Turing School of Software & Design is closed
This school is now closed. Although Turing School of Software & Design is no longer accepting students or running its program, you can still see historical information and Turing School of Software & Design alumni reviews on the school page.

Turing School of Software & Design is a federally accredited, online tech training provider turning driven students into professional developers. Turing offers a Software Engineering program, which is aimed at career changers. The program covers four modules: object-oriented programming (Ruby, JavaScript), web application development (Rails, JavaScript), professional web applications, and cross-team processes and applications. Within the final module, students will choose to focus on front end development with Javascript/React or back end development with Ruby/Rails. 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 Software Engineering program should anticipate spending 1-2 hours on the application process, which includes a written application and a Zoom interview.
Students will receive career support through the four modules of the Software Engineering program. This support includes resumes, cover letters, job shadowing, and job coaching. Graduates will participate in small-group job coaching sessions, where they can work with peers and staff to build and execute their job search strategy. Alumni are allowed to participate in these sessions for as long as it takes them to find a tech role. Alumni who are on the job hunt for their second or third role after graduating are also welcome to reach out to Turing School for job support.
Going to Turing is a serious decision. I would like to preface my review by saying that my experience in Turing was in some ways atypical because it took me longer and not everyone struggled as hard as I did. This is the most challenging thing I’ve ever done. The program took me a full year to complete. It’s hard for me to consolidate a year of my life into a short review but I will try to frame it with things I would have liked to know going into the program.
Going to Turing is a serious decision. I would like to preface my review by saying that my experience in Turing was in some ways atypical because it took me longer and not everyone struggled as hard as I did. This is the most challenging thing I’ve ever done. The program took me a full year to complete. It’s hard for me to consolidate a year of my life into a short review but I will try to frame it with things I would have liked to know going into the program.
The program is broken up into four, six-week modules. You can repeat any two modules one time. You can also do something called an audit while you’re in the program where you don’t pay for the module, you attend class but don’t have projects due. I repeated modules 1 & 2 and audited 3. You have to ask about them if you think you need to audit with in the first three weeks of a mod. Repeating mods lets you try the material again, but it’s hard when you have to adjust to a new cohort and adjustments to the curriculum are frequent. Even if you repeat a mod it will not be exactly the same.
Also, as someone who had never really coded before Turing, it was incredibly difficult to learn. I felt like my brain was getting hot-wired every day. I am a slower learner than some people and the incredibly fast pace of Turing was quite a challenge. One of my teachers told us in class that to be successful at Turing you need to be putting in around 70 hours a week. For the duration of Turing, it was my entire life. All of my highs came from my successes in school and my lows came from my failures. I didn’t see my friends or have a social life outside of school. I was on my laptop from the moment I woke up until before I went to bed. Turing enhanced my anxieties. The school now has a full-time counselor on site which I think is a great help. However, l recommend caution to people with learning difficulties and mental health issues as I saw those problems make otherwise bright students struggle harder or take them out of the program altogether.
This program is also a financial commitment. 20,000 dollars was about my yearly income before I started Turing and I also paid another 5,000 to repeat courses. I did a Sallie Mae loan that I had to get a cosigner to take out. Repeating put more financial strain on my husband and I. I talked to Joanne, who recently left, about financial options and she was very kind and helpful. I ended up borrowing extra money from my parents and in-laws to make ends meet but I know that is a privilege that not everyone has. You have to consider how long you won’t have a job to help pay for living expenses including while you are in school and job hunting.
I was fortunate enough to have the financial and emotional support of my family to get through. I also had an amazing mentor and I would recommend anyone who goes through the program to get a mentor. Ask about it; they have a list of former alumni who are available. All of the instructors I had at Turing were combinations of smart, tough and supportive. As someone who struggled, I found that keeping the lines of communication open while I was in their class was extremely important. I had frequent check-ins and meetings and I messaged them often about how I was doing. I also found it important to take poms (5 minute breaks every 25 minutes or so), eat meals, drink water and have a bedtime. This can be especially hard when it seems like a lot of your fellow students are talking about how late they stayed at school, how late they’d stayed up, how early they got up, when the last time they can remember eating or taking a break etc. It is essential that you take care of yourself during the program so you don’t crash and burn.
Graduating is not the end of your journey; you still have to job hunt. The school offers professional development while you're in school and job support after. The job support after graduation or “mod 5” consists of weekly check-ins with Kayt or another job mentor and Robyn who posts job opportunities and will refer you to companies she posts about. This process can take time. While a few lucky people got jobs before they were even done with school for a lot of people it is a multi-month process. For me, it was under three months but for others, it can be longer. The alumni network is invaluable and outreach is so important.
