Thinkful Reviews and Complete Guide
Thinkful offers a wide range of programs to people who are looking to break into careers in computer science, product management, digital marketing and more.
With several locations and a personal touch, Thinkful offers many unique benefits for a self-paced bootcamp.
What Do You Need to Know about Thinkful?
Thinkful is a coding bootcamp with more programs than you usually see from smaller bootcamps. Students learn through online classes, with communities based in various cities around the US.
Though Thinkful is a bigger program than most, it still offers one-to-one mentoring and the career services that make you a priority.
| Locations | Los Angeles, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Austin, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Miami, Raleigh, Orlando, Tampa, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Minneapolis, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Online |
| Tuition | Software Engineering: $16,000 UX/UI Design: $7,000 (Normally $8,586) Flex – $12,150 Immersive, Digital Marketing: $4,500 (Normally $4,950) Flex – $7,500 Immersive, Data Science: $7,000 (Normally $7,990) Flex – $18,500 Immersive, Product Management: $4,500 (Normally $8,650), Data Analytics: $4,500 (Normally $7,900) Flex – $12,250 Immersive, Technical Project Management: $4,500 (Normally $6,750) Flex – $9,000 Immersive |
| Financing Options | Income Share Agreement (ISA), ISA with Living Stipend, Private Loans, Discounts, Upfront Payment, Installments |
| Start Dates | March 15, March 22, March 29, April 19, April 26, May 3, May 24, June 7, June 21, June 28, July 12, July 19 |
| Program Types | Online, Self-Paced |
| Courses | Software Engineering, UX/UI Design, Digital Marketing, Data Science, Product Management, Data Analytics, Technical Project Management |
Where Are Thinkful’s Campuses Located?
Thinkful has locations across the United States. Although students take all of their coursework alone, Thinkful pairs them with mentors in their area. These cities also have their own unique events, job fairs, lectures, and hiring partners to help students enter each area’s workforce.
- Los Angeles
- Portland
- San Diego
- San Francisco
- Seattle
- Austin
- Dallas
- Houston
- Phoenix
- Salt Lake City
- Atlanta
- Miami
- Raleigh
- Orlando
- Tampa
- Chicago
- Denver
- Detroit
- Minneapolis
- Boston
- Philadelphia
- Washington, DC
Every location is different from the next because of the already highlighted unique mentors and perks.
How Much Is Tuition at Thinkful?
Thinkful courses cost from a low of $4,500 to a high of $18,500. Most courses offer a more inexpensive flex program and a costlier, more in-depth immersive option. Tuition varies based on the program students select.
How Can You Pay Thinkful Tuition?
Students have many options for paying Thinkful’s tuition, including ISAs, loans, special discounts, and a month-to-month payment plan. Payment options vary based on location and program.
Tuition Discounts
Thinkful doesn’t offer scholarships to its students, but it does extend discounts to women, non-binary individuals and veterans. Students that don’t fit these criteria can also get discounts by enrolling within two weeks of acceptance or paying their tuition in full before the program start date.
ISAs
Income share agreements allow students to put off paying for their bootcamps until they’ve landed a job. When students are hired at a qualifying job, they pay Thinkful a fixed percentage of their income each month for a fixed period of time, or until they reach a specified maximum repayment amount. Students in the immersive programs have the additional option of applying for an ISA with an added living stipend.
Loan Financing
Thinkful partners with Skills Fund to offer students private loans with interest-only or immediate repayment options.
Installments
Installment plans allow students to spread the cost of their program into smaller monthly payments instead of paying one lump sum upfront, easing their financial burden.
Can You Use the GI Bill at Thinkful?
Thinkful does not accept the GI Bill at this time, although they do offer discounts to military veterans.
What Courses Does Thinkful Offer?
Thinkful offers courses in a range of computer science, design, and digital marketing fields. Almost every course gives applicants the options of a flexible program and an immersive program, with the exception of product management.
Data Analytics – Online
This Thinkful course aims to transform students into data analysts, who look at data sets to help clients make decisions about their futures. Students cover five objectives in this course, beginning with creating charts and visualizations in Excel before learning how to use tools in the following modules. These tools include PowerPoint, Tableau, SQL, Python and third-party APIs.
Data Science – Online
Students also have the option of learning data science at Thinkful, the field where people help hone the process of modeling data with various techniques. You’ll learn these techniques at Thinkful with courses on Python, RESTful APIs, SQL, machine learning, and data science specializations.
