A review of Digital Creative Institute as a tech bootcamp

Hi, I’m Patrick, I write about the job search. After graduating from Cornell, I became a content lead at UBS where I helped professionals at Fortune 500 companies understand their stock options, salary, and benefits. When I’m not writing about the hiring process, I write novels for teens. Check out my review of Digital Creative Institute.

What does Digital Creative Institute do?
Who is Digital Creative Institute for?
What does Digital Creative Institute cost?
Ratings and reviews of Digital Creative Institute
Alternatives to Digital Creative Institute
How does Digital Creative Institute compare to Pathrise?

What does Digital Creative Institute do?

Digital Creative Institute offers online bootcamps to aspiring digital marketers, data analysts, and cybersecurity professionals. They also provide 12-month apprenticeships in digital marketing and data analysis.

They offer 8-week and 12-week online bootcamps in digital marketing, cybersecurity, and data analysis. Students participate in live lectures, hands-on projects, and weekly 1-on-1 mentoring sessions. Moreover, the 12-week program includes extra career services like employee-centric portfolio building, intensive career coaching, and the opportunity to pitch a project to 4+ hiring managers. Ultimately, all students graduate with in-demand industry certificates to help them land a job.

The 8-week online digital marketing course teaches students the skills they need to become a digital marketer. They learn to work with inbound marketing campaigns, social media marketing, Google Analytics, and email marketing. Similarly, the 8-week and 12-week data analytics programs help students land entry level data science jobs. The curriculum teaches students to visualize data with Tableau, SQL, Excel, statistics, and more. In both bootcamps, students spend about 15+ hours per week on coursework. The schedule usually consists of live video sessions with instructors and mentors on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, as well as portfolio-building, studying for certifications, leadership skill development, and job interview prep as needed.

Digital Creative Institute also offers a 12-month apprenticeship program for students interested in hands-on learning. Students earn official certifications and work with a career coach to find a full-time role as a digital marketer or data analyst. Apprentices then work full-time while receiving career coaching on the side. First, they build their skill sets and resumes, then they leave the program with a whole year of valuable job experience and professional development. Apprentices also get access to a network of digital marketing and data analysis experts across the country, which helps them accelerate their careers.

Who is Digital Creative Institute for?

Students who are new to digital marketing or data science, as well as those with some experience, can benefit from Digital Creative Institute’s bootcamps. The apprenticeship is for recent college graduates. It teaches them practical skills they need to thrive in the workforce. In addition, their bootcamps and apprenticeships can be especially helpful for people seeking a hands-on learning curriculum.

What does Digital Creative Institute cost? How much work is involved?

Their 8-week bootcamps cost $2,000 and the 12-week bootcamps cost $3,500. Full tuition for the apprenticeship program is $14,000. Financing is available through Climb Credit loans or an income share agreement (ISA) of about $667 per month deducted from payroll for 18 months.

Bootcamp admissions consist of a written application and an interview. But, there is no formal technical interview. Bootcamp graduates can then apply for a DCI apprenticeship. Apprenticeship admissions consist of a brief application and a behavioral interview. Then, select candidates move on to cognitive ability tests, leadership assessments, and work sample tests. In addition, a college degree is necessary to participate in an apprenticeship. If accepted, apprentices are hired for a full-time digital marketing or data analyst role.

Ratings and reviews

Digital Creative Institute has mostly positive reviews. They hold perfect 5/5 stars on both Course Report and Switchup. The top review on Course Report describes the course as “the best experience ever.” Moreover, the reviewer appreciated the “practical, hands-on learning experiences” and she felt the course’s support was excellent, commenting “coaching and mentorship I received from the program is invaluable.” Another grad praised the “quality coaching” and the practical “diverse skill set” their curriculum provides.

The apprenticeship is rated 3.6/5 stars on Glassdoor. One reviewer appreciated the “personal and professional coaching” and felt the course opened up “career opportunities”, but warned that the program is “incredibly disorganized” and can be confusing at times. Another grad on Switchup described the bootcamp as “excellent at providing strong foundational knowledge” with lots of hands-on learning. The grad felt “The best part was the support from mentors and coaches” with lots of personalized help.

Alternatives to Digital Creative Institute

If you are looking for alternative courses and resources to learn digital marketing and data analytics, check out the following list.

