I attended the full-time day cohort and graduated 6 months ago and my life is definitely better. Some can say I am biased because I am on the staff page, but I am only there because I volunteer my time at the school. If the school did not provide me with a great experience, I would not be volunteering my time. I do it because I believe in their vision of the community.
It is a very fast-paced learning environment. You will work as groups and by yourself and be amazed at what you can create. They are always adjusting and tweaking their programs to offer students the best development tools and skills.
It is true the school does not guarantee a job, but they do have a career development team that is very hands-on and very involved. The team will help you put a resume together., evaluate your personal website, help with your linked in profile, help you build your network, organize meet and greets with developers and employers, mock interviews and make recommendations and offer guidance to name a few things that they do. 
As a non-profit, the school is very vested in producing solid junior developers and helping them get employed. They want to prepare you for your new career, not maximizing profits. 

When you interview at NSS, they aren't shy about telling you that the boot camp will be one of the most difficult and rewarding things you've ever done. They're absolutely correct and fully committed to helping you succeed. 

I recently graduated from Cohort 28, a Full Time Full Stack Web Dev bootcamp with a focus on Python/Django. I just landed my first full time position as a developer within two weeks of graduation. As a student, you are challenged while being fully supported by a staff of professional developers and previous graduates of the program. My favorite aspect of the school was how much the responsibility of my education was up to me. There is no assigned homework, but you have numerous resources and exercises to brush up your skills. Lab time each week allowed me the freedom to work on what I was struggling with or what excited me personally.

My classmates were amazing, friendly, and a priceless resource during my time at NSS. What's great about a vocational program like this is that the people in attendance have chosen to commit to this process and everyone is driven toward succeeding which helps all boats rise. I've made lifelong friends and colleagues along the way to a brand new fruitful career. 

The teaching staff is experienced, human and relatable. There is no fear of being left behind in a wave of students as one on one time with instructors or advisors is extremely accessible and encouraged. Being encouraged to fail and experiment courageously was a breath of fresh air to my perfectionist self. The career development is outstanding. By joining NSS, you are immediately becoming part of an incomparable network of developers, employers, and alumni that gives you an extraordinary edge in your job search. Not to mention that the curriculum is constantly being updated to match market needs, giving students the most up to date skills.

My life has been changed for the better and I couldn't have asked for a better growth environment. 

Challenging in a good way, you get what you put in to it, like anything else. Treat it like a job and you'll get where you want to go.  It feels good to say it was one of the best decisions I ever made.

Nashville Software School was a terrific experience; you're taught marketable skills that you can take anywhere. The teachers are fantastic (I had Brenda for the front-end and Steve for the Python/Django portion) and so are the teacher's assistants (former students themselves).

It's challenging and you'll need to prepare yourself to fail... a lot. With the failure comes terrific achievement _IF_ you apply yourself. By the end of the course, I learned how to build web applications I never thought possible.

NSS is old enough that they've developed, and apparently continue to refine, a winning formula. Their program has evolved to the needs of the students and the job market. You're not taught the bleeding edge, but you're not learning Cobalt either. Expect both individual and group projects plus "final challenges" that demonstrate you've learned the concepts taught in each section of the course.

For those enrolled and who have yet to start, I would recommend that you ask plenty of questions if you do not understand a concept. The teachers are always willing to help and it's better to ask too many then to fall behind. In addition to the teachers, NSS does a good job of screening candidates and I found that the overwhelming majority of people were willing to help each other where needed and there's definitely a "we're all in this together" vibe.

Near the end of the cohort, many people began to stress about finding a career after graduation and it can be difficult. It's about luck, networking, and applying oneself. If I had one negative about the program, I would say it's pertaining to the 'job hunting/assistance' portion of the program.

That's not necessarily NSS' fault as the Nashville market may be saturated for Junior Developers. A positive is the Demo Day on the last day of the program. It's the student's time to shine and demonstrate their capabilities to prospective employers, several may be fortunate enough to end the day with a job offer (I did).

All in all, I would highly recommend NSS. It's six months (most programs are three) and it's enough time to get you comfortable for a Developer position. Come prepared ready to work, push yourself and you'll succeed. Well worth the cost of the program.

P.S. Do the pre-work.

Those 6 months that I was there were great!

