Turing School

Turing School of Software & Design is a remote, accredited software development training provider founded by Jeff Casimir and headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Its flagship program runs approximately seven months, with cohorts starting every seven weeks and coursework divided into four six-week modules preceded by a required preparatory course called Mod 0. Classes are instructor-led and held on weekdays from roughly 9am to 4pm Mountain Time via Zoom and Slack, with group and individual projects completed in each module. The curriculum centers on Ruby and JavaScript and also covers Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL, HTML, CSS, NodeJS, React and Cypress, delivered in front-end and back-end engineering tracks.

Admission requires applicants to be at least 18 years old with a high school diploma, GED or equivalent, and to be located within a few time zones of US Mountain Time; no prior computer science or mathematics background is expected, and approximately 60% of students hold a college degree. The process comprises an online application, a live interview with the admissions team, enrollment through the Populi student information system with a $1,200 deposit, a financial aid consultation, and completion of Mod 0. Typical class size yields about a 12:1 student-to-instructor ratio, with two to three instructors assigned per cohort and roughly half of instructors having worked as professional developers.

The school publishes student outcomes data through quarterly employment reports and through the Council for Integrity in Results Reporting (CIRR), which sets common definitions and schedules for outcomes reporting among developer training programs. As of April 15, 2025, Turing paused new enrollments, stating that it had trained over 2,500 alumni over the preceding ten years.

Founding story

Founder Jeff Casimir began teaching in 2003 with Teach for America in Washington, D.C., co-founded a middle school there in 2007 and served as vice principal until 2009, then left K-12 to start Jumpstart Lab, which focused on corporate programming training. In late 2011 a conversation with LivingSocial VP of Technology Chad Fowler led to Hungry Academy, a five-month program that drew about 750 applicants for 24 slots, all of whom LivingSocial ultimately hired. Seeking a more sustainable, tuition-based model that could also defer tuition costs for students, Casimir partnered with Galvanize in Denver to create gSchool, which began its first class of 24 students in January 2013 out of about 175 applicants. After the first gSchool cohort the partnership was dissolved, and Casimir continued the model with Turing School, a seven-month coding school in Denver.

Business model

Tuition-based vocational education: students pay for a cohort-based software development program rather than the employer-funded model used in Casimir's earlier Hungry Academy program.

Tuition of $25,000 per student for the full program, with no additional fees and a new MacBook Air included. A $1,200 deposit secures a seat, with the balance paid directly or financed through lending partners including Ascent and Climb; students may also apply government workforce grants (such as WIOA and TEC-P), state Vocational Rehabilitation funding, scholarships, and veterans' benefits under the Post-9/11 GI Bill. Turing does not accept VET TEC benefits.

Traction

Turing reports more than 2,500 alumni over roughly ten years. Published CIRR cohort reports show enrollment of 86 students in h1-16, 60 in h2-16, and split front-end and back-end cohorts thereafter ranging from 41 to 68 enrolled students per reported cohort through h2-20. Quarterly employment reports were published from 2018 Q1 through 2023 Q4.

Latest developments

As of April 15, 2025, Turing paused new enrollments, describing the end of "Act I" and preparation for an "Act II" for its community.