Need Excelsior Clarification

What happens with excelsior is there are the general education requirements that you can complete without enrolling( I don't think you need to be enrolled, I did mine at a regular college). You go to EC's website and make a free account. This account will give you access to free study guide's that you can print out and follow along with the reading to prepare for the test. The otehr part is the nursing exams 1-7. You can take NC1 and NC2 without enrolling. NC 2 can be waived is you have a valid LPN lic. and they will evaluate that with your credits and your record will be credited. After you apply it takes about 2-3 weeks for them to send you all the enrollment stuff and your credit eval. Mine was about a week and a half (but I live in Albany were the school is). Once you enroll you can get the rest of the study guides from NC 3-7. As for notes and resources from other sources, I personally use NCLEX books and I bought Lisa Arends CD's from EBay and they are great and I have been passing with A's and B's. So, I hope this helps and I hope I included everything. Good Luck

BigKenny pretty much covered it. The prices you listed are for the exams only. You don't have to purchase the study guides from Excelsior, but if you do then that's extra. For example, English Composition is a $280 exam and EC sells a guided learning package for $225 (I think, somewhere around there). So your total cost will be about $500... or you can just pay for your exam and find your own material to purchase (be it new or used).

You can take CLEP and Dante's tests for the General Education classes, but I'm unsure of which ones Excelsior accept for the Required Courses (I know that sociology is CLEPable, but as for the others I'm waiting for a response from EC.) Also, like already mentioned you can take NC1 before enrolling and get NC2 waived with an LPN license.

Good luck in whatever you choose.

Both posts above explain it very well, EC only requires you to register and qualify for the nursing program before you can take NC3, therefor you are able to take NC1-2 without paying the 1000$ enrollment fee. This is important because EC charges you a "yearly" fee of 500$, so if you can complete NC3-7 and the CPNE within a year you can save yourself some money.

EC dosent require you to buy any materials, all you must do is pay for the exams NC1-7 are 220$ and they give you free content guides (also you can download all of the content guides free online from EC website and creating a online account "my EC").

https://www.excelsior.edu

What I have done is buy a couple of the basic books
1. Fundamentals of Nursing Practice By: Kozier Publisher: Prentice Hall
ISBN: 0536263442___ Ed: 2007

2. Wong's Essentials of Pediatric Nursing By: Hockenberry Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0323025935___ Ed: 7th
Used in course(s): EXAM 461

Then I bought Lisa Arend's CD's (a former grad of EC with GREAT notes), off of e-bay ( http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZlarendsQQhtZ-1 ).

Along with with EC practice tests (which are 60$ for two 100 question test), which give you ratonale for the correct and incorrect answers.

With the above I have passed NC1 this passed weekend and plan on taking NC2-7 over the next 4 months.

Last but not least join up @ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freehe...lsiorstudents/

this is a GREAT supportive group with study files and links, it is a bunch of EC students help each other out.

IMO with the above you dont need to spend alot of money on publishing companies like RUE/TCN or even excelsiors guided study packages

With EC if you dont have another degree and need to do other general ED credits you can do them thru EC or a local college you must have them done before you graduate.

lastly to pass EC you must pass a clinical weekend at a hospital what we EC students call the CPNE. It is the final requirment to pass and it cost a hefty 2k. There is plenty of resources out there such as this workshop:

http://www.cpnesolutions.com/

To help you pass this last class. EC and other hold more workshops also but they cost more.

Your final cost is a graduation fee which is used to pay for all the processing used to get you ready to take the NCLEX and get your diploma.

The only fees you will ever have to pay (other than for your study materials) is your test fees (220 for all the NC tests), enrollment fee (895), yearly re-enrollement fee (450), and graduation fee (495), CPNE (1725) and any general education credits you need (150-250).

Hope it helps

Chris.

I am a recent Grad of Excelsior College. All of the info that Chris gave is correct. The one thing that I do want to add is that the Excelsior College exams prepare you very well for the NCLEX. I graduated 12/15/06 and took my boards on 01/30/07. I passed with flying colors. Only got 75 questions. The questions were just as hard as the Excelsior exam questions. Just make sure you study and do well on all the Nursing Concepts and use the Saunders Comprehensive NCLEX Review Book (the blue colored book). If I was you guys I would start using it now the book now to help prepare for the exams as well as the NCLEX. I hope this helped you out.

I too had questions about this program .You all have broken it down to basic understanding.Thanks so much Just one more question...So you are saying I can do everything through ec and not have to use rue?????

correct RUE/TCN ect. are publishing companies only, with this is mind you dont need them to complete any requirments. They are only tutiors (in my eyes) and help you pass the EC nursing program ONLY, and are in no way affiliated or in the business of giving you a diploma.

You can cut this middle man out and do your own studying and searching for materials needed for the course and save yoursef 4-5k based on what I see people paying for RUE and or The College Network. BUT what you can do is buy the TCN/RUE study books off of ebay and safe yourself 500-700$ per study book, if you feel you need such a condensed version of the text book (basically what the publishing companies do).

LilD: I am starting NC1 too, pending Excelsior's receipt of all my transcripts. I'm excited, too. One thing I appreciate so much is that the material is so clear. The powerpoints I was given in "regular" nursing school were a mess!
Do you, or anybody else on this thread have any idea of how long it takes to do the 7 exams and the CPNE? I'd love to get an idea. Looking through the first exam material, it looks like the same type of stuff I'm used to. I would love to finish in less than a year. Do you, or anyone else, think this is possible?
Thanks, and good luck!
Diahni

You can cut this middle man out and do your own studying and searching for materials needed for the course and save yoursef 4-5k based on what I see people paying for RUE and or The College Network. BUT what you can do is buy the TCN/RUE study books off of ebay and safe yourself 500-700$ per study book, if you feel you need such a condensed version of the text book (basically what the publishing companies do).[/quote]

Yes, I have been winging it alone getting my materila together with Excelsior, and having success finding materials, etc. Some of the books I bought used on the internet though amazon, and I even found some of the texts through interlibrary loan.
Diahni