Ask HN: Are bootcamps generally worth it?

I'm a developer with a CS degree, and my girlfriend went to the General Assembly bootcamp (which is supposedly one of the better ones) and now works as a developer herself. She and most of her classmates seemed to do pretty well afterward. I mentioned offhand to a friend of mine in a different city, that she switched careers and quickly found a well-paying job. That friend now has a child and is seriously considering doing a bootcamp purely for the income potential, even though he has no prior experience. I'm a little worried. There's so much hype around it right now that people who may not be right for it are jumping in, and there are at least some fly-by-night operations trying to capitalize. I feel satisfied that General Assembly is a good program but I don't know of any others, or how to distinguish. I also don't know what the job market is like without the prestige and huge amount of job search assistance that come with a well-known bootcamp. Does anyone have anecdata, and/or recommendations for other bootcamps? Edit: This thread has a lot of good anecdotes https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13338539