Turing School of Software & Design
Turing School of Software & Design is a federally accredited, online tech training provider turning driven students into professional developers. Turing offers a Front End Engineering program and a Back End Engineering program, which are both aimed at career changers. Turing also offers Launch, a 36-week program specifically for young professionals ages 18-26 who will receive tech training and professional development. The staff at Turing emphasizes their educational experience, not just their years as developers, and promises that successful graduates of the school will be valuable contributors to the company they choose to work for through community-driven education. While the programs are fully online, Turing students are required to live within 2 hours (+/-) MST.
Those applying to the Front End Engineering and Back Engineering programs should anticipate spending 1-2 hours on the application process, which includes a written application and a Zoom interview. Launch applicants must complete an online application that will be followed up with an interview. Laptops will be provided to all Launch students and is an included benefit as part of their tuition.
221 Turing School of Software & Design Reviews
AnonymousGraduate • Back End Engineering • OnlineMay 19, 2023Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob AssistanceA fully immersive educational experience that sometimes misses the mark
The Turing community is vast and also tight-knit; current students, alum, instructors and career coaches are all rallying to support you in you career transition into software development. Nearly every cohort follows the mantra 'your win is my win'. What makes Turing a great choice is how immersive their program is. Most bootcamps are at most 3-4 months, and mostly follow a full-stack curriculum. Turing is about 7 months long and the entire curriculum is dedicated to either a frontend pr...The Turing community is vast and also tight-knit; current students, alum, instructors and career coaches are all rallying to support you in you career transition into software development. Nearly every cohort follows the mantra 'your win is my win'. What makes Turing a great choice is how immersive their program is. Most bootcamps are at most 3-4 months, and mostly follow a full-stack curriculum. Turing is about 7 months long and the entire curriculum is dedicated to either a frontend program (JavaScript, React, etc.) or a backend program (Ruby on Rails). Both programs follow a Module system - 4 Modules that focus on different aspects of development, where each Module is approx. 6 weeks long with a 1 week intermission in between Modules. This setup makes for a very fast-paced learning environment, and it is easy to fall behind if you don't budget your time well. Each Module builds upon the previous one, and mimics what a real professional software development team might look like. By the time you get to Module 4, you are teamed up with students from the opposite program to create a fullstack capstone project, from start to finish, following an agile development method. Overall, the hands-on experience with pair programming, live coding, mock interviews, and fullstack projects helped me feel prepared going into my first professional role in software.
The downsides to Turing include having to pay tuition up front, without any guarantee that you will land a job. This wasn't seen as a risk when I first applied to the program, but the current tech market makes me wish I had considered other bootcamps that don't charge tuition unless you land a job after the program. Additionally, their career services could use some improvement. All of the career coaches are incredibly kind, talented, folks that are rooting for all their students. However, a lot of the onus in finding that first job does fall on the student, without much clear guidance or direction from staff. You do have to be proactive about finding your first role, as career services won't do any hand-holding. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but something to be aware of, especially in the tight market right now.
Overall, the entire Turing community has been very positive and encouraging. The instructors are top-notch and are not only excellent software developers, but are effective teachers and mentors. Most instructors are happy to help you in any way they can, but it's on you to ask for help early and often. I'm happy with my decision to attend Turing overall, but I think I would have looked into other options if I could do it all over again.- AnonymousGraduate • Back End Engineering • OnlineMay 18, 2023Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
I hope it's life changing
Turing is a fully remote, extremely intensive 7 month bootcamp, pending you don't repeat any modules. It is extremely intense, and fast paced. I found my favorite part of it was the deep connections I built with my classmates. My biggest frustration is how often you are relying on your classmates for help (and it is very often if you struggle) when you are paying tuition for the instructors to teach you, and help you. The other students are also learning along with you, soooo. Overall, I...Turing is a fully remote, extremely intensive 7 month bootcamp, pending you don't repeat any modules. It is extremely intense, and fast paced. I found my favorite part of it was the deep connections I built with my classmates. My biggest frustration is how often you are relying on your classmates for help (and it is very often if you struggle) when you are paying tuition for the instructors to teach you, and help you. The other students are also learning along with you, soooo. Overall, I am glad I went. I will be even happier when I can find a job. - AnonymousSoftware Developer • Graduate • Back End Engineering • OnlineMay 15, 2023Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Challenging, but rewarding
Going through the backend program at Turing was one of the best career decisions I could have made. Along with the curriculum being very well organized and constantly evolving for current student's needs, the staff is incredible. Every instructor and staff member cared so deeply about the success of every student. A few things about Turing that I think sets it apart from other programs is the emphasis on career readiness, professionalism, and community. I truly feel I left their program ...Going through the backend program at Turing was one of the best career decisions I could have made. Along with the curriculum being very well organized and constantly evolving for current student's needs, the staff is incredible. Every instructor and staff member cared so deeply about the success of every student. A few things about Turing that I think sets it apart from other programs is the emphasis on career readiness, professionalism, and community. I truly feel I left their program not only prepared to join the workforce as a software developer, but as a better human being. - AnonymousGraduate • Back End Engineering • OnlineMay 12, 2023Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Hectic, Difficult, Worth-it!
