Concordia College NY - Fall 2012

U.S.A. New York

Published

Hey guys! Has anyone else been recently accepted into the nursing program?

For those of you who are on Facebook and have not done so yet, please join the Concordia Nursing 2012 group!

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I sent my deposit in!! yeeeah! it's starting to feel very real! But so far away!

I wasn't sure if sharing that on the fb page would show to everyone and since I haven't told my job yet, I wanted to be safe and post it here instead! (someone told me I would be foolish to tell them any earlier than the required 4 weeks notice, so I'm trying to stick as close to that as I can! I just feel bad and want to be able to train someone before I go)

I am still finishing up 1 prereq this semester, Microbiology, so have to keep my grade up or I won't be going! Then its a summer of relaxing and having fun before 15 months of hard work starts.

I am very nervous to start this next step, to leave my job and take out more loans (I'm still paying off my B.S. but hope to have that loan gone before I take out more for Concordia) and I also don't know where to start for that, I know I do NOT want to go with Sallie Mae again! I'm hoping the Fin. Aid office will be helpful!

see you all soon!!

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Hello people!

I am a boyfriend of one of the female nurse students at Concordia College. She already graduated, she was doing Accelerated Program. Guys, don't want to scare you, but I think you should be warned, so maybe you can adjust to this whole "mess" asap.

I am not sure if that applies for the whole school of Concordia College, but the Nursing department is a huge mess. It seems like people working there, just started to learn how to supervise the program.

Professors:

A few of them, it is a JOKE! Often coming to the class, unprepared! Reading straight off the book, jizzz many times people had troubles to stay whole period, and listening to this crap. Since they could read the book on their own and learn much more during this time.

What comes right after bad, unprepared professors, is that at the end they expected so much from you, on the exam. Exams were irrelevant to what they tried to teach.

Some of the professors were really cool, no bad words about them. Real life people, who know what is going on in the field.

At some point during this 15 months long marathon, they stopped working on

mannequins and they switched to some dumb exercises on the computers. This move was so wrong! And they made that switch only because, a new professor (the old one get thrown out form the college) wasn’t familiar with the whole system of mannequins + plus program which operates them. At the end who lost on this whole situation? Yeah, students did. Hours spent on useless exercises, while they could spend time working on mannequins.

Financial aid office?

You better get a loan yourself, you will get much better options, then the ones offered on the campus. No scholarships, even if you are straight A student. So don't even thing about getting some extra money for your lunch/coffee...

It happened that two classes from this program, were transfered from the previous college of her, so she didn't have to take these. That's the only positive thing about it, however she still had to pay whole tuition (no deduction because of that...). And of course it took FOREVER (she was visiting nursing department couple of time a week, because of this thing. People working there, was forgetting about that or they simply didn't want to take care of that case, at particular moment, and put that aside = another few days, which ended up that my girlfriend had to take one or two sessions of this class, because she still wasn't sure if they will transfer that class from the previous college, or they will not. They did transfer at the end.) to get it done!

Each semester, one of the days in a week, nursing students go to particular hospital/nursing home to gain some practical knowledge. One place is better than the other. In some places, people who coordinate a group of students, are like: they want to do as less as possible to get a day done. They let students leave much earlier than they should normally leave + most likely it is a waste of time being there, while you could study for your exams. Other places, total opposite, you will gain a lot of experience. I wish I could supply you guys some names, but I don’t know them (its my girlfriend who took this program).

Guys don’t buy new book, which are extremely pricy! I remember, that my girlfriend bought new books for the first semester only, once she realized that some of the books are not used at all, or you could easily had older version of them, she never bought a new book again, and it was totally fine. Most of the material is given to you from the professor; you won’t have time to study from your books a lot. Keep that in mind, and what will you do in the future is up to you. But what happen is, that you buy $150 new book, after one semester you won’t get for this book no more that $40! Insane!

There were many other issues, regarding, especially “the headquarters” of the Nursing Department. Each time you will have to deal with them be prepared, use strong arguments, and don’t let them put your issue aside, because if you do so you will have to wait a lot until it is resolved. They have a mess in the papers, they do not respond to e-mails! Welcome to Concordia College.

p.s

My girlfriend doesn’t know about this post at all. I will not tell her about it. I just told myself, that one day, once she is done with that program, I just need to spread the word a bit. She was struggling a lot during these 15 months, and it is not because it was academically hard. She was a great student, most of the grades A, A- , just a few B+ (remember to get an A–, in this program you have to score 93?, I believe and above) .

She was struggling because of all these issues I mentioned above (obviously I couldn’t remember all of them, but If my memory will bring up something else yet, I will post it here).

Be aware people, even though you might be a great, academically student, you have to know how to deal with people working in the nursing department, because they may/ and they will make your life during these 15 months miserable if you get them opportunity to do so.

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dr. martin,

I speak for myself when I say that I appreciate you taking the time to describe your girlfriend's experience with the program, however, most if not all of the people on this board have decided to attend the school and have already paid their deposits. It is counterproductive for us to give too much credence to one person's negative experience. I think we are all eager to start and going into it with an open mind and positive attitude. I am sure there will be challenges (after all, it is a very intense accelerated program - I have yet to read about any of these programs being "perfect"), but overall, we hope to make it as positive as possible. In the end, it's only 15 months of our lives and will result in a very valuable bachelor's degree that will lead us towards a great career. I think they are a young program and are working out more and more of the kinks every year.

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Lenabeth, that was well put. I have the sneakiest suspicion that dr. martin is the same person as gerim.

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I said the same exact thing malenurse2012. It must be a bitter student who was kicked out of the program or something.

On another note, we will get through it guys! :nurse:

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We already have a great support network going here.!

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I'm still waiting for my letter. I've checked the mail daily for the past 3 weeks and still nothing. How long did it take from the interview process to receive a letter?

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I got my letter 2 days after my interview. Maybe you can call and ask when you can expect yours?

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Hehe :) Not I am not "gerim". I just wanted to share my opinions and experience of a boyfriend, who had to listen to her girlfriend about how her school was and how for from good it was. And again I would like to underline that: my girlfriend was a really good student, she was in the "top five" when graduating. Now she works for Montefiore, and really doesn't care about recent, future students of Concordia College anymore. But, when she was studying, and I was listening to here about all these stories, I told her that one day once she finishes, I will spread the word about it. So I am doing. You may not believe me now, but let me tell you this. Please save this webpage to "favorites" come back here, about a year from now, and then write some comments ;)

Study hard, yeah it's "only" 15 months, you can def make it. Try to make as many connections as possible, especially during the time you will be working in the hospitals, that may benefit for the future.

Good luck, and see you around Aril 2013 !

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

Guys, personal attacks will not be tolerated. Everyone is allowed their own opinions

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Well dr. martin, if I may add a different point of view.. my best graduated from the program in dec. 2011, she was hired by WP hospital recently and absolutely loved Concordia. She said it was of course challenging and I did not see a lot of her during those 15 months but she was so happy she chose that program. She had a great support system from her classmates and she genuinely liked the teachers. And at the end of it all, she is now a working nurse, which is the ultimate goal here for everyone. We were all selected because in our interview and from our class grades we have displayed our ability to handle the stress and challenge that we will face in the next year 1/2. Not everyone can handle it, but that's why there are many non-accelerated programs to choose from. As for the class of 2013, I think we will do great and will come out of the program stronger and well prepared.

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