There is no review I could write that could fully prepare anyone for the experience of being in Turing. It is hard, rewarding and like I’ve said, life-changing. For me this risk was high and the rewards were high. The results have been phenomenal, I have roughly tripled my annual income and I have an amazing job with supportive bosses. I would recommend this program with the caveat that it is not for everyone.
Jeff Casimir of Turing School of Software & Design
Executive Director
Dec 09, 2019
To say that Attending Turing was the best decision I ever made would be an understatement. Though I’ve just begun my career in tech, the juice was worth the squeeze, so to speak, just for the experience I had while actually attending the Turing School. I made friendships that will last the rest of my life and, perhaps more importantly, found the best version of myself amidst the stress and rigor that characterize this intensive program. I came from a completely non-technical academic backg...
To say that Attending Turing was the best decision I ever made would be an understatement. Though I’ve just begun my career in tech, the juice was worth the squeeze, so to speak, just for the experience I had while actually attending the Turing School. I made friendships that will last the rest of my life and, perhaps more importantly, found the best version of myself amidst the stress and rigor that characterize this intensive program. I came from a completely non-technical academic background (BA in philosophy, Masters in Humanities) and former careers (small business owner, then public sector employee) so if I made it through Turing successfully, so can you! If this is any indication how much I loved this experience, I have a cohort(class) Turing tattoo, now. If you think you might like coding, sign up for a try coding session and give it a shot; it just might be the best decision you ever make. I know it was for me!
Best move I've made for my career ever. Incredible teaching, great job assistance and connections. You must work very very hard but if you do, you will be completely transformed into a software developer in just 7 months. They provide wonderful support for their students and have a strong sense of their values.
I was originally scheduled to join the 1804 Cohort for the Front End Engineering program at Turing in April of 2018. Four days before I was supposed to start at Turing, out of nowhere, my employer at the time informed me that I would be unable to take the leave that I was anticipating to start at Turing as it put me in breach of contract. The staff at Turing was on a week-long leave and were not in the office. I reached out the following morning in a cold panic asking if it was too late to...
I was originally scheduled to join the 1804 Cohort for the Front End Engineering program at Turing in April of 2018. Four days before I was supposed to start at Turing, out of nowhere, my employer at the time informed me that I would be unable to take the leave that I was anticipating to start at Turing as it put me in breach of contract. The staff at Turing was on a week-long leave and were not in the office. I reached out the following morning in a cold panic asking if it was too late to push back to the next cohort, and I was informed within minutes that it would be no problem. All I needed to do was call my lender who was handling my loan and sign a new contract with Turing and I was good-to-go.
I make a point of judging organizations by how well they react when things don't go according to plan, and the first time that happened at Turing, before I had even started attending, they were super-agile and able to adapt quickly to make things work for me. Massive respect to Joanne Liu and Erin Williams on this.
My experience at Turing was that it was probably the most difficult and intense thing I've done in my entire life. I attended from late June of 2018 until early January of 2019 as a part of the 1806 Front End Cohort. I regularly put in between 12 and 14 hours per-day, going from being a relative coding novice to completely confident in my job readiness as a front end engineer. I wrote, erased, and rewrote code challenges. I worked on projects during the daily bus ride from Thornton to Denver. I scrawled JavaScript on the shower door. I ate, drank, and slept it, and it was still really, really hard. If you are considering attending Turing, expect this level of commitment.
The instructors at Turing are world class. They were passionate, knowledgable, and 100%-dedicated to our success. They had just the right balance of guiding and letting us figure things out for ourselves. They stressed using resources like StackOverflow and really digging in and reading documentation. While the curriculum is not perfect, it is constantly under review and is being updated to both meet the evolving needs of the tech workplace and to change lesson/curriculum structure that can be improved.
By the end of the program, I could:
After graduation, it took me 53 days to find and accept a job offer. While my current position requires that I use a stack that I am not familiar with, I am finding that what I learned at Turing prepared me to adapt quickly on the job, to search for my own solutions first and ask for help second. I received my first paycheck yesterday, and it was double what I received as a fourteen-year veteran of public education as a music teacher. Turing literally changed the trajectory of my life. Attending was one of the best decisions I ever made.
I had the luxury of going through Turing as a white guy with a master's degree and a history of being affirmed in the STEM field. I highlight this to say that my perspective on the challenge of Turing is pretty pure to the work and curriculum itself and not to larger systemic or identity pressures and stressors from things like race, class, gender, education, etc.
That being said, Turing is *really* hard. It really is non stop work for seven months for at least 60 hours a day (an...
I had the luxury of going through Turing as a white guy with a master's degree and a history of being affirmed in the STEM field. I highlight this to say that my perspective on the challenge of Turing is pretty pure to the work and curriculum itself and not to larger systemic or identity pressures and stressors from things like race, class, gender, education, etc.
That being said, Turing is *really* hard. It really is non stop work for seven months for at least 60 hours a day (and a mellow day at that). The Turing difference is that you develop insane endurance for problem solving and spending all day thinking like a programmer.