The program at Turing was very difficult to do being that it requires at times well over 60hr work weeks. As a mother of two toddlers there was no life balance at all, but I can say that in the end it was worth it. I was able to find a job that pays very well! I would say that if I could change anything it would be that the Backend Program definitley needs more hands on in frontend/react to be more familar with what is going on. - AnonymousSoftware Engineer • Graduate • Back End Engineering • OnlineMay 12, 2023Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Great Experience
I had a lovely experience at Turing School of Software & Design. The community is strong and empathetic. The instructors are compassionate, patient, and excellent teachers. The curriculum, though challenging, gives you the basic skills for pivoting to a Software Engineering career.
Some things to consider before applying:
The style of learning is pretty team focused. Learning to work with others is a must. And, as of 2023, they practice just-in-time teaching. All of the lesso...I had a lovely experience at Turing School of Software & Design. The community is strong and empathetic. The instructors are compassionate, patient, and excellent teachers. The curriculum, though challenging, gives you the basic skills for pivoting to a Software Engineering career.
Some things to consider before applying:
The style of learning is pretty team focused. Learning to work with others is a must. And, as of 2023, they practice just-in-time teaching. All of the lessons are open source but things will not be taught until right before they are implemented. So you need to have personal drive and resourcefulness.
If you have some grit, this is the place for you. If you want to coast and be spoon fed information and told exactly what to do to succeed, this may not be the place for you. - AnonymousGraduate • Front-End Engineering • OnlineMay 11, 2023Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Incredible Learning Experience
I really enjoyed my experience at Turing, and felt like I learned a lot. The job market is pretty dicey right now, but I feel prepared to enter the workforce with the tools that Turing gave me. - AnonymousGraduate • Back End Engineering • OnlineMay 11, 2023Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
rigorous, intentional, current
Turing was a 7 month program that successfully set me up to enter the world of tech. I was paired with incredible instructors who from day 1 balanced the technical requirements of entering a development role as well as the soft skills / PD required to land my first role. I have no regrets, and would recommend this program to those thinking of a career pivot. - AnonymousSenior Software Engineer • Graduate • Back End Engineering • OnlineApr 28, 2023Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Best Decision Ever
Turing helped me set me up for success in my career. Prior to Turing I made $50k a year and unsatisfied with the industry I was working in. I now make over 3x that amount with the best work/ life balance I could ask for. - AnonymousFront-end software developer • GraduateJun 28, 2021Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Best for Career Changers into Tech
I believe that my previous experience as a teacher was celebrated and put to use as I learned software development. The instructors work to address the anxieties that come with the leap of the faith that it is to basically put everything on hold for 7 months to learn software development. The longer program meant, for me, that I was able to learn testing and leave the program feeling confident in my abilities that would lead to a job. - AnonymousGraduateJun 12, 2021Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Mixed feelings
Turing being fully remote now makes it feel like a big online forum. It's difficult to make connections and use that to leverage a network, which was Turing's biggest asset before. I had two different mentors ghost me through the program. When I reached out for support or questions from staff I was met with little effort usually with the response "Well in the real world you'll have to do it on your own." Which I understand for some things... but when it's every single request, it just fe...Turing being fully remote now makes it feel like a big online forum. It's difficult to make connections and use that to leverage a network, which was Turing's biggest asset before. I had two different mentors ghost me through the program. When I reached out for support or questions from staff I was met with little effort usually with the response "Well in the real world you'll have to do it on your own." Which I understand for some things... but when it's every single request, it just feels like a cop out answer, and just laziness. A good chunk of Turing's instructors start teaching there right after graduating the program themselves, so they have no real production-code experience to bring to their students. A few of the stellar instructors left the school shortly after them going indefinitely remote. The Front End curriculum essentially ends after 1/2 way (Mod 2), in Module 4 my classmates and I didn't write any code until the last 2 weeks, and it was nothing new, just repeat of concepts we had already learned. The job support given is just sending job postings to a big group forum and telling you to cold outreach.
