Northwestern Boot Camps

As a postdoctoral researcher in chemistry, I’ve dedicated much of my life to understanding the complexities of the molecular world. However, behind the lab bench, I always carried a fascination with coding—a field that seemed both exciting and inaccessible. I had started learning on my own multiple times, but each attempt ended halfway due to a lack of structure and support.That all changed when I enrolled in a coding boot camp. Entering the program, I had no prior experience—coding was completely new territory. But this boot camp became a game-changer. It provided a clear, structured path and the motivation I needed to stay consistent. It wasn't just about learning to code—it was about building a new mindset.Throughout the program, I developed a diverse and practical set of skills, including:

• Python – my first programming language, now a powerful tool in my toolkit.
• VBA Scripting – to automate tasks and workflows, especially useful for Excel-heavy work.
• SQL – to extract, manipulate, and analyze data from databases efficiently.
• JSON – understanding and working with data in this widely used format, especially in APIs.
• Web Scraping – gathering real-time data from websites using tools like BeautifulSoup and Selenium.
• Tableau – creating interactive dashboards and telling stories with data.
• Machine Learning – diving into predictive modeling and data-driven decision-making.

The teaching approach was hands-on, project-based, and supportive. Instructors made sure we not only learned the theory but applied it in realistic scenarios. From writing my first lines of code to building end-to-end data projects, the journey was intense, empowering, and deeply rewarding.What stands out the most is how this boot camp bridged the gap between my scientific background and the world of tech. I now have the confidence to apply these skills in research, automation, data analysis, and even explore new interdisciplinary paths—like the intersection of chemistry and artificial intelligence.For anyone with a passion for learning but no technical background, this experience proves that it’s never too late. The boot camp didn’t just teach me to code—it helped me reimagine what I’m capable of.

To resume my career after a career break in the financial industry, I wanted to have some value in addition to my skills when I came across Northwestern’s Fintech Boot Camp. Indeed, it proved to be my right decision and my journey during this Boot Camp was remarkable. I was blessed with a fantastic Professor( Mr. Erik Larson), great TA (Mr. Michael Wenner), well organized content and awesome resources. My teacher’s support allowed me to learn in depth about the cutting-edge technologies, such as Python, Pandas and the applications of machine learning, time series analysis and financial modeling in the financial industry. I would , without reservation, recommend and encourage anyone  who is interested in learning technology in the field of finance to participate in Northwestern Fintech Boot Camp. 

I have always had a strong interest in coding and web development. I contemplated a career change a couple times but never pulled the trigger on it. I am currently working in the health and fitness industry, which has always been a passion of mine, but over the last couple years I have battled a couple surgeries that stem back from my baseball days. While recovering from these surgeries, I did some research and came across the Northwestern Coding Boot Camp. I knew it was the perfect opportunity to finally make that change I always wanted to. This industry has endless opportunities, and always challenges you to learn and grow. I am glad I finally took the step I have always wanted to and pursued coding and web development. 

I have had a great experience with the Northwestern Coding Bootcamp. My instructors are experts in the course material. I can't believe how much I have already learned in such a short time. They push you to learn and want you to succeed. I feel that the course material is perfect for beginners, even though some of it may be a little outdated. It starts with the basics and ramps up. Understanding the basics in a new industry, especially program development, is key to being successful. The structure of the course is great and keeps you on track to learn as much as you can. The boot camp is challenging but rewarding. 

Some advice I would give to prospective students is to make sure you have the time and desire to put in the work. It is very demanding, even for a part time boot camp, but as long as you put in the time you will get a ton out of it. During the boot camp, you also have access to educational resources and career resources, which are key to your success. Take advantage of these resources as they are very helpful. Especially if your goal is to land a job in this field. 

My journey at Northwest Coding Bootcamp has been nothing short of transformative. As a Business Systems Analyst, I had the chance to dabble in development projects which I thoroughly enjoyed. Despite the gratification these projects offered, I recognized my self-taught skills had limitations. Craving a more solid foundation, I found the bootcamp to be an ideal conduit for enhancing my knowledge base.


The bootcamp's structured curriculum and rigorous environment were exactly what I needed to bridge the gaps in my understanding and skill set. The experience was challenging yet exhilarating, pushing me to new heights in my professional development journey.


The instructors and TAs stood out with their deep expertise and unwavering support, creating an enriching learning atmosphere. I am immensely grateful for their guidance and the practical wisdom they imparted.


I wholeheartedly recommend Northwest Coding Bootcamp to anyone seeking to elevate their proficiency in development and coding. It’s an invaluable investment for those poised to leap into a career in tech.

