Top Online Coding Bootcamps vs. Computer Science Degrees

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• Cod­ing boot­camps offer quick, focused train­ing often last­ing a few months, while com­put­er sci­ence degrees pro­vide com­pre­hen­sive, in-depth edu­ca­tion over sev­er­al years.
• Boot­camps are usu­al­ly more afford­able and have flex­i­ble sched­ules. Degrees require more time and finan­cial invest­ment but offer a broad­er edu­ca­tion­al foundation.
• A com­put­er sci­ence degree offers improved prospects and high­er salary poten­tial after you com­plete the program.

Undoubt­ed­ly, the demand for tech skills is at an all-time high. And it’s not just big tech com­pa­nies like Google and Apple after work­ers with high-lev­el com­pe­ten­cy in cod­ing and com­put­er science…

Job oppor­tu­ni­ties are plen­ti­ful in busi­ness­es and orga­ni­za­tions, big and small. Not only that but with the appro­pri­ate train­ing and expe­ri­ence, you could even pur­sue a career as an inde­pen­dent con­trac­tor, work­ing when­ev­er you want and for the clients you want, too.

But first, you need to get the rel­e­vant train­ing. Two pop­u­lar options are online cod­ing boot­camps and com­put­er sci­ence degrees. This guide will help you set a course if you’re hav­ing trou­ble decid­ing which path best fits your needs.

Relat­ed:

• Top Bach­e­lor of Com­put­er Sci­ence Degree Programs
• Guide to Accel­er­at­ed Com­put­er Sci­ence Degrees for IT Professionals
• Best Online Schools for a Bachelor’s Degree in Com­put­er Science
• Com­put­er Sci­ence vs Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy What’s The Difference?

What is a Coding Bootcamp?

Think of a cod­ing boot­camp as a short-term, intense learn­ing expe­ri­ence focused on project-based train­ing. These pro­grams typ­i­cal­ly don’t require you to have any cod­ing expe­ri­ence at all; you’ll learn the essen­tial skills need­ed to fill IT-relat­ed jobs in indus­tries across the coun­try. This includes train­ing in cyber­se­cu­ri­ty, web devel­op­ment, and data sci­ence, to name a few.

Cod­ing boot­camps have been around for well over a decade, and with each pass­ing year, they seem to grow in pop­u­lar­i­ty. The pri­ma­ry rea­son for this is sim­ple — there aren’t enough knowl­edge­able IT work­ers to meet demand. For exam­ple, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics pre­dicts job growth of 32 per­cent for infor­ma­tion secu­ri­ty ana­lysts in the com­ing years. Many oth­er IT-relat­ed fields are expe­ri­enc­ing sim­i­lar growth.

To meet demand, cod­ing boot­camps con­dense exten­sive train­ing into a few months. These boot­camps come in all sorts of for­mats — in-per­son, online, part-time, and full-time. In each case, you are part of a pro­gram with struc­tured learn­ing activ­i­ties. How­ev­er, boot­camp cer­ti­fi­ca­tions (apart from cer­tifi­cates of com­ple­tion) sel­dom exist, and boot­camps do not result in degrees of any kind. 

What is a Computer Science Degree?

Some IT-relat­ed jobs require you to have a for­mal col­lege edu­ca­tion. Entry-lev­el posi­tions in many indus­tries can be found with a two-year associate’s degree. Many oth­er jobs are avail­able only to appli­cants with a four-year bachelor’s degree.

A typ­i­cal IT associate’s degree intro­duces you to essen­tial con­cepts in the field. You might take cours­es in cyber­se­cu­ri­ty, soft­ware devel­op­ment, and data­base devel­op­ment. A bachelor’s degree builds on these top­ics with advanced stud­ies in IT fields. For exam­ple, you might take class­es on:

• big data
• data min­ing
• net­work architecture

You can tai­lor your learn­ing expe­ri­ence with elec­tive cours­es. So, to sup­ple­ment the gen­er­al IT cours­es required of you to grad­u­ate, you might take class­es focus­ing on:

• arti­fi­cial intelligence
• app devel­op­ment
• oper­at­ing systems

Some IT jobs require you to have a grad­u­ate degree, though. A master’s degree is usu­al­ly one or two years of high-lev­el stud­ies that build on your bachelor’s degree pro­gram. For exam­ple, if your bachelor’s degree is in infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy, you might pur­sue a master’s degree in com­put­er secu­ri­ty to acquire the advanced skills need­ed to take advan­tage of the high need for work­ers in that field.

Regard­less of the sub­jects you wish to study, you can find sol­id IT pro­grams at vir­tu­al­ly any col­lege or uni­ver­si­ty. Many pro­grams are avail­able in per­son and online, and in part-time or full-time formats.

Key Differences Between Coding Bootcamps and Computer Science Degrees

While both online cod­ing boot­camps and com­put­er sci­ence degrees offer many sim­i­lar fea­tures, there are some sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­ences to be aware of:

• Dura­tion: Cod­ing boot­camps are much short­er and require far less study­ing and time com­mit­ment than com­put­er sci­ence degrees.
• Cost: Cod­ing boot­camps are far less expen­sive than com­put­er sci­ence degrees.
• Depth and Breadth: Com­put­er sci­ence degrees offer a greater lev­el of depth and breadth; boot­camps typ­i­cal­ly focus on one area.
• Type of Train­ing: Cod­ing boot­camps tend to focus on hands-on train­ing that quick­ly facil­i­tates the devel­op­ment of rel­e­vant skills. Com­put­er sci­ence degrees have this com­po­nent as well as a strong basis in the­o­ret­i­cal knowl­edge. This means you’ll have both the foun­da­tion­al knowl­edge and the nec­es­sary skills for an IT job.
• Cre­den­tials: As not­ed ear­li­er, many IT jobs require at least an associate’s degree. Get­ting a com­put­er sci­ence degree might open more career pos­si­bil­i­ties, giv­en the offi­cial cre­den­tial you earn.

