Best Grants and Coding Bootcamp Scholarships for 2021

A coding bootcamp is the go-to place for people who want to switch careers, acquire a new skill, or learn to code without going through the traditional university education route. While bootcamp courses are shorter and generally more affordable, the tuition costs can be high. If you want to enter the tech industry, you need to consider the cost of tuition.

If you know where and what to look for, you can get a bootcamp education with a full or partial scholarship. In this guide, we will be exploring the best grants and coding bootcamp scholarships for you to choose and enroll right away. If you’re ready, read on and be prepared to jumpstart your tech career. 

What Are Coding Bootcamps?

Coding bootcamps are education options for people who want to start a career in tech but don’t want to get a degree from a college or university. This education path is relatively shorter than a traditional college education. The advantage of a bootcamp is that you can learn what you need to know in an intensive environment with no distractions.

Most of the time, these bootcamps partner with companies like Google, LinkedIn, and Amazon to help their graduates find jobs. Bootcamps also offer full and partial scholarships to students who need them. Native American students, LGBTQ+ students, military personnel, and more all have access to bootcamp scholarships.

Coding bootcamps are known for their affordability and accessibility. For example, a coding bootcamp in San Francisco is less expensive than a degree program in the same place. Scholarships for students can make this even better. Students can access career training, career reinvention, and online programs to learn tech skills.

Coding Bootcamp Costs

Tuition rates and other fees for coding bootcamps can range from $1,000 to $21,000. They can be expensive, but they promise to prepare you thoroughly for a career in tech. They typically run for several months. The average coding bootcamp cost is about $13,583 in total, and a tuition scholarship can help lessen the load.

Bootcamps are more accessible than degree programs, but students from underserved backgrounds might struggle to find the right program. Scholarship recipients are more likely to succeed in online and campus programs so they can get the right career skills. Anyone from a military veteran to an African-American career changer can get a scholarship.

Best Coding Bootcamp Scholarships and Grants for 2021

Many coding bootcamp scholarships and grants await students who want to enroll in these bootcamps. Although application is easy, each scholarship provider has different sets of qualifying standards and requirements you need to comply with before approval or admission. Below is a list of scholarships provided by bootcamps for different groups. 

Bootcamp Scholarships for Any Student

Galvanize Scholarship

• Provider: Galvanize
• Scholarship Amount: Full tuition

Galvanize launched its scholarships and grants for qualified individuals who want to attend the Data Science Immersive and Hack Reactor programs. The main proof of eligibility is the applicant’s permanent resident or US citizen status. The educational programs here are high-quality and offer a full-tuition scholarship.

Adversity Scholarship

• Provider: Devmountain 
• Scholarship Amount: $5,000

This scholarship is Devmountain’s way of supporting people who have suffered extraordinary life challenges. Anyone who wants to take advantage of this scholarship needs to fill out a form describing how they overcame their adversities. Scholarship applicants need to be accepted into a Devmountain program to use the reward.

The Dead-End Job Scholarship

• Provider: Devmountain
• Scholarship Amount: $5,000 

This unique scholarship is for professionals who want to start a new and exciting career in tech. You need to tell Devmountain why you want to switch careers by filling in the scholarship application form. Just like the above scholarship, you need to be accepted into a Devmountain program before you can use the scholarship.

Fresh Start Fund

• Provider: Coding Dojo
• Scholarship Amount: $1,500 (full-time), $1,000 (part-time)

This scholarship for a developer training program will help you learn and master the basics of software and web development. Coding Dojo has campuses in 10 major cities, so you can choose one that’s near you. You can find scholarship details on the Coding Dojo website and earn scholarship money for one of its immersive programs.

Code Louisville Award

• Provider: Software Guild 
• Scholarship Amount: $1,000 

The Software Guild has made quality programming education accessible and affordable through tuition discounts. Through the Code Louisville Award, a discount worth $1,000 on tuition is awarded to successful attendees. This scholarship opportunity can set you on a rewarding career path.

Bootcamp Scholarships for Women

Women in Tech Scholarship

• Provider: Thinkful 
• Scholarship Amount: $600 (self-paced), $1,200 (full-time)

Thinkful supports women through scholarships to help bridge gender inequalities in the tech industry. The scholarship is for self-identifying women enrolled in Thinkful’s Web Development Bootcamp. This online web developer program is a great choice for anyone, including college grads, to avoid federal loans and enter the tech field.

Access Scholarship

• Provider: Flatiron School
• Scholarship Amount: $3,000 or more 

Flatiron School wants to offer tuition scholarships to prospective students including women with talent. Through this Access Scholarship, support is provided to deserving people regardless of their financial situation or background. Flatiron School is especially targeting qualified individuals who have struggled in their career paths. 

The Diversity Scholarship Fund

• Provider: Code Fellows
• Scholarship Amount: 70 percent of tuition 

Code Fellows offers scholarship opportunities to female students from underrepresented backgrounds in the tech industry. This need-based grant takes off 70 percent of the tuition cost. The proof of eligibility defined by Code Fellows is anyone from a variety of backgrounds, including racial minorities and gender minorities.

