Why is codesmith starting salary so high and how long to prepare?

This is pretty spot on, I don't have anything to add! Edit: actually I have one thing to add... The fellow program does impact the numbers a bit. You'll noticed that Codesmith's time to placement isn't particularly fast, and about 10% of people become "fellows" (kind of like a TA role) on 3 month contracts, and Codesmith delays the graduation clock for these people. So they are actually job hunting for up to 9 months to be included in the "6 month" window on CIRR. This combined with number 6 (and to some extent 5 and 3), that Codesmith tends to attract people that had moderate to high success in another career, with substantial savings, and lifestyle support to make the 11 hour days + 6+ month job hunt work, while taking your time only aiming for "mid level and senior" roles. Edit 2: one more thing.... related to 4. The medians reported on CIRR are 1. of people placed only, and 2. of people who reported salaries. So it's not like the median person who STARTED got that salary. First like 93% of people graduate, and then 85% of THOSE people get jobs, and then 95% of those people report salaries... so like the median of 70% of people who started is X. As someone looking to join a program it is **false** to say "I have a 50% chance of making $130K!".