Alternative Programs To A CS Degree

These are all programs that are at least 2 years long and act as alternatives to a typical CS degree.

Originally planned for release on April 10th, 2017 but stuff happens. After interviewing with a few of the new and upcoming alternative long-term programs for CS education, I wanted to provide others a brief overview of how they operate differently. Most coding bootcamps are 2 to 4 months (8 to 12 weeks) long. These programs instead act as alternative options to a CS degree which is usually 4 years long. Common Patterns Found

gamification - thorough admissions process - all these programs will accept someone who is at least 18 years but some of them have upper age limits

Alternative Programs

Make School - Holberton School - 42 - Ada Developers Academy - Turing School - Galvanize - Horizons One - MissionU - Lambda School

Make School

🔍 zoom

2 years - 18+ - San Francisco, CA - coach/advisor - switch maybe - 2 core courses - twice a week for an hour - 2 classes - 3 times a week - 2 hours - advisor projects- 25 hours of work/week for courses - teach core courses - 5 6-week sessions per year - 2 sprints this fall vs 3 sprints this spring - two 15 weeks semester - fall shorter than spring - technical education - web/mobile development - 10 courses - fullstack web - 10 courses - devops/AWS - front-end web-dev - data science/ml/ai - gaming/VR - club - devices in IoT - gen. courses design, economics, product dev

Holberton School

🔍 zoom

Syllabus for the 1st year of their program - 2 years - 18+ - San Francisco, CA - internet projects with deadlines - always released at midnight - no formal lectures/teachers - access to resources that have more experience and knowledge - overlapping batches - staff here on-site who write most of the projects anyways - mentors who are available in a number of different channels (emails, slack, meetups (fireside chats), in-person) - no formal teacher - just uses mentor to provide up to date knowledge on whatever they’re working on - i.e. mentor who is a man who works in cyber-security in SF (Dave) - look over my resume - networking really important component of those who come in - constant feedback on program and how it is relevant in industry - we cannot implement things that we think are important - so whatever we’re teaching here - they have to be relevant for industry - mentors critique curriculum and provide feedback in different roles/companies - huge sense of comraderie and teamwork and collaboration –> important for us too - current student interviewing me - help other students –> status quo - focuses community, collaboration, and helping others, sharing knowledge - 1st 9 months –> 60 hours a week –> on-site intensive learning- - first 3 months- theories, fundamentals - C programming languages- - projects build up last one is “building a shell”- - next 3 months- front-end - back-end- - APIs- - databases- - uses Python- - not about learning Python but about understanding methods/routes and understanding OOP fundamental concepts so you could easily translate that syntax- - C projects don’t stop- - next 3 months- systems administration - devops- - next 6 months- full-time internship this can turn into job - full-time job - next 9 months- full-time specialization - part-time- - if a bunch of people in your cohort are interested in something specific - then that is a specialization that is created - has to be at least 4 people in a specialization- - no set group of specializations because industry changes every year- - specializations now: low-level algorithms, back-end engineering, system administration/devops/SRE (site reliability engineer)- - specialization can be done part-time –> meant with full-time job- - others are back full-time with specialization b/c they didn’t get full-time job after 6 months or they choose hiatus/quit- - majority choose part-time - cohort demographics (January 2017)- 50% female, 30 or 40% - 50% POC - average age range- most of students are in mid-20s to 30s - right out of high school- - at least 18- - 40’s, 50’s, 58 is oldest we’ve gotten - are any of projects given by a contract- all are created by staff here - staff members are not experts in front-end/UX/UI field- - so some you can collaborate with mentors - can you give me examples of jobs folks from your cohort have gotten- systems administration/devops roles - 2 people with Apple doing SRE- - 2 people with Dropbox doing SRE- - 1 with Docker as SWE- - 1 with LinkedIn as SWE- - 2 people with medical tech company as SWE intern- - full-time jobs right after Holberton but it’s definitely not the expectation- - 3 with scality as junior SWE

42

🔍 zoom

I would recommend using the game Lightbot to prepare.- A bulk of their admissions process to getting into a piscine involves solving puzzles exactly like ones you would find playing Lightbot but a bit more complicated. - There are also videos online… - 3-5 years - San Francisco - Free - ages 18-30 - certain time of life - very competitive - difficult - isolating - referral bonus - headhunting fee

Ada Developers Academy

🔍 zoom

Turing School

🔍 zoom

Galvanize

🔍 zoom

Horizons One

Horizons School of Technology

The Horizons School of Technology bridges traditional education and the world of technology. We give high-potential students the skills of an engineer and perspective of an entrepreneur.

The world’s first tuition-free technology co-op program

[pdf-embedder url="https://francescoronel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Horizons_Immersive.pdf"][pdf-embedder url="https://francescoronel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/HorizonsOne-ProgramOverview.pdf" title="Horizons+One+-+Program+Overview"]

MissionU

Data Analytics + Business Intelligence

If you are interested in something other than Computer Science, MissionU offers a one year program in Data Analytics + Business Intelligence. - It has a tuition deferral model which means you only pay once you get a salary of at least $50K.