Report: 92 Percent of Coding Bootcamp Students Graduate On Time
Last month, various coding bootcamp providers, reviewers and funders formed the Council on Integrity Results Reporting (CIRR), announcing their commitment to publish student outcomes data. Now, the CIRR released its first set of outcomes for students who attended a program during the first half of 2016. Among the highlights from the report: On average, bootcamps saw a 92 percent graduation rate, 80 percent in-field placement rate and starting salary of $70,412 for graduates.
CIRR standards claim to be completely transparent. “Schools that produce real results for students aren’t afraid of transparency,” according to the CIRR website. Skills Fund, a college loan company leading the CIRR effort, says it places student and public interests first. The company’s unofficial motto is, “We don’t finance students to attend crappy code schools.”
As such, CIRR requires members to report outcomes for 100 percent of students (including students who enrolled after the initial drop without penalty date). Each coding bootcamp provider is asked to compile a single, clear report that answers the following questions:
- How many graduated on time?
- How many accepted a full-time job in the field for which they trained within three months? Six months?
- How many secured other positions? (I.e. part-time jobs, short-term contracts, out of field work.)
- Did the school itself hire any graduates?
- How many students jobs are in fields outside of what they studied for?
- What are the salaries of grads who started jobs in their field of study?
In addition, coding bootcamp providers must have their annual numbers verified by an independent third party, such as an auditing firm.
According to the recently published data, most students who go through coding bootcamps graduate on time and land high-paying jobs in computer science-related fields like the programs promise. Hackbright Academy in San Francisco, for example, reported a 100 percent graduation rate and $100,000 median annual base salary for the 78 students covered in its report. Most of these students entered the CS field as software engineers (77 percent), front-end engineers (6 percent) and full-stack engineers (6 percent).
As another example, Code Fellows had an 83 percent graduation rate and approximately $72,286 median annual base salary for the 106 students covered in its report.
View the data on the CIRR site.
About the Author
Sri Ravipati is Web producer for THE Journal and Campus Technology. She can be reached at [email protected].