Digital Marketing – Online
This course gives students the tools they need to market products online. Attendees learn how to identify trends, collect and analyze data, create and run campaigns, and tailor content to a target audience. After nailing these objectives, students then move on to mastering branding, content marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, and search marketing.
Product Management – Online
This flex-only option teaches students the ins and outs of product management, the art of developing products from conception to rollout. Thinkful has you covered with lessons on UX research tools, technology and data considerations, data analysis and visualization, and legal and ethical concerns.
Software Engineering – Online
Thinkful’s software engineering course gives you everything you need to work as a software engineer in a modern environment. The modules in this course are designed to teach students full-stack web development and software engineering with a variety of tools. Students in this course master the JavaScript stack with React apps, Node.js, Express Servers, PostgreSQL, Knex, and instruction on the agile method, data structures, and basic algorithms.
Technical Project Management – Online
This course has a key difference from the product management course. Instead of focusing on general product management, which can cover products as varied as PC parts to tires, this course focuses specifically on the skills needed to launch products in the technology and IT fields. To that end, students have a similar curriculum based on forecasting with data-driven decisions, the various components of IT infrastructure and delivering IT service, and building out their communication skills.
UX/UI Design – Online
Students in Thinkful’s UX/UI design course get the intensive training they’ll need to design beautiful and efficient products and services for consumers. Students start by learning design terminology and interfaces with common UX/UI design tools, then move on to working with user-centered discovery, user flows, wireframing, prototypes, moodboards, marketing requirements, team collaboration, and drafting.
After these lessons, students choose their specialization between UX, Visual Design, Front End Design, or Usability, and work through that path until their capstone project.
How to Get Accepted Into Thinkful
Thinkful has a streamlined process that ensures people can get the help they need to start a new life. Students can come into almost every program with very little proficiency in their chosen field without worrying about a technical challenge.
Thinkful Application Process
Most bootcamps have the same admissions process, but Thinkful’s data science course differs from the others in a few key ways.
- Most courses start with free access to the curriculum and study support until a student finishes their prep course. The prep course gives students the necessary background they need before diving into their chosen coursework.
- Software development students get matched with a mentor after finishing their prep course. Students and mentors work together on a one-to-one basis to go over the work every week.
- In every program, except data science and software development, applicants speak to an admissions representative for onboarding after completing the prep course. For software development, applicants speak to an admissions representative after Thinkful matches them with a mentor.
- Non-data science applicants enroll in the full student experience after finishing their prep course and meeting an admissions representative. Students set their schedule and partner with an academic success manager, then they begin their coursework.
Data Science Application Process
Thinkful’s data science course has a different application process due to its increased complexity. Whereas other courses are designed for entry-level students with no previous experience, this course is designed to turn experienced tech workers into data scientists.
Thinkful expects data science applicants to have an understanding of college-level statistics and probability, along with a basic understanding of object-oriented programming. Applicants are also required to have a BA or BS degree in any field along with over two years in a related technical role. Students without a degree in STEM need previous working experience as a data analyst or programmer.
- Data Science students complete an online application over the course of 10 to 15 minutes that covers their background, goals, and expertise.
- After submitting the application, prospective students enter the prep phase where they take three weeks of self-paced learning covering Python and statistics.
- Applicants meet with an admissions representative for a fit interview, where they discuss their application and the program structure before deciding which data science program is best for them.
- Provided the interview goes well, applicants select a payment plan or secure financing to pay for their program.
- Applicants take a live technical interview to prove they’re ready for the program. The interview covers the Python programming skills and statistics training that students received in their prep course.
Thinkful Interview Questions
Most courses are designed around building up students with little to no experience in their chosen path. Here’s what Thinkful looks for in successful applicants:
- Ability to fully commit to the time the program needs
- Ability to fully commit the effort the program needs
- Ability to communicate effectively and accept constructive criticism.
You should prepare for your coding bootcamp interview to ensure success with your application.
How Can You Prepare for Thinkful?
Thinkful offers free tutorials to help applicants prepare for their program of choice. These courses range from basic tools like GitHub to more involved online courses on coding.
- A Guide to Using GitHub Pages – This brief course gives students a step-by-step guide to building their own GitHub pages.
- Build a Valentine’s Day eCard – This course teaches students the basics of HTML and CSS in an eCard project.
- JavaScript Best Practices Part 1 – Here students master the best JavaScript practices with code samples and examples.
- AngularJS tutorial – Students create their own Gmail clone to learn JavaScript’s Angular framework, a tool for building web apps.
- Programming Fundamentals in Python – Students learn the basics of the Python programming language by building a tamagotchi-style Pypet.