The Front End curriculum would improve by teaching students more CS concepts earlier and getting them into writing backend code themselves instead of combined teams with Back End students.
I have a lot of criticisms. I think Turing is far from perfect and is undergoing some big changes that may effect the quality of their program moving forward. However, I'd like to end by saying I DID learn a lot and have a job in the tech industry now.Will Mitchell of Turing School of Software & Design
Director of Front End Engineering
Jun 18, 2021
Dear Anonymous,
First off, let me congratulate you on having found a role in the industry! Primary among the ways we gauge our effectiveness as an organization is our ability to place our students into fulfilling technical careers. I’m pleased to know that you’re on your way.
I’d also like to address some of the concerns you seem to have had with your time here.
We made the decision to become a remote school based on trends from companies that hire our grads. Much of the tech workforce is going online, and our intention in joining them is to be able to serve more people from across the country and make sure that being part of the Turing community prepares them for the jobs that are out there. Over the last seven years, we have helped hundreds of students find fulfillment and success in the field of software engineering. This vast and vibrant community of graduates is, and always has been, spread far and wide around the globe. Every student we graduate has the opportunity to leverage this ever-growing network to find their home in tech. Our alumni have been, are now, and will forever be the cornerstone of our community. It is disappointing that you could not find a mentor in this incredible network of software engineers.
The path of a software engineer is winding, and individuals who succeed in this field must be ready and willing to change with the times. They must be prepared to learn constantly, and they must be the driving force behind their education. The instructors I work with know this, as do I, from our years of experience in the industry. Together, we bring multiple decades of professional development experience to bear in our classrooms every day. While a small number of our exceptional students have joined our ranks as instructors, the majority of us have extensive industry experience in software or education.
As instructors, helping students foster the critical skill of self-teaching is one of the most pressing challenges we face. While students may sometimes want answers, we do them a disservice if we are not guiding them towards those answers through exploration. Because we’re right when we say ‘in the real world, you’ll have to do it on your own.'
Like most organizations, we sometimes experience turnover amongst our staff. We have in the past, and we will continue to in the future. Every time an instructor leaves, we lose someone stellar from our team. Everyone who remains behind is equally capable, and the new perspectives we fold into our organization are just as cherished.
Among the new team members we’ve added over the last several years are several talented individuals whose express function is helping students prepare for and find interviews for industry jobs. They are invaluable to our organization. Many of our alumni have been able to find work because of our career development team, and the role they play in the engaged student’s experience cannot be understated.
Finally, Turing students can expect a full load of lessons, projects, workshops, and professional development during their four modules here. Our open-source curriculum is available for anyone to view. In the Front End Program, your first two modules primarily focus on programming fundamentals. You will spend your time in Modules 3 and 4 building larger applications using frameworks while working alongside developers from our Backend Program.
Thank you for your reflections on our organization, and best of luck in your future career in tech.
Best,
Will Mitchell
Director of Front End Engineering - AnonymousGraduate • Back End Engineering • OnlineJan 10, 2020Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Wonderful Program
I would highly recommend Turing to someone who is serious about changing their life. It's not easy. In fact, it was one of the hardest things I've ever done. It's not that the curriculum and material are so challenging, it's more the pace of the learning and the fact that it's basically non-stop for 7 months. I started to feel the burnout about halfway through, but then I had to just keep moving forward to keep up. I had to make a ton of sacrifices like saying goodbye to exercising and my ...
I would highly recommend Turing to someone who is serious about changing their life. It's not easy. In fact, it was one of the hardest things I've ever done. It's not that the curriculum and material are so challenging, it's more the pace of the learning and the fact that it's basically non-stop for 7 months. I started to feel the burnout about halfway through, but then I had to just keep moving forward to keep up. I had to make a ton of sacrifices like saying goodbye to exercising and my social life, and keeping up with anything non-Turing related was out of the question.
Fortunately for me, it was well worth the effort. Not only did I form amazing friendships with my cohort, but I landed a job within a few weeks after graduating. My new job is strict about work/life balance, has amazing benefits, more PTO and paid holidays than I knew was possible, and a starting salary that is above the market rate for a junior developer. It's the kind of job I knew existed but didn't have access to before Turing. And if that wasn't enough, my coworkers rave about the fundamentals that Turing teaches its developers. The school has an excellent reputation out in the tech world.
