UC Berkeley Boot Camp Reviews and Complete Guide
UC Berkeley Boot Camps are 12- and 24-week programs offered by the University of California Berkeley Extension designed to teach students coding, data analysis, digital marketing, and more.
Read on to find out about tuition prices, payment options, and details on what’s offered in each of these courses.
What Do You Need to Know About UC Berkeley Boot Camp?
UC Berkeley’s coding bootcamp offers professional development courses in software engineering, data science, UX/UI web design, and several other areas of tech. These courses are perfect for anyone seeking a career in technology, or a promotion at their current job.
The school offers these courses in a variety of formats, including remote, on-campus, and part-time. It even has a free online course if you want to learn computer science basics before committing to a longer-term course.
The school also provides many career services. Starting in the second week, students are assigned what is known as a Profile Coach, whose primary job is to get to know you and the projects you’re working on. They’ll also help you with career training so you can get the job you want when you graduate.
| Locations | Online |
| Tuition | $8,995 to $13,245 |
| Financing Options | Upfront Payment, Scholarships, Loans, Installments |
| Start Dates | Varies |
| Program Types | Online, Part-time, Full-time |
| Courses | Coding, Data Analytics, UX/UI, Cybersecurity, Digital Marketing, FinTech, Tech Project Management |
Where Are UC Berkeley Boot Camp Located?
UC Berkeley’s campus is located in Berkeley, California. However, all of its coding bootcamps are currently offered online only due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These safety restrictions will likely continue through summer 2021, according to the school’s website.
How Much Is Tuition at UC Berkeley Boot Camp?
The tuition at UC Berkeley Coding Boot Camp varies depending on which course you have chosen. The cheapest is the Tech Project Management course, at $8,995, and the most expensive is the Online Data Analytics course, at $13,245. The basic Coding course costs $12,495.
How Can You Pay UC Berkeley Boot Camp Tuition?
Students at UC Berkeley Boot Camp can pay their tuition in a number of ways. This includes loans, scholarships, and installments. Keep in mind that students who choose to pay their tuition early will receive a $1,000 discount.
UC Berkeley Boot Camp Scholarships
If a student has graduated from UC Berkeley and is applying to a UC Berkeley Extension bootcamp, they will receive a $500 alumni discount.
ISA
UC Berkeley Boot Camp does not offer an income share agreement.
Loan Financing
Students at UC Berkeley are eligible to receive private loans through Sallie Mae.
Installments
Bootcamp students who can’t afford to pay for their course upfront may want to pay in installments instead. UC Berkeley Boot Camp offers a six-month zero-interest installments payment plan.
To do this, students must first pay a $1,000 deposit to secure a seat. The student will then make monthly payments of around $1,900 a month. This will vary based on the course the student has selected. The bootcamp also offers a 24-month, zero-interest payment plan.
Can You Use the GI Bill at UC Berkeley Boot Camp?
UC Berkeley does not accept the GI Bill. There is a chance that this will change, but students should not count on it.
What Courses Does UC Berkeley Offer?
UC Berkeley Boot Camp offers seven programs through its partnership with Trinity Education Services. These part-time courses cover a broad range of topics, including coding and more specialized offerings in fintech and technology project management.
Coding – In-Person | Online
UC Berkeley’s software engineering program starts with a seven-week prep course. When the official twelve-week program begins, students will begin learning full stack JavaScript web development techniques as they build their own interactive application.
The course utilizes teaching methods such as pair programming and group work so that students can practice Agile methodologies for software development.
After the course is finished, UC Berkeley’s career services department will help graduates navigate the job market through its extensive hiring network.
Data Analytics – In-Person | Online
This 24-week program teaches students how to organize and analyze data to make informed decisions. Students will learn statistics basics, Python programming, and database management tools. They will also study HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to use in front end web visualization. Near the end of the course, the curriculum deals with big data sets and machine learning.
By the end of this part-time course, students will be prepared to enter an entry-level data science or data analysis role.
UX/UI – In-Person | Online
The bootcamp’s UX/UI course covers all aspects of web design. Students will learn how to create appealing user interface prototypes using colors, typography, graphics, and interactive features. To do this, they will study programs like Github and Bootstrap, and coding languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
In the user experience design portion of the course, students will learn about the research that goes into this aspect of web design. This includes identifying users’ needs, and storyboarding a prototype based on these findings.
