Not-for-profit vs for-profit colleges...did this make a difference?

[BabyLady]

I am curious to hear from those of you that have attended for-profit vs not-for-profit colleges.

Did any of you, when job searching after completing your graduate degrees, have anyone say anything if you graduated from a for-profit school?

In other words, do you feel that you were discriminated against in any way or did it make no difference at all as long as you held the credentials?

Thanks!

BabyLady

[llg, PhD, RN]

I believe the quality of programs varies widely. Unfortunately, most people making hiring decisions don't have a good way to assess the quality of schools they never heard of. Therefore, they may go by a few major generalizations and stereotypes unless they are aware that a particular school has a particular reputation.

You only have a few minutes to make a first impression.

My personal experience working with colleagues who have gotten degrees from for-profit schools is that they received an adequate education, but not a great one. I find that none of them has been well socialized into the culture of advanced nursing practice and leadership roles. But they have the basic skills to do most of the tasks of the job.

I have preceptored some graduate students -- some at a large for-profit school and some from a couple of non-profit schools. The requirements at the for-profit school are lower and their follow-up / monitoring of their students is non-existent. The non-profit schools have higher requirements and do a better job of monitoring / following-up with their students.

[BabyLady, BSN, RN]

I'll be honest..I would give anything if I could find a brick-and-morter distance learning program at a reasonable tuition that have the elements that I am looking for, but so far I have not found one.

If you post it on this website, everyone says, "Oh, just look it up on the internet!".

Uh, like that never occurred to the person posting the question.

I would encourage anyone to TRY to search for a general nursing program on the internet...the first thing that pops up is all the for-profit schools..over and over and over again which makes a search hard and I have been looking for WEEKS for a suitable program.

So this is what I am looking for, in case anyone knows of a program and can recommend one:

1) Distance learning

2) No GRE

3) Nurse Educator focus...this is the kicker...some of these programs are designed for a nurse educator in a clinical setting (ie. hospital) and that is the focus of the program..others, focus on curriculum planning and design...THAT is what I want to learn to do.

4) Reasonable tuition...I have found programs that are $700+ a semester hour...not even going to go there.

[jmqphd]

I believe the quality of programs varies widely. Unfortunately, most people making hiring decisions don't have a good way to assess the quality of schools they never heard of. Therefore, they may go by a few major generalizations and stereotypes unless they are aware that a particular school has a particular reputation.

You only have a few minutes to make a first impression.

My personal experience working with colleagues who have gotten degrees from for-profit schools is that they received an adequate education, but not a great one. I find that none of them has been well socialized into the culture of advanced nursing practice and leadership roles. But they have the basic skills to do most of the tasks of the job.

I have preceptored some graduate students -- some at a large for-profit school and some from a couple of non-profit schools. The requirements at the for-profit school are lower and their follow-up / monitoring of their students is non-existent. The non-profit schools have higher requirements and do a better job of monitoring / following-up with their students.

I respect your experience in this regard. I am not sure what the accreditation requirements are for schools offering graduate degrees. I know that NLNAC requires A LOT of follow-up data on our (ADN) graduates, but maybe this is not the case for MSN's etc. And you are correct that the requirements to get into for-profits are lower. We take people who wouldn't have a chance elsewhere. This is why some members of congress are concerned that these new federal rules will disproportionally impact minorities. This type of school has emerged because traditional state and private colleges have ignored the needs of a large slice of America.

[klone, MSN, RN]

I'll be honest..I would give anything if I could find a brick-and-morter distance learning program at a reasonable tuition that have the elements that I am looking for, but so far I have not found one.

If you post it on this website, everyone says, "Oh, just look it up on the internet!".

Uh, like that never occurred to the person posting the question.

I would encourage anyone to TRY to search for a general nursing program on the internet...the first thing that pops up is all the for-profit schools..over and over and over again which makes a search hard and I have been looking for WEEKS for a suitable program.

So this is what I am looking for, in case anyone knows of a program and can recommend one:

1) Distance learning

2) No GRE

3) Nurse Educator focus...this is the kicker...some of these programs are designed for a nurse educator in a clinical setting (ie. hospital) and that is the focus of the program..others, focus on curriculum planning and design...THAT is what I want to learn to do.

