Coding Bootcamp vs. College, Which is Better?

Pursuing a career in Software Engineering is not an easy task. It may seem especially hard to decide on the path you want to take. Nowadays, it seems that there are 3 options. You can either:

1. Go to a College/University
2. Take a Coding Bootcamp
3. Teach yourself

It is apparent that even though the 3rd option is possible with so many tools accessible via the internet, it is the hardest. When it comes to the two other options, there are a fair amount of advantages/disadvantages to either or. As a college student in computer science that transitioned into a coding bootcamp at the Flatiron School, I am going to give my genuine opinion as to what I think is better depending on what you are looking for.

Advantages to College

It might already be clear as to what the biggest advantage of going to college is, but if it isn't, it's the fact that you come out with a Bachelor's Degree. When it comes to deciding between hiring someone that graduated from a 4 year University and someone that completed a coding bootcamp, the person that didn't go to college is going to need a lot more experience/projects to show their expertise.

In addition to your degree, you have the opportunity of networking and connecting with so many intelligent and like minded individuals. This environment can lead to potential business inquiries in the future. You can argue that there are certain technologies at certain schools that students have access to that the general public do not. However, I don't believe that there is much technology that provides an advantage when it comes to this field. Ideally, if you have good working laptop with decent specs, you are going to be just fine.

Advantages to Coding Bootcamp

When it comes to choosing this path, the biggest advantage is the time frame which can get certified. Here at the Flatiron School, you can complete your cohort in as soon as 4 months. They are also flexible for people that may have other commitments and have a part-time 8 month program as well. This is the main reason why I ended up switching from college to this bootcamp. I felt that I was taking too long taking classes when I can just go to this school for essentially 1 semester's worth of time and be done with it.

In addition, it might just be this specific bootcamp I chose to go to, but the teacher to student ratio is magnificent. There are a total of 8 students in my class and 1 instructor. We are more than welcome to ask any questions we may have for 8 hours out of the day. When I was going to college, the classes were filled with sometimes up to 300 students. Even in Lab/Discussion classes, the classes were still filled to about 30-40 students per instructor. This means that at a bootcamp, you will have a lot more time and attention available to you from instructors than you would have at college.

Disadvantages to College

When it comes to the requirements to graduate, there are a lot of classes that you will have to take that have nothing to do with computer science in any way. When I say a lot, I mean about a third of the classes you take, will have nothing to do with programming. This varies from school to school, but if you decide to go to a community to transfer to a 4 year, you are going to end up with about half of your classes having nothing to do with computer science.

In addition to taking useless classes, sometimes the programming classes are not the most informative. For example, when I first took my Intro to Programming course, we started off learning html, css, javascript, and python to make simple web applications such as hangman. I remember a scenario of when I did not understand what was being instructed. I'm not exactly sure how the code looked, but it looked like something along the lines of

test = document.querySelector(`${name}`)

Instead of breaking down each individual piece of code, and what every single piece meant, the instructor just said,

This is how you get a hold of this specific data

For the remaining of the semester, I was able to successfully stay afloat with being able to program, yet I did not understand what I was writing. I understood what I was supposed to type, but I never understood why. This was a reoccurring theme all throughout the next couple years.

Programming in college is taught in the sense that if you need to accomplish one specific task, this is how you do it. Whereas at this bootcamp, every single line of code is broken down to make sure the students understand the concept as oppose to just the final product.

Disadvantages to Coding Bootcamp

The only disadvantage I can think of is that it seems like it might be harder to get a job as a student that's certified as oppose to a student that has a degree. However, the Flatiron School does set you up very nicely. Before graduating, we are set up with instructions on how to create a resume, how to network, how to potentially get hired through networking, how to prepare for interviews, how to essentially get a job.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I personally believe that going through with a coding bootcamp is a lot more valuable in terms of money and time than going to college. Not only do you not have to waste your time, but everything you learn is useful to your career. Everything you learn throughout the cohort will be used when you start to work. If you are thinking about choosing between college or bootcamps, I would recommend choosing a bootcamp. It is a little more challenging than going to school, but the payoff is Huge.