Cybersecurity – In-Person | Online
This course teaches students cyber security through hands-on experience. Lessons include networking, cyber security, and ethical hacking. Near the beginning of the program, students will learn about risk management, vulnerability assessment, and how to protect cloud networks.
By the end, they will have plenty of practice protecting vulnerable systems and identifying any threats through ethical hacking software like Hashcat and Kali Linux.
Digital Marketing – In-Person | Online
In the digital marketing course, students will learn how to develop and monitor their own marketing campaigns. They’ll learn tools like Google Ads, Facebook Ads Manager, and WordPress.
The 18-week course begins with basics like brand building and content strategies, before getting into digital marketing topics like paid social media advertising, and how to measure and optimize content in your marketing campaigns.
Financial Technology – In-Person | Online
Students in this program will learn how to collect and analyze financial technology data. They will begin with financial fundamentals, and will quickly move on to cryptocurrencies and blockchain.
A large portion of the program is spent on the possible applications of machine learning in finance. This includes algorithmic trading, linear regression, and forecasting. They will also learn how to organize financial data with Python, pandas, and PyViz.
Technology Project Management – In-Person | Online
This 18-week course will teach students how to lead a tech project in a variety of industries. Topics covered include process mapping, project management lifecycles, resource planning, and modern project execution methodologies like Agile and Scrum.
Students will learn how to use these methods along with project management software like Jira and Smartsheet. When the class ends, graduates will be prepared to take the Professional Scrum Master Level 1 Certificate test.
UC Berkeley Boot Camp Acceptance Rate
UC Berkeley Boot Camps has an acceptance rate of around 50 percent.
UC Berkeley Boot Camp Application Process
Thankfully, the application process for UC Berkeley is simple. Just follow the steps below.
- First, you should fill out the online application with your basic personal information.
- Then, you will be invited for a phone interview with a recruiter from UC Berkeley Extension.
- If you have applied to a technical course, such as the coding bootcamp, you will be asked to complete a technical quiz. If you applied to the coding bootcamp, this will be a 20-question quiz that lasts 40 minutes. If you pass your technical exam, you will be admitted. The technical assessment can be taken three times.
- Once you get in, UC Berkeley Extension Boot Camp will then confirm your payment option and allow you to enroll in your chosen course.
UC Berkeley Interview Questions
According to several accounts, UC Berkeley’s interview process lasts around an hour. A recruiter will call you to ask you some basic questions. Below are some of the topics that might come up during your discussion.
- How extensive is your background in coding?
- How much time can you commit to the bootcamp
- Do you have dual monitors so that you can see your live classroom session while you work on the other screen?
- Are you prepared for a career as a web developer?
How Can You Prepare for UC Berkeley Bootcamps?
Some courses at UC Berkeley require that you complete pre-work. This is particularly important in the courses that rely heavily on coding. Students must all start on the same level so that they can keep up with the curriculum.
The school also provides one hour of private tutoring per week to each student, so you could choose to use this hour to sit down with a tutor before your class begins.
Are the UC Berkeley Coding Boot Camp Worth It?
Yes. The bootcamp’s true purpose of existence is to provide a bridge from education to career. Students have tutors available to them throughout the bootcamp. The classrooms work in a team setting.
During class times, students work together as if they were in an office. Students receive a full six month of career training. Students also hear from the Career Director. Students do both mock and behavioral interviews. Students also work with UC officials for LinkedIn profile development, as well as resumes and cover letters.
UC Berkeley Boot Camp Job Placement
UC Berkeley bootcamp does not make its job placement rate public. However, the school does have a career services team that helps students get job-ready throughout their course.
They do this by holding one-on-one meetings with each student to see what their career goals are. Another key part of the process is resume reviews, mock interviews, and assisting students in preparing professional social media profiles.
Does UC Berkeley Boot Camp Offer a Job Guarantee?
Unfortunately, UC Berkeley does not offer a job guarantee for its graduates.
Should You Apply to UC Berkeley Boot Camp?
You should apply to UC Berkeley Extension Boot Camp if you are interested in a career in the subjects listed in the courses section above.
The school offers all of these courses on a part-time basis so that students from all walks of life can attend. UC Berkeley Extension also provides robust career services to its graduates, making sure they get the attention they need to find a job that suits them.
