Sacramento LVN Unitek and Carrington

joel66 · Sep 18, 2010

anyone?

Christine2009 · Sep 19, 2010

I would never ever go to either school!!! First off they are to expensive and secondly, they both are very fast paced programs and do not give you enough time to let all the info sink in. I have two friends who graduated from Unitek and Carrington/Western Career College LVN program...both of them were very dissatisfied with the schools and still looking for employment 6 months later after passing the NCLEX. The say that thier job placement is a joke as they are told..."LVN's really are not in demand right now, so why don't you go and do the LVN-RN program"

Anyway, the choice is yours...I attended the LVN program at Carrington/Western Career College and very dissatisfied with the program myself...I ended up dropping and now going to attend Gurnick Academy instead ($29k, 14 months long, attend 2-3 days a week in the morining 9am - 2pm or 5pm - 10pm) they have a 100% pass rate on the NCLEX and a 95% rentention rate...

Best of luck to you on your decision... :nurse:

collegegirl209 · Sep 19, 2010

Can you transfer Gurnick's courses to MJC or CSU Stan? I have 2 CSU Stan instructors looking into that issue for me but haven't heard back yet. They've never heard of Gurnick, or at least aren't familiar with it. Does Gurnick have their own LVN-RN bridge program?

I was going to go to Gurnick on Tuesday to check them out, but I thought I'd investigate further... so I'm contacting people in the field to ask them and (like I mentioned, the CSU Stanislaus nursing dept. instructors, who are obviously all RNs and above and working in the field) once I hear about Gurnick from them, I'll proceed.

It's just so hard to believe what the admissions people at for-profit colleges say, you know?

collegegirl209 · Oct 11, 2010

I would never ever go to either school!!! First off they are to expensive and secondly, they both are very fast paced programs and do not give you enough time to let all the info sink in. I have two friends who graduated from Unitek and Carrington/Western Career College LVN program...both of them were very dissatisfied with the schools and still looking for employment 6 months later after passing the NCLEX.
Anyway, the choice is yours...I attended the LVN program at Carrington/Western Career College and very dissatisfied with the program myself...I ended up dropping and now going to attend Gurnick Academy instead...

Wait, did you go to Merritt College first, then Carrington and now Gurnick? Maybe I'm am misreading something.

@Joel66, as "Christine2009" mentions there is quite a price difference, however I have heard that Carrington has a LVN-RN bridge too. I know someone that is having a very positive experience there. There are also the cheaper options of going to a ADN or BSN program. Our jr. college also has a LVN program available, as do many other public non-profit colleges. Good luck to you in whatever you choose. :up:

Christine2009 · Oct 17, 2010

Collegegirl,

... I went to Carrington in 2003 when they first started their LVN program and dropped after the first day. I went to Merritt last year for LVN...spent a year in the program and transfered to Gurnick because Merritt's accrediation is on probation and the LVN program is being discontinued. I wanted a soild foundation and was not getting that at Merritt so that is my story FYI!!!!

fireflies · Nov 1, 2010

Collegegirl,
... I went to Carrington in 2003 when they first started their LVN program and dropped after the first day. I went to Merritt last year for LVN...spent a year in the program and transfered to Gurnick because Merritt's accrediation is on probation and the LVN program is being discontinued. I wanted a soild foundation and was not getting that at Merritt so that is my story FYI!!!!

hello. why is Merritt's accreditation on probation? I wanna check out that school for the LVN because its cheap.

Thankyou:)

Christine2009 · Nov 1, 2010

Merritt College's LVN program will not accepting any new students. The program is being canceled. Yes, it is cheap, but VERY disorganized and not at all througho. We started the class last fall with 45 students and now they are down to 15 students that are going to graduate in December. Their retention rate is very poor, they are losing all their sites for clinical rotations having us do clinicals in the lab at the school and just has an overall bad reputation.

Every semester you have a compentency exam in Drug Dose Calculations that must be passed or you are out of the program. Semester One was 75%, Semester Two was 85% and this semester was 95% in order to continue in the program. Also, each semester you do not learn anything new. Every lecture and test is recycled and you just keep learning the same stuff over and over.

