I was in the second or third cohorts, and I dropped out during the first course because the assignment was to write their registration system for them for free. They had specific requirements for Java, MySQL, etc. If I'm going to work, I'm sure as hell not going to be paying to do it.
I'm sorry, but this doesn't sound credible. You wouldn't let potential newbies write an important part of your infra. Plus a credible school has more than enough software developers. Might it have been the other way around, that the people who actually wrote the system have designed assignments that are based on their experience? That's something I sometimes did when I held classes: nothing gets you closer to a realistic real-world practice problem than the one you just solved yourself
