Drexels ACE clinical locations and advice

AugustRain · Mar 30, 2009, 09:50 PM

Originally Posted by k8dubcoran

I graduated the drexel ACE program. The hospitals i was at were :

In NJ - marlton rehab, underwood hospital, virtua hospital in marlton
In PA- shriners hospital, Hosp of the Univ of Penn, hahnemann, nazareth hospital, watermark nursing home, 11th streethealth clinic,

Yes youll take tons of HESI - the final comprehensive one being very difficult. There were roughly 130 in my starting class ( MUCH less as a final number haha) and for lecture we were divided alphabetically into 3 sessions.

For the first quarter u are in class 4 days a week and 1 clinical

The other 3 quarters are class all day mon and tues and 3 out of the 4 next days are clinical days ( meaning yes you could have a saturday clinical..but then off a tues or wed etc )

Looking back yea it was a quick 11 months, but i would not do the program again. For the amount of debt i am in from the program, it has completely hindered my life moving forward. Drexel tells you how much nurses make in the city etc and they always add an extra 10,000 to the actual number. Im a first year grad with a salary of roughly 48-49,000 with a takehome base pay of about 38,000. I work now in Camden, on the other side of the bridge outside of philly, and my philly friends only make about a dollar more than me an hour so its now that big of a difference.

My hospital i work at is one of the only around who give a starting bonus to new grads 10,000 which i got and was glad to get. HOWEVER

if i had went to the nursing school that school offered i could have had FREE TUITION with only a 1 year contract to work after.
I definitly would have gone back for 2 years instead of just the 1 to not have this looming debt.

Just so everyone knows - b/c people always ask me this : I have standard student loans through sallie mae and some state ones and pay about $500 a month in loans for drexel. And thats $500 a month for 30 years. ( i try to pay more each month, b/c if i actually took 30 years, with interest etc ill have paid almost 100,000 for drexel.

MAY I REPEAT

$100,000 for 1 year at drexel! i laugh at how stupid i was to sign up for that now. Its a quick fix to getting done school yes, but any regard for your future and you will not go here. Its a horror year that you have to give up your life for. In a crappy falling apart building in center city, its just a miserable year. I passed no problem, but many many people didnt make it out alive

I only say this because i wish someone had told me before i decided i wanted to go there. I just want all to know both side of the story. Feel free to email me with any questions.

Glad you survived the program, I'm a 3rd quarter student right now. I've met some ACE grads during clinicals and such, and keep hearing that students tend to have good job prospects at graduation - was that your experience, as well? Also, when did you start applying? Any info would be appreciated. Thanks.

k8dubcoran · Mar 30, 2009, 11:41 PM

i personally waited until after i knew i passed the nclex before i applied. For one, i wanted some down time, for two, the application process is fairly quick....it doesnt take weeks and weeks to find a job. Some people did it different and had applied before they even took the final HESI. i didnt want to get a job and then god forbid not pass hesi or nclex and have to go to them and say i failed and cant start yet. I played it safe as far as finding a job went. A lot of the philly hospitals are glad to have ACE students...opinions are kind of skewed though. Some hosps see ACEers as hard workers, others see them as the 'neurotic head strong type a' personality that im sure youve seen during the program. But overall, it carries a good name. The NJ hospitals dont necessarily care that you were in ACE, they probably dont even know what it is, but they are glad to have nurses with a BSN since a lot still accept an associates. It was fairly easy to find a job at the time. However, im currently looking to move to a new field, so ive been job hunting as well. i did my med-surg year that i wanted to get done and now all of a sudden the job market is fairly poor. I dont know if the economy is to blame or what. I really only see generally ICU and ER jobs available that all want experience. Im sure that could all fluctuate by the time you are done though. Good Luck!

