Springboard

A little background: I'm currently about 25% through Springboard's Data Science Career Track program. My professional background is in higher education. I recently completed a PhD in philosophy and have experience teaching undergraduate philosophy courses. I have minimal background in math beyond the high school level, but my philosophy degrees have prepared me for the sort of technical and critical thinking skills used in data science. I'm doing the Springboard program to make a career change. I completed most of Springboard's Data Science Prep Course, which I found helpful, before being accepted into the Career Track program.
Review: Overall, my experience in the Career Track program has been pretty good so far. My impression is that the quality of one's experience with the program depends largely on the quality of one's mentor. My mentor was initially pretty poor, and I had a difficult time understanding his accent. But I reached out to Springboard early in the program, and they helped reassign me to a new mentor. Thankfully, my new mentor is excellent and has dramatically improved my experience. I'm in a study group with other students, and I've gotten the impression that their mentors are so-so. I have learned a lot so far in the program, and I've been especially happy with Springboard's "customer support" (very friendly and helpful) and career support (they get you started on job stuff early on in the program). A fair portion of the data science curriculum (so far) has consisted of Datacamp exercises. Springboard partners with Datacamp, and students get free access to Datacamp courses. Honestly, I haven't been that impressed with the Datacamp courses. They are helpful for gaining superficial exposure to tools and skills used in data science, but they don't cultivate a deep understanding. I will say that the time estimates Springboard gives (completion in 6 months, working 15-20 hrs a week) are pretty unrealistic. Most of my study group (including me) is working on the course full time, and we are all on track to finish in 5 months (at the earliest), and probably more like 6 months. Unless you already have significant data science experience, don't expect to finish the program in under 5 months, and possibly even under 6 months.
Overall, given my experience so far, I would probably recommend (pretty highly) Springboard's program to people (depending on their circumstances). I'm happy to discuss my experience with people if anyone would like to know more, especially people with an academic background in the humanities. You can find me on LinkedIn and around the web if you look (e.g. philpeople.org). Feel free to reach out.

The Springboard Data Science Career Track 6-month course has taught me a lot.  The curriculum is set up very well.  You start by learning Python basics, then go into inferential statistics, machine learning, software engineering, etc.  Throughout the course there are 2 major capstones that you build from scratch.  The links to my projects are below.  I've learned so much but please do not think that you can spend 10 hours a week on the course and complete it.  I spent 3-4 hours every night during the week and some weekend days working on the course.  And I will mention that I did not do the job guarantee since I already enjoy working at my current company so you will need to add more time to do the job guarantee sections.

Overall I highly recommend the Springboard Data Science Career Track.   It is kind of pricy but they do have payment plans.  I personally did not pay for the course as my company picked up the cost but just remember that you get what you paid for.  

I can't wait to start applying my knowledge to the real-world!

Capstone 1: https://github.com/brocknosbisch/Springboard_Capstone_1
Capstone 2: https://github.com/brocknosbisch/Springboard_Capstone_2
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brocknosbisch/

I enjoyed the Springboard UX Career Track program! Haven taken other UX design curriculums, Springboard’s coursework was much more up-to-date pulling a broad range of resources which I appreciated when thinking about real-world application. My mentor has become a life long mentor who was very supportive of my particular UX journey. I enjoyed that capstone and research projects which were more personalized compared to other UX programs I’ve participated in. This allowed me to stay highly engaged throughout the coursework.

Pros:
- Self-paced and flexible programming
- Optimal Resources 
- Unique project opportunities
- Responsive Staff

Cons:
- It could provide a more compelling and accurate pricing structure that reflects the average completion time for students.

The Business Analytics course was very beneficial for me to understand this career path. I like to analyze data and this course allowed me to analyze data in different ways and by using various tools. You are very fortunate if you have a motivating mentor. I almost always had technical issues with my laptop but my mentor and I were able to overcome those and we managed to still make it work. Apart from technical issues my mentor was very knowledgable and through in his analysis. I learned his excellent presentation style and wish for myself to be as eloquent as him.

My experience with Springboard was also very good. The various advisors I worked with were accomodating to my challenging situations and worked with me to help me complete my certification till the end. Overall I had a fantastic experience and if I they had more courses that interest me, I would take it in the future and also would tell my dear and near ones about Springboard.

The Springboard UX Career Track is a great option for a UX design bootcamp if you're looking for something that's not crazy expensive, would like some flexibiity in schedule, and would like some guidance in what steps to take and what topics to learn more about if you're trying to switch career paths into the field of UX. The curriculum is completely online and self-paced, so it is completely feasible to work a full-time or part-time job while completing this bootcamp depending on how much time per day you would like to commit. The weekly mentor calls with a working UX professional and scheduled calls with a career coach are also super helpful. They also offer on-demand mentor calls if you would like to discuss your projects/curriculum more that once a week. The Career Track specifically also offers a six month job guarentee where you get continued career coaching for the next six months after completing the bootcamp as long as you finish all the bootcamp requirements within the set time. Overall, I had a great experience with Springboard! I just finished the bootcamp and am currently job hunting. 

Making the transition from a 10 year career in Marketing to one in UX Design was a big career change for me but I'm happy I've made the jump. Coming from someone with no design experience, the course work was easy to follow and challenging in some areas, but everything was do-able (it just took me a little bit more time to complete).

In terms of the curriculum, flexibility, staff support, and design projects, I will say that the UX Design Career Track is a well rounded course compared to all of the other online options. I felt guided and supported from start to finish and I'm really thankful I get to have continued career coach support for 6 months after finishing the course, to ensure I find a job. 

