For the record. Devbootcamp would not have been possible without HN.

Just over a year ago I posted this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3267133

And this community's response is what convinced me to ditch my startup and start devbootcamp.

I only know very few of you people in person, but I'm sincerely grateful for the impact you've had on my life. Thank you!

Another "Boot" here, graduate of the Spring devbootcamp cohort. I was accepted almost exactly a year ago.

That post was a major turning point in my life, as it was exactly the kind of thing I had been looking for, to transition to what I really wanted to do. Eventually it led to my current job.

Edit: Interestingly, looking back at the comment thread for that post, I see this comment, where someone responds to a skeptic by saying that he picked up Django and got a job using it from 10 weeks of self-study.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3268469

Similarly, after the 8-week DBC, which used Rails, the job I got used Django, but I was able to pick it up quickly enough.

No offense, Shereef, but I prefer it to Rails ;-)

I'm grateful that you are grateful because you have had a big impact on my life.

As am I. (We're both DBC grads.)

I am about to graduate from DBC; also grateful. I have an M.S. in Information Science & Technology (and my first 3 semesters were in Computer Science). Dev Bootcamp taught me more about programming--and more importantly, how to work with other programmers--than grad school did in two years.

And I heard about it here on HN.

I fully support the focus on education and I really hope this next decade could be the start of the "Golden Era of Education".

To me DevBootcamp is CCE, and CCE has been around for years (what is cce: http://www.ccc.edu/programs/pages/web-design-basic-certifica...). Unfortunately I don't believe CCE is at all effective in training people on being programmers or designers.

So here's my throwdown: Is DevBootcamp really effective or is there a participant bias? Would DevBootcamp's employment percentage be just as high when applied to the general population that would take CCE; unemployed, unskilled?

Disclaimer: I was involved in CCE with two colleges for about 7 years and frankly I see the whole thing as a scam. I would love to see that industry get shaken up.

edit: wording, formatting

Disclaimer: I'm the founder of Dev Bootcamp Chicago.

Tough to argue at this point that there isn't participant bias. Time will tell, particularly as we increase the number of participants in 2013. I've spent a significant amount of time at several different programs like Dev Bootcamp and found it to be the most effective program out there. It is truly immersive with students spending 80-100+ hours/week in the trenches with over 40 hours/week of structured learning. More thoughts at: http://nuts.redsquirrel.com/post/37111323801/of-feet-doors-a...

Good luck! Honestly I think you'll have to make a choice between a high success rate or a large number of people trained.

To use an example, think of no-kill-shelters vs pounds. No Kill shelters can boast a high success rate and a low return rate because they only handle a fraction of the animals a pound handles. Not only that but the no-kill selects animals they believe will be likely to be placed and leaves animals that are not good candidates.

Someone has to be a pound, willing to take in any animal off the street and give it a chance, while at the same time admitting that it just does not have enough space for every animal and that tough decisions will be a result.

Someone else has to be a nokill shelter, willing to select those that seem the brightest and invest to give them the most opportunity available while leaving the others.

Its pretty crazy that students can learn more practical skills in 2 months there than by majoring in CS for 4 years at many colleges.

I wonder though if there could be a more independent model for this kind of thing. Perhaps like the "N-reduce" of programming bootcamps.

Check out Bloc http://www.bloc.io/

I guess that's somewhat similar, but it still costs $5k. I was thinking more of a group that gets together and codes for a few weeks, and somehow finds a mentor to help them when they're stuck.

$50k for a bootcamp probably* beats the ROI for a similar stint at a for-profit college. Those colleges are able to finesse government-backed loans for their students though.

* Citation needed

Where did $50k come from? Dev Bootcamp costs less than a querter of that.