Why not to go to west coast university

[ladynurse266]

there has been so much upset with this place. ive hear classmates talk about taking this unfair, unjustified place to court.

expensive. duh. private schools are definitely expensive. it just isnt worth it when a place like this wants your money and will juice you for every penny you have.

unfair. they seem so cool about everything. youre taken in by the fancy suits and the nice buildings. where does all your money go? its out to lure other students to buy into this scheme. even in their newly revised 2010 student handbook it doesn't say anywhere in there that you must take a HESI after every nursing term.

where do i start about all the trouble this has placed upon so many students. ill try to start from the beginning.. it isnt until the end of your prerequisites where you pretty much find out on your own that you must pass the HESI after every nursing class. this HESI is your final. for those of you already enrolled. how many of you have been told this? im sure you havent. it doesnt even say in your handbook.

also, you must pass with a certain score. even if you have a 100 percent in your nursing class but you do NOT pass this hesi, you may not move on to your next nursing course. you fail the class. there is a retake, which is much more difficult than the first.

keep in mind that HESI is used mainly as a tool for professors to improve on their students weaknesses. if it must be used in a students final class grade, it is a small percentage unlike at this place where it counts as 30 percent of your grade. and in order to even keep your class grade up, you must do above average on your HESI which students have much difficulty doing. HESI is also used for graduating students nurses as an exit exam. the HESI they use for our final is just as difficult. these exams are meant to fail you. this has proven true in many of our students.

the teachers (the few good ones) have no idea whats going to be on the HESI, they just follow the syllabus and try to prepare us as best as possible. even these teachers who care are very upset about the horrible turnout of having to take this exam.

you are only allowed to retake the same nursing course once, and if you do not pass the second time you are dismissed from the program. just like that. it is very easy to get in. much much easier to get out.

this program is new, is unorganized and is messing up by the minute.

the school is not allowed to review or study for the HESI, because HESI may sue the school.

having taken my first nursing courses and the HESI for my final i speak for many students when i say the syllabus was IRRELEVANT to more than 80% of the questions on the HESI final. we focus, learn and study the course material on the syllabus, but when it comes to taking the final.. none of what youve learned will have been on the HESI. the majority of it is NEW. not only that, but the material asked is material you will not learn until later.

they give you ATI supplemental books to help prepare for the hesi but ATI and HESI are two different things. their questions and rationales are totally different, so when you study both they confuse you anyhow.

they make us sign this contract in the beginning of our nursing courses following these certain guidelines. they gave certain students a "pass" for this quarter, but had they followed the contract like they normally would have, only about 3-4 students would have moved on to the next quarters nursing class.

even with those certain students they gave a chance to, more than half the class has to retake their first nursing course.

they have scheduled nine to ten students in four different nursing sites, but now there are only three to four students in each site. this diminishes rapport and poses a bad impression on this school.

out of all those that have passed the HESI, i've only heard them say they were lucky. even those who passed were PISSED OFF at how ridiculous that exam was. it was no joke when our teacher in one of our prerequisites stated that this exam is meant to fail students.

this schools program is much new, and they are figuring things out as they go along. some of their staff don't make you feel any better about their mess ups. we have to accomodate to their "as we go" changes, but they will not accomodate to you. they tell you certain things, but other staff members tell you differently. they are unstable with their rules and up to a certain point you cant even believe what they say anymore. being one of the first classes in this program, not many people have caught on to this yet.. but they will.

on top of that, some of our teachers dont teach us ANYTHING. the dean makes it a point to where it is our responsibility to learn whats on the syllabus regardless of what our teacher does and does not do for us.

and more than half the class is held back because of our teachers carelessness and lack of communication and effort.

again, there goes ten thousand dollars down the drain that you could have saved for yourself.

nursing schools are tough, and at this point not only do they make it hard, they do make it impossible. if you were in our shoes, you would not only think that their policies were RIDICULOUS, but their policies are to make money from you.

the school will never ever bring up how unjustified they are using the HESI to that advantage, and using the HESI to remove great students who will be great nurses.

yeah their pass rate is high (this is for the LVN-RN) when you graduate but thats after how many people have already been kicked out.

us generic BSN students are struggling to keep up with what they put us through. not only do people want to take this school to court, but dont we have the right to know about our pass/fail final at the end of the nursing course?

trust me, if you talk to anyone in my class. they would not only recommend this school, but they would go off on a lot of the same points that i mentioned and theyd keep going too. this isnt even all of it. theres just so much wrong with this school that you start to see it having been this far along in the program. if you have any questions, please feel free.

no wonder they enroll every two months, because comes around graduation time.. only a certain amount of people will be graduating. on top of that you have to take eight exit exam HESIs before you graduate.

[ladynurse266]

ill probably add more things when i start to remember there was just so much that i was only able to add in the bigger, unethical points.

[tothepointeLVN, LVN]

This is a good post for those students that get roped in by the "guaranteed" graduation date speech. Many classmate at the VN school I went to that is the sister school to WCU were hoping to move on to WCU. I had to ask them why would you want to go to a school brought to you by the same people who brought you ACC? Did they really think the school would be any different

[caliotter3]

Thank you for your very informative post.

[squeekymc]

omg. thank you for all of that. I will keep it in mind.

[Long.]

