Penn LPS Coding Boot Camp

I am a current student in the Fall/Winter 2018-19 cohort with Penn LPS Coding Bootcamp (run by Trilogy Education Services). I began looking for a coding bootcamp after my sister completed ZipCode in Wilmington, DE and loved it. I currently work as a Speech-Language Pathologist and am looking for a total career change. My current profession has left me so stressed and burned out. I’ve always enjoyed technology and take to it pretty easily. The problem for me was that I wasn’t able to quit my job and go back to school full-time – even just for 3 months like most bootcamps require.

I loved that Penn offered a part-time program with evening classes. There were 2 options: Tue/Thur or Mon/Wed evenings. Both cohorts meet together on Saturdays. I was able to change my work schedule so that I could attend classes Tue/Thur evenings.

In contrast to Penn, ZipCode Wilmington offers to cover your tuition (minus a deposit) if you get placed with one of their partners at the end of the program (not guaranteed). Penn does not offer this. However, the price of the bootcamp seemed comparable to others in the area. The billing is flexible – which is great – and they offer a couple different financing options. Overall, I’d say I’m very satisfied with the value of the program.

Penn LPS’s strength lies in its academic support and network. You will have TA’s and instructors who work in the local industry and really care about your growth and success. Many of them have been through the same program you are going through. You will have opportunities to meet people from a variety of industries and backgrounds.

The class itself is very mixed: all ages, all experience levels, all walks of life. You won’t feel isolated, alone, or weird. I myself had some experience with HTML and coding from many years ago. There are some in my cohort who came in with much more experience than me and others who had none. The instructors do a wonderful job of making sure they assess everyone’s comfort level and understanding as you go. Your in-class and homework assignments offer different levels of challenge: typically a basic option, a challenge option, and a more advanced option. So no matter where you are in your abilities, you will feel like you’re being challenged, learning something new, and yet able to keep up.

As with any young program, there have been some growing pains – but they’ve all been understandable and Penn has dealt with them graciously. My only gripe about the program would be Career Services. It seems to be a mostly “hands-off”, impersonal part of the program. If you want career “help” from them, there will be Milestones you need to meet and submit materials for. They said they would provide feedback for these materials. However, I didn’t find them very helpful or timely. And the people providing the feedback have never met me personally. They send blast emails with advice and guidance. There are, however, ongoing free workshops and events like interview practice that you are able to attend. My issue is that many of them occur on Tue/Thur evenings – which is when my class meets. So that is one area where I feel they could definitely improve.

For me – someone who has 10 years of work experience, has gone on countless interviews, created numerous resumes, been involved in interviewing job candidates, and served in leadership roles – I don’t feel like this has ruined the experience and value of the program. I feel pretty confident in my own job-search skills. However, I could see how for someone much more green and inexperienced, career services may be something you highly value in a program.

With regards to the actual curriculum itself, the staff say that it changes based on local and national industry trends. My cohort in particular has focused on the MERN stack (Mongo DB, Express, React, Node). It is very Javascript heavy. You will not be learning Java, Python, etc. – which may be a disappointment to some. However, I agree with the instructors that one of the biggest things you learn from any coding bootcamp is “how to learn” – specifically how to learn programming/coding languages. I’d personally prefer a bootcamp (like Penn) that has more of a focus – where I can really spend time understanding some tools, languages, and frameworks – rather than spreading myself too thin. Not to say that other available bootcamps don’t have focus, but, for me…this was a great experience overall.

February 20, 2019

Prior to attending the program, I didn’t have much experience with coding. And now, I’m so proud to introduce myself as a Software Engineer to people, thanks to this 24-week program. It was one of the most challenging courses I’ve ever taken but also the most rewarding experience I’ve done. With the assistance and dedication of the instructional staff and Bernard (the Student Success Manager), I know a lot of students in my cohort have also landed their dream jobs in Tech.

You will learn marketable and trending technologies like JS, node, both SQL (MySQL) & NoSQL (MongoDB), and React.js. I would advise you to prepare to put in as much time as you could to work on the homework, but also research and learn more about the materials taught in class from outside resources.

I’m sure there are many good & knowledgable teachers in the program, but if you ask me whose class you should sign up for, I’d say “Ed, Anthony, or Quincy”. They are all very knowledgable, dedicated, and caring for their students. You’ll be in good hands.

November 2, 2019

I worked as data analyst, so I knew a few languages. I thought that I would learn all languages in curriculum slightly. But, after my class started, I realized I am learning more and deeper than what i expected before.

November 20, 2019

I had zero coding experience before enrolling in this BootCamp. My husband thought I would be good at it and as a teacher (in my former life), I love to learn. Well, it turns out that this course changed my life for the best. Ed and Anthony were my instructors. Ed saw my potential and convinced me to pursue web development as a career. Well, he was right and I ended up getting a job as a developr at a large financial company a month before the program ended. I would not be as successful as I was without the support of my classmates, TAs, resources from Career Services, and, obviously, my instructors. It was an intense 24 weeks where I focused all my free-time in coding activities, homework, articles, exercises, and more, but it was well-worth it. I am beyond happy about this course. I would do it all over again too.

November 21, 2019

I was very skeptical about joining the bootcamp but joining Penn LPS coding bootcamp turned out to be a good decision. I am a seasoned Java programmer and this bootcamp gave me the chops to become a full stack developer. The curriculum was well designed keeping the lack of programming experience in students. The program encouraged me to go and explore new technologies and methodologies and better programming standards in the fast changing full stack world. It has given me the chops to coordinate with people from different backgrounds and perspectives. Our Instructor and the TA’s are very knowledgeable and are real world working professionals. They did not hesitate to help us out at any time not just during the office hours. I haven’t used job assistance program offered but from what I have heard from my fellow cohorts, the professional service people are very thorough in getting the students prepared with their material and prepare them for the real world.

November 22, 2019

So far i am enjoying the experience I’m have at this bootcamp. Everyone genuinely want to help you in whatever it is your trying to do after graduating or any random project your trying to do for your portfolio or even for outside clients. The course is hard at times if you have a full time job to balance but with the flex option Penn Bootcamp have its not impossible anymore to work full time and also go to a bootcamp. I’m not currently using any of the job assistance options for the program but i hear good things from the other students. I’m constantly struggling between wondering is it better to spend more time getting better at the topics of the class or is it better to spend most of my time applying and trying to prep for getting a job. My free time is very limited so I still haven’t figured this out yet. Currently I am halfway through the program.

December 20, 2019