Student Testimonials

Six months ago, I felt hopeless in our technology-driven world. I did not even know what an IP address was. The command line was like a black beast for me and I could not interact with a computer outside of a very friendly graphical user interface. I decided to enroll in George Washington University Cybersecurity Bootcamp.

My journey in the Bootcamp has been one of the best learning experiences in my life. The multidisciplinary approach of the curriculum helped me earned my CompTIA Security+ certification. Today, as I am graduating from the Bootcamp, I have a clear understanding about the tactics, techniques, and procedures an attacker may use for initial access, execution, persistence, privilege escalation, defense evasion, credential access, discovery, lateral movement, collection, command and control, as they compromise a victim’s network infrastructure.

Knowledge of attacker tactics, techniques, and procedures coupled with an understanding of secure network design gives me an edge when it comes to defending a network against cyber-attacks. This Bootcamp has transformed me into a cybersecurity professional who not only can leverage tools such as Nmap, Nessus, Metasploit, and many others to assess the vulnerability posture of a network, but also write rules in ELK stack or Splunk to continuously monitor network traffic and stop emerging threats in real-time.

This transformation would have never been possible without the dedication of exceptional teachers: Rashed Rabie who patiently clarified the misunderstanding I had and used [a] different teaching method to make the curriculum accessible for me; Ms. Niya Lester and Christian Tremp who, through their scaffolding techniques guided me to the solution of difficult problems, successfully building me self-esteem in the process; and our beloved administrator, Ms. Gemini Sanford, who has remained present throughout the Bootcamp to make sure we had had everything we needed to succeed.

I loved working with all my classmates and had an excellent instructor and very supportive and helpful TAs. My technical skills improved and expanded exponentially, but one of the most valuable things I got from the course was my confidence in my own ability to learn quickly and solve my own problems. By week 2 I was seriously worried about keeping up, but after the first group project I got used to the feeling of focusing so hard during class I thought smoke would come out of my ears, and I got through it! Now, starting a new job, there are a number of new languages/technologies I have to learn, but I know I can do it because I’ve adjusted to that process. That has been so valuable for me.

I wanted some level of technical higher education, but I didn’t want it to go past a year. I’ve always been interested in data and wanted to see if I could make a change into that field. There’s not enough for me to say about how it has impacted my life. I know I’m better because of it. It’s tough, it’s been tough, this program requires a level of discipline that I didn’t have at the start. It is both challenging intellectually and personally, but being able to not only understand but add value to technical conversations probably means the most. It’s inspired me to continue my own education as well beyond this program.

I choose to attend the program in March 2019, because I was at a point in my life where I was reconsidering my career path and wanted to change from [the] biology field to [the] IT field & more specifically in the development side. I’m more than happy with my decision to attend the boot camp, because I learned so many skills and tools. I have developed many projects individually as well as with a team, which really helped me with my job search. Even though I did not have the job experience, those projects I developed at the boot camp allowed me to show off my skills.

This boot camp came highly recommended and I am incredibly glad I decided to take the plunge and do it. I would not be on the career path I am now had I not taken the course. The structure and instruction were well-crafted, and the material was engaging and useful on the job market. The project-oriented nature of the class resulted in valuable deliverables which made my resume all the more competitive.

I’m a content migration specialist, but I didn’t have an in-depth knowledge of the front end and back end languages. Moreso the back end languages, so I wanted a full understanding of both. I felt like I was limiting myself a bit.

This class challenged me to think on my own. For a lot of the assignments and homework, we went over in class how to do the basics, but it really challenged you to think outside of that and research the answers that you needed.

What you get out of it is what you put into it. You have to put your all into it; you have to really, really work hard. It’s hard work, it’s sweat, it’s late nights sometimes, early mornings depending. I think I say that because personally, in the beginning I put hours in, but not extensive hours and I found myself falling behind for next week’s class. That’s why I say it really is what you put into it. So if it’s something that you’re passionate about, then you work at it and try to understand and retain what you’re learning, and it will get easier as you go along.

My experience was exhilarating, very challenging—only for me because I’m very hard on myself. I had great support inside and outside of the classroom. Everyone is extremely supportive, which is very surprising versus when I was in college—it’s not that level of support. It’s almost over-supportive, but I like that. You always have someone that you can lean on, and talk to, and guide you through, or help you through the entire six months of class. That made it a lot easier and more comforting.