I'm proud of the work I was able to create with the help of my Springboard mentor, and I'm excited to immerse myself in the UX Design world.

I chose to do the UX Design course with a goal of completing within 3 months. I was lucky to be paired with a mentor with many years of experience and he was instrumental in taking my capstone project to the next level. He was available and flexible to meet my tight deadline for completion and I am grateful for his support through the whole process. The content itself is easy to work through and when I did have a question regarding the curriculum, my mentor was able to quickly answer and clarify. This is a great course for people looking to see a glimpse into the UX process and I think a great starting point! There is so much more to learn of course but I feel I have the real-world skills to start incorporating these into my daily routines as a designer. 

I had a statistics degree and moved to the US from a 3rd world country.  My skill set wasn't a good match for the data science community in the States. I needed a boost and found Springboard.

Unlimited mentoring is a gem. Thanks to all the mentors I have bothered.

You can ask your questions to  TA's. They say they will return in 24 hrs. It takes more than that but they return for sure.

Weekly mentor calls feel unnecessary at first but they are almost not enough towards to the end.

Got my job offer before finishing the course. Definitely, suggest it.

Enrolling at Springboard was one of the best decisions I've ever made. I decided I wanted to be a data scientist while I was working on my Mechanical Engineering degree. A couple of months before graduating, I searched for Data Science bootcamps that could offer me a pathway to attaining a data science position. I found Springboard during my search and was really impressed by how intensive and rich the program was. Needless to say, enrolling has been one of the best decisions of my life. The assignments, reading and projects really help prepare you to be a data scientist and the career support is world class.  I would highly encourage anyone looking to get the skills to be a data scientist, to really consider enrolling in Springboard.  

I never read 5-star reviews, but I'm writing one because I really enjoyed my experience. I finished the 6-month program in 3-months because I was determined to stop being a teacher. During my journey, several people really helped me. My mentor was The One. Well, my first mentor was great but I couldn't understand his accent. So I asked to switch to someone that was impressed by my presentation. This guy was amazing! He gave detailed, incredible feedback and always pushed me when I tried to half-bake an assignment. The next BIG HELP was actually a student that everyone respected in our Slack board. He always shared resources and provided feedback. And the last was the career coach. He was really insightful and laid back. I had issues with my Industry Design Project initially because they started me two weeks late, but that was more of an issue with the company and not Springboard. I could've saved $1k if they'd started on time, but that's the way the cookie crumbled. 

Towards the end of 2018, I was looking for a UX bootcamp to make the career pivot. After digging around, I decided to join Springboard's (SB) UX Career Track because with the job guarantee in place and affordable tuition, I felt reassured that it would be the quickest and efficient means to get into a new industry. 

Now that I'm done, I believe this was one of the wisest decisions I've made. What I liked the most about SB is that it is designed to be very resource-conscious, and even though they are an online program, you actually get a lot of one-to-one/real-life interaction. They are genuinely invested in your learning and success, and everyone I've engaged with through the SB network—from the administrative staff to mentors to fellow coursemates—are really smart and supportive individuals. You don't get the impression that they are just "running a business" or scheming to milk your every dime. The entire experience was very human.

The curriculum is also very thoughtfully designed. Even though at first I thought the idea of "curated content" rather than "original content" may be a downside, I have come to appreciate it. Because we are reading materials written by multiple people on similar subject matters, I have a better feel of the overall disciplinary discussions out there, and I feel like the knowledge is something I could confidently fall back on.

Even though this is an online/remote program, I am glad to see that over time SB is investing in more in-person activities and interactions, such as onsite community events. One of the three projects we had to complete was an industry design project (IDP) where we get paired with a start-up to do real client work. My student advisor, Dave Weiner (Hi Dave...), thoughtfully paired me up with a company that works with education, since I came from academia myself. The office of the start-up was also located really close to where I live, so I actually got to visit the office and meet the team in real life. Because of this human thoughtfulness, the whole internship experience unfolded much more smoothly and successfully, and in the end, I got hired back as full-time staff without having to go through endless rounds of resume (re)writing, etc.

The fact that the industry project turned into a real full-time position really helped me get the foot in the door (which is the hardest step really), so I don't take it lightly. But even without that luck, I do believe that in the current product job market, having real work experience is more important than learning of any shape and form, so having the IDP as one of the units was a huge advantage. Hopefully, SB will continue to invest in the IDP/internship program and expand their professional network, so that more students can continue to benefit.

Overall, I had a very nice experience with SpringBoard. The most useful resources to me are my career coach and mentor. 

My career coach is extremely supportive, and helped me throughout my interview process, and always gave me very prompt replies. Big thanks!

My (2nd) mentor is very patient, knowledgable and supportive. Always thinking from my perspective, and sharing all he knows about a problem. 

SpringBoard is also very supportive when I had to switch mentor two months into my program. I think it is worth the effort to find someone that is suitable for your background and situation. Don't settle down with someone you don't feel comfortable.

SpringBoard administation and student advisor team are also very responsive everytime I need help. 

One thing that may require improvement is the course material, which appears to be a big collection of online videos and articles. So after going through, I would not treat it as a structured course like from school, but rather a big libary with most things about data science up to now. The good thing is that I provides me a complete picture of what are the things available and need to know. But some people may feel overwhelmed if they try to completely read everything, and lose focus. My advice is that feel free to skip and bookmark some of them (most of them are free online materials that you can always access), but just be aware that they exist and come back when you really need them.