Nashville Software School

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. 

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?

I started Nashville Software School in January of 2015 and was a part of Cohort 8. I had some experience with HTML and CSS and even less JavaScript.

I liked the Front End section, but it was the hardest of the two. The Back End just clicked for me so I enjoyed that much more. Scott Humphrey's did a good job of answering questions and helping us when we got stuck during our time in the Front End. Eliza and Jurnell pushed us in our understanding of data structures and the Ruby language itself, rather than focus on the Rails framework.

I would definitely recommend it to someone who is wanting to enter the web development field.

I was part of Cohort 8 at NSS, and I came in knowing enough to be dangerous. I was comfortable with markup languages but had no experience with any object oriented languages, github, etc.  

Suffice it to say this program is completely what you choose to make of it.  If you show up, do the work, go home do more work, and get out and network in the community it works ten fold.  After reading some of the other reviews on this page I'm not sure why people are so down on this program because I had almost a polar opposite experience.  

I had Scott Humphries and Eliza Brock as instructors, and I learned more than enough to change careers, get into the field, and made some great friends along the way.  I didn't expect this program to hold my hand all the way through or place me into a job, but came to learn and build a new career so that's what I did.  

It's intense, fast paced, and there will undoubtedly be an wide variety of people in your class, but if you want to make a change it's a great place to do so.  

 

I applied to NSS on a whim, because outside of Squarespace, I knew nothing about web development. I was a musician and barista and had no real career trajectory. From day one, I felt behind due to other students having more background than me, but I recieved nothing but encouragement from the instructors, staff, and other students. 

NSS is a longer bootcamp than many, but it's so worth it and it flies right by. 

I got the opportunity to interview with multiple employers that I met on Demo Day. Every single one was so impressed with NSS program and I have gotten to see that NSS has a tremendous track record in the Nashville community. 

I think some people are surprised with whole difficult it is. YOU'RE LEARNING HOW TO CODE IN SIX MONTHS. IT'S HARD. And no one is going to just hand you a job. 

When it got really difficult, I wanted to blame the instructors, the school, and myself. I saw other students quit. 

John Wark, Eliza Brock, Scott Humphries, Jurnell Cockhren, and Steve Brownlee were all so encouraging and they are all there because they want to be, and want to help you learn. 

It's all about what you put into it. You may land a job, right after demo day or you may not land a job untl 2 months or so after graduating, but if you actually try, you'll get a job. John Wark worked with me and now I have an incredible job making 3 times what I did before NSS. 

Do it. Apply. 

I graduated from Nashville Software School in 2015.  In short, the content is almost there, but the program really leaves so much to be desired.  

Our instructor was Scott Humphries.  For the first 2 months of our program Scott would show up between 10 and 1030 regularly (class started at 9) which left the students to twiddle our thumbs for the first hour or more of each day.  This is a big detriment in an intensive program.  Once he arrived, he would assign us a task then go play Agar.io (a video game) for an hour or two.  After lunch, he would give us some instruction on something new and then tell us to work on it that night at home.  There is no syllabus, homework, quizzes, or outside class help from Scott.  By the end of the 2nd month it was blatantly obvious he was making up the curriculum as he went along.  If you dared to ask Scott a question, he would regularly answer in a condescending manner and fail to break down the problem for your understanding.  The administrator of the program didnt seem interested in correcting his amateur leadership and instruction even though students brought it to his attention.

We had a "mentor day" where we were supposed to be able to meet a mentor and pair up with someone to help us with our coding issues.  Well, for our class of 25, five mentors showed up.  So needless to say the majority of people in the program did not find a mentor.

The only "job assistance" you will receive is some instruction on how to interview and what you should expect during the interview process.  Beyond that, there is no job placement and the school does not send out work opportunities to past graduates.

You will not be kicked out of the program no matter what.  We had a student show up 2-3 days a week for the entire program and he was never reprimanded or asked to leave even though he was a distraction in class.  This individual actually volunteered to lead a class project and then did not show up the day the project began.