Pros and Cons of Coding Bootcamps

Cod­ing boot­camps offer some sig­nif­i­cant ben­e­fits, but they don’t come with­out some detri­ments of which to be aware.

Pros of Coding Bootcamps

• Hyper­fo­cused cur­ricu­lum that helps you build impor­tant job-relat­ed skills
• Offers an accel­er­at­ed tech edu­ca­tion with less of a time com­mit­ment than a tra­di­tion­al degree
• Quick­er entry into the workforce
• High­ly acces­si­ble with few require­ments for entry
• Cod­ing boot­camp costs are sig­nif­i­cant­ly less than a typ­i­cal CS degree

Cons of Coding Bootcamps

• Hyper­fo­cused cur­ricu­lum is lim­it­ed in terms of breadth and depth of tech indus­try skills
• Many boot­camps are at least 16 weeks, if not longer, so it’s still a sig­nif­i­cant time commitment
• Qual­i­ty varies great­ly from one boot­camp to the next
• Boot­camps don’t offer degrees or pro­fes­sion­al cer­tifi­cates that indi­cate an edu­ca­tion based on indus­try standards

Pros and Cons of Computer Science Degrees

Online CS degree pro­grams also offer a num­ber of advan­tages that make them a sol­id choice for prepar­ing for a career. These pro­grams aren’t with­out some areas for con­cern, though.

Pros of Online CS Degree Programs

• Wide­ly rec­og­nized degree that adheres to indus­try standards
• Com­pre­hen­sive edu­ca­tion that includes the­o­ry and foun­da­tion­al skills as well as prac­ti­cal skill-building
• Access to col­lege or uni­ver­si­ty resources, includ­ing com­put­er labs, library ser­vices, career coun­sel­ing, and tutoring
• Net­work oppor­tu­ni­ties with fac­ul­ty, your peers, and pro­fes­sion­als in the community
• Many online CS degree pro­grams have field­work com­po­nents for real-world experience

Cons of Online CS Degree Programs

• Most pro­grams are two to four years in length; master’s degrees are one to two years on top of that.
• Col­lege degrees are expen­sive — the aver­age col­lege edu­ca­tion costs near­ly $36,500 per year, accord­ing to the Edu­ca­tion Data Ini­tia­tive. How­ev­er, numer­ous cheap com­put­er sci­ence pro­grams are worth a look.
• Com­put­er sci­ence cur­ric­u­la can become out­dat­ed very quick­ly; your train­ing might need to be updat­ed soon after graduation.

Career Outcomes

One of the most impor­tant com­po­nents of the cod­ing boot­camp vs degree debate is the career out­comes for grad­u­ates. After all, you’re seek­ing addi­tion­al edu­ca­tion to advance your career at the very least, if not find a new job.

When com­par­ing com­put­er sci­ence degree val­ue with cod­ing boot­camp out­comes, it’s obvi­ous that a degree offers improved prospects after you com­plete the pro­gram. This is evi­dent in two dis­tinct ways: the types of jobs you might qual­i­fy for and the start­ing salary you can expect.

*Accord­ing to Indeed

Note that the salaries list­ed above are the aver­age. Your start­ing salary might be less, but your income can improve sig­nif­i­cant­ly with more train­ing and expe­ri­ence. You would like­ly make more with a com­put­er sci­ence degree rather than a boot­camp certificate.

In both cas­es, you’ll have skills that are in very high demand. The focused, prac­ti­cal skills you gain in a boot­camp are often desired for entry-lev­el posi­tions in this field. The broad, advanced knowl­edge and skills you acquire in a degree pro­gram are typ­i­cal­ly in even high­er demand and can lead to mid-lev­el and high-lev­el careers.

Choosing the Right Path

Ulti­mate­ly, the deci­sion between get­ting a com­put­er sci­ence degree and par­tic­i­pat­ing in a boot­camp comes down to your learn­ing style, how quick­ly you want to gain rel­e­vant skills, and your per­son­al career goals. Everyone’s tech career paths are dif­fer­ent, as are the com­put­er sci­ence careers peo­ple pur­sue. Like­wise, your finan­cial sit­u­a­tion might play a part — if you can’t afford col­lege, a boot­camp could be a good solution. 

Here are a few tips to help you find the best cod­ing boot­camps and com­put­er sci­ence degrees:

• Rep­utable source: Con­sid­er the source of the train­ing. Whether it’s a boot­camp or degree pro­gram, you want it to be offered by a respect­ed orga­ni­za­tion or school.
• Learn­ing for­mat: Choose a pro­gram that fits well with your learn­ing style and schedule.
• Focus: Con­sid­er whether the boot­camp or degree pro­gram offers train­ing in the spe­cif­ic areas in which you’re interested.
• Career place­ment: Inves­ti­gate the program’s career place­ment ser­vices and job place­ment rate for graduates.
• Rely on third-par­ty sources: Use rank­ings for top boot­camps and com­put­er sci­ence degree pro­grams to help guide your search. 

Above all, reflect on your per­son­al and career goals. Your needs and wants as a stu­dent and future com­put­er sci­ence work­er should be the dri­ving forces in your pro­gram search. If need be, con­sult with your school’s coun­selor, a men­tor, or an admis­sions rep­re­sen­ta­tive for addi­tion­al guid­ance on find­ing the best program.