Udacity Review

Udacity is a massive open online course (MOOC)-based learning provider focused on teaching in-demand tech skills. The platform offers nanodegree programs, single paid courses, and free courses. Nanodegrees and paid courses include real-world projects, technical mentor support, and auto-graded quizzes. In addition, you'll receive personalized feedback from mentors who review your project submissions.

Career services include access to exclusive job postings from Udacity and its partners, such as BMW, Google, IBM, and Shell. You may also submit your GitHub or LinkedIn profiles for review and suggestions. Graduates have gained positions at top companies like Amazon, AT&T, IBM Watson, Facebook, and Google. This Udacity review offers an overview of several of Udacity's most popular courses.

Udacity Courses

Udacity courses fall under eight categories. These include artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, business, cloud computing, cybersecurity, data science, product management, and programming. Within these categories are over 90 nanodegree programs and single paid courses, enabling you to choose programs that align with your interests and career goals.

Courses are self-paced and taught online via pre-recorded lectures. The exclusive content is co-created with industry leaders in their field, such as Accenture, GitHub, Microsoft, and Amazon. Udacity reports that its instructors come from Fortune 500 and Global 2000 companies.

Related Coding Programs

The Udacity Nanodegree

Udacity's nanodegree programs offer instruction in some of the most in-demand tech skills. These online, self-paced bootcamps are designed to help you land a job in the tech sector or upskill. Programs range from 1-6 months long, with most falling in the 3-4 months range. Udacity bases most program lengths on an estimated 10 hours of work each week.

These programs consist of courses and real-world projects that give you hands-on experience and contribute to your coding portfolio. You'll also receive mentor support, access to a student discussion forum, and career advice services. When exploring Udacity's online catalog, you can filter by topic, field, skill level, duration, and price.

The Most Popular Udacity Programs

• Introduction to Programming
• Data Analyst
• Deep Learning
• Business Analytics
• Digital Marketing

Free Udacity Courses

Udacity's free courses include instructor videos, activities, and interactive quizzes. The courses do not provide technical mentor support, career services, or project feedback. As of April 2023, Udacity offers about 180 free courses. In addition to courses on specific tech skills, you'll find interview prep for many tech positions. Unlike Udacity's paid courses and programs, its free courses do not include a certificate of completion.

Udacity Admissions Process

There is no admissions process for taking courses at Udacity. You just go to the page for the course you want to take, click the "Enroll Now" button, and choose either the monthly payment option or the upfront payment offer, which provides a 15% discount.

Udacity Payment Options

Udacity has two payment options: a monthly payment or an upfront payment that includes more than one month of access for a 15% discount. If you progress at the typical rate of about 10 hours per week, you may save money by paying upfront and getting the discount. If you expect to complete the course quicker, you might save a large amount by paying for monthly access.

• Upfront: Udacity offers an upfront payment plan for each nanodegree program. This plan includes a certain number of months (usually 3-5 months) of access at a 15% discount over the normal monthly rate. If you choose the upfront option and do not complete the course in the amount of time given, you can switch to the monthly rate to finish the course.
• Installments: You can opt to pay a monthly payment of $399 instead of the discounted upfront amount. If you complete the course faster than the standard rate, this could end up being the cheaper option.
• Loans: Udacity has partnered with Affirm to allow you to finance your course with payments as low as $113 per month and interest as low as 0%. You can spread your payments out over three, six, or 12 months.
• Scholarships: As of April 2023, Udacity offers two scholarships. Underserved and underrepresented students may apply for the AWS AI & ML scholarship. This scholarship applies to the AI programming with Python nanodegree program. The OneTen/Blacks in Technology scholarship is for Black job-seekers without a bachelor's degree. Program options for this scholarship include business analytics, digital marketing, and front-end web development fundamentals.

Udacity Student Outcomes

Udacity claims that over 70% of its graduates were promoted at work or got a better job. There is no indication of whether the provider includes all graduates in this number or just those who were actively seeking to improve their job situations. You should be wary of outcomes reported directly by the company that are not verified by a third party. The methodology used to compute the company's outcomes can vary from one bootcamp provider to another.

Udacity Pros and Cons

Frequently Asked Questions About Udacity

What is Udacity?

Udacity is a company that offers courses and nanodegree programs to students who wish to pursue a new career or upskill to pursue a promotion. Each nanodegree focuses on a particular job, such as AI product manager or digital freelancer. The company strives to provide all the skills needed for that job in the program.

You can choose from over a hundred courses and dozens of programs, including natural language processing, C++, cloud developer, and security engineer.

Is Udacity worth it?

Udacity has many positive features that may make its bootcamps worth it. Udacity's nanodegree programs cost between $399-$1,600. That's much cheaper than the average cost of a bootcamp, which was about $13,580 in 2020.

However, Udacity's programs require only a 10-hour commitment per week for 1-6 months. Most full-time bootcamps require 40+ hours per week for 3-6 months. That means that a typical coding bootcamp has about four times as many course hours as a Udacity nanodegree.

Due to the reduced time needed to complete a Udacity program, it's possible that some topics are not covered as thoroughly as they would be in a regular bootcamp. However, these nanodegree programs also cost much less than a regular bootcamp, so you still get a good value for your dollar.

Is Udacity hard to get into?

No, it is not hard to get into Udacity. You just pick your class and pay the fee to enroll. Anyone can sign up for any Udacity course. Although some courses have prerequisites, it is up to you to determine whether you have the skills needed to take the course.

Unlike many other bootcamps, you don't need to interview with an admissions counselor or pass a test to prove you are qualified to take the course. Just sign up and start progressing through the course content.

Is Udacity free?

Udacity's nanodegree programs are not free. They cost $399 per month if you opt for monthly payments, but if you choose the upfront payment option, you can save 15%. However, Udacity does offer dozens of free courses. Most of them are shorter than a nanodegree program, lasting from two weeks to four months.

Some examples of free Udacity courses include getting started with Google Workspace, creating an analytical dataset, and app monetization. Other examples include A/B testing for business analysts and how to build a startup.