Prior industry or academic experience is not required, yet most applicants will have been introduced to programming by writing some code independently, or by working through courses on e-learning platforms such as CodeSchool or Codeacademy. This is not a "0–60" course, this is a "20–120" course. If you haven't written any code yet, you will be given a list of resources when you apply. If you study from those resources for a few hours a day, you will be a great candidate for an interview. See our Course Prep guide for places to get started.

There isn't really a "typical" Ward 5 applicant. Our students wil come from a variety of different backgrounds. Some come from adjacent fields, like design or IT, and have been tangentially working with coding for a while. Some have been learning programming on their own, and wanted to get the complete skill set they needed to start a dev career. While others, may be learning development to support fields like project management or sales. Successful applicants need to be passionate/intelligent learners and clear/empathic communicators, who have - or acquire - a solid foundational understanding of JavaScript. See our Course Prep guide for places to get started.

Yes; however, applicants who start at zero definitely need to complete some level of JavaScript understanding on their own. It isn’t easy, but we know it’s possible, as many of us have successfully taken this approach. From what we've learned, the key is perseverance and drive to grapple with new challenges more than any particular background. Really take advantage of the resources available online. See our Course Prep guide for places to get started.

If you are ready to apply, you can submit an application via the Ward5.io site. If you feel that you need a little extrea practice you can explore our course preparation materials here.

You will receive an email from admissions@ward5.io advising you on the next steps. If you did not receive this email, contact admissions@ward5.io directly.

For someone who is new to programming or who needs to brush up on their JavaScript for the admissions process:

1. eloquentjavascript.net
2. Codeecademy
3. Codeschool

References:

1. Mozilla Developer Network
2. devdocs.io

We operate three cohorts per year - typically summer, fall and spring. Check our application for specific dates and locations of upcoming Ward 5 programs.

You should apply as soon as you feel ready.
If you think it may be too late: There is no deadline for applying to a given cohort. However, if you are aiming for a specific start date, we recommend submitting your application as soon as possible. The class fills up whenever we admit enough students and closes 7 days prior the first day of the program.

We will try to accomodate schedules as best we can. We understand that schedules can quickly get disrupted. On the chance that something does comes up and you need to change to a later date, we will do our best to accommodate you. We would ask that you let us know as soon as possible if it starts looking like you need to switch, both to make sure there will be room for you in the later cohort and so that someone else would be able to take advantage of your vacant seat. We handle requests to switch start dates on a case-by-case basis and do not provide any guarantees.

You can send an email to admissions@ward5.io if you have a question that is not answered on this web page.

You can visit only when we do not have a proram in session. The admissions process itself and our website are the best ways to get a feel for whether the program would be a good fit for you. If you are selected to interview in person, that would be the best time to check out the space and see what it feels like to be here.

Tuition is $8,500 for 13 weeks, 5 days per week, 8 hours of in-classroom instruction per day.

We do not offer loans or work with traditional education loan programs. Fortunately, this puts the pressure back on our students to drive hard to be successful. They payback can be almost immediate with the average junior web developer salary in Wisconsin over $50,000 per year.