I had the day off, so I was walking around and eatin' stuff (it was Hazel's Northeast, which was celebrating being in business ten years by selling its famous Swedish Meatballs for ten bucks; Patisserie 46 for its famous chocolate cake and a hot chocolate; and Dunkin' Donuts, for a free donut on its Free Donut Fridays along with yet another hot cocoa) and thinkin' about it. I have thought a lot about going back to school for this Data Analysis bootcamp, and yesterday there were so many things that coalesced around doing it starting next week. They're doing Zoom meetings exclusively because of the pandemic, and that would be perfect because I can't really go out and do anything right now. The course is six months, and there is talk that things will open up mid-2021, just as I will get done and go back to doing things like normal.
The big hangup -- well, besides wanting to go back -- was money. I really did not want to plop down $11,000 on my own. But the other alternative was asking my parents for it. I think I knew this all along, but yesterday I finally came to peace with it -- that I didn't feel comfortable at all asking them for money to pay for this. I decided I would have to pay for it on my own, and even though I would have seek a payment plan that covers the tuition over two years, that would be the best choice.
So yesterday afternoon, after walking around Lakewood again, I called the recruiter for the first time in over a month and asked for a payment application for this 24-month plan. He told me classes actually begin Monday -- egad, or perfect timing, depending on how you want to look at it -- but if I could rush this funding application back to him by end of business yesterday, he'll send it up to his boss in the hopes of getting me starting on Monday.
That was cutting it way too close for me, so I asked when's the next bootcamp. He said March. That'll take me through the summer, and although the pandemic could stretch to Labor Day, I think that if vaccinations come quicker than that my eyes will be wandering in the hot months as people take off their masks and congregate in close quarters again. Plus, I wanted to visit my storage unit because I had some things I wanted to take care of over there (and to make up for not realizing I had my damn keys in pants all along). Once I came back, I'll take care of the application, and if I can zip it back to them before end of business day (whenever that is), I will.
So I do get home, a bit past 4. I open up my e-mail and see the link to the application, which is from a company based in the United Kingdom called Ed App. The first thing they ask me is my social security number, which ... well, I kind of expected that, but sending something so personal gave me pause, even if there was a lock on the webpage. And then, to the left, they're asking me to upload copies of my identification and address? What the hell? Really? I got scared off at what I consider to be red flags. So I logged off. I thought about going back, but after eating dinner it was after business hours, and then I doomscrolled, and then I fell asleep.
After I woke up I Googled something to the effect of "is Ed Aid/Trilogy (the company using the University of Minnesota's name for authenticity) a scam/ripoff" and, naturally, I got replies basically saying yeah, it is. The complaints are legion but familiar if you're pessimistic -- it costs too much money for what you get, the teachers and teaching assistants suck, I didn't get a job in programming after I got done, etc. All of this scares the hell out of me, so I am just going to call my recruiter on Monday and make up a lie -- I have to work in the evenings through the end of the year, when the Zooms are, and I will miss enough classes whereby I will not be able to take the courses.
But I have to be honest: The reviews about these bootcamps, and bootcamps in general, are not unanimously negative. Some of them are measured about bootcamps' limitations, but for their place, those reviewers understood the value of them anyway. Some people praised the TAs, or the professors themselves. And more than a few liked the education they got.
I can't say I'm torn between doing this and not. I've just been looking up ways to learn programming for free, and if I have the initiative, I can learn what I can without spending 11 grand. But there's something more existential about my flip-flopping that I don't like. While the majority of reviews say that Trilogy and Ed Aid are ripoffs and that people can do better, I have to be honest that I have been finding reasons not to do this, to not go back to school. And I found them. However, there are big, fundamental reasons I want to learn new things, and eventually go back to school. I want more money. I want a better job. I want to learn skills that will keep me employable as the world gets more automated. And I want to do this while I still have some means to finagle money and still have some time to spare.
It seems to me, at least according to racist chatboard Reddit, that a majority of people who have taken these coding/data analyst bootcamps felt cheated and would do something different if they knew better. But there are also a lot of people who were well aware of the limitations -- about these bootcamps and about themselves -- and have found a way to use what they learned anyway. They're making lemonade out of lemons ... and isn't that what life is about? I won't go through this life perfectly. There may be times I get screwed, maybe royally. But are those good enough reasons not to go out and get what you want if, eventually, it'll lead you to a better place, and self? Am I just shortchanging myself if I reject learning anything out of hand if I feel there is a chance I will feel I wasted ... something from it? Is there some level of getting ripped off inevitable?
See, a part of me is now thinking that I should bite the bullet and do this anyway, if only because not doing it will instead lead me to doing nothing at all, and that should be unacceptable. But ... dammit, I go back to feeling as though I will get ripped off, and so my decision to back out of this, again, has already been made. So I pull back, comfortable in feeling I have protected myself by not venturing out, and doing nothing.
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