Background:

Prior to starting at Epicodus in October 2016, I was a full-time student pursuing a degree in Computer Science. The desire to have more hands-on experience, in an accelerated program, motivated me to research the different “bootcamps” available in Portland. Bottom line, I wanted to get to work. Ultimately, I chose Epicodus based on price, my initial experiences with staff (shout out to Debbie for hosting a great informational open house), and the opportunity to have an internship at the end of the process.

Overall:

As many others have said, Epicodus changed my life. Today, I am working as a full-time Web Developer for a company that I absolutely love. Epicodus provided me with the tools and opportunity to jumpstart my career in web development. That being said, you...

I would not be where I am now if it was not for Epicodus. Prior to Epicodus, I worked as a support developer as a startup and I always felt lost and suffered from imposter syndrome. Epicodus helped me to develop the right mindset to to become a problem solver, and not just a developer who remembers things. I learned to recognize patterns across many technologies which allowed me to familiarize myself with the unfamiliar with confidence and speed. That alone is huge in the world of software development. On top of that Epicodus covers a huge bredth of knowledge. My only complaint would be some of the later Javascript curriculum which covered Ember.js which you just don't encounter that much. I know that Epicodus plans alleviate these minor problems in the future though as they are pushing...

I was drawn to Epicodus by their low tuition, which I think is outstanding amongst its peers. You never get the feeling that you're being ripped off in any way, which was something I was generally apprehensive about when searching. The school is genuine and transparent, which as much as anything made my experience there cherished. Staff there was always engaged and helpful - albeit w/ an air of having a lot on their plates!

And that's something you have to understand about Epicouds - it's not an experience that's going to be able to hold your hand the whole way through. You're really working with your fellow students to wade through the world of resources available to you, guided of course by the Epicodus curriculum.

You pair with another student everyday and work through assignme...

Why Epicodus worked for me:

-great price
-great location and a nice space
-pair programming + group projects (I wanted experience working with others)
-the curriculum gave me direction and motivation i lacked when working on my own
-the cohort (I met and still am in touch with - so many great people)
-the internship (it was great to get some experience working with a tech company)
-job finding assistance (I actually found my current position through an Epicodus job posting)

Why Epicodus might not work for everyone:

-the curriculum is more broad than deep (that means extra studying if you want to go in depth into anything, which doesn't work for everyone.)
-it's better to think of the instructors as TAs (they'll help you when you get stuck, but there's no direct instr...

A few years ago I wanted a career change, and I started looking into learning to program. I had a few friends in Portland's tech scene and heard about code bootcamps through them. A lot of them seemed expensive for what you got. Then I discovered Epicodus. The price seemed reasonable for the curriculum offered, and they also had the best-sounding process for entering students into the job market after classes. I applied right away and was accepted several weeks later. The first week of class was a whirlwind. I began learning immediately. It was difficult, but the teachers and even the other students were extremely supportive. I cannot recommend pair programming strongly enough as a great way to learn how to code. You'll want to have the support, feedback, and knowledge provided by other...

I had a great time at Epicodus. I was always interested in programming and web development and decided I'd give learning it a shot. My instructor was great - very knowledgeable and supportive, and an all around pleasant guy. I really liked my classmates as well. I spent a lot of time studying, and made sure my time in class was productive and focused. I received a job offer upon completing the program, as well as an offer to be an intern for a company with the idea of becoming permanent after 3 months. As some of the other reviews say, I think if you are ready to put in a good amount of work and study (and be sure to pair with people, even if you don't really want to every day!), you'll get a well-balanced and valuable background in entry-level web development from Epicodus. The tone at...

Overall I give Epicodus 5 stars. I got what I needed out of the experience, and am now employed in the tech industry.

The most valuable part of the program is being in a room with a large group of people that are at the same level of experience as you. This is invaluable. The networking, collaboration and pair programming experience really accelerated my skills. Working with a team on final projects and solving problems together added a new level in learning that was lacking in online resources I used previously.

