Coding With the Masters

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Learn-Co vs. Immersive; a review.

I’m currently about 2/3 of the way through the curriculum at Learn-co. Here are my observations based on my experience as well as others I have spoken to, both in the online course as well as in the Immersive (on campus) program.

Tl;dr It depends on your learning style. The online program is everything the immersive program is minus the stress.

I chose the online program mainly for practical reasons (I couldn’t afford to take 3 months off work). Throughout the program I have interacted with many of the other students, both in the online program and on campus. Each option has its pros and cons, here is my list of pros with each option:

Online:

  • Schedule: As mentioned, this was the main reason I chose online. Being that the program is online it can be taken at your own pace, at your own schedule. There are plenty of students like me holding down full or part-time jobs while going through the program as well. During my time in the program we celebrated the birth of our daughter and moved to a new house, all while holding down a full-time job. There is no way I could have done that in the immersive program.
  • Cost: The online program is considerably cheaper than the full Immersive one. You pay by the month so the quicker you go through it the less you pay (there were students who finished in as little as 4 months, though the average seems to be somewhere around 6–8 months). Furthermore, they cap the tuition at 8 months so even if it ends up taking you longer you don’t have to pay more.
  • Acceptance: The immersive program has tighter limits on who they can accept, both due to physical space constraints as well as the need for students to be able to keep up (see below), this results in somewhere around a 5% acceptance rate. The online course doesn’t have these constraints. It’s my understanding that pretty much anyone who has the stamina to make it through the free intro course can get accepted.
  • Stress: Being that the online course is not constrained by the 15 week deadline that the immersive is, there is less stress to keep pace. If you didn’t “get” a particular concept you are free to spend as much time on it as you need without the pressure of keeping up with the rest of the cohort.
  • Freedom to Roam: The lack of time constraints also means that you have time to go down down the occasional rabbit hole or side project to do something not part of the official curriculum (my Corneal Scaffold Generator would have never come to being if I was in the Immersive program).
  • Curriculum: It’s my understanding that the online curriculum is more comprehensive, going into parts that aren’t covered in the immersive due to a lack of time.

Immersive:

  • Stress: I know I mentioned this as a pro for the online course, but there are different learning styles and some people do better with the constant push and motivation of the high-stress bootcamp environment. Learning online means you have to have the discipline and commitment to be your own drill-sergeant, the Immersive program doesn’t let you slack off (snooze for a day or two and you will be hopelessly behind your friends).
  • Immersive: As the name implies, there is definitely something to be said about being immersed all day every day in a coding environment. I mentioned earlier that I had to take off for personal reasons, and each time it took me a day or 2 to get back in the groove. I can imagine that being immersed in a bootcamp environment for 3 weeks definitely helps you pick up concepts quicker in less hours.
  • Campus: This is somewhat tied to the last point. Most of the online Learners learn from home. At home it takes effort not to get distracted as much. There are always things happening, you are always needed elsewhere “just for 2 minutes”. If only non-programmers realized there’s no such thing as a “2 minute” interruption, it always takes at least 10 minutes to get back in the groove. Some students went as far as renting co-shared offices to learn from.

So in summary, it all depends on your learning style. If you are self-motivated, and disciplined the online program is a great option. If you learn better with the “push” that comes with being in a learning environment then the full Immersive program is probably best for you.

This is of course assuming that you have the right and resources for the Immersive program, otherwise your choice is pretty much made :)

Originally published at www.quora.com.

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