Advice- College of the Canyon vs LA County School of Nursing

[Heidi Kaffeekanne]

Hi all,

I also posted this in the forum "Colleges", but feel I might get more responses over here. Its my first time ever posting here. I need advice. I applied for nursing school this fall and was accepted so far for two our of three schools I had applied for. I had applied for Glendale Community College (which is my favorite school, but they haven’t send out letters yet and it’s a lottery system), College of the Canyon and LA County School of Nursing. As previously mentioned, I was accepted into both College of the Canyon and LA County School of Nursing. I was wondering if you can give me your opinion on which school to choose. Maybe some of you are currently in one of the programs or have recently graduated from either one.

My problem is that I live pretty much right in the middle between both schools. It takes me 20min (without traffic, but there is always traffic) to get to La County, but 35min if I have to drive during rush hour. It takes me 30min to get to College of the Canyon (without traffic, but there is hardly any traffic). Consequently, the commute is about the same.

College of the Canyon has had an NCLEX pass rate of 92% last year (according to director of the program) and LA County has been hovering in the 90s for the past couple years (except last year).

College of the Canyon will have us come 5 days a week in the first semester for six weeks at the end of which we have to pass pharmacology and some skill evaluation. After that, things will slow down and the schedule looks more like two lecture days per week and one 12hour clinical day. Clinical rotations are held in many different locations and they don’t necessarily divide students according to zip code. However, according to current students who spoke at the orientation, the program offers a wide variety of clinical sites including private hospitals and County Hospitals and they said its actually positive that they don’t stay long at one location. College of the Canyon has multiple corporations with Universities to get your BSN ranging from online programs (Ohio University), to local universities like Calstate LA.

La County will have us come Monday through Thursday and we usually start at 7am in the morning and are done by early afternoon ( third and fourth semester clinicals are a bit longer). We will have to lecture days and two clinical days. Clinical locations are confined to County Hospitals. They have one Collaboration with Calstate LA to obtain your BSN and an online program is pending with the university of Phoenix. The program is slightly more expensive than COC, but they offer you to sign a contract to wave your tuition if you work for the county after (no job guarantee, but most nurses I know who went there were hired by the county including my mother in law).

I should add, that I am a mom of a three-year-old and I am expecting my second baby in late May next year (after first semester). Both schools are supportive.

Thoughts on how to make the decision. Maybe you can share your own experiences?

[Nursing24/7, LVN]

That's a super tough decision. Both programs are VERY well respected and excellent programs. I have over a dozen friends who have graduated from COC program and they really loved the program. If I were you, I'd honestly choose COC.

I live in Santa Clarita and currently take prereqs at COC and love it there. Wish I could go to the RN program there, but I am not a competitive enough candidate. I am going to go the LVN route first, with hopes of doing the LVN-RN bridge at either COC, AVC or LA county allied health.