Concordia College NY Spring '19 ABSN

DayWall · Dec 11, 2018

Hey guys!

I am here because as new students I consider you should be updated with some changes that took place with this program. If you refer to the previous cohorts, whatever was said then has changed with Cohort 11. So here are things I consider a new student should know, and I wish someone would have told me before I enrolled in Concordia ABSN. It is long, but it is a summary of my first semester experience (08/27/2018 -12/07/2018) Hope it is helpful.

Things I wish I knew before I joined Concordia ABSN

1)Admission and financial aid office work extremely slow (just an FYI)

2)We had a two days mandatory orientation and 1 for transfer students. Everybody seemed so caring and they kept repeating "We are here to help you, we want you to succeed". And honestly, I did not get that feeling once classes started.

3)Let me start by saying that Cohort 11, is different from any previous cohort.

a)You must pay $1,100.00 for a Dell Latitude 3590, 20-inch screen. (a super heavy laptop)

b)ATI mandatory assignments which are 1% to 5% of your course grade

c)No paper exams. No exam reviews.

d)Two to Three different instructor for one course (and to top it off, in occasions professors will contradict each other). Except for Pathopharmacology and Spirituality there was only one instructor all semester long.

4)The program is not designed for every career changer. Based on my experience being a business student and no background or knowledge about nursing, the program was not what I expected.

5)Do to the accelerated aspect of the program, you either understand the concept NOW and or your OWN, or you are guaranteed to never catch up.

6)They will give you an intense list of textbooks to purchase. Best advice is to buy the main books, not the supplemental.

7)You take Nursing Fundamentals for 7 weeks, and then Med Surg 1 for another 7 weeks. But then you have a Spirituality class that runs through the entire semester. And 2 religious' courses during the summer semester. Second semester is Med surg 2 and Med surg 3 for 7 weeks each

8)No exam review before an exam, and even worst the exam reviews after the exam only covers 4 to 6 questions that most people got wrong. And to my surprised the professor will just say "This is the correct answer" No explanation. Therefore, you will go on through the semester or probably the entire program, not know what you are doing wrong, what you got wrong and why was it wrong.

9)There were always 1 or 2 questions that were wrong, and students have to reach out to the professor(s) so they can discuss if credit will be given or not.

10)You are not allowed to review your exams, until the final course grades are posted ONLY IF you failed the final exam. Plus, it must be done within 3 days after finals are posted.

11)In my case the Fall semester ended on 12/07 and class start again for the Spring semester on 01/07; which in my opinion You can squeeze an extra week or two of classes and not compressed the courses as much.

12)Class schedule, you will practically be there all day even if not necessary. Depending on your group (this cohort has two groups A and B) you will come in one day from 8 - 11 am or 4-7pm. The rest of the week you have class from 8 -11 and then your next course is either at 4PM or 6PM (one day you will have class from 11-2PM). Then one day dedicated to clinicals and another for lab (lab can be 1 to 5 hours).

13)After the second week of class, you will have an exam every week

14)Lab, clinicals and care plan assignments are P/F ONLY

15)Not the typical program where attendance and participation count towards your grade. Depending on the course, each exam can be 25% or 31 - 35% (and as mentioned earlier ATI assignments are 1% - 5%)

16)Lab is not really hands on, at some point it felt more like a mini lecture with demonstration.

17)Just some "fun facts":

a)In my cohort, most people failed the first fundamentals exam... and the professor said "the exams are not based on what is taught in class, your experience or what is on the book, it is Critical Thinking and Nursing Intervention ". Now you either learned how to do that QUICK or be ready to fail the course.

b)There are a lot of typos on the exams and even power point presentations

c)Confidentiality? Not quite there. I received an email with some other classmates stating that we will be withdrawn from the program due to our medical record status. If you ask me, that is an email that should have been sent to each individual or simply "Bcc:" the rest of the recipients.

d)After I failed my first Med Surg exam, I received an email.... Suggesting that I drop the course. However, there were two other exams left for the remainder of the semester worth 31 % each. Passing is C+ = 77%

e)We asked for extra credit, since a lot of students were not doing well on Med Surg. And they offered three points (to whoever attended an event on campus) if they successfully pass the course. How do you like that?

f)At first you are going to feel like you are being treated like a kid. For the exams you can only walk in with your computer, empty pockets, no watch, ONE number 2 pencil (make sure it is just ONE, because they will ask you to throw the pencil or put it back and come back), no ID badge except your name tag. One day I pinned my pencil to my hair, while sitting down waiting on the exam to begin, and I was asked to remove it. At first it is ridiculous, but I must say you get tired of the whole process and just do as they say.

g)The campus does not have a computer lab room. You will find computers in the library and 5 printers. The cafeteria only has 1 microwave. It is a campus suited for a small number of students, even though judging by the time it takes the staffs to process anything it seems like they have 8,000 students on campus (referring about staff outside of the nursing program - financial aid, registrars....)

