Appreciation post: found out my code bootcamp charges $12,000 and a guy in my cohort learned the same stuff for free in a library

Drew Torres · 2026-10-11T00:15:05.036189+00:00

So I started this part time coding bootcamp back in January, and it costs $12,000. I was feeling okay about it until a guy in my cohort, Marcus, mentioned he learned basically the same Python and JavaScript stuff for free. I asked where, and he said the public library downtown, third floor, every Tuesday and Thursday from 6 to 8, taught by a retired software guy named Hal. Marcus showed me his notebook. Same loops, same functions, same little projects like a to-do app and a weather thing that pulls from an API. I sat in on one session on a Thursday and Hal walked through how a for loop actually works using a stack of index cards. I'm not saying my bootcamp is bad, the structure helps me a lot, but $12,000 is a lot of money and now I keep wondering if I should have just gone to the library first. Has anyone else done a paid program and later found out there was a free version right down the street?

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Appreciation post: found out my code bootcamp charges $12,000 and a guy in my cohort learned the same stuff for free in a library | Coding For Beginners - Free To Speak