As for my time at Turing, the support I received from the staff and my fellow students was stellar. They offer free counseling, focus heavily on the community and student body, and do a pretty excellent job at making students feel at home. Students have 24/7 access to the building and facilities and there is a laptop included in the tuition so that everyone is geared for success. Like the title says, it really is a wonderful program.
- AnonymousN/A • Student • Front-End Engineering • OnlineAug 27, 2019Overall ExperienceInstructorsCurriculumJob Assistance
Not for everyone, be careful
I had a pretty bad experience with Turing, and now I'm in a ton of debt (40K) and my current . job has nothing to do with software or programming or tech in general. I'll try and be brief. You'll see plenty of positive reviews here, but what you don't see is what happened to people like me, and I'm not the only one. You SHOULD NOT go to Turing if you're looking to make a career change just for the money because you heard software development is lucrative and it takes a quarter of the time ...
I had a pretty bad experience with Turing, and now I'm in a ton of debt (40K) and my current . job has nothing to do with software or programming or tech in general. I'll try and be brief. You'll see plenty of positive reviews here, but what you don't see is what happened to people like me, and I'm not the only one. You SHOULD NOT go to Turing if you're looking to make a career change just for the money because you heard software development is lucrative and it takes a quarter of the time to become a developer as opposed to getting a computer science degree. Unless you already have experience in web development or software programming in general, I would not go to Turing, unless you a study for ONE YEAR ahead of time if you have no experience, trust me. They call it a boot camp for a reason. You will be getting information through 10 firehoses at once working 80 hour weeks. You will not have time for a full-time job or even a part-time job, FYI.
Below I will list advantages and disadvantages of going to Turing and the brutal job hunt aftwards. Turing was the hardest thing I've ever done, and in the end it did not work out for me. They cram way too much information into each module. If the program was longer and more time to absorb everything, it would be worth it. Be prepared to learn 3 - 4 years worth of learning into 6 months with pretty much no downtime.
Another thing which I really don't like and wish they would change is, their admissions process is very misleading, and it's obviously to et a lot of regular people in to make money off of them. When I attended, their only requirement was to solve LSAT logic problems. There were no actual coding challenges, or things related to being proficient or have an aptitude for ACTUAL coding. It does not prepare you for what you will face when you are in the program, whatsoever. That is my biggest gripe.
Most, not all, of the instructors are not very good. I failed back end mod 1 halfway through at the mid-mod exam, just 3 weeks in. I happened to know a guy who did the front end program who offered to mentor me so figured I would try it again. $2,500 dollars spent on half a module gone, what did I have to lose? Short answer: A LOT. Barely passed Mod 1 front end, didn't pass mod 2 after giving it my all. Decided enough was enough and didn't want to keep wasting money on a loan I took out. Now I was $12,500 in debt plus an additional sum for cost of living.
Not to mention, the MacBook's you get that are "brand new" are refurbished. Mine crapped out halfway through Mod 1 and I had to get it repaired out of pocket at a local repair shop which was beyond stressful not having a working computer during the program. Then, later in the year my screen crapped out and has a lot of distorition and distorted colors and is very hard to use, very annoying. Then I get an email from Apple saying my line of MacBooks had a recall! WTF? Thanks Jeff. AT LEAST give us a working computer if we pay your very lucrative salary?!?! But I digress.
Turing does not guarantee you a job. They have job assistance. It's completely up to you. I would get as much real-world experience as you can, don't rely just on your Turing projects except for your capstone project. I have been looking for work for OVER A YEAR. Countless interviews, no luck. If you don't have at least 2 or 3 years of REAL WORLD experience with software and programming, other than your school projects, best of luck, you're gonna need it. Just know you are trying to get a job in a very competetive industry and with no real experience other than a bootcamp, you have a real uphill battle to face against computer science majors and plenty of developers job hopping all the time, who I think really control the job market. Unless you want to take a job in a terrible part of the country.
On the positive side, Turing is the best bootcamp and education you can get for software engineering. Some people are naturally good at the logic and programming in general. i was not and it ended up being a HUGE mistake. My current job is in sales, nothing to do with programming and just starting to pay off this bs debt. I regret ever going down the Turing path, total waste of time. Again, IF YOU ARE JUST LOOKING FOR A WAY OUT OF YOUR CURRENT CAREER PATH, AND AREN'T REALLY INTERESTED IN CODING OR PROGRAMMING, DO NOT GO TO TURING. There "Try Coding" weekend is NOTHING like what you will actually be doing. It's like learning how to say "Hello" and "Goodbye" in a foreign language, not actually learning everything about that foreign language.