Women in Technology Scholarship

• Provider: DevPoint Labs
• Scholarship Amount: 50 percent of tuition

DevPoint Labs offers a 50 percent scholarship to female military veterans opportunities to launch a career in tech. The rationale behind this grant is to encourage more women and underrepresented students to work in the computer programming field. There are no requirements other than an interest in a DevPoint Labs program.

Phenomenal Woman Scholarship

• Provider: Hackbright Academy
• Scholarship Amount: 50 percent of tuition

Hackbright Academy is awarding this scholarship to women who want to enroll in its full-time or part-time software engineering program. To pass, you need to provide a technical work sample, technical interview performance, and other scholarship-related information. This tuition discount is meant to lessen the gender gap for female computer programmers.

Bootcamp Scholarships for Minorities

Hispanic or Black Veteran Scholarship

• Provider: Code Platoon
• Scholarship Amount: $16,000

Code Platoon’s coding bootcamp scholarship goal is for underrepresented minorities like African Americans or Latino Americans to have access to software engineering careers. The scholarship covers the full cost of the tuition for qualified residents of the United States. It is especially helpful for students who have faced financial hardships.

The Diversity Scholarship

• Provider: Coding Dojo
• Scholarship Amount: $1,000

The entire course of Coding Dojo’s bootcamp course is $16,495, which can be expensive. To encourage the members of the underrepresented minorities to join the technology industry, Coding Dojo is offering up to a $1,000 opportunity fund for prospective students. These online courses are perfect for minorities in tech.

Opportunity in Tech Scholarship

• Provider: DevPoint Labs
• Scholarship Amount: 50 percent of tuition

DevPoint Labs believes that supporting all groups to start a tech career is a good move to diversify the workplace and industry. This scholarship applies to all DevPoint Labs programs and is available to any underrepresented group, including LGBTQ+ students and BIPOC students who want to pursue a career in the technology field.

Diversity Scholarship

• Provider: Turing School 
• Scholarship Amount: $4,000

Turing School’s scholarship offers educational opportunities for people with disabilities who want a career in tech. Students will first need to submit an application with an essay five weeks before the classes start. A rotating committee of staff members will review the essay and determine the scholarship winner.

Coding for Minorities Scholarship

• Provider: EasyTechJunkie
• Scholarship Amount: $500 

EasyTechJunkie is a bootcamp that acknowledges the fact that minority households earn less than privileged households. This scholarship aims to help students from underrepresented groups bridge that gap. If you have big career goals, you’re more likely to win this scholarship. 

Bootcamp Scholarships for LGBTQ+

Transgender Veteran Scholarship

• Provider: Code Platoon
• Scholarship Amount: Full tuition

Code Platoon strives for a community where students shall be given equal opportunities and access to succeed. Through this merit scholarship, transgender military veterans and spouses will be able to attend a Code Platoon program for free. This is one of the only scholarships out there that are available exclusively to transgender students.

Represent Tech Scholarship

• Provider: Tech Elevator 
• Scholarship Amount: $13,175 (85 percent of tuition)

Tech Elevator is a coding school that offers a scholarship grant for transgender and non-binary folks. You first need to send your application and be accepted into a Tech Elevator program. Eligible students can apply for their cohort-specific grant five weeks before classes begin.

Edie Windsor Scholarship

• Provider: Lesbians Who Tech
• Scholarship Amount: 50 percent of tuition 

The Edie Windsor Coding Scholarship is for women and members of the LGBTQ+ and non-binary communities. This program for women and others helps gender parity in the tech industry. Lesbians Who Tech isn’t a bootcamp, but it does partner with schools like Hack Reactor, Make School, and Thinkful so students can use this scholarship towards classes. 

The Metis Scholarship

• Provider: Metis
• Scholarship Amount: $2,000 (Data Analytics), $3,000 (Data Science & Engineering, Data Science, Data Science & Machine Learning)

Metis values diversity and inclusion, which is the reason why it offers this scholarship to members of the LGBTQ+ community. To encourage them to join the industry, Metis is offering 30 scholarships per bootcamp in each cohort to applicants who pass the minimum eligibility requirements.

Other Coding Bootcamp Financing Options

If you don’t have enough funds to pay for your coding bootcamp, grants and scholarships will be of great help. Financial assistance equalizes the playing field for every student. Some bootcamps, like Fullstack Academy and Ada Developers Academy, offer automatic scholarships for female programmers and other minorities.

However, if you don’t qualify for any scholarships, you can also consider payment options like deferred tuition and personal loans. There are also coding bootcamps that offer assistance with tuition installments and payment plans. There are many opportunities for women, Alaska Native Americans, military service members, and more.

Some bootcamps also income share agreements, also known as ISAs. An ISA is a type of loan that allows you to defer tuition payment until after you graduate. Then, you pay back the provider with a percentage of your income based on your average salary. This is a popular option for bootcamp students.

No matter how you pay, a bootcamp education is worth it. You can learn to code in a few weeks to a few months and start your career in tech. A bootcamp is much more practical and affordable than a degree program, and you’ll be able to get your dream job before the end of the year.