The curriculum is largely very good. The inclusion of text resources to back up videos was awesome. The only frustration I had with it was when it was being updated while I was in a course. Sometimes I would read up for the next week, and by the time I got to working on ...

I went into epicodus because I was curious. They introduced me to programming and I was instantly hooked. You start with the basics of learning a markup language (HTML) and applying basic styles with CSS. You will gloss over a lot of fundamentals of programming like how to make a for loop, or basic debugging techniques. You will get to know a little bit about everything.

The rest is up to you. You need to study on your own time. You need to make programming your whole life while you are at Epicodus and the only person holding you accountable is yourself. Because Epicodus covers a little bit of everything, you need to take the time a learn a lot about one thing. As an example, they'll teach you basics on JavaScript, but to really harness the full power of JavaScript you're going to n...

I took courses at Epicodus a while back, and am now working full-time as a developer. The classes offered a personal and effective education and provided a good network and valuable work experience. I got portfolio pieces, an understanding of the industry, and the tools to find a job all for a much more affordable price than other leading competitors. The staff are beyond friendly and helpful, and they make being successful possible and enjoyable.

My epicodus experience was great! I came in to the course not having a lot of coding knowledge. I left the course with a broad range of knowledge and new skills to improve my chaces in the tech world!

You can read all the reviews of the numerous schools, but the Department of Education recently reviewed many coding bootcamps to partner up with traditional educational institutions. Taking from their press release, this was their selection criteria:

["Innovating to Improve Outcomes: The extent to which the proposed activities will produce innovative, high-quality programs likely to lead to positive student learning and employment outcomes;

Equity and Access: The extent to which the programs will provide equitable access to high-quality postsecondary education programs, particularly for students from low-income backgrounds;

Quality Assurance: The extent to which the proposed quality assurance processes have the potential to address key questions about how best to evaluate and...

I attended Epicodus earlier this year and ended up finishing the program with a bad taste in my mouth. It wasn't all bad but there are some major concerns for Epicodus ( and programming bootcamps in general ) going forward.

Curriculum:

The curriculum is okay. They focus alot on the how and very little of the why of things. I commend them for making all curriculum available online but there are a lot of issues as it stands now. You will learn a lot about basic web development and how to use version control, and how to plug and play various frameworks to drive your applications.

What you won't learn is how to actually program. The standards are very lenient when it comes to code review ( the daily peer review didn't really occur in my experience ) and essentially everyone "passes...

After staying at home with my children for 7 years, I was ready to get back into the job market with them in school full-time. With 7 years out of any income-earning work, my resume was not exactly going to pull the crowds. I decided I wanted to pursue software development and was delighted to find Treehouse and Code Academy and Code School. After working through a number of modules, I realized that I needed humans. I could ace every challenge and exercise but I had no one to ask questions, no one to feed off of, no one to explore ideas and possibilities. Though I am perfectly capable of working independently of others, I realized I needed to be more plugged in to the coding universe. I wanted to find a network of people to be a part of on the adventure (and the pursuit of turning...

It was a tough, but very educational experience. The staff are fantastic and work hard for you to succeed (as long as you put forth your own effort. I wish I could have slowed things down to go into more depth on certain things and refine my portfolio, but I did okay and the consensus among my peers was that it was a great educational experience. I took a full-stack path of PHP, Drupal, JS, and other tech, and feel like I went from zero to Jr Dev. Doesn't rhyme with hero, but good enough! :)

Why did I go

I decided to attend Epicodus in order to switch from game development to web development. I had done some entry level learning myself prior to attending, and wanted a structured, fast-paced experience to capstone my transition. I attended prior to the new structure (there was no intro class), so I had to demonstrate basic HTML, CSS, and JavaScript understanding in order to be accepted. The application and interview process was a breeze, and they put a lot of emphasis on making sure I was the right kind of person for their program, not just capable of graduating.

Format & logistics

The biggest attribute that set Epicodus apart for me was the pair programming aspect. As an extrovert and social learner, this was perfect for my learning style. I was also seeking an all...