Think twice about going based on the reviews here. Do some research. Try coding for yourself, build a real project. Talk to developers. Talk to alumni, and talk to them about how brutally hard the program is, because it is. I would not lie about that. Hope this was helpful to someone.
Jeff Casimir of Turing School of Software & Design
Executive Director
Aug 29, 2019
First, I'm sorry Turing didn't work out for you. CourseReport's text formatting isn't working properly, so this is going to come out as a giant block of text:- I think you're right that if programming is only a pathway to big paychecks, it's difficult to maintain the focus and stamina to make it through the program or, even worse, to spend years or decades in the industry.
- It sounds like we didn't do a good enough job setting your expectations before starting the program, such as your mention of not having time for a full or part-time job. We try to make that very clear in our documents, conversations, and interviews. I expect our programs to have that feel of "10 firehoses" so that we've made the most of every minute we have to prepare students for their career. Some of my favorite feedback from alumni says "my job is much easier than Turing" and that's exactly how it should be.
- Since you started the program, we've also added the three-week "Mod 0" prep program. The purpose of Mod 0 is to make absolutely sure that students understand what they're getting into, the challenge of the work, and give them an opportunity to demonstrate the academic and behavioral standards we expect. I wonder, if Mod 0 had existed before you attended, whether you and we would have figured out it wasn't a right fit and saved a lot of expense/time/headache.
- Sorry you had troubles with your computer. A few times a year we review the available models and configurations from Apple to figure out what has the most bang-for-the-buck. I personally buy all my computers (personal and work) from their refurb store, which carry the same warranty as new, have a more robust quality control process, and generally perform well. Your computer was covered by Apple's 1-year warranty like any other.
- One part I have to take issue with here is the job assistance. The original review is posted anonymously so impossible to confirm, but based on some details we believe it to be a student who did not move on past "Mod 2". Having not quite completed half the program, a student is not prepared to join the workforce. Our job support begins in Mod 3, continues through Mod 4, and onward after graduation. If we're wrong and you did graduate from the program, please feel free to edit/clarify.
Turing School of Software & Design Alumni Outcomes
| Employed in-field | 55.9% |
| Full-time employee | 39.7% |
| Full-time apprenticeship, internship or contract position | 10.3% |
| Short-term contract, part-time, or freelance | 5.9% |
| Started a new company or venture after graduation | 0.0% |
| Not seeking in-field employment | 2.9% |
| Employed out-of-field | 0.0% |
| Continuing to higher education | 0.0% |
| Not seeking a job for health, family, or personal reasons | 2.9% |
| Still seeking job in-field | 36.8% |
| Could not contact | 4.4% |
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Turing School of Software & Design Alumni Reviews Summary
How much does Turing School of Software & Design cost?
Turing School of Software & Design costs around $25,000. On the lower end, some Turing School of Software & Design courses like Launch Program cost $20,000.
What courses does Turing School of Software & Design teach?
Turing School of Software & Design offers courses like Back End Engineering, Front-End Engineering, Launch Program.
Where does Turing School of Software & Design have campuses?
Turing School of Software & Design teaches students Online in a remote classroom.
Is Turing School of Software & Design worth it?
The data says yes! Turing School of Software & Design reports a 80% graduation rate, a median salary of $80,000 and 91% of Turing School of Software & Design alumni are employed. The data says yes! In 2015, Turing School of Software & Design reported a 77% graduation rate, a median salary of $74,447, and 86% of Turing School of Software & Design alumni are employed.
Is Turing School of Software & Design legit?
We let alumni answer that question. 221 Turing School of Software & Design alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Turing School of Software & Design and rate their overall experience a 4.77 out of 5.
Does Turing School of Software & Design offer scholarships or accept the GI Bill?
Yes, Turing School of Software & Design accepts the GI Bill!
Can I read Turing School of Software & Design reviews?
You can read 221 reviews of Turing School of Software & Design on Course Report! Turing School of Software & Design alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Turing School of Software & Design and rate their overall experience a 4.77 out of 5.
Is Turing School of Software & Design accredited?
Division of Private Occupational Schools, Department of Higher Education, State of ColoradoAccredited by the Accrediting Council for Continuing Education & Training