Concorde vs. American Career College

tothepointeLVN, LVN · Jan 29, 2009

I was just on the LVN Board website, and found the NCLEX pass rate %. Between the 2 schools, Concord had percents in the 80-90's, while American Career had them in the 70's. It's something to consider.

Theres actually a reason for that. We were talking about that yesterday with a former instructor from Concorde. they were put on probahtion from the board due to low nclex scores ( Glendale Career College too I think) and weren't allowed to take new students in until they go there scores up.

IMHO I think you'll find that no private school is perfect and its usually as good as its students. If your a good student you'll do fine no matter where you end up. Maybe something to consider is a school geographically away from the others as there is a lot of LVN schools in LA competing for the same clinical slot and very few acute places to go. I count myself luck to have gotten some acute and sub acute experience in. Some students have been in SNF for 3 rotations

nikkiluvsgio · Feb 11, 2009

Hi I am new to this career field. I am currently seeking outs schools I have been to 3 already and was ready to sign with Summit Career College in Anaheim, Ca, but I have done research and finding some negative comments. Anyone been to this school or had an experience good or bad? Please I need help with this. My last stop is Concorde in Garden Grove, Ca. I need feedback. I don't want to make a mistake in choosing schools and losing money. I am not worried about the academics of any of these school. I have heard absolute horror stories about the classes, but as it is I am a massage therapist and studied Anatomy and Physiology extensively. PLEASE anyone I need feedback!!! I think you all for your time and hope to hear back soon!!!

stasis_DC5 · Feb 11, 2009

Theres actually a reason for that. We were talking about that yesterday with a former instructor from Concorde. they were put on probahtion from the board due to low nclex scores ( Glendale Career College too I think) and weren't allowed to take new students in until they go there scores up.
IMHO I think you'll find that no private school is perfect and its usually as good as its students. If your a good student you'll do fine no matter where you end up. Maybe something to consider is a school geographically away from the others as there is a lot of LVN schools in LA competing for the same clinical slot and very few acute places to go. I count myself luck to have gotten some acute and sub acute experience in. Some students have been in SNF for 3 rotations

-_- that's me...it sucks! finally we have a hospital to go to but we just finished maternal nursing, and we had no place to experience any of that for clinicals 'cause the hospital did not have a maternal unit.

i also agree with you on that first bold statement. i'm one of those students, and i'm making the best of the situation. so, my advice is if you're stuck there, then just do your best!

tothepointeLVN, LVN · Feb 11, 2009

I was just on the LVN Board website, and found the NCLEX pass rate %. Between the 2 schools, Concord had percents in the 80-90's, while American Career had them in the 70's. It's something to consider.

I usually don't consider the nclex scores the reason why I don't is many schools fail a student out before they can sit the nclex in order to keep their scores high so its manipulated in some ways

stasis_DC5 · Feb 12, 2009

I usually don't consider the nclex scores the reason why I don't is many schools fail a student out before they can sit the nclex in order to keep their scores high so its manipulated in some ways

hmm. i never thought of it that way. i'll be sure to keep that in mind once i go back to school for rn.

tothepointeLVN, LVN · Feb 12, 2009

The way I see it if course requires you to get 75% to pass the course then an nclex rate in the 70's sounds about right. Some schools your need 85-90% to pass so assuming the course work is at the same level you'd expect a high nclex. Or at least thats the way I see it.

MikePRN · May 28, 2009

Hi I am new to this career field. I am currently seeking outs schools I have been to 3 already and was ready to sign with Summit Career College in Anaheim, Ca, but I have done research and finding some negative comments. Anyone been to this school or had an experience good or bad? Please I need help with this. My last stop is Concorde in Garden Grove, Ca. I need feedback. I don't want to make a mistake in choosing schools and losing money. I am not worried about the academics of any of these school. I have heard absolute horror stories about the classes, but as it is I am a massage therapist and studied Anatomy and Physiology extensively. PLEASE anyone I need feedback!!! I think you all for your time and hope to hear back soon!!!

I think which ever you go is fine; you just have to consider few things. Like they said one is geographical location to your advantage, money and schedule. IMHO,It is all you that will be responsible for all the information they will feed you and not the school. It's just some school happen to have more loose policy that allow some students who's scoring at below passing rate to graduate. I mean you can't blame them, they need students or the school can't operate without money. The only thing is, you may just work a little harder on school whose passing rates are not that high, this is probably due to poor or ineffective delivery of information to students. Whichever you go, you'll have to study hard to pass your ultimate exam "NCLEX". Good Luck, I hope it's not too late... :specs:

DiabeticGirl18 · May 28, 2009

i had the same experience at the concorde in arlington texas, the guy kept pushing ma , saying that i wasn't old enought to understand the lvn and handle working in an retirment home. etc.. w/e .. way to expensive anyways i was accepted into a community colllege program that is 5000 total with everything theres was like 21000... no way.. even rn programs arent that expensive

abbyann · May 29, 2009

I'm starting at American Career College on June 29th. I did really badly on the math portion on the preliminary test, but after some tutoring I passed with an 88 (the whole test with a 94). I had a great experience with my admission rep, and when I applied for financial aid my FA rep only took 20 minutes to get me approved for $26,000 in loans and grants.

I was at OCC up until now, but their bureaucracy just got worse and worse. I was told I would have to take a bunch of my general ed's over again. THEN get on the waiting list. I'm too old for that (35, abandoned by my husband and trying to raise two kids without a college degree).

I didn't have any experience with Concorde. I did call CNI, but the admissions rep didn't call me back until I had already been accepted at ACC.

shelbee1084 · Jun 4, 2009

All schools have there good and bad things about them and the nclex pass rates shouldn't be the soul reason for choosing a school. I live in louisville, ky and the two private schools to choose from are galen and spencerian. I attended spencerian for medical coding. I talked to advisors at both schools and personally, Galen was not for me. Alot of things had to come out-of-pocket(books, uniforms, etc...) and at spencerian, all of those things are included in my tuition. the tuition is more than galen, but in the end, they end up being about the same price (24000 roughly) galen and spencerian both had the exact same pass rate in 2008(93%) Also, my visit to galen was not extremely pleasant. They were almost not going to accept me because I was 10 minutes late to my appointment(I'm sorry, my grandfather had literally JUST DIED!!!) the end result is passing the nclex.

lala2009 · Jun 20, 2009

i would go for American Career College. I heard recently that the LVN program Concord in North Hollywood got shut down.

They'll pass anybody and students there were caught cheating. It's not a good program at all.I know someone who graduated from there and still can't pass their boards!!!!

Basically the school only wanted our money ( that's why they keep insisting that students take a different course such as medical assistants if they dont pass those entrance exams) I wouldn't invest my hard earned money there. There's a lot of other great LVN schools out there!!! DO your research!!! You'd want to go to a respectable school that would actually teach you!

tothepointeLVN, LVN · Jun 20, 2009

ACC is working really hard at improving problems with their program. I graduate from the LA campus on Wednesday and to be honest I couldn't really expect to get much more out of it. Th theory instructors are great but you have to be an active learner. Those who want everything spoon fed to them thinking that that's what teaching is are the ones who were the most unsatisfied. got as good a clinical experience as I could reasonably expect including oncology, NICU, L&D with hands on experience, a great med/surg experience at my last hospital. Got to work with vent patients and peds.

Plus you do most of your training at hospitals not nursing homes so that makes you more versitile