Athens Technical College

Indy, LPN, LVN · May 9, 2004

Athens Tech's RN program is a two year, ADN program that in reality, should take you about 3 years to complete. There's a schedule that shows how you "can" take your core courses while doing the program, but it's a lot better to get as much of the core out of the way as you are able, before the program starts.

The end of Feb. is the application deadline each year. There are no waiting lists; they start fresh every year with a new pool of applicants, so if you don't make it one year you have to reapply. This may mean retesting on the SAT or NLN pretest to bring up your scores, or it may mean you just resubmit your name to the director of admissions.

The school is on the quarter system. So you have six quarters of nursing classes. First quarter has only six clinical days - two of them are in community nursing, four in the hospital and you do your first care plan in the first quarter. You also wind up buying the equivalent of your own reference library then.

Second quarter goes into periop and medsurg, musculoskeletal and gyn with I think it was... ten clinical days? I may be off on that. Two days were in observation for OR and outpatient surgery.

Third quarter is two nursing courses simultaneously: medsurg (diabetes, endocrine, integument, acid-base) and OB. So you have 4 12-hr clinical days for OB, and eight half days for med-surg. We are fortunate that our OB instructor used to write board exams for the state of California. She's tough but as she puts it, "you don't play on my playground unless you know how to play."

Second year has cardiology, hematology, peds, psych, and a practicum where you shadow a nurse for your last quarter, working his/her shift. I may have left something out of that. Athens Tech has a good reputation for producing clinically prepared nurses.

Now they have a high attrition rate. Your first quarter you'll be thinking OH MY GOD how can they kick you out of the program if you don't pass a math test?! (dosage calculation, 3 tries, passing grade is a 90) But later you'll be thinking, well of course I don't want a nurse who can't add to kill me with an incorrect dose! .....And you bust your tail to make sure you make it through.

You could contact the school though, if you need additional info. Best of luck to ya.

-Indy

abmsam · Mar 5, 2005

Hi, could anyone else who has experience at Athens Tech's program give any other info? Are their instructors acively helping the students? I'm considering this school, and would love any info on their ADN program.

Thanks

sugah-dumplin · Jan 18, 2007

Do they have an LPN to RN transition program there? Is it the same 3 years? It should be less I would think??? I live in Florida, but I am considering that school too. I have heard bad reviews about Georgia Perimeter College!!!

opradiva · Jan 18, 2007

Do they have an LPN to RN transition program there? Is it the same 3 years? It should be less I would think??? I live in Florida, but I am considering that school too. I have heard bad reviews about Georgia Perimeter College!!!

I am currently taking pre req's at Athens. I know for sure they do have a bridge program for LPN's, and its what they call an accelerated program. The website gives great information on the application process, and the requirements for admission.

CB1004 · Jan 25, 2007

I am a second year nursing student attending ATC. So far I have had a great experience with the instructors. They dont want you to fail, however they do not want incompetancy in their graduates. They remind us all the time how they are "normal people" and not to be intimidated. They want to help us, we just have to ask. I chose this school after debating it with GPC. They are a whole lot more organized and I would feel better telling my future employer that I am a graduate of ATC than GPC.

Temeika, LPN · Sep 12, 2009

I tried to repeat some core course at GA Perimeter, and getting advised and having to have this and that class overriding to get in was HE*L, The Dean of the Science Depart. at the Gwinnett campus was rude(he spoke to me with his back turned like he was uninterested and I drove an hour to see him and everyone else they had me running around to see just to get an override to register for Anatomy not to mention i waited 45 minutes for him to come off his lunch break) and they were a bit unorganized. i had a better experience with Athens Tech and I am start their LPN program in Jan. 2010 and later their RN, I will never consider GPC again. Athens Tech all the way.