Zip Code Wilmington bootcamp review

Hi, I’m Patrick, I write about the job search. After graduating from Cornell, I became a content lead at UBS where I helped professionals at Fortune 500 companies understand their stock options, salary, and benefits. When I’m not writing about the hiring process, I write novels for teens. Check out my review of Zip Code Wilmington.

What does Zip Code Wilmington do?
Who is Zip Code Wilmington for?
What does Zip Code Wilmington cost?
Ratings and reviews of Zip Code Wilmington
Alternatives to Zip Code Wilmington
How does Zip Code Wilmington compare to Pathrise?

What does Zip Code Wilmington do?

Zip Code Wilmington is an online bootcamp that prepares people for a career in data science or software engineering. The program is intensive and full-time, known for its fast pace. All courses are now online due to COVID-19. Therefore, students can participate in live classes with 1-on-1 support from anywhere.

Students in the 12-week full-time Java bootcamp meet Monday-Friday from 9am to 5pm MST. They spend over 100 hours working each week. The curriculum teaches students the ins and outs of software engineering, working with Java, JavaScript, Typescript, JUnit, Maven, MySQL, and more. Students also learn version control, framework, Agile methodology, and practical insights into the day-to-day life of a corporate software engineer. They participate in live lectures, workshops, speaker events, and more.

The part-time data science course lasts 12 weeks and teaches students all the skills they need to land entry level data science jobs. To be successful, students in this course are also expected to put in over 100 hours of work per week. Classes meet Monday-Friday from 9am to 5pm. They feature lectures, workshops, speaker events, labs, group projects, and coding homework. Students learn to analyze and visualize data using Python, R, SQL, and many different frameworks and pipelines. The course also teaches students data ingestion, processing, extraction.

Both courses include job assistance. Students work closely with experienced mentors and have access to hiring partners, including Barclays, Capital One, Comcast NBC, Bank Of America, and more. The curriculum also features resume workshops, LinkedIn optimization, networking assistance, and interview prep.

Who is Zip Code Wilmington for?

People with no experience in data analysis or software engineering who are looking to move into these careers could benefit from the bootcamp. The program is especially helpful for people who are based in Wilmington. People who are working full-time and cannot commit long hours to the program should likely not apply.

What does Zip Code Wilmington cost? How much work is involved?

Tuition for any course is $12,000. Students pay $6,000 upfront. Then, the rest of tuition is forgiven if a graduate is hired by a corporate partner and stays employed for at least 26 weeks. However, if a graduate isn’t hired by a corporate partner, they are expected to pay full tuition once they land a job.

Needs-based scholarships are available for low income students to cover the $6,000 deposit.

Before applying, students should familiarize themselves with the fundamentals of coding, including equations, loops, expressions, inequalities, and basic Java or Python. Zip Code Wilmington offers free coding resources on their site to help students prepare. The admissions process starts with a brief written application. Next, candidates take a 200-minute coding assessment. Depending on their score, they attend a group interview with coding activities. Selected candidates participate in a final 1-on-1 interview. The acceptance rate is about 12%.

Zip Code Wilmington is considered a “full-time-plus” as their courses require more than 100 hours of work a week.

Ratings and reviews

Zip Code Wilmington has generally positive reviews. They hold a 4.8/5 star rating on Career Karma and have been listed among CourseReport’s top 30 courses for over 3 years. Zip Code Wilmington students praise the program for its intense curriculum and positive learning environment, but some graduates have mixed feelings about the course’s pace.

The top reviewer on Course Report describes the program as “life-changing” and is confident students “will make friends, and you may even make family.” Another graduate was impressed by the curriculum and positive atmosphere, remarking “I enjoyed the community and the resources that were available to me.” However, the grad warns “this course is hard” and “some people don’t recover from the break down. This will challenge you to the core of your being.”

The program holds a perfect 5-star rating on SwitchUp, where students praise the course for pushing student’s limits and providing lots of personalized support. One student was impressed by the supportive staff, describing them as “tremendous people across the board who want nothing more than for you to succeed.” However, the student warns “it’s hard” and that “the time commitment is REAL.” Another grad agreed, saying “your life for 3 months will be nothing but code but it’ll be worth it in the end.” Overall, reviewers seem satisfied by the instruction, curriculum, and the tech skills they gained from the program, but felt the program could be extremely demanding.

Alternatives to Zip Code Wilmington

If you decide not to enroll in Zip Code Wilmington, there are a number of alternative bootcamps and courses that can help aspiring software developers and data analysts.

