Udacity Nanodegree Review 2024 | Quickly Level Up Your Tech Career
What is Udacity?
Udacity is a robust online learning platform specializing in teaching technical skills to help advance and accelerate your professional career. They specialize in high-quality instruction from industry experts that will prepare students for the growing fields such as programming, data science, digital marketing and cyber security.
Students on Udacity work to earn a certification they call a Nanodegree. This credential demonstrates that the student completed all of the relevant work in the class. In addition, throughout these courses, students will be solving real-world problems, receiving feedback through project reviews, and building portfolios to showcase their skills.
The results? In 2019, ~75% percent of students decided to pursue a Nanodegree program to help their careers. Of those, “71 percent of these reported a salary increase, with 37 percent having scored a significant raise of more than 20 percent.”
While this credentialing system differs from a traditional educational institution, many employers recognize the values of these certifications. Part of the draw for many is Udacity’s partnership with leading technology companies such as Google, Microsoft, and AWS.
It is essential to highlight that industry experts teach these courses. In practice, this partnership means that aspiring Machine Learning Engineers have the opportunity to learn from Google’s Deep Learning experts.
Co-founder and president Sebastian Thrun has often stated his belief that “the ultimate value proposition of education is employment.”
Udacity provides students with in-demand skills, helps them achieve mastery, and supports their graduates in finding their next job. If your goal is to change careers or level up in your existing technical role, Udacity is possibly your highest value option.
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How does Udacity work?
Once you’ve enrolled in Udacity, students complete the onboarding process. Udacity provides a syllabus and has each student set up a personal study schedule, including individual goal setting and setting up reminders to ensure students follow their designed plan.
The Udacity Nanodegree programs themselves are broken down into individual segments. Each segment takes between ten to twenty minutes to complete, designed to be easy to work on whether you have plenty of time to barrel through the course or only have a short amount of time to spare.
The segments consist of a variety of learning exercises. Students learn most information through video lectures, but that’s not the only way students engage. Their online courses also contain a variety of interactive activities, quizzes, and projects. These exercises ensure a student has understood the content, and most importantly, can apply their learnings to real-world problems.
An expert in the field instructs each course. In order to become a Udacity instructor, there are high standard requirements, including a minimum number of years in the chosen area and years of previous teaching experience. These instructors will offer personal feedback on your assignments, assistance when needed, and personally shape the course instruction.
In addition to getting feedback from the instructor, Udacity also offers several features for connecting students with one another. Students can post to one another for academic support, learn through discussion forums, rely on mentor support and enjoy career networking as they make their way through their Udacity course.
One frustration many users may find is that Udacity is only accessible via web browsers, so it’s optimized to be taken on a computer (though modern smartphones are also ok). While they used to offer an app for learning on the go, they removed it in 2019 and have yet to replace it. An integrated app is something that most consumers expect of online learning platforms, so the lack of a dedicated app may be a surprise for first-time users of Udacity.
Who is Udacity For?
Udacity targets motivated learners who have identified the tech skills they need to advance their careers. A Udacity Nanodegree program offers the chance to learn and practice these skills at a time in your career when they are most relevant.
Udacity provides learning opportunities for students are various stages in their careers. Importantly, you do need to be a software engineer or robotics expert to find value here. There are several development tracks:
Beginners: These students may have little to no programming experience and have not yet chosen a career path, but see the growth in technology jobs and want to build their tech skills. Perhaps one intro to programming course piqued your interest, and you want to learn more.
Intermediate: Learners here may already work in technology and are strong in their fundamental skills but eyeing their next move. Perhaps your career in software development has been positive, but you are thinking of switching gears and need to upskill to compete with other job applicants.
Advanced: The focus for advanced students is mastery. These programs tend to go much deeper and more specialized. Instead of training to be a general programmer, students will learn specifically about programming for blockchain or self-driving cars.
Naturally, several of these courses have prerequisites to ensure a student has enough baseline understanding to make the most of the course.
Udacity is probably not the best platform for casual learners or those whose interests are focused more on humanities or arts. If this happens to be where your interest lies, we would encourage you to check out Skillshare or Masterclass.
Skillshare covers a broad range of niche topics, and MasterClass offers A-list instructors in more of a behind-the-scenes edutainment format. And both give you access to their complete catalogs for a subscription price that’s less than Netflix.
Do you have to pay to use Udacity?
While some courses on Udacity don’t require a paid membership, in general, their best courses do cost money.
These free courses tend to be introduction courses that aren’t as in-depth or specialized as their paid courses. They also tend to have less individual interaction with your instructor. And if earning a credential or certification is what’s important to you, those only come with the paid nanodegrees. On net, these free courses are suitable for trying out Udacity but less valuable for your overall professional development.
Unfortunately, Udacity doesn’t offer any kind of trial or preview program, so aside from taking some of their free courses, there’s no way to test out the program before having to pay for access.
Does Udacity Offer Scholarship or Financial Aid?
Yes! Udacity also offers several scholarship programs that can be used to pay for your Udacity learning, depending on the program you are choosing to pursue.