Price Range
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2 Reviews
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Anonymous
The low cost, good reputation, ability to keep my job while doing the program are huge bonuses. There are a lot of organizational issues that the company running the program could work out – lots of things needed some streamlining and consistency. In spite of that I feel I got a lot out of it and was lucky to have had a wonderful instructor. Bottom line is I would go back and do it all over again for sure.
September 23, 2020
Anonymous
I recently (1.5 months ago) completed the 6-month variant of the UC Berkeley Bootcamp as one of the members of the very first cohort, and just this past week I excepted a job as a front-end engineer at a startup with a starting salary in the 90k range.
Before coming to this bootcamp I had been teaching myself to program for about a year, but slowly, and had also been able to essentially intern(largely for free) for a company slowly learning to write automated tests in Python. So my experience with code was past absolute beginner.
I knew I needed to find a way to elevate myself quickly to a professional developer’s level, and I knew that the quickest way to do this was to focus on a Javascript – front end to full-stack engineering bootcamp.
After researching a number of them, I chose this one partly because it was among the least expensive by far, and also because of the name recognition (Berkeley). I was happy about the prospect of taking 6 months to learn everything I wanted as I knew I would need to work part-time and generally use the time to consume more information on my own.
This bootcamp took me and my cohort through a cirriculum that rivaled if not largely beat the cirriculum of more famous and expensive place like HR, App Acad and Dev BC. This according to notes(and code) compared with my friends who attended each. They cover everything about the front end from your first introduction to HTML/CSS to coding in Javascript all the way through to React powered full-stack applications.
The instructors Michael and David were both excellent. Personable, kind, and (most importantly) genuinely engaged with the idea of transferring as much of their knowledge of the science and art of programming professionally onto all the student. Michael had a traditional CS background and a number of years of work while David was a grad of HR with a couple of years of working experience, which made them each compelling for their individual experiences. They are both excellent programmers.
The same idea carries throughout the organization. Rosa the career director cares for the concerns and roadblocks individual students might face, and Sam of career services is constantly involved in building your public profiles and presentational person for career services. Although, ultimately, this part of the program is perhaps the weakest, as their networks are not the same as your bigger and far far more expensive BC’s.
I also got a chance to meet Pavan, someone from the parent organization of the BC, a company called Trilogy that partners with Universities throughout the country to create these bootcamps for them. Pavan was also smart, kind, and commited to hearing about my experience as a student. They all wanted to see me thrive, and not just collect a check and pepper you with information only to leave you to “sink or swim” as the case in some other programs.
By the mid-point of the program we were already writing full-stack applications with our own server instances(Node.js), and using them to render templated views of custom sites which would both consume various API’s and also access our own SQL or noSQL backend data services. Students would coluntarily explore topics like user authentication with Passport.js or WebSocket enabled multi-user live interfaces. I dove into a Google Maps Api for my first (one of three) major project and came away with a powerful new tool.
It was at this time that I started to peek at the work my friends had/were doing at the more popular BC variants out here in SF, only to discover that their body of work was tiny in comparison. Often not particularly broad. Nothing wrong with checking out the competition once in a while. Right?
Now, like any programming cohort there was a range of stories, many struggled HARD, and some essentially failed or gave up, but to those that did not, the experience has left them with a significant number of projects across the modern Javascript stack and an overall broad knowledge of how the heck a modern web app is built from the ground to the backend MongoDB non-relational databse. Sorry, bad programming humor.
Ultimately no Bootcamp can singularly gurantee you a great engineering education if you just sit there with your arms crossed waiting for the instructor to automatically funnel the information into your head, you have to do the work. And, not only that, but rise to the occasion to exploit the technology introduced more deeply.
Having that attitude may mean that you will be successful at most any Bootcamp, but this one will introduce you and set the stage for a deep variety of topics that you will want to expand on and explore to secure a mastery.
As a student I realize I may have been an exception with my incoming experience and devotion to extra learning on the side. I would constantly look to expand on the assigned hwrk and develop new and unexpected features not explicitly required in the assignment.
However a number of my peers who I now get to call good friends, had not touched code until starting this program, and through constant devotion to learning and playing with code they have all elevated their skills far beyond what I was able to achieve in my very first half-year of programming knowledge.
So if you are serious. Want to learn a lot about the modern web, and plan to build on what this school offers you to stand out from the busy bootcamp graduate field out here in the SF/Bay Area, then this school will help you prosper!
Best decision I have ever made! Can’t wait to get started with my new job on Monday.
October 13, 2020