4) Reasonable tuition...I have found programs that are $700+ a semester hour...not even going to go there.

Have you checked out WGU.edu?

[BabyLady, BSN, RN]

Have you checked out WGU.edu?

I actually had not! Thank you for a wonderful suggestion! This is exactly the type of Nurse Educator program I was looking for.

Still taking others!!!!

[klone, MSN, RN]

I actually had not! Thank you for a wonderful suggestion! This is exactly the type of Nurse Educator program I was looking for.

Still taking others!!!!

Glad to have helped! I transferred out of Frontier into WGU in order to get my BSN, and I will probably continue on with them to get my MSN in Leadership, if I don't transfer back into a midwifery program.

The thing I like best about it is there is NO group work and it's all work at your own pace. So if you're super motivated, you can get a LOT done. I've heard of people here completing their MSN in 12-18 months. There are several great threads about WGU in the "distance learning" forum.

Also, WGU is very well known for their education degrees (I read in Time that WGU is the alma mater of majority of high school teachers in eastern urban schools), so I imagine theirn nursing education program is heavy on curriculum development.

[AJPV]

Wow, THANK YOU for the WGU link!! This is the kind of online school I've been looking for!

[AJPV]

okay, at first WGU looked amazing to me. then i found this:

[color=#3b5998]http://www.ripoffreport.com/colleges-and-universities/western-governors-un/western-governors-university-h-ad2md.htm

what has your experience been like in the bsn program at wgu? do you see much truth in the complaints?

[klone, MSN, RN]

okay, at first wgu looked amazing to me. then i found this:

[color=#3b5998]http://www.ripoffreport.com/colleges-and-universities/western-governors-un/western-governors-university-h-ad2md.htm

what has your experience been like in the bsn program at wgu? do you see much truth in the complaints?

i saw some incorrect information in that article. you don't take several classes at a time - you take one class at a time, pass the competency, and then move onto the next class. they require you to complete at least 12 credits per semester (semesters are 6 months long), which would equate to 3-4 classes but most people i've talked to have completed far more than that in a semester. if you look on the "distance learning" board, you will see that there have been several people who have done their rn-bsn in 4-6 months. they just crank through it, treat it like a fulltime job, and get it done. everyone here who has been in the program has said only good things about it.

if you have an asn degree, then generally, the only classes you will have to take are their core bsn classes, which is 23 credits (7 classes). if you have an aas degree, they will have to do a transcript review and you may have to take a few additional classes (that's what happened to me, and i will have to take a nutrition class, biochem, and one sociology type class in addition to the 7 core bsn classes).

here's a great article about the school from time magazine:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1858876,00.html

[BabyLady, BSN, RN]

...and you also have to consider, for every article like that you find, there will be disgruntled students...you have to take their opinion with a grain of salt.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

There is a private for-profit school in southern California that charges $132,000 tuition for a bachelor of science degree in nursing and the chance to take the NCLEX-RN. The monthly repayments are mind-blowing and exceed most peoples' mortgage or rent payments. I would think twice before taking the plunge when so much money is involved.

There's an old saying: Fools rush in where wise men dare to tread!

[AJPV]

klone, here's what I'm wondering about WGU (based on the complainer's remarks):

1. Can you describe what an actual BSN course looks like? I understand that it's technically "not a course" but instead a self-study and then you take an exam. Is the self study a book or some sort of online material? I'm just wondering how academically throrough you have found it to be (compared to your previous 2-year nursing school) and how prepared you felt for the exams?

2. Have you found it to be true that they don't issue letter grades to your transcript until you actually graduate, and that before you graduate they only note "pass/fail" on your transcript? That seems very odd to me. I'm wondering if they do this so your WGU classes will be non-transferrable to other schools unless you actually graduate from WGU? Do you actually know whether you earned an A, B, or C in a class immediately after taking the exam?

3. Do you have any experience with how employers view a BSN or MSN from WGU?

Thanks for your help!! I'm not saying I believe all the complaints - just want to do my homework. :)