The data analytics program is blessed with great TAs and a fantastic professor who does his best to make the class entertaining despite the material being challenging. With the support from the teaching staff a student will succeed if they put in the effort to learn and keep up with the coursework. After being in a beginner analytics role and finding this program through Google's algorithms, I cannot overstate how happy I am to have started on this journey and how useful the knowledge has been.

I am a recent graduate of the cybersecurity boot camp with Northwestern University. I do not have an IT background. I am transitioning into IT from teaching. When I started this boot camp, I did not know anything about a 'terminal,' or that it even existed, beyond what movies show you. I went from absolutely zero knowledge of IT, to graduating from my cohort with an A+ grade. The cohort will be rigorous, and it will push you to your limits! You will doubt yourself many times, but if you push through and stay the course, it will be the best experience of your life! The instructor was amazing, along with the TA's! The career center will guide you as you transition into the field with real feedback on your resume, and online profile. If you follow the process, you will learn so much! I'm so glad I chose to earn my certification in cybersecurity through Northwestern University Boot Camps! My journey is just beginning, and yours can too. Good luck on your journey!

I decided to pursue a boot-camp after doing a few projects at work that involved coding. I knew if I wanted to pursue programming as a career I would need a solid knowledge base, so I decided to sign up for this class pretty last minute and hoped for the best. This boot-camp experience has exceeded all of my expectations, I have learned so much, our teacher is wonderful and actually works as a full time software engineer and did a boot-camp herself, so she is very up to date on the technologies used in the workforce and can relate to us through her own boot-camp experience. The homework assignments are often tricky but a great challenge and very helpful for learning. I was nervous that I would regret signing up and wouldn't love it, but it has made me even more excited for a career in web development. Before signing up for this class it would be advantageous to have a little knowledge of programming and be ready to commit to this class because you'll probably be spending 6-10 hours a week on the homework/class work. 

 I completed the Northwestern Data Visualization course in May 2020.  This class is well worth the time and tuition.  Big Data has arrived and it’s changing our world for the better.  Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are disrupting almost every category of our lives.  This class was a good introduction to a collection of the most important fundamental concepts of data science.  Expect a rigorous curriculum. The assignments are challenging and have purpose.  I never asked the question “why am I learning this?” The instructors and TAs are solid and available for help if you need it.  The class has been designed to keep you up to date with the latest data science concepts, applications, and programming languages like Python, R, and SQL.  Basic concepts in statistics are taught in this course.  You will learn how data scientists use statistics to analyze structured and unstructured data sets.  In addition, you will learn exploratory data analysis, trend analysis, and data visualizations.  The main benefit of this class is exposure. It moves too quickly to fully master everything taught in class.  The skills acquired by the student will have to be honed through continued self-study. The class lecture videos, notes, and assignments are saved and made available to help the student accomplish this.  Some of the things I learned during this course helped me pass the FDP examination. It has become the benchmark certification for students interested in finance and data science.  www.fdpinstitute.org.   The classroom at Northwestern’s Wieboldt Hall is a big plus for this program.   It is a good location and provides a great academic environment.  Current events necessitated remote learning with Zoom for the last part of the course.  Online classes were conducted successfully, but I missed the interaction with the instructors and networking with other students.  I hope future students will be able to have this classroom opportunity soon. 

At first I debated between enrolling in the Data Science and FinTech Boot Camps at Northwestern University. Ultimately I chose FinTech recognizing the curriculum is Data Science with a Finance focus plus the opportunity to attain a more technical understanding of blockchain technology. My experience has been challenge met with great satisfaction upon solving problems and project completion. I think projects which become part of your personal portfolio are a great way to showcase the skills learned in Boot Camp and is work you will admire looking back at. The instructors and TAs have all been excellent teachers sharing industry knowledge and best practices. Overall I view the FinTech Boot Camp as one of the best educational hacks to upskill into a FinTech and/or Data Science career. The course is very practical and covers many tools to help you excel in the workplace. The advice I would give is to give yourself a head start using free online resources to come in with some knowledge of the programming language you will be learning and brush up on your statistics! Following these tips you will be more confident and learn faster.

Thinking back on my experience of the course, the first word that comes to mind is ‘whoa’. Now after completion of the course, I am thinking what else can I learn and accomplish. I will explain why.  The course was not easy at all. I describe it as one the most difficult accomplishments I have achieved in my life. Most definitely something that I am proud and brag about quite frequently. Instructor William Wright and all TAs will understand the concepts behind decision making of the code that I write. My biggest take-away, was the ‘How’ to tell a story with data.  Another thought of my appreciate of this data boot camp is the instructor could have thought the course of out-of-box, meaning just taught of code, followed instructor notes, and taught us bare minimum. Well that did not happen! Get felt great to know the course was not a waste of time and money.  After each assignment I gain more and more confidence because support was always there when I wanted it. 

