[shittyanalogy]

You never explained why you need to refer to them as anything. So they can feel part of a team? To refer collectively to them easily in meetings? Why not just use:

    Participants
    Attendees
    Customers

But really you should just refer to them as people. The people who take courses with you are just people. Not hackers, or students, or WildCats or Urban Achievers. People. People and customers. Customeople.

As for the school thing, if what you think you're running is a school, call it a school. Words aren't hard, marketing is hard.

[jfarmer]

Let's conduct a simple thought experiment.

I'm attending Hacker School. A friend I haven't seen in a few months comes up and asks, "So, what are you doing these days?" I respond with something like

  Oh, I'm an X at Hacker School
  Oh, I'm Y-ing at Hacker School

So, it's not a matter of "need" — X and Y are going to be filled with something even if Hacker School has no opinion on the matter. What's more, no student is ever[1] going to say "I'm a customer at Hacker School"[2] or "I'm a participant in Hacker School," and if we insist on referring to students as "customers" or "participants," we're just asking for students to invent their own, contradictory vocabulary.

They might say "I'm attending Hacker School," but that immediately implies that one is a student, i.e., you'd expect their friend to respond, "Oh, cool! What's it like being a student there?" Or if said friend were to ask, "Ah, so you're a student there?" I'd of course reply affirmatively. If they seemed open to it I might elaborate on how being a student at Hacker School isn't like being a student as they think of it.

Perhaps one way to think of it is this: by giving the students at Hacker School a way to refer to themselves, Hacker School is helping them tell a more compelling story to both themselves and those people who care about them.

[1]: You might disagree, I suppose, but I'm not going to argue the point. :)

[2]: Also, the students at Hacker School are not their customers. Hacker School is free for all students and they (presumably) make money through job referrals. This means those companies are their customers, not the students.

[username223]

For all X and Y, there's still the problem of the speaker being associated with something called "Hacker School." Just like "Beefcake School," "Baller School," "Stud School," or any other "Positive Connotation to a Certain Demographic School," it doesn't pass the laugh test.

[jfarmer]

Is this the "username223 Laugh Test" or something more universal?

[username223]

It's fairly general, like the saying that any science with "science" in its name probably isn't. It's good to be skeptical about things whose made-up names consist of buzzwords appealing to their target demographics.

[funthree]

It's kind of like a matter of forcing acquiescence versus offering traditional dignification to the eventual employer. I cant really say I take a side.