Here is the list of open scholarship programs:
- STEM Forward with Women Scholarship Program ($5 million in scholarships over 5 years)
- Bertelsmann Technology Scholarship (15,000 seats available)
- OneTen + Blacks in Technology Foundation Scholarship (15,000 seats available)
Udacity also offered more than 25,000 scholarships earlier via Advance Africa Scholarship Program, Grow with Google, and the Blacks In Technology Foundation Scholarship Program. However, enrollment in both of those programs is now closed. AT&T, Facebook, and AWS have all sponsored scholarships in the past couple of years, so it is undoubtedly worth close monitoring.
How much does Udacity cost?
The precise cost of Udacity depends on the program you select. The pricing model of Udacity is a monthly subscription that you continue to pay per month until you finish your degree program. As a result, the price can vary widely depending on how much time you can spend on your program per month and how quickly you can move through the course.
Most Udacity classes are around $400 per month, with the average length of time they take to complete being approximately four to six months, devoting roughly 5-10 hours per week. The total cost of Udacity programs in this scenario is approximately $1500-2000.
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However, use our exclusive partner code, and you can cut the cost of a Nanodegree in half. So if you’re able to complete this in 3-4 months, the cost would drop to around $600-800. This investment is a no-brainer when considering that these skills can often raise your income by $10,000-$25,000 per year.
Can I get a refund on Udacity?
Udacity offers all students a 2-day window after enrollment to disenroll and request a refund. However, after two days have passed, there’s no opportunity to receive a refund for payments already made, although you can drop out of your program at any time to prevent future payments.
What Courses Are Offered On Udacity?
Udacity offers a broad variety of professional and career-based courses, based mainly on computer science and technology.
Udacity offers online courses in the following “schools”: Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Systems, Business, Cloud Computing, Cybersecurity, Data Science, Programming & Development, and Product Management. These categories each contain several more specific courses for roles like Blockchain Developer, Self-Driving Car Engineer, Android Developer, Growth Product Manager, Cyber Security Architect, IOS Developer, and many more.
In addition, there is a group of free courses focused on career services. These classes aim to help students with specific job searching skills such as refreshing your resume, strengthening your LinkedIn brand and network, GitHub portfolio review, and some deep dives on industry-specific interview prep for roles in data science, machine learning, or mobile development.
Udacity advertises that industry leaders rather than academics create its educational content. This process ensures that the content is at the cutting edge and relevant to the modern field. In a constantly changing field like technology, current material, and real-world projects are critical to each student’s learning.
What Are The Most Popular Nanodegree Programs?
5 Most Popular Artificial Intelligence Nanodegree Programs
- Natural Language Processing
- Artificial Intelligence for Trading
- AI Programming With Python
- Machine Learning DevOps Engineer
- Deep Learning
5 Most Popular Data Science Nanodegree Programs
- Data Visualization
- Data Scientist
- Business Analytics
- Data Analyst
- Programming for Data Science With Python
- SQL
5 Most Popular Cloud Computing Nanodegree Programs
- Cloud Developer
- Cloud Native Application Architecture
- Cloud DevOps Engineer
- Data Structures And Algorithms
- AWS Cloud Architect
5 Most Popular Programming And Development Nanodegree Programs
5 Most Popular Product Management Nanodegree Programs
- Product Manager
- Digital Marketing
- UX Designer
- Data Product Manager
- Data Analysis and Visualization with Power BI
Does Udacity work?
While it’s not for everyone, Udacity is an effective platform for the learner who is motivated to advance a career in technology. With a focus on current content shaped by industry leaders, students can upskill while working on real-world problems.
And these insdurty leaders aren’t just leading the courses, they’re hiring from them. In 2019 alone:
- Accenture hired 20
- Amazon hired 25
- AT&T hired 41
- Google hired 33
- IBM hired 20
How do they get such consistent results? What students are buying is more than a series of online videos.
This online learning platform is highly interactive. A student will complete several quizzes and problem sets throughout a course to reconfirm understanding of the material. A Udacity Project Reviewer reviews projects to ensure that the student’s work is complete and meets the requirements. A Udacity nanodegree reflects a job applicants’ continued focus on improvement.
In addition to its digital programs, Udacity offers individualized support with direct instruction from teachers, making it much more like a traditional online school than many other online learning platforms. It also provides career services support, such as job coaching, resume building, and networking opportunities, so those attending Udacity to further their careers will find plenty of assistance.
How can I get the most out of a Udacity Nanodegree?
The best way to get the most bang for your back with Udacity is to work as efficiently as possible. Because of their month-to-month subscription model, you will spend more money the longer you take to complete your program. Successful graduates found that setting aside specific time blocks each week to devote to their studies was most effective.
It’s also crucial to make sure that you choose the correct course before enrolling. While it is possible to switch courses after starting one, the process can be tricky and will involve starting over from the beginning. Before committing to a nanogegree program, please do plenty of research and ensure it’s the one to best help you meet your goals.
And don’t forget to use our discount code!
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References:
https://www.bertelsmann.com/news-and-media/news/udacity-celebrates-100-000-graduates.jsp
https://www.udacity.com/blog/2020/12/top-companies-that-hired-udacity-graduates.html