]Wow. After reading that I'm really sorry to hear what's going on with you and your fellow classmates. I actually have a friend who just started @ WCU yesterday. :|

[RNDreamer]

i'm sorry to hear of your troubles. i found this book very helpful when studying for the hesi.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/evolve-reach-comprehensive-review-for-the-nclex-rn-examination/hesi/e/9781416047759/?itm=1&usri=hesi+rn

[UMassNursingStudent]

Hello all, I am a BSN student at UMass but I saw this post and thought I would share my insight.

I hate to break it to you but a HESI exam is not something that has to be listed in a handbook. HESI exams are just part of nursing school. I take them all the way across the country in Massachusetts at the end of every single semester as well. HESI's are nationwide exams; they do not just fall under your school's policy. Although they are not mandatory for schools, almost all nursing schools nationwide take them because they are good indicators of nursing knowledge and readiness for the NCLEX licensure exam.

Individual schools do not make HESI exams; they are national exams that test your nursing knowledge. Therefore there is no way to say one will be harder than the other. My school also counts the HESI exams as 30% of my course classes, and to be honest teachers have no way to fully prepare you for a HESI. They can cover the material that they think is most important, but even they have no idea what will be on the individual HESI that you take. NURSING SCHOOL IS DIFFICULT, it is not supposed to be a breeze. Even if a teacher tried, there is no way they could ever cover all the material that can be potentially covered on a HESI.

In discussing the dismissal after failing a course twice, you actually have an advantage over me. At my school if you fail a course you are held back a full year before you can repeat the course, and then if you fail it, you are dismissed! Trust me, would you want somebody who fails a HESI twice to care for you or your loved ones?

You are lucky your school is PASS/FAIL with the HESI's because where I attend it counts for 30% of our grade and we get letter grades in our classes. I guess the major reason I responded to this post is because you are faulting your school for things that are a part of nursing programs nationwide.

Even my school that has been in session for a long time still has disorganization. Nursing school involves a lot of paperwork and responsibility to keep track of, there is bound to be disorganization in any nursing program.

I am sick of people using the cost of an education as an excuse not to pursue it. You will find a way to pay for the program if it is REALLY what you want. I am a BSN student that paid two years at a private institution before making the switch to a University and based on financial aid they are about the same in cost. The government will decide your need based upon personal finances! Believe me, I lost 2 full years of paying for an education and I still have found ways to pay for my nursing education! Nursing has to be your passion, and if it is your passion you will find a way to succeed. HESI's are not up to your school to make, your teachers cannot predict what they will ask, all they can do is teach you what they think will help you succeed in passing your HESI! I guess before you go ahead and make a decision about a school based on a thread that you read on here, make sure to verify all "facts" with schools directly.

I hope this helps and I wish you luck!

[squeekymc]

Thank you for your post. Nursing IS my passion. I can't wait to start the BSN program because I can't wait to FINISH IT!! Sure the school costs as much as a house, sure there will be problems, and sure there will be disgruntled students and teachers along the way (I will probably be one of them), but I feel I have no choice. I need to reach my goal and I chose this route. It may not be the best way to go but is the way I decided to go. Thanks again and good luck with you.

[UMassNursingStudent]

Ladynurse-

I cannot say that my school has all the exact policies as does yours in terms of the HESI exam, however I have to say each individual school uses a formula in order to determine a students likelihood of passing the NCLEX exam. At my school the conversions are based upon the average for the class and scores are adjusted after that. At my school performance in the classroom on top of the HESI scores account for the overall grade that you receive.

I have to assume that your school isn't adjusting scores on an individual student basis. It would happen as an entire class as a whole. I just know from my experience students like to blame the school when they do not do well. We just had a major increase in my class size for the nursing program and students will blame everybody in the world as to why they were not accepted, but in the end it was GPA based. I know there was disorganization with the increase as well, but we all made it through :)

I know that the process of nursing school can be difficult and frustrating but I can promise you that the outcome will be well worth the struggles. Disorganization is inevitable at any nursing school, there is so much paperwork to be accounted for...CORI checks, immunizations, CPR/first aid certifications, clinical contracts, individual student preceptorships, ect.

Just stick through it and you will be fine! Good Luck!!

[tothepointeLVN, LVN]

I think as a whole the HESI is not a problem but when they use it as a way of flushing students out rather than providing the education the student are paying through the nose for it is a problem

As I said before I went to an LVN which was owned by the same company as WCU and shared the same facilities. I highly doubt the quality of students and education was any better. I had great teachers but they administration itself was unorganized and it put a strain on the teaching staff. Rule changed practically daily and staff had to ask students what the policies were bc they were not informed.

The quality of clinical instructors was hit or miss. Some students were failed and had to repeat who only failed by 1 point while others got passed through having failed by 50pts. Some students flunked clinical bc of one absense yet several students at one of my rotation missed half of their clinical days and still passed.

The reps will promise anything to get you signed up. Again I "highly" doubt ACU is any better than its sister school just bc it even more expensive.

[Music in My Heart]

is the policy the same for your school whereas its not just 30 percent of your grade but if you don't pass the HESI with the minimum score for that class you may not move forward/you get kicked out of the program?

Just so you know, this isn't uncommon. At our school, we had a similar condition except that we used the ATI, not the HESI. And yes, if we didn't pass we were disenrolled... kicked out, without any chance at re-entry or continuation.