Academic calendar
Fall 2026 runs Aug 15, 2026 – Dec 15, 2026. Calendar aliases that share a date range are grouped together, with every source term still shown.
- Fall 2026Relevant now
- Spring 2027
Campus language
Search the full glossary. Nothing is sampled or hidden when the search field is empty.
Showing 22 of 22 terms
C
- Client
- The final group project phase where students build a functional application for a real-world business or non-profit.
- Cohort
- The specific group of students who progress through the entire program together, often named after a Greek letter.
D
- Demo Day
- The public graduation event where students present their final client projects to the community and employers.
F
- FS
- The Full Stack Software Engineering immersive program.
N
- Northstar
- The Northstar Center food court, a popular lunch destination accessible via the skyway from campus.
P
- PDA
- Prime Digital Academy, the full name of the institution.
- PRIME
- The shorthand name for the academy itself, often used in internal communications and Slack channels.
- Pro-grad
- A 'Professional Graduate'; a student who has completed the program and is in the career-search phase.
- Public Pro
- Short for Public Presentation, the graduation event where students showcase their work to employers.
S
- Skyway
- The climate-controlled indoor pedestrian bridge system used by students to access various downtown food courts and coffee shops.
- Solo
- The intensive individual capstone project completed during the middle phase of the program.
- Stand-up
- The mandatory daily morning meeting where students share progress, plans, and blockers.
T
- TechHire
- A community partnership initiative that Prime Academy participates in to recruit and train underserved populations in Minneapolis.
- The Commons
- The shared kitchen and dining area within the Grain Exchange campus where students gather for lunch and coffee breaks.
- The Firehose
- A term used by students to describe the intense, high-speed nature of the immersive curriculum.
- The Pit
- The large, open-concept collaborative workspace where students spend the majority of their time coding.
- Tier 1
- The initial foundational phase of the program, typically completed remotely.
- Tier 1/2/3
- The progressive stages of the bootcamp, moving from foundational concepts to advanced client-facing work.
- Tier 2
- The middle phase of the program, characterized by intensive, synchronous classroom learning.
- Tier 3
- The final project-heavy phase of the program focused on real-world application and career prep.
U
- UX
- The User Experience Design immersive program.
- UXA
- User Experience Academy; refers to the specific cohort and curriculum track for UX design students.
Places and practicalities
Buildings, logistics, and other local references drawn from the approved campus snapshot.
- Check-ins
- Regularly scheduled one-on-one meetings with instructors to discuss technical growth and well-being.
- Client Project
- The final phase of the program where students work for real-world pro-bono clients to gain professional experience.
- Code Challenge
- Weekly technical assessments used to evaluate student progress and understanding of the material.
- Dev Box
- The traditional welcome gift provided to incoming full-stack students to mark the start of their cohort.
- GitHub
- The platform used for all assignment submissions, version control, and peer code reviews.
- Grain Belt
- The Grain Belt Office Building in Minneapolis, which houses the main campus.
- Grain Exchange
- The historic Minneapolis building that houses the Prime Academy campus.
- Prime Portal
- The internal student dashboard used for tracking assignments, attendance, and curriculum resources.
- Pro-talks
- Scheduled professional development sessions where industry experts speak to students about the tech field.
- Public Demo
- The convention of inviting the local tech community to view final projects, serving as a graduation ceremony.
- Public Solo
- The formal presentation day where students showcase their individual capstone projects to the public and employers.
- Slack
- The primary communication hub for all cohort-specific announcements, technical help, and social interaction.
- The Grain
- The Grain Exchange Building in Minneapolis, which houses the physical campus and classrooms.
- The Lab
- The primary open-plan workspace where students spend the majority of their 40+ hour weeks coding and designing.
- The Suite
- The specific 5th-floor office space where classrooms, 'The Pit', and staff offices are located.
- The Vault
- A specific, secure meeting or breakout room located within the historic Grain Exchange campus facilities.
- Tier 1
- The initial remote, part-time phase of the curriculum focused on foundational concepts.
- Tier 2
- The intensive, full-time on-campus classroom phase of the program.
- Tier 3
- The final phase of the program focused on client projects and career search preparation.
Quick answers
Useful facts students can verify from the guide above.
- What academic term is relevant now?
- Fall 2026 runs Aug 15, 2026 – Dec 15, 2026.
- How much campus context is included?
- 22 approved campus terms and 19 local details are included in full.
- Are all approved campus terms included?
- Yes. The complete approved glossary is available in the scrollable, searchable campus-language section.
- Where does this guide come from?
- Calendar dates, campus terms, and local details come from DormWay's approved campus reference library.