In order to call yourself a programmer or software engineer, you need to do one of two things. Unlike other technical professions, programmers need to be licensed or pass standardized certification tests. However, it is illegal for someone to call themselves a “professional software engineer” without a license from an accredited institution in many parts of the world.
Since programming encompasses many different areas, there is a debate as to whether licensing is required or not.
Generally speaking, programming is self-governed by the entities which require the programming.
If you want to learn how to become a programmer, you have a few options to achieve that goal. You could attend an educational institution, participating in online classes or bootcamps, or learning on your own.
Universities
According to U.S. and World Report, “Since there is no single, universal programming language, mastering multiple languages is a vital component of earning your computer science degree.”
Here are the top computer science schools for programming language training.
Carnegie Mellon University – Globally recognized as a leader in computer science and offers specializations in programming languages, artificial intelligence, systems, and theory.
University of California – Berkeley – This is the largest department at Cal and focuses on developing technological solutions to societal-scale problems such as sustainable energy, healthcare, and safety and security.
Stanford University – Since its founding in 1965, the Stanford Computer Science (CS) Department is a leader computer science research and education.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology – The Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department happens to be the largest department at MIT and prepares students to become leaders in diverse career fields ranging from academia, biomedical technology, finance, consulting, law, and nanotechnology.
University of Texas – Austin – UTCS offers research areas ranging from AI, graphics, data mining, programming languages, security, computer architecture, and formal methods.
Princeton University – The Department of Computer Science focuses on theory, networks/systems, graphics/ vision, programming languages, security/policy, machine learning, and computational biology.
University of Pennsylvania – America’s first university research opportunities in robotics, vision, natural language processing, databases, formal methods, real- time systems, computer architecture, machine learning, programming languages, graphics, network security, software engineering, and bioinformatics.
Cornell University – This Department of Computer Science teaches everything from theory, programming languages, robotics, database systems, artificial intelligence, and graphics.
University of Illinois – Urbana- Champaign – This innovative program covers all aspects of computer science, such as systems and networking, artificial intelligence, database systems, information retrieval, and graphics.
University of Wisconsin— Madison – As one of the oldest, and most respected, computer science programs in the country, students have the opportunity to research, study, or develop their professional computer science skills.
Coding Bootcamps
If you want to learn computer programming or enhance your skills on a budget, and in a shorter amount of time, you can also attend one of the following coding bootcamps.
Epicodus (Portland) – Ruby, JavaScript, PHP
Hack Reactor (San Francisco) – Algorithims, AngularJS, CoffeeScript, CSS, Data Structures, Express, Git, HTML, JavaScript, jQuery, MongoDB, MySQL, Node.js, SQL
Fullstack Academy (New York) – Ruby, JavaScript
Starter League (Chicago) – Programming, Design, Product Development, Entrepreneurship, Visual Design, JavaScript, User Experience
Anyone Can Learn To Code (Chicago) – Ruby, Rails, SQL, JavaScript, AngularJS, HTML, CSS, and Git
Founders and Coders (London) – JavaScript, Node.js, AngularJS
Grand Circus (Detroit) – iOS
Codeup (San Antonio) – Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, JavaScript
Dev League (Honolulu) – JavaScript, HTML, CSS, AngularJS, Node.js, Backbone.js, JQuery, D3
Le Wagon (Paris) – Ruby, Ruby on Rails, HTML/CSS, Javascript
The Flatiron School (New York) – Ruby on Rails
Tech.co has a total of 33 recommended coding bootcamps. Tap into their list if the camps above do not have the subjects you’re looking for.
You can also attend a bootcamp remotely through CareerFoundry, Treehouse, Udacity, Tealeaf Academy, or Firehose.
Free Online Courses & Resources
If money is an issue, you can also learn how to code for free by visiting one of these websites.
Codecademy – Free courses in HTML & CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, PHP, Python, and Ruby
Coursera – Provides more than 100 free computer programming courses. Also has specializations from the University of Washington and Stanford.
Udemy – Video courses in areas like Programming for Entrepreneurs – HTML & CSS or Introduction To Python Programming.
edX – Offers free courses like Introduction to Computer Science from Harvard University.
Khan Academy – Courses include developing programs in JavaScript or creating webpages with HTML and CSS.
Code.org – Provides courses in JavaScript, Python, and game coding.
HTML5 Rocks – A Google project that lets you play around with HTML5 code.
MIT Open Courseware – Offers introductory courses and even a course on the theory or coding.
Code Avengers – Programming courses in subjects like JavaScript, HTML and CSS.
Hack.pledge() – Learn from a community of leading programmers.
