ADN-BSN Transfer Fair Pushing the For-Profits, grr

[ScientistSalarian]

About to graduate with my AS from a nursing school that's very well-regarded in my area, and my school has put together an RN-BSN fair for us to be held in a couple weeks. Great! About half of my class is interested in continuing on to a bachelor's program and several legit, reputable schools will be represented.

My gripe? The organizers keep trying to steer us toward the sketchy for-profit private online schools. You know the ones: will accept anyone willing to take on an absurd amount of debt, very poor retention/graduation rates, terrible reputations in general, etc. Since the fair is "sponsored in part" by one of said sketchy institutions they're getting pretty heavily promoted and our "student success specialist" just sent out what basically amounted to a lengthy email pitch for that school.

Sigh. I've been so pleased with the support we've gotten from our faculty and administrators throughout the program, just feeling disappointed that they seem to be steering us in this direction right at the finish line. I've done my research into schools (that's just the kind of nerd I am) and am already headed to a public university in the fall for my BSN but I feel like they're doing other students who might not be so well-informed a real disservice by promoting shady for-profits so heavily.

/Alright, hopping off of my soapbox. Got that out of my system now, thanks :)

[llg, PhD, RN]

Congratulations to you -- for having done your research and done a good assessment of the situation. Our profession needs to get its act together on what constitutes high quality education in nursing and our leaders (such as school administrations, faculty, hospital administrators, etc. need to get on-board the quality band-wagon.)

It's a shame that your faculty has not "seen the light" ... but perhaps you can share some of your information with your classmates and help them out.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Which allegedly sketchy for-profit entity is being promoted by your nursing program? West Coast Univ? University of Phoenix? Curious minds want to know!

[ScientistSalarian]

Some of the private schools that will be there include Chamberlain, WGU, National, West Coast, Drexel, University of Phoenix and a few others I can't remember at the moment. I'll let you decide which one paid for all the extra promotion

And you'll have to forgive me for throwing around terms like "sketchy" so loosely; I do realize they're fully-accredited institutions and that there are definitely people out there who chose that path and are happy with their decision. It's just that the cynic in me is always going to be skeptical about places with extremely low admission standards that charge obscene amounts for tuition. Not to mention issues surrounding transferability of units, or schools that have great NCLEX pass rates but very low graduation rates, etc.

... heh, seems like I'm in an extra-ranty mood today. Ahem.