I wrote my first line of code September 15th 2016 and was hired for my first software development job June 10th 2017 and I owe it to NSS. I chose Nashville Software School over other schools for several reasons. #1 because it is non-profit, #2  because it is a 6 month full-time program, and #3 its good reputation around town. That was enough to convince me, but what really pushed me to want to be a part of this school was my interview with John Wark. As a prospective student I was impressed with how much time he took with me to get to know me and my story. He is very thorough and that is reflected in the community that makes NSS including the staff, teachers, and students. That said, he is very clear that NSS is an experiment and there are no guarantees. There is nothing magical about the learning process. NSS gave me a space and A LOT of help on hand to accelerate what would have taken me years to learn on my own. I wouldn't have become who I am without the program. A typical day you can expect to be at NSS from 9-4pm with an hour lunch break. You are encouraged to fully immerse yourself in the tech community for networking, etc but I would say dont worry as much about attending those events if it takes away from your study time. I usually went to a meetup/user group once a week and met a  lot of cool people but my job now did not come from any of those extra experiences. What is the daily experience? Expect a lot of group work and self study, which turns out to mock my real world role as a working junior developer. Its not for everybody, but if you are ready for a career change and willing to make sacrifices to focus on this goal, I recommend. 

Nashville Software School has been really good to me. The instructors are all very knowlegeable and willing to help whenever there's a question. The school provided opportunities to meet employers throughout the 6 month program. I walked in with 15 year old coding experience that wasn't really relevant and walked out knowing how to build a RESTful api, create modern single-page-applications with the Angularjs framework and a blackbelt in google-fu. They've even employeed me as a teaching assistant while I'm looking for work as a software developer.

After ten years teaching in public schools, I was ready for a change. I had taken all of the online coding courses I could find, but I still didn't feel like I had the skills to enter the workforce as a developer. NSS was my answer. I graduated from NSS in December 2015/ January 2016 and was hired to stay as a junior instructor. As a student in 2015, I would rate my experience 4/5. I learned invaluable lessons about coding, teamwork, and problem solving, but the school was still experiencing some growing pains and lacked organization. Throughout the time I stayed at NSS as a junior instructor, I saw the school consistently strive to improve on every level. While I was there, new staff was hired to assist with job search and placement, the school moved into a beautiful new space, and the curriculum underwent some major improvements as well as almost-daily incremental improvements. I am currently in a full time development job, and feel absolutely prepared for my tasks here. I will echo several other reviews and say that attending a bootcamp is not easy. It requires a lot of work, but Nashville Software School does a fantastic job of helping students through the process. My daughter was one year old when I attended NSS, and while challenging,  it was certainly possible for me to complete my classwork and keep up with NSS curriculum and parenting duties at home. I'm basing my current 5 star review on how the school currently opperates.

Prior to attending Nashville Software School, I worked several odds and ends jobs to pay the bills. With only a high school education, just thinking about applying to jobs I was under qualified for left me feeling overwhelmed.

After a recommendation from a close friend, I applied to NSS. I cannot say how amazingly grateful I am for that choice. While I had no programming experience other than a few hours of tutorials and the course pre-work, the bootcamp was definitely the most rewardingly difficult experience of my life.

Some of the most important lessons learned as an apprentice software developer were that minimal effort or copying code would not make you a programmer. These courses will help students master communication and teamwork with group projects while using a version control system, as well as everything from building a simple website from scratch to a full-stack application.

NSS teaches the fundamentals of software with the aide of carefully curated curriculums, the staff, and fellow students. Simply put, succeeding means hours of trial and error, and most importantly the positive attitude to keep on going.

I finished the 6 month bootcamp and a month later started as a Teacher’s Assistant with an upcoming cohort at NSS. During this time as a TA, I gained a new appreciation for the instruction staff’s immense effort they put into every student, lesson plan and graduate. The career team devotes time to ensure each student has a professional resume and portfolio, and provides information about networking events / hosts networking and mentor meet-ups at NSS.

I am currently a full-stack developer at a local tech startup, and can say without the skills I learned, I would not be the developer I am today. If you are thinking of enrolling, and are willing to commit to serious dedication, this course is for you.

Deciding to attend Nashville Software School has been one of the best decisions I've made in my life. I've never experienced such a supportive and encouraging community. As long as I put in the time and effort, I had a helping hand when I needed one. I enourage anyone that is serious about coding and becoming a high level Junior Developer to check out NSS. The instructors and staff have helped me change my life. 

Jumping into a full-time bootcamp with NSS was hands-down the best decision I've ever made for my career. The instructors are outstanding, the curriculum is fast-paced and completely relevant to the current needs of the industry, and the reputation the school holds in Nashville makes the job hunt much less daunting.

