A review of Rithm School as a software engineering bootcamp

Updated in 2023

Hi, I’m Brian, a former senior software engineer and now industry mentor at Pathrise. I have worked with hundreds of software engineers to help them land their dream jobs in tech. Check out my review of Rithm School.

What does Rithm School do?
Who is Rithm School for?
What does Rithm School cost?
Ratings and reviews of Rithm School
Alternatives to Rithm School
How does Rithm School compare to Pathrise?

What does Rithm School do?

Rithm School is a bootcamp and online resource for people looking to develop the necessary skills to land a job as a software engineer. They offer a full-time bootcamp at their San Francisco campus, as well as free courses online.

Before beginning the full-time program, students must complete 80-120 hours of free online coursework, which follows a project-based curriculum. These courses cover topics such as terminal & UNIX, Git & Github, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and more.

The full-time bootcamp takes 16 weeks to complete. The course is divided into 3 parts: instruction, company projects, and interview prep. In the first 10 weeks, students attend lectures and complete assignments, either alone or in pairs. Students spend the next 3 weeks working in groups to help real companies execute important projects and product updates. In the final 3 weeks, students prepare for behavioral and technical interviews through whiteboarding and lectures. With the guidance of career coaches, they also work on completing job applications.

Students must be on campus from 9am-6pm Monday-Friday. They are encouraged to remain on campus until 9pm daily.

In addition to their full-time bootcamp, Rithm School offers free online courses in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, Flask, and more. With levels ranging from beginner to advanced, these self-guided courses use tutorials, screencasts, and exercises to teach. The classes take 10-30 hours to complete.

Who is Rithm School for?

People who have no experience in coding and are looking to develop the necessary skills to land a job as a software engineer could benefit from the Rithm School on-campus bootcamp. Beginners can check out the free online courses offered by Rithm School as well.

What does Rithm School cost? How much work is involved?

Rithm School offers a variety of financial options. The full cost of tuition is $24,000 if you pay upfront. Students may also put down a $1,000 deposit and defer tuition through an income share agreement (ISA). Students who do this pay 17% of their salary for 2 years after they begin working at a job that pays at least $60k per year. Another option is paying $12,500 upfront and participating in the 17% ISA for 1 year. Total tuition is capped at $34,500 if you choose to do an ISA.

Students can also choose to finance through Skills Fund, which offers low-interest, fixed-rate loans of up to $30,000. Rates depend on an applicant’s previous credit history.

To apply, prospective students fill out a short application. Then, they complete a phone screen with the Director of Admissions, participate in a JavaScript prep course, and visit the campus for a technical interview.

Ratings and reviews

The online reviews of Rithm School are generally positive. Grads on CourseReport felt like they learned a lot from the instruction, company projects, job assistance, and small class sizes of 12-18 students. According to one grad, the company projects “give you a feel of actually working on production level code,” which “differentiates you from the other bootcamp grads out there.”

Reviewers on SwitchUp and Career Karma echo this. One grad noted that “Rithm stays away from frameworks that abstract a lot of functionality out of the code and focuses on technologies that lets students really understand all the parts necessary for building web applications.” Most grads recommend spending substantial time on the pre-work or taking a bootcamp prep course before enrolling.

Grads on Yelp report that they greatly benefited from the Rithm School curriculum as well. Reviewers mention that the program taught them how to adapt to new environments and learn quickly. One student said, “during our company projects section, our team had to learn an entirely new language and framework within a week, and make significant contributions to a very large codebase.”

Alternatives to Rithm School

If you decide not to enroll in Rithm School, there are a number of alternative bootcamps and online resources that can help aspiring software engineers.

Students can also consider Kenzie Academy. A full-time tech bootcamp, Kenzie offers in-person and online courses in 2 tracks: software engineering & UX design and front-end engineering. Learn more about Kenzie Academy in our review.
Likewise, Prime Digital Academy has full-time and part-time courses in UX design and software engineering.
Actualize, App Academy, Fullstack Academy, Nucamp, T u ring, Code Fellows, devCodeCamp, Launch Academy, and Hack Reactor are software engineering bootcamps with on-campus and online options.
Aspiring software engineers and web developers can also consider CodeX Academy, a self-paced coding bootcamp with mentorship opportunities. Learn more about CodeX Academy in our review.
One of the most well known bootcamps is General Assembly. They offer full-time, part-time, and 1-day courses on a variety of topics like software engineering, data science, UX design, digital marketing, product management, and more. Read more about General Assembly in our review.
With tracks in software engineering and data science, Galvanize, Codeup, and The Tech Academy have full-time and part-time options for students who work during the day.
Flatiron School, Thinkful, Byte Academy, Codeworks, Zip Code Wilmington, and Coding Dojo are well known bootcamps with tracks in software engineering, as well as other subjects.
Other options are Lambda School and Altcademy. They all offer online bootcamps in software engineering, and for Lambda, other subjects as well.
Or, consider Kal Academy, which works with women and underrepresented groups on software engineering, web dev, and data.

More alternatives

Interested students could also check out Codesmith. This software engineering bootcamp has online intro courses and on-campus immersive programs in New York City and Los Angeles.
Another option is Grand Circus, which teaches courses on Java, front-end, and C# .NET. Their campuses are in Michigan, but they also offer online options.
Likewise, Tech Elevator, Epicodus, and Redwood Code Academy are software engineering bootcamps with online and on-campus options.
Those who are interested in using online education tools, rather than a full bootcamp, to advance their current skills can check out Coursera, Udemy, Treehouse, Ruby Koans, egghead, and Pluralsight.
You can check out Udacity and Springboard. These are online educational platforms that students can use to brush up on the basics or advance their current tech skills. Read more about Udacity and Springboard in our reviews.
edX is one of the largest online learning platforms. They have courses from top universities like Harvard and MIT as well as big tech companies like Microsoft. Learn more about edX in our review.
SoloLearn, freeCodeCamp, and W3Schools are free alternatives for people looking to learn the basics or brush up on their skills.
You can also check out Bubble no-code bootcamps to learn how to make products without coding. Learn more about Bubble in our review.
Codecademy is one of the most popular coding programs online. They provide free courses on many different programming languages. They also offer membership options ranging from $20 to $40. Learn more about Codecademy in our review.

How does Rithm School compare to Pathrise?

Rithm School is a bootcamp for people who are interested in learning how to become a software engineer from scratch. At Pathrise, job-seekers in our program should already have a background in their field of interest so that they can participate fully in our industry workshops, which prepare students for the questions they will see in their technical interviews.

Our program is flexible. There are only 2-4 hours of sessions per week. Fellows can schedule 1-on-1 sessions when they need support. We personalize our curriculum to target each fellow’s specific goals. While the Rithm School ISA is 17% for 2 years, the Pathrise income share agreement is just 5-9% of the fellow’s salary for 2 years. We never require upfront payments or deposits.

Pathrise is a career accelerator that helps people land their dream job in tech through 1-on-1 mentorship. If you are interested in working with any of our mentors to get help with your technical and behavioral interviews or any other aspect of the job search, join Pathrise.