I took and graduated from the August 2015 PHP cohort. Before enrolling into the class, I had zero professional programming experience, although I had done a little bit of learning on my own thru Treehouse (teamtreehouse.com, a paid site where you can watch videos on the programming languages you want to learn. Ironically, Epicodus gave free treehouse subscriptions to students which I didn't need or use at the time, but I wish I had now that I am not a student). This is not a review of just trying to bash Epicodus or the opposite of saying how awesome they are. I am going to give my entire experience, a lot of it will be good and some of it not so good.

I heard about Epicodus thru someone I had met at a CodeOregon meetup group. I had expressed interest in going to a programming bootca...

I can't say enough about Epicodus. I shopped around a fair amount for other boot camps before commiting and truly believe I made the right decision. The atmosphere is very friendly and welcoming to people of all walks of life and I'm happy to have such a diverse network of fellow programmers now. The location was perfect as well, right in downtown Portland so we were in easy striking distance to lots of tech meetups. We also had lots of speakers from nearby tech companies come in and speak about various topics.

But the most notable thing to me is that Michael (the founder) actually believes in this as a cause and is not in it purely for the money. He could be charging triple what he charges but wants to keep the costs low so it's accessible to everyone. I believed him when he said he...

Hi, I am very glad to have attended Epicodus. It was affordable for me and I liked what I had read and heard through my research. I moved sight unseen to the city and was happy with the location and school.

We had daily stand ups, pair programming, projects and internships. The school curriculum changes through each iteration/cohort but its changing for the better as they work out kinks from student feedback. They are also growing and adding more courses. For example, part time classes versus full time or courses broken into 5 weeks so you can mix and match rather than follow one specific track.

After my time at Epicodus, I worked with a wonderful company as an intern and short term employee. Many different things spawned from my experience. I started learning pentesting and go...

Epicodus was a great way to dive into coding as a beginner!
A big piece of advice I'd give to potential students is to make sure that coding is what you want to learn, and what you want to do as a career. It's tempting to apply for a bootcamp because of the opportunities (and $$$) out there for web developers, but you won't be able to take advantage of those if you don't like to code or really want to excel at it. Epicodus gives you everything you need to achieve your goals as a beginner, but you have to also really go for it!

I loved the environment at Epicodus. It's a combination of providing a good structure for learning on your own and reinforcing that knowledge with others. Nobody gets left behind and nobody gets too far ahead. So you're either learning because peers are helping, or because you're teaching peers. At the same time, you get tons of hands on experience while building apps. In general this place gave me a great platform to learn how to program. That along with hard work and some persistence opens the doors to a great career in programming!

I loved my time at Epicodus. Being new to programming, I relied on my instructor for help, and she went out of her way to assist me whenever I needed help. I enjoyed the pair programming learning style, good for students who talk their way through challenging code - and found the curriculum to be relevant to industry demand. After I finished Epicodus, I got a chance to intern at a web agency where I participated in a team sprint and worked alongside senior developers. Epicodus continues to help students after they graduate- while applying for jobs, I got regular assistance with my cover letters and resumes, job leads, and help with interviews and salary negotiation. One of the most helpful things to my web development career has been the Epicodus alumni network, which I still keep in to...

TL;DR: Epicodus was a fantastic experience for me, and I would wholeheartedly recommend the program to anyone looking to learn how to code, up their skills, and/or make a career change.

I started to write my review of Epicodus, then scanned the reviews already posted here, and pretty much all the positive things I wanted to say have already been said! Brace yourself for some repetition....

I came to Epicodus mainly in order to change careers. I'd always liked programming but hadn't been able to study computer science formally in the past. I was on another career path entirely, but hating it the deeper in I got. A year ago, I decided to take a chance and pursue programming and software engineering on a 'non-traditional' path. I was certainly impressed initially with Epicodus's v...

You will find a new passionate at Epicodus like hundred students have done. This fantastic course just takes 4 months but give you all necessary background and sharp tools to jump into the coding market. After the course, they will help you going through processes of preparing for interviews, joining an internship and then finding a job. Epicodus is one of the best decisions I have ever made.