In order to get an ideal experience out of NSS, students must be hungry, engaged and self-motivated. If you're considering attending, I highly suggest working through some online coding tutorials first to make sure you're definitely interested. Once accepted, the mandatory pre-work is absolutely crucial if you don't want to be in over your head right off the bat.

During the duration of the course, you will get out what you put in -- that goes for your understand of the content (and beyond), personal and group projects, and job hunt. I got a job before the end of the course, so I can't speak to the job connections the school offers to students after graduation, but I appreciated the help on my resume, linkedin, and advice concerning networking.

The curriculum at NSS is not for the faint of heart. If you have no experience, as most students don't, it's difficult. You will be tested. I have a friend in a Part-Time evening cohort. From what I've heard about it, it's even harder than the Full-Time. 

However, NSS is hands down the best school I have ever attended. They don't just push you to learn the material. They challenge you to develop a growth mindset and give you the tools to become a lifelong learner. You become part of a network that is deeply entrenched in the Nashville community. And in my case, my cohort became life a second family. 

Everyone in the staff is a genuinely terrific person. The instructors are attentive and caring. The career development staff are hard-working and have excellent industry knowledge. And if Jeremiah likes you, he will insult you in the nicest way possible.

Could not have asked for a better bootcamp experience than at NSS.  They continue to grow and adapt their curriculum so that it is current and relevant to the ever changing world of development.  You simply can't go wrong attending this school.  They're there to help you succeed and that is their goal!  

I was in the parttime bootcamp. The first half was good, and I got sound instruction on HTML, CSS, JS and Angular JS. The second half, dedicated to C#, was subpar at best. The instructor, whom I hear is no longer with the bootcamp, did not prepare well, rambled a lot, and gave us the same lectures over and over.

Having been out of the camp for a while, I do wish I could go back in time, save the debt, and do online course work to give me the foundations I recieved in the front end half of the course. If they offered front end web development for half price, I'd say it was a good deal. Though again, that instructor has been replaced, so perhaps the backend cirriculum is a great deal better now.

3 months html & javascript, 3 months python

Part time evening boot camp that includes solo and group projects over the course of a year.  The program is split into two sections: Frontend and Backend.  We spent 6  months on each area.  At the end of each section we did a capstone project to prove we had mastered the content.  These were required for graduation.

I say "success and some" because Nashville Software School provided me with much more than the baseline coding instruciton that I sought to pivot my career. NSS also welcomed me into a learning community unlike any I have been a part of before. Having been in the part-time course for 6 months and the full-time for three, I got a unique view of both experiences. Nearly every instructor and staff member supported me personally during my time there, and I feel like NSS genuinely cares about the development of each person deeper than their educational experience. More important than teaching me how to code, NSS taught me how to be a successful professional sotware devleoper. The curriculum and organization noticeably cares about constant improvement. When I give these 5 stars, I mean it, and I look forward to seeing how my most recent "alma mater" continues to up the ante on bootcamps across the nation. 

Nashville Software School(NSS) changed my life in 6 months. I did full time full stack web developement Bootcamp at NSS. it is a 6 months intensive bootcamp, covers all the basics. Instructors and course material are outstanding. I got real time project experience at NSS. This is helping me shine in my new job as Associate Developer.

Trust NSS.

This place changed my life. Plain and simple. It’s like Hogwarts for adults. I went from barely being able to change the background image on my desktop to creating full-stack web apps. They immerse you in programming from day one, support and encourage you throughout the process, and go way beyond what is expected. Nashville has this amazing and welcoming tech community and I believe that NSS is a huge part of that. The best part is that with every graduated cohort this place gets stronger and better at what they do.

I completed the evening cohort in January 2017 after 12 long months, and have recently been hired as a professional Web Developer, thanks to the career transition team at NSS. I graduated with a strong portfolio, a great grasp of industry best practices, a portfolio site and a killer resume. It was the most difficult and rewarding thing I have ever experienced. I often say it was the best decision I ever made.

I had zero experience in this stuff so I’m proof the system works but I recommend spending time with all the great resources online such as Team Treehouse, allotting time to complete the pre-work, or taking the Web Development Jumpstart program before taking the leap. Either way, they’ll take great care of you. The staff is absolutely amazing. They want you to succeed and are extremely passionate about what they do.

