has anyone here attended a career propriety school in california?

[mashamontago]

which school would you choose?

career propriety school costing $18,000, has a program that has been running for five years, has a nclex-pn passing rate of 80-90%..?

i've heard that career propriety schools close randomly and leave students stranded. is this true? how can you pay that money for a school and for it to be closed down on you?

would you wait a year for an LVN program at a community college that is well known, has a passing rate of 96% but is also harder to get into..

please help!

[Cyn2school]

pass rates for every nursing school in the state of CA public or private is available at

http://www.rn.ca.gov/ or

http://www.bvnpt.ca.gov/why over pay for private? I want the money in MY pocket.

[elkpark]

Some proprietary trade/vocational schools do close down abruptly -- several years ago, a big school in the big city near me shut down abruptly and left town after they got in trouble for being, basically, little more than a scam to get federal student loan money (it was not a nursing program). Those students were just left "holding the bag" (and, yes, they did still owe the money for the student loans they had taken out).

Another issue with proprietary schools is whether or not the courses will transfer into other schools. There are many nursing programs offered by private, proprietary trade schools that offer a good nursing education and are approved by the state BON for their students to eligible for licensure, but, because those schools are not accredited by the agencies that accredit "regular" colleges and universities (and I'm speaking of general academic accreditation, not nursing accreditation), none of the courses taken at these schools can be transferred for credit into another school. So, if you decide later on (as many, many nurses do) that you want to continue your education in order to "move up" and expand your career options in nursing, you basically have to start all over because you can't get credit anywhere else for the courses you've already taken.

In this day and age, I can't think of any good reason to pay tuition for courses that can't be transferred to another institution. Even if you are thinking now that you never want to do anything but basic bedside nursing and will never want to go back to school -- many of us started out in nursing thinking that, and, a few years later, we felt v. differently. IMHO, it's a big mistake to make decisions and take steps on the front end of the process that are going to limit your options farther down the road.

Before you enroll at the proprietary school (which would NOT be my choice of the two options you describe), I would encourage you strongly to make sure that courses taken there are transferrable -- and don't just take their word for it, call up "regular" colleges and universities in your area and ask them whether they accept credits from that school.

[Calibean]

You also need to be careful about the pass rates posted on the BON websites. In order to graduate, my school required you to pass an exit HESI. Since you take this class essentially on the last day of school, you have already passed all of your clinicals and classes, but if you don't pass that one test, you do not get your diploma. No diploma = no NCLEX= no nurse. My schools pass rates went up dramatically after they instituted the exit exam, but there are still people from my class that passed everything except that final test (I have been out of school several years). Also, ask them how many students start the program and how many finish. If 30 start, but only 15 finish, there is a serious problem.

Good luck!