I want to say thank you to the people in the Arizona forums. I hope to move there in March. I have been researching all the schools for hours, and the info on this forum has been so valuable, because you can actually talk to people who have had expierence with each school.
About my topic, I have been reading allot of negative things about Apollo College, which I am like 90% sure that is were I will be going.
All the horror stories about accreditation and little old sally who spent 40,000 dollars on an education, and now her credits wont transfer and she has to start over bla,bla,bla.
I just got off the phone with a real nice admin counselor at Apollo. She has been there three years. She told me that they already have Matriculation agreements in place for several schools in Arizona that will accept Apollo credits toward a B.S.N.
You can also tranfer allot of prerequisites in to Apollo, and save allot on tuition. I will have six prerequisites that will transfer by the time I start in July. So, I will be done with R.N. in hand while you community collegers are still waiting to get in. Nothing wrong with that if you are 19 years old living with your Mom and don't have to wory about it, but for the rest of us in the real world with car payments, and rent or you are on the street: We need to get to work Now
That's good news, that "competency" test would have been the drug calc which you say has been removed, which is great news; you do not even want to know about what that was!
I did several extra rotations in the OR during 5th sem and I loved it, it's actually an area I will revisit as soon as this country gets back into order again and people begin having operations again, it's horribly sluggish, ops are way down but I would love to work there... be sure to learn about the structure and personalities there, it is unique, many surgeons trade in their manners and personalities for op skills so make sure it fits your personality.
There is an old saying..."You get what you pay for.", but when it comes to Apollo College that saying does NOT apply. I attended the Respiratory Therapy program in 1989 (back when Marge Carlson owned the school), and even then the tuition was almost $9,000 (I could have completed the program at Gateway Community for 1/3 the cost...how little did I know). Our instructor was HEINOUS...she was dumb as a box of rocks, and unable to correctly pronounce 80% of the medical terminology in the course ("Tacky-peen-ya", "Corta-cost-eroids"...I $hit you not!!). Fortunately we had an LVN who was taking the program to correct her on some of them!! Unfortunately, by the time I learned what a mistake I had made, it was too late to receive a refund.
I was told at the time I enrolled that Apollo was "accredited", and the credits were transferable to other colleges. I completed the program and graduated with an AAS-RT degree, which has served me fine for the NBRC (national registry) boards and state license. However, when I attempted to transfer to a university to work toward a Bachelor's degree I discovered my Apollo diploma is not worth the paper it's printed on. I was flat-out LIED TO!! Even community colleges refuse to recognize the credits. Apollo College is the equivalent of vocational training (again, for 1/3 the cost I could have obtained a "real" degree from Gateway).
I have no knowledge of an agreement between Apollo and ASU (or any other school), but I moved out of Arizona years ago, and just recently I attempted to enroll in a AAS-to-Paramedic, one-semester bridge program at a public two-year college (a requirement for my new position as a Flight Transport Therapist). The school would not recognize ANY of the Apollo credits. Now to meet the requirements of my new position I must take the Basic EMS course, followed by the full Paramedic program...my "one semester" turned into FOUR!! Thanks-a-fu*king-lot, Marge.
I called Apollo a few days ago and asked an admission representative if their credits "transfer to a community college or university"...after several deceptive attempts to turn the focus back on what Apollo will accept, she finally answered..."Well, it remains the discretion of the receiving institution whether they'll accept them or not". So basically, call every other school in the entire nation and see if you can find one that accepts Apollo credits.
If ANYONE here is considering Apollo College, do so as your LAST resort!!
i forgot to include this in my previous post above
if you ever want to know if a particular school's credits will transfer to a community college or major university, ask if they are "regionally" accredited. the major difference between apollo's "national" accreditation with abhes (accrediting bureau of health education schools) and a school with regional accreditation (i.e. community colleges and major universities) is that nationally accredited schools will almost always accept credits from regionally accredited institutions...but regionally accredited schools will almost never accept credits from nationally accredited schools without regional accreditation (or a articulation aggrement)!!
most colleges and major universities have both accreditations, but apollo does not! the major benefit of a national accreditation is that students that are eligible for financial aid can apply for all of the same federal grants and loans that they would qualify for if they applied to any major university.