If you are lucky enough to get Steve Brownlee as your instructor, I would say continue with the program.  But absolutely ask who your instructor will be.  If it is Scott Humphries, walk away.  You can learn more by going through online tutorials on your own.  I wish I could say the experience at NSS was worth my time and effort but honestly, I put in more effort than the school did.

 

Very detailed instruction by very knowledgeable instructors, who might or might not have good people skills and teaching ability. About a month before your cohort start date, students will be assigned dozens of hours of pre-work, which will be difficult to complete, if you have a job. Once the cohort begins, if you cannot keep up with the pace of the school (about 10-25% of the students), you will be asked to leave, albeit with the possibility of returning, but probably after cut off date for a tuition refund. The tuition (Cohort 6) was $10,500 with no refund unless you leave soon after training begins. This school is 24 weeks long. Other code schools are typically 9, 12, or 18 weeks long. 24 weeks is a long time to forego income. Mentors are listed on NSS web site, but don't you dare contact them unless you want a rude smack down (mentor contact information has since been removed, but don't worry: you will rarely see the mentors).

I graduated from NSS last year and left feeling very disappointed in the whole program. I was on the Apprenticeship track, which basically means I had a strong connection in Nashville and wanted to stay and help grow the tech community here. I was under the impression that from being on this track, I would get help with finding a job here in Nashville, more specifically with a partner company of the school. Well, I barely got any help with finding a job at all. The job I did end up getting I found on my own looking on LinkedIn. And I could have gotten this job without having gone to NSS at all.

Another disappointment was when it came time for us to be assigned mentors. I was excited to finally be getting a mentor. And when I found out she was going to be at a social event I was going to, I couldn’t wait to introduce myself to her. Well I did, and she could have cared less about me. She showed no interest in me. And had no interest in helping me or getting to know me. When we did finally plan a meeting, she was over 30 minutes late because she “forgot.” I feel like it is unacceptable for a mentor to act this way and I’m still unsure of why NSS thought putting her and I together was a good idea. In my opinion, she shouldn’t be a mentor at all, and NSS should have higher standards for who they do bring on as mentors.

To anyone thinking of doing NSS, think very carefully on if it’s something you want to invest your time and money in. Try taking some online courses through Treehouse or Code School to see if programming is something you really are interested in doing. And if you do attend NSS, I hope you have a better experience than I did. 

Very detailed instruction by a very qualified instructor. About a month before your cohort start date, students will be assigned dozens of hours of pre-work, which will be difficult to complete, if you have a job. Once the cohort begins, if you cannot keep up with the pace of the school (about 20% of the students), you will be asked to leave, albeit with the possibility of returning, but with no refund if you do not.  Some students are on 100% free tuition. Class size is 20-24. Also this school is 24 weeks long. Other code schools are typically 9, 12, or 18 weeks long. 24 weeks is a long time to forego income production. NSS now offers evening classes, so students would not need to give up a day job, provided they can keep up with the homework. Mentors are listed on NSS web site, but they don't want you to contact them.

NSS has some very good aspects, but overall it's not good for everyone.
I'll start with the pros:
The instructors are very knowledgeable and helpful.
The curriculum includes a very good base on what you need to know.
The course is a little longer than most bootcamps which helps form a better foundation.
It's mostly about community.

Now for the cons:
It's too fast for those who are brand new to coding, students who have studied coding before hand for a year will be successful. 
All the resources are free and are available to study on your own. A google search will show you many of the resources and even tutorials that are similar to the exercises done in class. 
You're paying a lot of money to be part of a community than you are for the actual skills.
The skills you need are still learned on your own, the instructors are good but they can't help every single person due to the amount of students in a class.
There are free groups to be a part of outside of NSS that anyone who wants to learn can join.
NSS is very politically left-winged. I found it very annoying receiving lectures on critical-theory points which doesn't help your programming skills in the slightest. 

Conclusion:
I can't fully endorse NSS. If you really want to attend a class and study well in that environment then NSS is a good choice for you. If you don't like a classroom environment, then NSS isn't for you. I'd recommend studying on your own for awhile before attending NSS or any bootcamp. If you study on your own for a year or more then you're possibly already past what NSS can teach you anyway. Join a coding group on meetup.com and study on your own instead of dropping +$10k on free resources.