The popular bootcamp General Assembly offers in-person and online options for students interested in digital marketing, data analytics, and other tech subjects. Students in the digital marketing program learn to drive growth with multichannel marketing campaigns. Read more about General Assembly in our review.
Another online bootcamp is GrowthX Academy. They have courses in growth marketing, sales, product management, business development, and more. Their program is self-paced with 1-on-1 mentoring opportunities.
Similarly, NJIT Digital Skills Bootcamp, SDSU Bootcamp, GW Bootcamps, One Month, allWomen Academy, Highway Education, GreenFig, and Miami Ad School have online courses in digital marketing and other topics.
The online learning platform Simplilearn offers a paid digital marketing specialist master’s program, as well as other technical courses. This master’s program covers topics like pay per click (PPC), web analytics, search engine optimization (SEO), content and social media marketing, and more.
The popular bootcamps BrainStation and Flatiron School teach courses on data analytics, data science, cybersecurity, and more. Students can choose part-time or full-time options, both on-campus or online.
Aspiring data analysts can check out DataCamp, which is an online resource offering over 300 courses. Courses last about 4 hours.
Similarly, Metis is a bootcamp with introductory data analytics courses. They feature a project-based curriculum with both on-campus and remote options. Learn more about Metis in our review.
Divergence Academy, Principal Analytics Prep, and Magnimind have part-time and full-time data science courses. Or, you can consider K2 Data Science, which is a part-time, online program.
In the same vein, FourthBrain has part-time, online machine learning courses.
Students seeking 1-on-1 mentorship and ISA options may consider Thinkful, a bootcamp that teaches courses in data science, digital marketing, and more.

More alternatives

Aspiring digital marketers can also check out ClickMinded, an online bootcamp with offerings in SEO, paid advertising, content, email, and social media marketing, sales funnels, Google Analytics, and SOP library.
You can also check out Loyola University Digital Skills Bootcamp or Jelly Academy, which have marketing courses.
Similarly, Plural s ight, Bootcamp Digital, Pepperdine Graziadio Bootcamps, Digital Creative Institute, Somerville Academy, Kellogg Executive Education, DeltaV Code School, and InternStreet offer tracks in digital marketing.
Another tech bootcamp with in-person and online options is Noble Desktop, which has courses in data analytics, digital marketing, and other tech subjects. Similarly, Zip Code Wilmington and Tech Talent South have courses in software engineering and data science.
HubSpot Academy is an online digital marketing program with free certificate courses that teach inbound marketing, content marketing, growth-driven design, email marketing, social media marketing, and more.
An affordable program with self-paced learning, Coursera hosts low-cost data science and digital marketing courses taught by professors at accredited universities. Like Digital Creative Institute they provide graduates with certificates to prove their skills and help them land great jobs.
Likewise, 365 Data Science is a low-cost and low commitment option to learn data fundamentals.
edX is another popular online learning platform with university courses. Their self-paced courses come from top schools like Harvard and MIT, and even big tech companies like Microsoft. Students can choose to learn the fundamentals or dive deeper into specific topics, like digital marketing and data analysis. Learn more about edX in our review.
Similarly, Udacity is an online learning platform with free and paid resources for people who are new to digital marketing or data analytics. Students build polished work on projects for their resumes and work with both technical and career mentors. Learn more about Udacity in our review.

How does Digital Creative Institute compare to Pathrise?

Digital Creative Institute is a bootcamp with courses in digital marketing and data analytics. Their apprenticeships and bootcamps are designed for people fresh out of college who have limited hands-on experience. Alternatively, Pathrise fellows should already have a background in their chosen field to get the most out of our technical curriculum.

Pathrise is a full service organization that helps fellows with every component of the job search. In fact, fellows receive 1-on-1 help every step of the way, working with mentors on resume and LinkedIn optimization, portfolio building, technical and behavioral interview skills, and much more.

Our program is flexible. There are only 2-4 hours of sessions and fellows can schedule 1-on-1 sessions as needed. The Pathrise income share agreement (ISA) means that our fellows never pay until they land a job they love and start working. Plus, we never require upfront payments or deposits.

Pathrise is a career accelerator that works 1-on-1 with students and professionals so they can land their dream job in tech. If you are interested in optimizing your job search by working with an experienced mentor, join Pathrise.