I currently work on WordPress development at the state department. I wanted to get better at just coding from scratch. I was looking at other programs and this stood out because they had the school affiliation so I thought that was worth looking into and it was actually a really good program.

It’s intense. It’s six months, but you have to put a lot of work in outside of class. It’s a lot of new material, and things aren’t as easy as they seem. You have to practice a lot but it tends to come full circle.

Now I have a broader sense of my possibilities in terms of which career direction I want to go into. I’m kind of doing this at my current job, but now I have more openings and direction as to which way I want to go.

The overall experience was really good. It’s a challenging course that helps you get an overall sense of what full stack is. Of course, it’s not just overnight. You’re not just going to pick up everything from the start, but you know what to learn even after the course is done because you’re going to continue learning no matter what. I think it was worth it and I would do it again if I had to.

Don’t second guess yourself if you want to do it, I say just go ahead and do it. With the way the job market and technology is going, this is almost a perfect situation for someone to jump into—even if they don’t have experience or prior knowledge of computers, to have a new career in something that is probably going to continue.

In high school I took one class, it was a JavaScript class. I really liked it and that’s really what sparked it, and I wanted to pursue it afterwards. I knew I wanted to do a boot camp, and one day I was just on Google and I saw GW Boot Camp. It was convenient because I did not want to go out of state for a boot camp, and it turns out there’s one thirty minutes away, so it worked out.

The best part really was everyone who was with me, everybody else really came from the same position; no one really knew that much. Of course, there were people that knew their stuff, but it was just all the people around me, and being able to learn with them.

The most challenging part is probably when there’s some bug, and you can’t figure it out. You’re googling all night and you still can’t figure it out, and you ask a TA and they solve it in a snap. Really just put in all the effort that you can because it’s really all about effort. At first it’s going to be really challenging, you feel like you’re not getting anywhere but eventually, you’re going to fix that one bug and that one bug you solve is going to fix a lot of other bugs, and it’s just a continuous cycle.

The program is great, I loved it. It’s tough, but it’s good. I feel like I can really do more, just because being able to code is a very useful skill you can create websites, applications, and software. I’ve even had some people asking me for advice on a website already.

I chose to attend because I liked doing graphic design, but was having trouble finding opportunities that did not want you to be able to code. The program was great, it has given me new career opportunities I would not have had otherwise. I knew nothing about coding going into the program. As someone who had no experience with coding, the boot camp offered plenty of opportunities to catch up if I felt like I was slipping behind.

I chose to take this program to end my career in Finance and move on to a career in a field that I have always been interested in but never knew where to start. I chose GWU for the simple fact that it was geared toward adults who had daytime jobs and would only be able to attend classes part-time. It has greatly impacted my life because I no longer have a dead-end career in Finance and have acquired skills that will open many doors for me in my new career.

I’ve been trying to look for different coding classes in D.C. and I couldn’t get one that had a good camp—a very strong one. There were some choices, but I wasn’t interested in them after seeing their reviews. I’ve been trying to code myself, so once I got this GW Boot Camp, it was really interesting when I joined it.

Everything was to my liking. The instructors are so informed, and the TAs are so cooperative even out of school; at home when I’m studying, so it’s really been fantastic. I can say that it’s had a huge impact on me because it’s not like just saying “I have an interest in coding”—that is not going to bring you somewhere unless you have someone or something that can show you. So it brought me a very huge impact.

I can advise people, or someone who’s looking to join a coding boot camp, not to waste time. My previous background was in public health. I was a public health professional, and you have to do everything in the hospital. You have to communicate with the patient, everything. But, coding you can literally do anything wherever you are. Whether you are at home or on vacation, so it’s a really dramatic change—especially for someone who has strong social connections, to spend time with family, it’s really great. I’ll be advising people to join this kind of a program in the future.

I didn’t have any coding background before, I was just spending time on the internet and watching videos and doing some practice but that wasn’t helping me to succeed. Once I joined here, when I see people coding and when I talk to the instructors and TAs, their support and their advice has helped me a lot to bring more change.