Orange County, California Nursing schools:) Saddleback, Santa Ana.... Etc

IEDave, ASN, CNA, LVN · Oct 15, 2013

Welcome to AllNurses, Sharonanderson24:

First, a link to help you find community colleges in OC: Find A Community College

As far as "getting on a waiting list" - really, there's so much variation between how colleges select students I'd be hard pressed to give you any solid advice, other that go to their information sessions & strive for straight-A's on your prereqs, plus applying to multiple programs when you're ready to move forward. To the best of my knowledge no CC pre-accepts students for nursing programs, primarily because they're all state funded and can't legally show favoritism without a basis for it (e.g. academic performance), plus there are quite a few people trying to get into area RN programs (big surprise, huh?)

Of the 2 you have listed, I'd personally give the nod to Saddleback for 3 reasons:

1) My favorite psych prof teaches there;

2) A longtime friend of mine got an AA there & had nothing but good things to say about the curriculum;

3) The NCLEX-RN pass rates are higher at Saddleback, although both look pretty solid.

As far as the "naysaying counselor" - welcome to academia. Some counselors know their stuff - and some don't. Admittedly, nursing is a different sort of animal academically - that said, it's do-able but it takes solid academic performance, quite a bit of time management and some plain ol' skull sweat to pull it off. Try not to take the counselor's comments too personally - it comes with the territory.

Hope this was of at least some help; doubtless someone with more in-depth knowledge will be along shortly.

----- Dave

cathering, ADN, BSN, MSN, APRN, NP · Dec 21, 2013

Hi. I see your post has been awhile but I decided to chime in. I am a current saddleback nursing student-going into my 3rd. So I can only speak for the saddleback program...

As far as wait list.. There isn't one. You can ONLY apply after you have competed your pre-reqs and teas v test (ATI has good study guide). The prereqs are only 4 classes though: English 1, anatomy, physiology, and microbiology. So there is no "guaranteed" spots.

The best way for you to get into the program is to do very well in those 4 pre-reqs and the teas test. Saddleback is a point system as you already know and on its website there is a form that breaks down all the points. (I applied to saddleback because their application process was the easiest to figure out-lol.) however, the difference between and 3.5 to 4.0 in the prereq GPA is pretty big, so I recommend taking your time in making sure you get very good grades.

As far as the counselor, she is absolutely crazy! Obv she doesn't know much about the nursing program. I recommend seeing saddleback counselor who specializes in it's nursing program. Private message me if u want his name. I went to him before I applied and he was a great help. Basically, he told me that if you have over 70 pts, you have very very good chance. He wasn't wrong!

Okay. I hope I was clear. And good luck!!! Saddleback is a wonderful program and I feel very lucky to be apart of it. As of now, if I was offered a bsn program vs saddleback's program. I would choose the saddleback even if It means I have to go back to school for rn-bsn.

-Cathy

sharonanderson24 · Jan 18, 2014

Oh my goodness I just saw your reply!!! Thank you so much for your advice! That really really helped me alot I truly appreciate it. I've been talking with them about their point system and I definitely have a much better outlook now. I message you if I have any other questions. Thanks so much again cathy!

Sharon