I've recieved a lot of questions and pm's asking about this school, so I thought I'd just put it out there for everyone.
I'm currently in the LPN program at the West Chester campus. I will preface this by saying that I'm not very pleased with my experiences with the school thus far. My aim, though, is to paint a picture of what student life is like currently at the school, not what they present to you in the "information meeting".
1. Hondros College is accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS). The ACICS is a national accrediting body. This simply means that credits you earn at Hondros may or may not transfer to a regionally accredited school.
2. The nursing programs at Hondros are not National League for Nursing (NLN) accredited. This does not affect your ability to sit for the NCLEX.
3. Both the LPN and RN programs at Hondros are now fully approved by the Ohio Board of Nursing. As long as a program is approved by the BON, you will be able to sit for the NCLEX upon graduation from said program.
4. Hondros is now approved by the US Dept of Education to accept Title IV funding. This means that students will be able to apply federally funded student loans to the cost of tuition, however, the full cost of attendance cannot be covered soley by these loans. It is pretty much a certainty that students will have to pay out-of-pocket, or take out a private student loan to supplement the total cost.
5. The Hondros program is a 1 + 1 program, meaning that if you do not currently have an LPN license, you must complete the LPN portion (Level 1) before you can enter the RN portion (Level 2) of the program.
6. Currently, there is no waiting list with four start dates per year. This may change, now that the school is accepting federal student loans.
Reason: Basically, up until now, only students that were able to take out private student loans based heavily on credit scores were able to attend. Now, the pool of applicants has grown substantially. It will remain to be seen what will happen in regard to a waiting list.
7. As of right now, classes are held on two separate campuses. The main campus in Mason, Ohio, and the nursing school campus in West Chester, OH. I currently commute between the two campuses for classes.
At some point the plan is to have all nursing classes on one campus consisting of two buildings. I was, however, told that the second building would be completed and ready for use by this summer, but as of today ground has not even been broken for that structure.
8. The school is not very up to date, technologically. As I understand it, students are now required to have a laptop and are given the option to purchase it through the school (to get a 'discount' from Dell) or to find one themselves.
(Tip: Find it for yourself. The models offered through Dell are much more expensive than other models that can be found at Best Buy, Circuit City, etc.)
Both campuses offer Wi-fi internet, and there is a 'computer lab' located in the 'library'(see #9 for more info) at the West Chester campus. The Mason campus offers no computer facilities.
9. The library is located at the West Chester campus. It is approximately a 12'x20' room that houses 5 computers and about 2-3 full shelves of magazines/nursing journals/books. If you're a student who needs to have a quiet place to study, you will not find that here.
10. Uniforms...I know, everyone wants to know what they look like! You will be charged for a uniform package, which consists of a lab coat, two pairs of pants (elastic waist, tapered leg--one ea., white and maroon) and two polo shirts (one ea., white and maroon).
In your Lab Supplies kit, you will get a Sprague stethescope, but be prepared to buy a better one. Over half of our class felt the Spragues were junk and bought Littmans so that we could actually hear the mannequins.
11. Some of the gen. ed. classes are offered online (Intro to Psych, LifeSpan Dev., English Comp., etc) via a Blackboard type program. The college is currently determining whether these classes will continue in the online format or be converted to actual classes on campus.
12. The school has added, and is currently working on, an online system known as CAMS where students should be able to access their schedules, grades, transcripts, etc.
CAMS went live just this week so there are a lot of bugs to be worked out.
I've covered a lot here, most of these are things that I've been asked by prospective students. If there's anything I haven't covered that you have a question about, please feel free to post it here or contact me privately.
Nursing school is a personal choice and we all have different circumstances, so hopefully this information will help steer you in a direction that will be best for you.