I am finding that as I prepare to enter Gurnick in January, that there was sooooooo much we did not learn! I am having to audit the prereq's and the the first module because of this. I am also auditing because there is no way I can pass the challenge exams without auditing these courses. And to top it off, because of the fact that Med-Surg and Pharm were not taught properly, I am having to repeat these classes.

king_of_the_hill_fan · Nov 2, 2010

I went to Carrington when it was Western Career. I graduated in May of this year. I just passed the NCLEX and am applying for jobs like crazy. Anyways, if I had to choose between Unitek or Carrington, I'd go with Carrington. Carrington does have an LVN to RN bridge program available in Sacramento only. I went to the San Leandro campus. At first I had a terrible experience, but that was due to my classmates and some minor disorganization of the school (they were transferring the LVN program to another part of the campus). But now that it's over, I can say I had a great experience. Expensive, hell yes...worth it? I hope so. It will be when I finally start working. I haven't heard great things about Unitek. Carrington may or may not be worth 45K, but if you just want to get into a nursing school, then go for it. If you can afford to wait to get into a community college or other college, I'd wait.

lolibee · Jul 1, 2011

Hello-

I know this original post was from a while back but I was curious to see if you ended up starting school and where you chose to go? I have been doing a lot of research over these past six months to decide whether or not to go to Carrington or Gurnick. I am kind of leaning towards Carrington, even though it is about $20k more than Gurnick. I am a single mom with two little ones so am able to have a lot of the school covered from Financial Aid. I have never taken advantage of any assistant programs since the day I have had my kids, I have always worked hard so I believe being able to take advantage of the Financial Aid offered to me is a positive for my family. It will get me through school to offer a better life for myself and my children.

Basically I have come to this conclusion other than the financial aspect of the "fast track schools" many will endure it is a good option to get through school fast and have a good career after putting in the hard work. I have talked to many HR departments at some of my community's local hospitals and private doctor's offices and basically it comes down to experience and degree. Of course they are going to hire someone from a 4 year university with a BA in nursing or a student from Delta (jr college) over a student coming from Carrington or Gurnick. With that being said I have decided that because this school is in my best interest for time length and prep I know that I will have to be putting in my time (experience) at a place where I can start working right away, convalescent homes. These places have extreme turnover rates because it is not the most ideal place for some. I have talked to many convalescent homes in my area and they all hire and have ads running often. After working there for a few years (2-5) you have the experience to go to a hospital or private office setting. I have taken the admissions test for Gurnick in Modesto and was actually shocked to find how easy it really was. I have an appt to take the Evolve Reach A2 Admission Assessment this coming Wednesday with Carrington.

My choice of outcome really has a lot to do with the cost, but like I have said I am leaning towards Carrington. I have just enough savings to get me through the school length, which is 16-18 months for both schools. I wanted to make sure I mentioned that because some of the schools say they are shorter but if you read the smaller print, you will notice a lot of them have prereqs not added in the time frame. They offer them at the school but they are added in the time frame separately. So be sure to ask the duration of the school with everything included if you have not done other classes else where.

I have known two people now that highly recommend Carrington and both received great jobs after graduation. They both said that they worked their butts off though, and felt like they had no life. So I just feel that the school that you choose should have a lot to do with your whole situation..where you want to work starting out, how much you can afford, time span you want to complete school in, etc.

I would greatly appreciate any info on Gurnick in Modesto though if anyone has been there recently. I was curious about the teachers and the classrooms, etc.

Christine2009 · Jul 2, 2011

Go to www.gurnick.edu on the site click on Modesto campus to find info. Gurnick IS 14 months and that is INCLUDING the 10 week prereq class. When I called Carrington I was told that the program was 18 months and $45K if you do not recieve any financial aid or $60K with financial aid. PLUS they told me that the entire program was not going to cover the total cost of the program by financial aid and my monthly payments would be around $1800 - $2000 a month!

At Gurnick I only pay $85 a month for what was not covered by financial aid and the program cost stays the same with or without financial aid $27K and in addition after you graduate, you get $100 back (basically the registration fee is refunded).

HTH!

lolibee · Jul 6, 2011

Hi there, I am slightly confused, because when I read the website, I still read 14months plus 10 weeks for the
Bioscience course. When I went in to talk with Carrington College they went through the time line of the class(s)
16 month full time for LVN program, 16 months part time for bridge prereqs, then another 8 months full time for nursing program.

Q: How long is the LVN program?
A: Program is approximately 14 months long including clinical training. This does not include the time needed for the Essential Medical Bioscience course.
Q: How long is the Essential Medical Bioscience course?
A: Approximately 10 weeks/80 course hours.

Sorry meant to mention, those time lines are for the schools going in without having any credits already completed.