Anyone from Cuesta College in SLO?

XYRN2B_SOCAL · Jan 22, 2006

hi, i was wondering if cuesta has a rn program? i live in santa barbara and i am taking my prereqs at sbcc. i know there is a waiting list at sbcc, so i was thinking of maybe getting my bsn instead of my adn. any suggestions?

thanks in advance...

by the way i just joined allnurses.com and i would just like so say hi to everyone..

suzan1814 · Jan 22, 2006

yes it does! cuesta's program is rated very high with +90% passing the nclex.

there is currently a 2 year waiting list to get in because they only have 1 class per semester.

suzan

BonnieSc · Feb 18, 2006

I took my prerequisites at Cuesta, but then transfered to a BSN program because the waiting list is so long.

You don't have many choices about classes and teachers--for the most part there's one teacher for each prereq subject. I liked all my teachers and all my classes, and you'd have lots of company as a non-traditional student. The classes are pretty hard--I studied a lot and there were people in my classes who were taking them for the second and third time. The anatomy class is a little weird, because the labs aren't true labs--no dissection or anything, or specific class times. There's three hours of lecture a week, but for the most part anatomy is self-study. Physiology is another story--going to lecture is really, really, important. Anatomy and physiology are two separate classes at Cuesta, not two semesters of combined classes, as they are at many schools.

All the classes are easy to pass if you just put the work in, though, especially anatomy.

Let me know if you have more specific questions!

cassilee30 · Feb 25, 2006

hi, i am a cuesta student looking for advice about teachers, classes, phys:confused: . i'm 47 and have decided to return to school. my daughter is in last year rn and encourged me to do this. any help would be great. suzan

i graduate from cuesta in may. i took phys with ann malicheski (sp?), who is probably the best teacher i have ever had in my life. i took micro from evy and anatomy from pete peterson. the program itself is well...i can't really say a lot till i graduate. it's hard, but i do think they prepare you well for a nursing career. they recently changed the application guideline. you can only have one c in your pre reqs and you can only repeat one of the four prereqs one time. of course, the pre reqs are anatomy, phys, micro and english 1a.

hope that helps,

cassi

lolliloo · Apr 20, 2011

Cassilee30, you must have graduated the program by now since your post was in 2006... do you have anything further to say?

I'm pretty set on doing the nursing program at Cuesta but got a little freaked out the other day when I randomly met a woman in the library lobby who dropped out of the program after her first year.

She said all the nursing programs are run military style, that they "break you down completely before they build you up", that her clinicals were nightmarish. She also said that she had a disability and that one of the faculty made fun of her for having a disability and then the department gave her a "hush money" check of $600 to keep her from filing a complaint.

I realize that I should take this all with a grain of salt. It's just one person, it sounds like she might have had some struggles that I wouldn't necessarily have, and she didn't complete the program so she's probably not the best ever source of advice.

But who out there can give some balanced, honest feedback about the RN program at Cuesta? I sure would like to know what I'm getting into :)