                It hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel, when learning something new.  In the beginning of the course, I thought to myself, how can I use this new knowledge to better my career and make more money. After the Python homework assignment, it was clear that I had required the knowledge needed to create opportunities to advance career and make more money. Now it feels great to be in control of my future. However, now having these new knowledge powers, I needed help channeling my power to display for employer. This is where career services come in. I will admit after graduation I was exhausted and had little energy to focus of getting my resume, GitHub and LinkedIn prepared to become employer ready, because I felt I had already exceeded my personal expectations. Michelle Licata, my career coach, help me find a second wind and even help guide me through some personal issue that made it challenging to keep moving forward. Most importantly with Michelle’s coaching I landed my current position as a Business Intelligence Analyst for Uptake. 

                I also have a new model I commandeered from Angelica Baraona, “think of learning as if you were drinking water from a water hose,” which really resonated and help me understand I wasn’t expected to learn everything all at once. Reminded me that classes were filmed, slack, and class repositories are all resources that will be there after the conclusion of the course. I saw that as placing a bucket under the water hose while drinking lol. Knowing I could come back to review and continue my education post-graduation give me more confidence that I can do it. 

                I recommend the Data Science and Visualization Northwestern Boot Camp to friends and family. I am also looking for ways to stay involve with the program and taking different course next year. 

I graduated from Northwestern's data science Bootcamp in February 2020. The Bootcamp is a very fast-paced and intense learning experience. I had Python, Postgres, and the basics of HTML knowledge before joining the Bootcamp. However, Bootcamp helped me put that in practice, along with data science fundamentals. I particularly loved the support I got from Travis (Instructor) and TA(s), as well as batchmates. I am talking about my capstone in almost every interview I go through.

 I highly recommend this course to shape your career as a data scientist, especially if you come from a non-technical background!

I am currently enrolled in the Coding Boot Camp at Northwestern. My experience so far has been very positive given my non-technical background. I was introduced to the world of web development in 2016 while working at a digital marketing firm that offered website and application development services. At the time I was a content writer and curious to learn about code. My interest prompted me to apply to the Northwestern Coding Boot Camp.

This course does an excellent job of introducing beginners to the fundamentals of web development. Students gain extensive knowledge about data structures and algorithms and successfully develop original applications. Application development encourages creative thinking, a vital skill required for success in the field. Industry work ethics such as teamwork, time-management, and effective communication are also taught via app development projects. The program offers an impressive cohort of teaching assistants and tutors. These experienced tech professionals assist students with their projects and weekly assignments while providing an overview of trends and best practices in the workplace. The course material is challenging at times. However, there are great support systems in place to ensure student success. 

For those looking to transition to a career in tech, I recommend enrolling in Career Services. The Career Services team helps students create career materials such as resumes, cover letters, and portfolios. They provide opportunities to attend panels with engineers at companies like Google. Additionally, students participate in year-round recruiting events with firms like Deloitte, Bank of America, and Liberty Mutual. 

Every component of the Northwestern Coding Boot Camp is designed to help students achieve their academic and professional goals. From learning code to interview training, this program allows students to have a competitive edge in the field. 

I had a great experience learning at Northwestern's Data Science and Visualization Boot Camp. The instructor was knowledgeable and presented the materials in a way that was fun and challenging. Both TA's were wonderful and engaged with the students, very helpful with their guidance. Outside of the 10 hrs of classroom learning per week, plan on at least 25-30 hrs per week on homework, group projects, tutoring, and office hours. Its a very fast paced program, and there is a lot to learn. The materials were up to date, and the staff showed us real world applications. I can't comment on the career services portion, as I'm just starting out on that, but so far my contact has been helpful and responsive. 

I have worked for tech companies but more on the business, operations, and analytical side. I started my own income stream recently and wanted to learn some more technical knowledge to further enhance my capabilities so I can wear more hats. I was a bit hesitant at first but did a lot of research on Bootcamps before deciding to move forward. I am happy I made my decision. I worked alongside brilliant minds with interesting backgrounds. In 6 months, I went from not know how to code at all, to knowing 4 languages with levels of confidence, heavily advanced my mathematical knowledge, and now actively building apps, APIs, and machine learning models with datasets to further increase my skills. 