Is Thinkful Worth It?
If you’re interested in advancing your career without going down the higher education route, Thinkful is definitely worth it. Thinkful offers several paths for people without any computer training to enter a more lucrative tech-based career.
Thinkful not only offers a wide range of courses, but it also has proven success in helping students land jobs after graduation.
Thinkful Job Placement
Thinkful says that within 180 days of graduation, 80 percent of data science and software engineering students were employed in the field. UX/UI Design graduates can look forward to a 96 percent employment rate, and data analytics students have a 78 percent employment rate.
Thinkful’s support team is responsible for its success in helping students find a job in their desired field. Students gain access to Thinkful’s hiring partners, exclusive events, and career services to make sure they’re prepared to take that next step when the moment comes.
Does Thinkful Offer a Job Guarantee?
Yes, Thinkful offers a job guarantee to eligible students. If eligible students don’t have a job offer for a qualifying position within 180 days of graduation, they get 100 percent of their tuition back and have any remaining payments canceled.
Should You Apply to Thinkful?
You should apply to Thinkful if you’re interested in any of the fields mentioned above, and believe you have the time and energy to take the program seriously. Thinkful is basically a one-stop shop for some of the most popular tech fields today, and the job placement rates speak for themselves.
If you like the idea of a self-paced learning experience with all of the mentorship and career benefits of a live bootcamp, Thinkful may be just what you’re looking for.
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Anonymous
I’m just beginning to finish up my Fundamentals Modules for the Product design Track on Thinkful and so far I’m super impressed. I left my full full time job to pursue this and it’s hand down the best investment I’ve made in myself to date. The curriculum is super thorough (which is super helpful to someone with no experience in the field such as myself), and the feedback from the graders is always helpful (unless you pass right away, in which they usually say something that can be summed up in a “job well done”). My mentor is great, and is an awesome match personality wise. Having the two 45 minute one on one sessions each week is a huge perk. I don’t see how anyone could do this well with out them. If you’re hesitant and reading reviews to help make a decision, I say take the jump!
June 9, 2019
Anonymous
It has been a really good and challenging experience!
-Pros –
It will provide you with good and updated material to get your skills sharp on the language that they are teaching you.
It is fast paced, it will make time fly and you will be learning a lot really fast.
It will challenge yourself as a professional, and you will understand the meaning of “detail oriented’.
-Cons-
– Why didn’t I start this program earlier? – I ask myself this question almost everyday.
It may seem overwhelming at the beginning but trust me they will provide you with the tools for your success. Understand that this boot camp is what its name means, it will require of your time to sit down and put the hours in. I currently have a full time job, my afternoons and evenings I have to dedicate to the program in order to stay on meeting my dates.
June 30, 2019
Anonymous
I just finished Thinkful’s Engineering Immersion full-time program. I went from minimal/no programming experience to building full-stack (frontend, backend, database) in less than 6 months. It was equal parts exciting, difficult, rewarding, and exhausting.
Not for the faint of heart, but a great way get into web development. I put in an average of 60~70 hrs of work per week.
I would recommend studying a bit of JavaScript and SQL on FreeCodeCamp to give yourself a bit more time to digest the material.
July 6, 2019
Anonymous
Note: My experience was with Thinkful’s Engineering Immersion program. There are several tracks within Thinkful, and each is structured slightly differently.
Deciding to join a boot camp is a very nerve-wracking decision. For me, it was a total career change, so I wanted to minimize my risk as much as possible. I decided to go with Thinkful after seeing that they regularly post their job placement rates online and that they have a job placement guarantee.
The actual program ended up being extremely challenging. I put in anywhere from 40-70 hours a week, depending on that week’s content. The material is challenging, but the pace felt spot on for what I wanted to get out of it. During the program I always felt pushed, a little overwhelmed at times. As a result, I left the program feeling like my skills were good enough to not only land a job, but to be comfortable in a new role.
For the Engineering Immersion program you’ll meet with an instructor twice a day to go over the day’s material and check in on everyone’s progress. Then, you’ll pair program with another student until the end of the day. There is always support from the instructors and from mentors. On a typical day, we could have someone helping us within 5-10 minutes if we really got stuck on a tricky concept. Having that support meant that I never felt like I was wasting my time. Twice a week you’ll meet with your mentor to go over anything that you feel like you need help with. Finally, after the course is complete, you’ll be assigned a career coach to help you navigate finding that first job. For me, landing that first gig took just under two months from graduation.
