I was motivated to learn to code, and used the resources available — library, school computers, etc. — when a job turned me down because I know 8502 assembly but not 8086 assembly, I bought myself a cheap second hand, green screen PC and found a shareware assembler.
The critical part was finding that first employer that would hire me with an unrelated degree, because that served as my apprenticeship.
With one job on your resumé, the next is much easier
Luck, via an acquisition, was what got me into Microsoft, and with one of the big companies on your resumé job switching can become almost trivial. The Sankey diagrams for my last 4 job changes are close to being straight lines
On top of all of this there is also the elephant in the room that the cost of college has become so great that the value proposition isn't the same as it was in the past. If I can learn even 75% of what I could learn from a college at a bootcamp for a fraction of the price, does it still make sense to choose college?
I went through full IT-focused university, and added value from those times to my actual work is nearly 0, most of what I learned that I use I myself forced upon university via semester projects.
Campus life was fun, and probably biggest added value from those wild times. But I've spend maybe 70 USD/month on all university study-related costs together back then (study itself was for free so I mean campus, food, traveling... one of very few benefits of coming from former eastern block in Europe).
Getting into massive debt for studies when you can get everything online (and much more if you really have focus & discipline) ain't smart. It will get you a better CV, in some employer's eyes (nothing SV cares about from what I've heard, unless we talk about at least PhD in related fields). Law or medical degrees are a different beast of course, thats a walled garden and its not changing anytime soon.
I think bootcamps make sense for someone who got a degree that like anthropology that has high unemployment rates and low starting salaries and wants to move into the coding field, but not a good alternative to a bachelors degree as they are so expensive and won’t offer much value after the first job.
I know someone that worked their way up in a company and the company was sold and it was very difficult to get a similar job, because many places wouldn’t hire them for a similar position without a bachelor’s degree.