Rue/Excelsior

Hello! I was wondering the same thing. But no one ever replies! Good luck

I have worked with several LPN's that have tried RUE and Excelsior, but unfortunately none of them ever finished the programs. That is not to say that they are not good programs, I cannot comment either way to that. However, they require independant learning, and major self discipline. My friends may not have been where they needed to be mentally or in life for those programs to work for them at the time.

Best advice is to explore all of your options, and make the decision that is best for YOU. What is good for one may not be the right choice for another.

Good luck with whatever decision you make!

AngieFaye

There are a bunch of existing threads here about people's experienes with, and opinions about, RUE. I strongly encourage you to review them before you make a decision. Not many people here have had anything positive to say about the company.

I started Excelsior, but I did not like the online format. I learn better in the classroom setting. I took one test through them and transferred to a ground campus. However, I have two friends that have graduated from Excelsior and are completely happy and confident in their work. I agree that it's all about personal preference. Good luck to you, and do take a look at all of your options. I am sure that you'll find what's right for you!

And make sure that you look at your state board of nursing's requirements. Not every state will let you sit for licensure when you graduate from Excelsior. Just keep that in mind... That is something I learned after I started the class that I took. Again, good luck to you!

I'm going straight through Excelsior. Save your money and go through the college instead of RUE or college network.

I did a lot of research when I was in school for my LPN. I checked out College Network, Rue, and going directly through Excelsior. I ended up just going back to an ADN program locally, but I have two friends that went to Excelsior and finished. You do NOT need Rue or College Network to do Excelsior. They both sell study materials only...they are not the school or directly associated with Excelsior. In fact, at one point I know you could purchase the entire College Network study guides on eBay for a fraction of the cost and no contract, etc.

If you choose to do Rue or College Network, you have to pay for the entire program (unless they changed it from about 5 years back) whether you do one test or all of them. If you go through Excelsior directly, you would have to gather your own study materials (there are tons of study forums on yahoo, etc), but you only pay for the tests you actually are going to take. I can't remember how much of a difference it was, but CN and Rue were significantly more expensive than doing Excelsior directly, too.

One of the main reasons that I didn't do Excelsior was because of the CPNE and I felt my clinical experience was lacking for their 2 1/2 day hands on testing. Lots of people do fine without med/surg experience, but I didn't want to chance it (because it is rather expensive to take and if you fail, you have to pay again). And like another posted stated...make sure it is accepted in your state.

Good luck!