AugustRain · Apr 01, 2009, 06:36 PM

Thanks for the insight. Hopefully the application process won't be too painful. How was your year of med-surg? Did you get out of it what you'd hoped?

k8dubcoran · Apr 02, 2009, 12:07 AM

i dont know what i had exactly 'hoped' for. i just thought it seemed a little weird to jump into something like icu and not even have the basics down. i like doing things gradually, i dont like just jumping into something scary and learning it that way. i have definitly learned to balance time, prioritize, etc.. i have friends who went RIGHT to the icu from ace and say they cant imagine having 6 patients at a time like i do, so i guess it will be hard for them to ever leave ICU ( which you will eventually you cant do that job for life)...so i personally am glad i did it. it gives you more time to learn the basics and reinforce them. For instance my floor has telemetry so ive got to learn and see a lot of different rhythms and can pick them out easily now. `An ICU friend spends so much time learning way more complicated things so she is not exactly a pro at tele...but HELLO! that could be the difference between a patient living and dying that is so simple to comprehend with enough practice. to each their own i guess...

missnjit · Nov 12, 2009, 02:09 PM

Originally Posted by k8dubcoran

I graduated the drexel ACE program. The hospitals i was at were :

In NJ - marlton rehab, underwood hospital, virtua hospital in marlton
In PA- shriners hospital, Hosp of the Univ of Penn, hahnemann, nazareth hospital, watermark nursing home, 11th streethealth clinic,

Yes youll take tons of HESI - the final comprehensive one being very difficult. There were roughly 130 in my starting class ( MUCH less as a final number haha) and for lecture we were divided alphabetically into 3 sessions.

For the first quarter u are in class 4 days a week and 1 clinical

The other 3 quarters are class all day mon and tues and 3 out of the 4 next days are clinical days ( meaning yes you could have a saturday clinical..but then off a tues or wed etc )

Looking back yea it was a quick 11 months, but i would not do the program again. For the amount of debt i am in from the program, it has completely hindered my life moving forward. Drexel tells you how much nurses make in the city etc and they always add an extra 10,000 to the actual number. Im a first year grad with a salary of roughly 48-49,000 with a takehome base pay of about 38,000. I work now in Camden, on the other side of the bridge outside of philly, and my philly friends only make about a dollar more than me an hour so its now that big of a difference.

My hospital i work at is one of the only around who give a starting bonus to new grads 10,000 which i got and was glad to get. HOWEVER

if i had went to the nursing school that school offered i could have had FREE TUITION with only a 1 year contract to work after.
I definitly would have gone back for 2 years instead of just the 1 to not have this looming debt.

Just so everyone knows - b/c people always ask me this : I have standard student loans through sallie mae and some state ones and pay about $500 a month in loans for drexel. And thats $500 a month for 30 years. ( i try to pay more each month, b/c if i actually took 30 years, with interest etc ill have paid almost 100,000 for drexel.

MAY I REPEAT

$100,000 for 1 year at drexel! i laugh at how stupid i was to sign up for that now. Its a quick fix to getting done school yes, but any regard for your future and you will not go here. Its a horror year that you have to give up your life for. In a crappy falling apart building in center city, its just a miserable year. I passed no problem, but many many people didnt make it out alive

I only say this because i wish someone had told me before i decided i wanted to go there. I just want all to know both side of the story. Feel free to email me with any questions.

Hi,
Can you explain what you are talking about in regards to FREE Tuition and going back for 2 years...?
Thanks for all the advice!

sfarrell22 · Mar 14, 2010, 09:01 PM

Originally Posted by missnjit

Hi,
Can you explain what you are talking about in regards to FREE Tuition and going back for 2 years...?
Thanks for all the advice!

Hey,

I am no financial expert and don't know your whole situation, but if you buy a house you could take a home equity loan out to pay off drexel to get a fixed interest rate etc. Then just pay off the home equity loan over time as opposed to paying a school loan off for 30 years. Just food for thought..

just_cause · Mar 15, 2010, 08:06 AM

A home equity loan is based on you having 'equity' into the home... which either mains principle paid off or the value of the home suddenly increases. If you had money to pay off principle then just get student loan / it would be a huge gamble to assume you could buy a home and value would increase....just ask millions of home owners over their heads now.
I think a key aspect is to look at the cost of the education route you are choosing and the value of that route post-grad.
I was accepted to ACE BSN and chose not to attend - the cost : value ratio was way off and I'm very glad I made alternate plans to attend elsewhere. Even though I was a prior BS grad I chose to either attend a local ADN or BSN program due to cost, travel, life location, etc. For me it worked out great. Also now in school I'm much happier having 2 years to complete vs 11 months - I think it not only saves me money, but it will make me a better nurse and having a more sane process. That being said I'm sure some people will prefer the 11 month... for their own reasons. But timeline aside I couldn't justify the cost...and despite getting an RN title in 11 month the duration to gain personal freedom from loans will take much longer and I knew I didn't want to stay in PA.
best of luck.