I'm a self-paced learner not a 14-week crash course hero

You Can Do This!
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Hi everyone,
I enrolled in a bootcamp for free pretty much, but I’m in way over my head. Most of the people in the course already have years of experience in the material and have actively been studying web development related topics on their own .

I have no experience in web development and virtually no coding experience except for an intro c++ course I took in college last year. We never made it to class objects in the course so my understanding of code is still pretty rudimentary and that’s not to mention that I don’t know my way around a terminal. I really only understand how to use a computer on a level that’s just a handful of terminal commands above a basic level (browsing the web and saving and deleting files)

The program I feel isn’t suitable for me based on the way that I learn; I like having been exposed to material related to something I’m learning that’s new. I’m currently taking courses to study computer engineering, but I’m still in the very beginning of the program. I credit being able to stick with the program to having had taken classes that build on each other prior to the next class. I start school again in the Fall and feel it would be more productive for me to focus on reviewing all the math and science courses I can prior to the first day of classes. I’m already incredibly nervous about going to the school because I’ve never been to a competitive school, and I know it’ll be hard, but I’ll at least have what I learned from previous courses at my previous school on which to hinge my learning, TA’s, office-hours, labs that reinforce my learning… I don’t have anything to reference in my experiences to help me keep up in the bootcamp, and the sort of programming I’ll be studying at the school has a different focus.

I’ve stated some of this to one of the instructors to initiate my withdrawal, but the instructor recommended that I stay one more week and see how I feel then. I honestly don’t see staying another week as beneficial because I’m already behind on 8 assignments and hours of lecture videos and I’ve done my best up till now (even hired a tutor once who’s a Carnegie Mellon alum working as a web developer and whom I can’t really afford). As far as I can see, now is the most benefit I’ll get from program. I’ve already said I’d try through next week, but I’m already decided on withdrawing. How can I make myself more clear without feeling too bad about going back on saying that I’d give it another week?

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You do not have to justify yourself or negotiate.
If you are someone who struggles with confrontation and getting pushed around in these scenarios, they key is not to get sucked into a debate. Don’t worry about justifying yourself or responding to their attempts to convince you.

  • “I am withdrawing from the program, effective immediately.”
  • “Just give us another week!”
  • “No.”
  • “You’ll regret it if you do!”
  • “No.”
  • “Why don’t we set up an appointment to talk about what’s go wrong?”
  • “No.”
  • “Why would you quit.”
  • “Because this program is not a beneficial use of my time. I have already made my decision.”
    Etc. Don’t get sucked in. It’s not a debate; it’s a decision.

You also could just, you know, leave.

If they push your buttons and you want to push back, you can tell them that they absolutely should not have admitted you into the program. The fact that they accepted you despite your lack of experience is a big red flag about the quality of this program.

Don’t let this get to you too much. Go to school in the fall and focus on your degree. Forget about the BS bootcamp.

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@ArielLeslie coming in with legit advice, as usual!

The only thing I would add is that you can work on Free Code Camp challenges if you want to continue to brush up on your coding. There are a lot of good folks here on the forum that are willing to help.

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Wow, you sound just like my uncle. I’m hearing his voice here and in our last conversation a couple weeks ago. Thanks for keeping it real and understanding my situation.

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Good luck. You got this!

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