I started the course without any coding experience. I was overwhelmed at first 2 weeks but then I fell in love with coding quickly. Their lessons are easy to learn and upgrade my coding skills by days.

I definitely introduce Epicodus to friends who are looking for a place to start a new great path.

The Epicodus web development program has changed my life. Epicodus emphasizes not only technical skill, but other desirable behaviors like pair programming, git and test driven development. I particularly enjoy bringing together all of the parts of a web application: testing tools, database, ruby and the front-end development tools to produce a well-running, efficient, and beautiful web application.

Attending Epicodus has been a pivotal experience in my life. I had the time of my life: learning to program, getting to know my wonderful classmates, and having great support from the people who work there, but it wasn't a walk in the park. There were times I found it difficult struggling with new material every day, over the course of four months. However, by following the instructions in class, doing the homework, and ask my classmates for help, I have come out the other side with more than I ever thought I could learn.

In class, we learned some of the industry's tools and techniques. The prominent of these was pair programming, programming with a partner. At times, it was the most challenging and rewarding way to program. Learning from each other and helping each other every day h...

My experience at Epicodus was great, it’s one of the best decisions of my life. I came in with a few tutorials and online classes in Javascript and Python and a foundation in HTML and CSS, by no means hirable at that point. Epicodus was the only bootcamp I could afford, and I did my research and found a lot of happy alumni, so I saved up working as a server and signed up for the Spring 2015 Ruby/Rails class. Once I got there I worked like a maniac and learned a ton. If I was confused or wanted to learn more, I did that here and there on the weekends (I wouldn’t recommend working a job if you can help it). I ended up with a good internship and 3 job offers (1 from my internship and 2 of them from the job fair). I prepared to be out of work a few months after just in case, because Epicodu...

If you're someone who wants to get into web development but don't know how, Epicodus is the place to be. The transition from learning the materials, to internship, and transitioning into the web development world has been smooth! But do note, you get what you put into it too! If you're only here for a job and not putting effort with what you're learning, then you're going to have a tough time looking for jobs and learning the materials! Employers will see that in your work/portfolio. Networking has also played an important part of my succcess. I met people who were in development during the course, volunteered to work on projects and etc..this helped strengthen my skills as an applicant for jobs. I had a nice fancy portfolio to show with my proven skills - my current employer told me...

I applied to only one program, Epicodus. I loved the value, the duration and that there was an internship at the end. I loved Pair Programming, which allowed me to meet and work with different people. Loved the teachers. Even though there's only one teacher per thirty students, it teaches you to find the answers on your own, much like in the real world.

Pros: Price/value, network, internship

Cons: Job market is tougher than expected, no fault of Epicodus, but there are many grads coming out and not as many jobs as I can see.

I've started learning programing (PHP track) at Epicodus starting August 2015. Both instructors (John and Diane) are super helpful and the curriculum is very hands-on and project based. Whenever I have questions, they will always be here for me to answer and they seem very experienced. The projects we are doing are very down to earth real life problems so that you can easily apply the skills learned in actual job in the future. Epicodus also provides 5 weeks internship opportunity with local companies after we finish the program successfully. Comparing the price with other boot camps in bigger cities like nyc and sf, Epicodus is a much much more affordable. So overall, I think it's definitely worth it if you are thinking about going to bootcamps to switch fields but don't have too much ...

Epicodus has a lot going for it and a lot that could be improved.

The good:
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The price of Epicodus for what you get is fantastic compared to other offerings. I spent about three years learning web development on my own, and eventually, I was ready to get on the fast track, so I chose to attend Epicodus. When I entered, I was way ahead of the pack; most students didn't seem to have a lot of experience going in. Nothing wrong with that, but just something to keep in mind. After a month, I was glad to have development experience going in because it really ramped up. It is definitely a tough program, which is good imo. The founder, Michael, is humble, charismatic, and overall, a cool guy. Most of the staff are friendly and happy to offer help. The big screen iMacs ...