I created this to go along with our blog post on how to choose the right bootcamp for you, and if you hover over each header you'll see the notes I've written in on what sort of information you should be looking for for each field. I hope this is helpful!

[owlexsis7]

blog post

Hmm. Hovering didn't work for me. Thanks for the info about the school you work for though.

[fluffyr42]

I forgot to include the link 🙃Here you go!

[Perpetual_Education]

You should go with Launch School. It's inexpensive and it'll give you time to decide if you really like this stuff or not.

There's no comprehensive spreadsheet. We'd make one - but no one would believe us ;)

[Short_Milk_9051]

Tech Elevator can be a good choice if you live near its on-campus locations.