Before joining, where was I?:
- I am college educated (non engineering or computer science)
- Worked for innovative and fast paced companies
- No knowledge of coding
- Well above average understanding of statistics

How much work is there?
- Most of my work was outside the class. I spent countless hours outside of class daily to work on the assignments, read more resources, documentation, etc. It takes a ton of work, so you have to be ready
- Ability to learn on your own; yes there are a lot of resources from classmates, teaching staff, and tutor help. however, you will have so many questions that you have to learn how to answer them on your own. 
- Never lose confidence; They pack in a few years of advanced information with a 6 month time period. It can get overwhelming and stressful. Take it one step at a time. Trust me, it will all come together but you must work at it.

What am I able to do after?
- I am working on various projects. I am currently building an API for a product that I currently sell. I will be able to share that API with my business partners to sell my product digitally online outside of my own website, and collect necessary data to further enhance the experience. 
- Machine Learning models; if you are like me, I was looking forward to machine learning more than anything, but that is not something you can just jump into as a beginner. START STUDYING STATISTICS. This will help more than anything, the code is there, but the math is the most important. took me several months of a lot of research and practice, but now I am able to make models and neural networks in Python.
- Building visualizations was a pleasant surprise, while doing it learning and building in JavaScript. very necessary tools for so many businesses
- I didn't do this to find a job, but I have learned so much and fairly talented at it, so I am even debating on pursuing this side of things...however, I have classmates that found a job during, and others that are actively interviewing for positions related to what they learned. They have an amazing post grad career services. 

I'm in the homestretch of the Northwestern University (Evanston campus) part-time, 24 week bootcamp. I had originally signed up to help round out my graphic design skills, as many positions wanted some type of web development experience (from updating a wordpress site all the way up to SQL database maintenance). What I got from the course was so much more than that.

While the course FLIES by at a blazing speed, you learn so much every class. I've equated it to learning to speak Chinese in that you're learning one language, but also several dialects that go along with it. It's not an easy feat. The instructors and support are excellent and very knowledgable and enthusiastic. Many will go above and beyond when asked for assistance, be that in person or via Slack.

I have a couple of downsides, but they're not dealbreakers by any means.

• I do wish more time was devoted to the front end portion vs. the server/database side, but that's a personal preference, as it's where my interest is. We stop at Bootstrap, but it's widely considered that Materialize is a superior option. While we're equipped with the means to parse documentation, I would've benefitted from learning hands-on.
• I wish the activities were updated from time to time to reflect changes. For example, we're told early on to replace var with let and const, but all the activities don't. Sometimes our instructor would say "they have ____, but I would do _____ instead." While there's any number of ways to reach the same goal, it would be nice to have the sense that the instructional team and Trilogy are symbiotic. Sometimes the homework assignment instructions were a little convoluted or an important part was buried elsewhere one wouldn't know to look. A streamlining to the Gitlab materials would go a long way.
• And finally, while it's definitely a real-world application, as it's like 60% of any given workday, getting "Google it" as a response to a question is not the most ideal answer, considering the cost of the course.

Those elements aside, this is a very worthwhile course. Know going in there will be a lot of work and a large time dedication and what you get out of the class is what you put into it. Know that you may run into full-brain syndrome during any given class or coding session. It's normal and will pass. Rely on your classmates, Google, and other research sources and put in as much time as you can and need. 

I took the part time, 24-week fullstack web development boot camp. The course was a very informative overview for someone like me coming into it with no prior coding experience. It was definitely a challenge, but they emphasized the time and effort it would require when I applied so I was expecting that. I got what I had hoped to get out of the program, which was a software development job immediately following my completion of the bootcamp. My complaint would be that I wish even more time was spent on React. Forget the two days of python and just spend more time on React. The more learning and practice you can do on your own outside of the program, the better off you will be.

I graduated in computer science in 2004 but didn’t really work in the field. Now I wanted to pursue my career again and needed a fresh start. Northwestern boot camp turned out to be a great opportunity for me. The curriculum was very challenging but very up-to-date. You will get exposure to as many new technologies as possible.  I attended it part-time but still, it went so fast. They have all the help available, if you are willing to put your time and efforts, it is well worth it. The TA’s are helpful as well and they also provide one-on-one tutoring. They also provide video walk-through for most of the assignments which were very helpful for me. Each assignment was very well explained in great details. The instructors were very dedicated and experienced.

The career service is a great help as well and they offer different opportunities to showcase your projects. The team is very friendly and extremely supportive. You can sense they want you to succeed. Because of this boot camp, I am in the market again. Though I still feel I need to learn a lot, I feel more confident as the projects were very close to real-world experience. Most of all now I know WHAT I need to learn.

If you have a gap in your work and want to update yourself, it is a great option.  It is challenging and fast-paced but totally worth it. Overall I had a wonderful experience.