Sacramento City College vs. American River College ADNs?

U.S.A. California

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Hi Everyone,

I have been fortunate enough to be selected for both American River College ADN AND Sacramento City College ADN programs. Now that I have a choice, I would really like to go to the school that has a higher *STUDENT* ranking for their ADN program. I have read the college reviews and have seen the statistics each nursing school provides, but I would like to hear from the alumni what they think. Can any ARC or SCC Alumni give me their thoughts on the ADN program they attended? Good or bad... I would love to hear it. Thank you in advance!

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

CONGRATS!!!!

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Have you checked their first pass rate on NCLEX? I would compare those scores. Congratulations LeapBaby and if those scores are similar then look at how current student feel about their program & their student retention rate :-)

Congrats LeapBaby! I'm in the same boat as you trying to decide whether to go to ARC and SCC. I got accepted for SCC Fall 2014 and ARC Spring 2015. What about you? I'm having a hard time deciding. I feel like the two schools are similar to each other and are possibly affliated. The NCLEX scores are close enough. I'd like to hear from current nursing students and alumni at both schools. Thanks!

Congratulations to you both!! I am finishing my first semester at SCC in the ADN program and I absolutely LOVE it! The instructors are so knowledgeable and truly care about the students. I'd be happy to help with any questions you may have!

Purpleorchid, first of all congratulations... that is awesome news. However, could you please clarify something for me as I thought only SCC did applications for fall & spring simultaneously... and ARC did only one semester at a time (thus, ARC would only be accepting for fall & SCC would be accepting for fall & spring. Do you have the colleges reversed? Because ARC sent me a message saying I was not selected for fall, but could reapply for spring 2015. I am new to applying at losrios though, so correct me if I am wrong... I am just trying to understand the process better. Thank you & congrats again :yes:

Hi BookNerdSN,

What's the ratio of students to instructors in lecture, lab, clinical sites? How is the stimulation lab? I noticed there is no pharmacology class as part of the curriculum. Does that mean it's incorporated in each semester or do I need to take a class and learn on my own for the NCLEX? Thanks!!

I'll be attending sac city fall 2014!

I was accepted as an alterate at ARC for Fall 2014. I think it's highly unlikely I will make it in but it says if I don't, I'm guaranteed a spot for Spring 2015.

Hi BookNerdSN,

What's the ratio of students to instructors in lecture, lab, clinical sites? How is the stimulation lab? I noticed there is no pharmacology class as part of the curriculum. Does that mean it's incorporated in each semester or do I need to take a class and learn on my own for the NCLEX? Thanks!!

At SCC we have 33 students in our cohort. So for lecture there are usually 33 of us. We have 3 instructors and the instructor lecturing that day depends on the content covered. Labs are during the first 6 weeks of class and everyone is there at the same time, but there are 5 or 6 areas to work in, depending on the day. After that there isn't anymore "lab" as that time is now when you are in clinical.0

We have 3 clinical sites in 1st semester and each site has 1 of the instructors at it, so there are 11 in each clinical group.

The Sim lab we use occasionally in 1st semester, but it's used more in future semesters.

Pharmacology is incorporated throughout the whole program. Right now we are studying hypertension so our focus is the medications used for that. But throughout this semester we've covered diabetic meds, anesthesia meds, analgesics...it just varies depending on the content but during that content, they are the only meds we focus on.

If you have time (I know we all have TONS of that!) I would recommend a medical terminology, dosage calculation and a pharmacology class. I'd taken dosage calc and medical terminology but not pharmacology. A lot of my classmates had taken it for a prerequisite for other schools and they definitely had an advantage since they knew more about the meds.

Please let me know if I can help you with anymore questions :)

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thanks, this was very helpful! =)

Purpleorchid: I am leaning towards choosing ARC for Spring 2015. I also applied to Sac State but I believe I was a few points shy of the cutoff this semester. (They take the first 80 highest applications and then 40 alternates... I think I was 3 points shy of the alternate status.) I would *REALLY* like to avoid doing an ADN to BSN bridge program, so I will be reapplying for SacState (after I improve my TEAS score) in August for their Spring program. This will also give me some time to complete some required upper division classes at SacState. :)

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