The popular bootcamp General Assembly offers full-time, part-time, and 1-day courses on software engineering, data science, UX design, digital marketing, product management, and more. Read more about General Assembly in our review.
Another well-known coding bootcamp is Fullstack Academy. They teach part-time and full-time software courses for aspiring software engineers and cybersecurity professionals.
You can also consider Kenzie Academy, which offers remote and in-person software engineering courses as well as UX design and front-end engineering. Learn more about Kenzie Academy in our review.
The bootcamp Thinkful has tracks in software engineering, UX/UI design, and data science. Like Zip Code Wilmington, the program is praised for its career service team.
Similarly, Nashville Software School, Clarusway, Georgia Tech Bootcamp, allWomen Academy, GW Bootcamps, Rutgers Bootcamps, and Codeup have courses in full stack web dev and data science.
The Colorado-based bootcamp Turing offers courses on front-end and back-end software development. Like Zip Code Wilmington, Turing is known for being “full-time-plus”, requiring a commitment of more than 50 hours a week.
People seeking data science courses can check out Metis. They offer part-time introduction courses, plus both onsite and online bootcamp options. Learn more about Metis in our review.
In addition, aspiring data analysts can look into Data Science Dream Job. This flexible online program teaches students all of the fundamental skills they need to launch their career as a data analyst.
Similarly, DataCamp is an online resource with over 300 courses on data science subjects. Courses last about 4 hours.
If you prefer in-person classes, check out Magnimind or Principal Analytics Prep, which have full-time and part-time data science courses.
Aspiring software engineers and web developers can also consider CodeX Academy, a self-paced coding bootcamp with mentorship opportunities. Learn more about CodeX Academy in our review.

More alternatives

The well-known bootcamp Lambda School offers 9-month courses in web dev and data science. Students have the option to pay for the program with an income share agreement (ISA).
Similarly, Holberton School, Rithm School, and Byte Academy are bootcamps with courses in software engineering and data science that offer ISA options.
Another option is Grand Circus, which teaches courses on Java, front-end, and C# .NET. Their campuses are in Michigan, but they also offer online options.
Likewise, Tech Elevator, Epicodus, and Redwood Code Academy are software engineering bootcamps with online and on-campus options.
Or, check out Kal Academy, which works with women and underrepresented groups on software engineering, web dev, and data.
Students may also consider Udemy, which has thousands of affordable video courses on software engineering and data science, along with many other topics. Individual classes cost around $10 each.
Similarly, 365 Data Science is a low-cost and low commitment option to learn data fundamentals. In the same vein, FourthBrain has part-time, online machine learning courses.
Codecademy is one of the most popular coding programs on the web. They offer free courses on many different programming languages and even data science. Their membership options range from $20 to $40 per month for greater course options and support. Learn more about Codecademy in our review.
Students interested in online learning can also check out Udacity and Springboard, which host courses on a variety of different topics including data science and software engineering. Read more about Udacity and Springboard in our reviews.
Similarly, Treehouse, Simplilearn, and Pluralsight offer low-cost software engineering and data science courses. These options could be perfect for students seeking self-paced education on a budget.
Finally, they can consider edX, which is another popular online learning platform. They host 3,000+ courses from top universities like Harvard and MIT as well as big tech companies like Microsoft. Their courses cover a wide variety of tech and even humanities subjects, including web dev, data science, and much more. Learn more about edX in our review.

How does Zip Code Wilmington compare to Pathrise?

Zip Code Wilmington is an intensive bootcamp for people interested in learning the skills needed for a career as a software engineer or data analyst. While an interest in tech is recommended, most students start with no prior experience. Pathrise fellows should already have a background in their chosen field to benefit from the technical curriculum.

Our program is flexible. There are only 4 hours of group sessions per week and fellows can schedule 1-on-1 sessions whenever they need help. Alternatively, Zip Code Wilmington requires over 100 hours a week.

Pathrise assists fellows with all stages of the job search. We focus on technical and behavioral interviewing as well as resume and LinkedIn optimization, portfolio building and strengthening, cold email and reverse recruiting lessons, and negotiations. The Pathrise income share agreement (ISA) means that fellows don’t pay anything until they land a job they love and start working. We help fellows find a job anywhere, not just within a marketplace of partner companies.

Pathrise works with students and professionals 1-on-1 so they can land their dream job in tech. If you want to work with any of our mentors to get help with your technical and behavioral interviews and optimize your job search, join Pathrise.