Thinkful is a challenging, rigorous program. If you’re looking to skate through with minimal effort and start applying to jobs, this probably isn’t the program for you. If you’re looking to build solid foundational skills and put in the time to learn, then Thinkful has the right resources to help you succed.
July 11, 2019
Anonymous
It’s a very well curated program in data science.
Pros:
– Well-rounded curriculum.
– Deep discussions of topics are available.
– Very active online community
Cons:
– The local community could be more organized and activated.
– More structure around the capstone projects would be useful
– More active mentor supervision is needed.
October 21, 2019
Anonymous
I just completed Thinkful’s Engineering Immersion 5-month apprenticeship/bootcamp (today!). It was an incredible experience and exceeded my expectations. Prior to starting with Thinkful, I had completed another coding bootcamp that was for front-end development. That bootcamp was about 80% reading material, 10% watching videos, and 10% actually coding. My comfort level, if someone had asked me to sit down and code -anything-, would have been about 15% confidence that I could do it.
I found Thinkful and started looking into their Full Stack program (Engineering Immersion). Immediately what stood out to me was that it was a structured program with live instruction/instructors, TAs, and mentors. The structure was also based on collaborative programming and embracing a growth mindset.
Before being admitted to the program, a three-week prep course was required and a technical evaluation. I was shocked that the 3 week prep course covered nearly everything that my previous bootcamp had taken months to do. It was a good refresher for me, but I was also very thankful that I had some JavaScript background since this prep course was so intense.
The program itself was highly rigorous and very time intensive. I graduated on-time and received nearly perfect scores on my graded assessments – but that required me to put in about 60+ hours a week doing my assignments and readings, practicing the parts I didn’t understand, and putting extra effort into my capstones. But it was completely worth it!
In my opinion, one of the most successful parts of Thinkful’s program is their use of paired programming. Now, at the end of the course, I am graduating with well over 500 hours of paired programming experience. Not only is that one way I was able to get such a deep understanding of what I was learning, but it also helped hone my collaboration skills in the context of a development environment. Paired programming helped me learn from and teach many different styles, attitudes, and personalities – which I feel like is invaluable.
The technical interviews at the end of each section were also a huge highlight. It helped me take everything I was learning and synthesize it into words. It has prepared me for the job search and given me an extra confidence boost that I can answer those questions.
The capstone projects were an eye-opening experience. They really gave me that vote of confidence that I could actually DO what I was learning. And that was only possible because every single day I was coding with a pair. Not reading, not watching videos, or watching someone else code. I was in the thick of it, sharing my screen, working with another human, trying to understand and solve problems. When it came time to put all of that knowledge together and do the capstone projects, I was ready and excited!
Thinkful has very few flaws, in my opinion, and has been an incredible experience. One flaw that I ran into was the use of Mentors. I have talked to many of my cohort members that have had incredible experiences with their mentors, but unfortnately my experience was very lack luster and a waste of time. I look forward to Thinkful giving mentors a little more structure so that when students need help, they can get it. However, the TAs that were available every afternoon were INVALUABLE. The amount of time they would take to explain a concept – even using props, playing cards, drawings, etc to help illustrate a hard concept – was truly amazing. So many of my successes were built off of a TA taking the time to work with me when the concept was first presented.
All in all, I would recommend Thinkful to anyone who has a strong work ethic, who has that drive to reach their goals, and has the time to commit to the program. I would recommend doing some free coding/JavaScript lessons so you don’t feel like your feet have been swept out from under you when the prep course comes along. Along with many things in life, the program is what you put into it. And if you put in 100%, you’ll get an incredible education experience with job-ready skills.
November 22, 2019
Anonymous
I am really enjoying working through the Thinkful curriculum, and the support of my Thinkful mentor and the community has really helped me through the process. I am currently a part of the Full Stack Flex program and one thing I really appreciate about this program is the flexibility to be able to get the work done outside of working my day job. The curriculum provides a lot of helpful reading, which I can sometimes do on-the-go, and the way the projects and assignments are structured is super engaging. They have elevated the program even more to include more online community among students as well as some local meet-ups and networking events.
June 7, 2020
Anonymous
I am a couple of months into Thinkful’s full-stack flex program, and I could not be happier! For me, the most important thing has been my sessions with my mentor. Having one on one time with a seasoned developer is absolutely priceless. The program managers are amazing, they are there to cheer you on and be there for anything you might need. Then, there is the Thinkful Slack community, just open lines of communication and students, alum and support staff helping each other out non-stop. It is clear from day one that Thinkful wants you to succeed and will be there with you every step of the way. This is a top-notch program, and I would recommend it to anyone!
June 11, 2020