Obviously, I am a fan but if you compare it to a lot of the other options out there it’s pretty easy to see that NSS is an excellent option… if not the best. You’ll leave there with a huge lead on your new career and a huge group of awesome people backing you up. All you have to do is fully commit yourself and put everything in that you possibly can. Sounds like a lot but the more you put in the more you get out. Cliche but true.

This course is completely worth whatever you decide to put into it. Before attending, I was a professional luthier here in Nashville. I was self taught with python on a minor level, but didnt apply it to anything. This bootcamp is tough!! Likely one of the harder courses you'll attend. However, I would say it was worth it. 

This course teaches you how to code. You will have many many group projects and personal excercises to keep you busy and your chops up. I would say that the first half is more extensive than the second. You will learn the fundamentals in whatever path you decide to join. 

The second half is evolved more around working in a production-environment. You will learn team building, have daily stand ups, and work through technologies that other companies in the dev community are using. This last half is also more job-driven. NSS wants you hired. That's their goal, and a huge portion of why they teach the way they do. You will work on your linkedin and resume, have mentors come in, and get Q&A with successful companies around Nashville. 

Like my title says, I was hired 2 weeks before graduation. NSS has a strong name in Nashville, and a strong set of instructors. I made a lot of friends, had a great time, learned so much, and now it's my life. 

 

I chose NSS over the other bootcamps because they seemed to be more in touch with the community of devs here. I also really liked the fact that they are a non-profit, and all the instructors I interacted with beforehand seemed very enthused about teaching and helping to grow coding skills.

The individual projects were a good reflection of classroom material covered, and altered just enough to be a good challenge without easy look-in-the-book answers. The teachers, assistants, and other classmates were always there for help as well.

The group projects were a really great learning experience. Especially using git and github with multiple people on one project. We also worked in an Agile / SCRUMM workflow.

The skills that I learned and honed at NSS definitely helped in equipping me for my first dev job. I left NSS with a familiarity for team work flows, modern code styles and principles, and tackling tough challenges using all available resources.

I highly recommend NSS to everyone who has and will ask me. 

Just know that this bootcamp will in return give what each individual puts in to it, and what they have put in before Day 1 (pre-work, personal exploration, etc). If you are willing to put in the effort it will pay off.

My interest in web development started in 2011.  The advice given at the time was to grab a book on Ruby on Rails, learn it, and find a job.  The biggest problem was there really wasn't a clear cut path to get where you needed to be and said book expected you to have knowledge you weren't sure where to research to get unstuck.  You'd don't know what you don't know. And it's easy to give up in frustration.  I finally continued my journey in 2016.

The thing I liked the most about NSS was the culture: positive energy to counteract the frustration and a clear path to go from noob dev to confident and employable junior dev.  The instructors who worked with us in our cohort were incredibly knowledgeable, experienced and approachable.

When I was in college, I felt like the professors were out of touch with how things are really done in industry, the subject matter was overly theoretical, and grades/curves encourage competition rather than cooperation.  NSS takes that and stands it on its head.  You learn exactly the skills that you will be using day one on the job.  One of the biggest benefits is working on group projects and collaborating with others.  Web dev seems to be one of those things learn best by process.

I wish I had a resource like NSS years ago and I am indeed glad I found them.

I came across NSS by accident, when a friend of mine, that used to be a musician, told me he just finished a program where he learned to code and that he was now working as a Software Developer. So I researched NSS and finally decided to apply. That was one of the best decisions in my professional career. It literally changed my life and opened a lot of new doors to a world I knew existed and that I once thought it wasn't for me. Now, 2.5 years from when I first started NSS, I'm working as an App Developer doing what I love and I'm passionate about. Thank you John, Steve, Jurnell, and all the great people that make NSS possible.

NSS was great for me. While the curriculum wasn't as set in stone as some students wanted it to be I found this an advantage as the tech industry moves so quickly. There were students that struggled more than others but its a six month course that crams in a lot. Of course there are those saying on here that NSS didn't help them get a job, teachers didn't pay them enough attention etc etc. There's no hand holding here and thats what i loved about it. It has a very high job placement record and at no time did they promise to place you into a job themselves. The whole program is about making you ready for a junior role in software engineering. You still need to put in the work and hours to get that job. And at the end of the day not everyone is cut out to be one.

If you are motivated, enjoy problem solving and are ok with the idea that you'll always be challenged and learning in your career than NSS will set you up for a career in software engineering. The networking opportunities they provide you alone is worth the money. I wonder how much effort those on here giving bad reviews spent connecting with the community and using that avantage NSS gave them?