I went through the back-end program covering Ruby and Ruby on Rails, but the curriculum and instructors pave a road for students that leads them to a place of very generalizable knowledge that applies to many contexts in software development (almost two years out from graduation, I work on a completely different stack).
Turing helped me completely alter my life trajectory in terms of opportunity and fulfillment. If you want to see what coding is like or if you even like it, don't apply yet. It's not a kiddie pool! If you are serious about wanting to become a professional software developer, it is the only slam-dunk option in my mind.
I loved my time at Turing and think that my decision to change career paths and enroll in their FE program was one of the best decisions I've ever made.
I started in the third cohort of their FE program and found the coursework really challenging but organized and presented in a way that enabled a lot of learning and growth (becoming a coder is not just about how much JavaScript you know but also about how you approach learning, challenges, etc) throughout the program.
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I loved my time at Turing and think that my decision to change career paths and enroll in their FE program was one of the best decisions I've ever made.
I started in the third cohort of their FE program and found the coursework really challenging but organized and presented in a way that enabled a lot of learning and growth (becoming a coder is not just about how much JavaScript you know but also about how you approach learning, challenges, etc) throughout the program.
As someone coming from the education space, I also really appreciated the schools focus on professional development for their instructors. Since most developers are not trained educators who know how to write an effective lesson plan, I thought this focus by the school was a real differentiating factor - they really care about their instructors (and pay them well). I think this has a lot to do with the fact that Turing is a nonprofit - as all schools should be - the focus of the organization is on its staff and students growth and development and that is not always (or ever) the case when a company is trying to turn a profit.
I also really appreciated the 4 module structure with short breaks in between. I think it allowed me to recenter myself and stay more grounded and focused on the areas I needed to improve in throughout the process - it also gave me a bit of time to spend with my wife and to catch up on sleep.
I ended up having to take an extended break after completing Mod3 due to a family emergency and Turing was extremely understanding and accommodating to my situation and new timeline.
I ended up finishing up the program and, after getting a bunch of great interview prep/support from Ian Douglas and other instructional staff, had 4 pretty strong offers to choose from. I am now a full-time software developer in Denver and loving my new career.
Graduated from Turing's backend engineering program about a year ago. Turing will prepare you for a quality, competitive software dev role. After 7 months, you'll be a quality junior developer on the verge of mid-level developer roles.
Program is a full-time commitment which you need to be prepared for but you'll learn how to use command line efficiently, build games, data structures, and of course web applications. 3/4 of way through you'll be able to build apps like Airbnb, e-...
Graduated from Turing's backend engineering program about a year ago. Turing will prepare you for a quality, competitive software dev role. After 7 months, you'll be a quality junior developer on the verge of mid-level developer roles.
Program is a full-time commitment which you need to be prepared for but you'll learn how to use command line efficiently, build games, data structures, and of course web applications. 3/4 of way through you'll be able to build apps like Airbnb, e-commerce sites, secure login with email or sign in with facebook, google, etc confidently with or without external libraries. By then, you can concentrate and learning what you're most interested in (outside of the curriculum) and be prepared to figure it out, like building a mobile app, because you'll have a solid process of working through errors and new technologies. You'll learn coding practices to contribute quality code by writing tests, pair programming, learning how and when to reach out to mentors or more senior developers for help.
If you're prepared for the time commitment and difficulty in keeping up with the rigorous curriculum, this is a great choice to get into software development.
Turing is a nonprofit which means all funds go into quality instructors and your education. I would personally never attend a for-profit school since their responsibility is to profit before quality.
I attended Turing in 2017 and started with Cohort 1703, I had a wonderful experience with the program and loved nearly every minute of the experience. I struggled at points and ended up repeating my 3rd module which meant I graduated 7 weeks later than originally planned. I went through an extended job search after graduating and definitely found this to be the toughest part of the process. But if you follow the sage wisdom provided then you will not encounter many difficulties on that fro...
I attended Turing in 2017 and started with Cohort 1703, I had a wonderful experience with the program and loved nearly every minute of the experience. I struggled at points and ended up repeating my 3rd module which meant I graduated 7 weeks later than originally planned. I went through an extended job search after graduating and definitely found this to be the toughest part of the process. But if you follow the sage wisdom provided then you will not encounter many difficulties on that front. I now work as a QA engineer and make over 80k a year! I was making less than 36k previously. Truly life changing!
Jeff Casimir of Turing School of Software & Design
Executive Director
Jan 23, 2019

| 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% |
How much does Turing School of Software & Design cost?
Turing School of Software & Design costs around $25,000.
What courses does Turing School of Software & Design teach?
Turing School of Software & Design offers courses like Software Engineering.
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 Colorado Accredited by the Accrediting Council for Continuing Education & Training
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