On 7th April 2019, I landed in Dharamshala, the foothills of the Himalayas to attend a six month coding bootcamp with AltCampus and on 7th June 2019, after spending sixty solid days on coding every single day and creating a ton of stuff, I quit the program. Today marks a year since I moved out of the program and I have had a chance to reflect on what happened to me during that entire year and whether it was a good decision to leave.
From the moment I set foot in AltCampus, I felt like I was home. It reminds me of the feeling Harry Potter has when he says “I’m not going home, I’m going from home.” when boarding the train to leave Hogwarts after the first year. For the first time in my life, I found a community of people who spoke my language. They understood whatever I said and vice versa. This place felt like heaven and the tagline of AltCampus “The alternative to college you wish existed” was ratified. Spending time in a beautiful and peaceful setting with a panoramic view of the Himalayas along with people who have congregated for the purpose of learning how to code was probably the most amazing thing I can imagine.
If AC was so fabulous and I felt right at home, why did I quit the program after only two months? Why didn’t I finish the entire six month program and reap the benefits? The answer is personal to me and does not really reflect AltCampus’s education or life.
After spending two complete months coding intensively, I realised one major thing. Despite my interest in coding since age 11 or my presence on the internet since 1997, my penchant for coding has vanished. I want to live my life outside of the computer and coding doesn’t really allow you to do that, at least not in the beginning.
As you might be interested in how the course was at AltCampus, I will give you some details. The entire program is based around a concept of immersive coding, you learn from peers and from teachers (who are around your age) and you maximise learning through osmosis. You are provided with food and accommodation for a small fee every month and the course itself works on a fee model that involves you paying after you complete the program. To sweeten the deal, AltCampus promises you that you will get a job paying at least Rs 50,000 per month or you do NOT pay a single paisa. It doesn’t really get better than this in the real world.
I do feel that having little or no upfront payment also allows for some people to quit the program prematurely, maybe this was something that led to my decision, had I paid in full, maybe I would have had the incentive to stay. But by not having any large upfront payment, AltCampus is open to all regardless of income level.
My peers who were part of my batch (batch number 7 for the curious ones) who continued the program and graduated, got internships with a great company called BigBinary. I’ll go into the numbers later. After working with the company for a couple of months, they were each offered full time positions by the same company. AltCampus fulfilled its promise for them. The internship paid Rs 40,000/month and the full time job paid Rs 1,00,000/month.
By quitting the program, I could not fulfil my dream of building software products that I personally would like to see in the world and I will have to live with that because it is a tradeoff that I made. I decided that I do not want to sit in front of the computer for 15 hours a day trying to figure out where I forgot to insert the semicolon. My personal interests are more aligned towards telling stories through different media.
Do I regret leaving AltCampus?
No.
I loved the program, I made friends for life, I believe that it serves an important role in the future of the country and the world but for me, the decision is not one worth regretting.
Should you go to AltCampus?
Absolutely!
Having read this far, you probably sorely want to know whether AltCampus is worth picking up your bags and moving to Dharamshala for six months. The answer is a resounding yes! AltCampus is a fantastic place and the most affordable place to learn coding. It doesn’t get better than this for anyone. I wish this had existed when I finished my 12th in 2010. I would have jumped at the opportunity to learn the invaluable skills that I picked up at AC.
If you have questions, post them in the comments. You can head over to Altcampus.io to learn more about the program.
P.S. They had plans of launching an online program for coding. I don’t know anything about this. In personal view, they are special because of the live in-person classes and the immersive experience.