I just wanted to give everyone a new update about the LPN program at Apollo College in Boise, ID and what you can expect. First of all they will not consider you as an applicant until you go to their information session. These sessions are held every Wednesday at 6pm. At these sessions they go over the program, classes that may transfer in, and what everyone wants to know...pricing. The only college courses you can hope to transfer in are anatomy/physiology and medical terminology. The total course of the program which includes books and all that crap is 27k. I asked in the session how much it would be to continue to RN, it is a little bit less at around 18-19k.
The lpn program is 3 semesters long with 12 weeks per semester. The days are very long. You can expect mon-friday 9-5 (or even later if you have clinicals)
After you decide you can drop 27k, then you take the compass test. This test is actually quite difficult, their is a lot of math story problems (which I hate) and their is a section where you have to edit papers line by line.
I have not started the program but I plan to this september. To anyone I would recommend going to a community college. Its a lot less and the credits obtained their have the chance of transferring. The only reason why I am going about it this way is because I qualify for TAA and I dont have to pay a cent of the tuition costs and its close by. A lot of students attending Apollo College are those that are in my situation. For everyone else, its really not worth it and all this college wants is your money!
I just wanted to give everyone a new update about the LPN program at Apollo College in Boise, ID and what you can expect. First of all they will not consider you as an applicant until you go to their information session. These sessions are held every Wednesday at 6pm. At these sessions they go over the program, classes that may transfer in, and what everyone wants to know...pricing. The only college courses you can hope to transfer in are anatomy/physiology and medical terminology. The total course of the program which includes books and all that crap is 27k. I asked in the session how much it would be to continue to RN, it is a little bit less at around 18-19k.
The lpn program is 3 semesters long with 12 weeks per semester. The days are very long. You can expect mon-friday 9-5 (or even later if you have clinicals)
After you decide you can drop 27k, then you take the compass test. This test is actually quite difficult, their is a lot of math story problems (which I hate) and their is a section where you have to edit papers line by line.
I have not started the program but I plan to this september. To anyone I would recommend going to a community college. Its a lot less and the credits obtained their have the chance of transferring. The only reason why I am going about it this way is because I qualify for TAA and I dont have to pay a cent of the tuition costs and its close by. A lot of students attending Apollo College are those that are in my situation. For everyone else, its really not worth it and all this college wants is your money!
May I ask, what is TAA ? I'm thinking about applying to the Apollo College here in Reno NV. The price scares me since i already have a ton of student loans.
I would love to stick with a communit college program. Here is my situation. I will already have two terms worth of prereqs done when I get to Phoenix. I don't have a c.n.a., because you don't have to have one in Oregon to be a med aid. I will have to get the c.n.a. in Arizona. So i will be taking like three months off from school. I can onley take six before I have to start repaying loans. So, I need to get back in to school before then.
I am going to apply to the skills centers and enroll in a c.c. there a.s.a.p. to finish my prereuqs. We will see what happens. It's in the Lords hands.
you don't have to have the cna anymore for community colleges or asu.
I'm not sure of this, and someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that Apollo College and UoP are owned by the same private-for-profit corporation (which would explain why UoP would accept Apollo credits without questions or problems).[/quote
I just learned from an Admissions Rep at Apollo College that Chamberlain and Apollo College are now both owned by Devry. Thus graduates from Apollo College can transfer their credits to Chamberlain's Rn-BSN program. Has any one else heard this ? Also, for those attending Apollo College and began in the first or second semester, were you required to wear the dark blue Apollo scrubs for those semesters even though the classes in those semesters are non nursing classes ?
I am an Apollo student and yes, Devry now owns Apollo College so there is the assumption that Chamberlain will accept Apollo credits for the BSN bridge program.
And yes, have to wear the Smurf scrubs even in the beginning of the program
To clear things up - U of P and Apollo College are not owned by the same company. The confusion comes because U of P is owned by the Apollo Group - a totally different company than Devry or even previous Apollo College owners.
kf15
75 Posts
That's good news, that "competency" test would have been the drug calc which you say has been removed, which is great news; you do not even want to know about what that was!