h)We have a "surprised med math exam" to determine who can administer medications during clinical. And surprise everybody failed and next exam was in 6 weeks, so we could not administer med during the whole semester (even though we had 2 weeks of clinical left after the second exam).

i)The cohort started with 78 students, 19 failed Fundamentals (since they already paid for a full-time tuition, and they could not move on to Med Surg 1) they had to take 2 exam taking strategies courses to maintain their full-time status. Out of the 59 that proceeded to take Med surg approximately half of them failed the class. At this point there are more students that failed one course, than students that have failed none. And school policy (maybe every nursing school policy) if you fail a second class you are out (and 2 W = fail). This Spring cohort will have all the students that failed one course (and decided to stay in the program), and are considered "decelerated". This is something new, since previous cohort had to wait a whole year to retake the class. At least for us, we just enroll the following semester. Please know that these numbers are based on conversations with classmates, at no point I went in myself to go count the number of students that failed (I had no time for that).

In conclusion, nursing school is completely different from the prerequisites courses we must take. The program works for some of my classmates, but it is not designed for everybody. Saying it is a program for career changers is a very broad statement - close to false advertisement. You do not go in there to learn about nursing. You need to have basic knowledge, like common drugs and diseases (side effects and all), that is the ideal in my opinion. Honestly, the first day of class I felt like I was in Med school, I did not know anything about the diseases or medications they talked about. Therefore, I can simply say the program is not what I expected. I feel they make the process easy for you to get in, and then you are in for a surprise! My suggestion for my fellow career changer especially business students, if you cannot stay away from Concordia College, make sure before the semester start you watch Nursing fundamental videos pay attention to nursing interventions. Know your drugs by system (name, side effect, contraindications, antagonist, use, route). Watch registernurseRN.com videos, pharmacology made easy all day everyday starting today. That will give you some knowledge and hopefully prepare you to perform better than me. Do practice questions, I heard it helped some students, expect the unexpected at any point. And pray for your sanity and health, nursing school is not easy, and it is stressful and at Concordia they specialize in adding extra dosages of stress. Remember their slogan "SMALL SCHOOL, BIG IMPACT" .... Definitely a big impact to my mind, pockets, plans, health... and the list goes on. I personally would not recommend this program, even though I did not go to any other program to compare this to. I have talked to people from other schools and even the seniors from last cohort were shocked to hear the things we were going through.... So best of LUCK!

If you have any questions, feel free to reply. Please take my notes as a Warning... once you are IN, your complaints would not matter. I hope somebody finds this helpful.

nursling01 · Dec 19, 2018

Welcome to the 2019 Cohort! I was in Cohort 11, (Will now be in 11.5 now due to not passing MedSurg1). DayWall hit pretty much everything any of us could say about the program. I only made this account because I genuinely appreciated the effort she took to write all that. I would deff hope those that are accepted have some prior medical field experience, even knowing any of the terminology will be helpful. Now granted I'm not sure how other programs are run, but expect massive disorganization at Concordia!

Leenurse924 · Feb 13, 2019

On 12/11/2018 at 3:14 AM, DayWall said:
Hey guys!
I am here because as new students I consider you should be updated with some changes that took place with this program. If you refer to the previous cohorts, whatever was said then has changed with Cohort 11. So here are things I consider a new student should know, and I wish someone would have told me before I enrolled in Concordia ABSN. It is long, but it is a summary of my first semester experience (08/27/2018 -12/07/2018) Hope it is helpful.
Things I wish I knew before I joined Concordia ABSN
1) Admission and financial aid office work extremely slow (just an FYI)
2) We had a two days mandatory orientation and 1 for transfer students. Everybody seemed so caring and they kept repeating "We are here to help you, we want you to succeed". And honestly, I did not get that feeling once classes started.
3) Let me start by saying that Cohort 11, is different from any previous cohort.
a) You must pay $1,100.00 for a Dell Latitude 3590, 20-inch screen. (a super heavy laptop)
b) ATI mandatory assignments which are 1% to 5% of your course grade
c) No paper exams. No exam reviews.
d) Two to Three different instructor for one course (and to top it off, in occasions professors will contradict each other). Except for Pathopharmacology and Spirituality there was only one instructor all semester long.
4) The program is not designed for every career changer. Based on my experience being a business student and no background or knowledge about nursing, the program was not what I expected.
5) Do to the accelerated aspect of the program, you either understand the concept NOW and or your OWN, or you are guaranteed to never catch up.
6) They will give you an intense list of textbooks to purchase. Best advice is to buy the main books, not the supplemental.
7) You take Nursing Fundamentals for 7 weeks, and then Med Surg 1 for another 7 weeks. But then you have a Spirituality class that runs through the entire semester. And 2 religious' courses during the summer semester. Second semester is Med surg 2 and Med surg 3 for 7 weeks each
8) No exam review before an exam, and even worst the exam reviews after the exam only covers 4 to 6 questions that most people got wrong. And to my surprised the professor will just say "This is the correct answer" No explanation. Therefore, you will go on through the semester or probably the entire program, not know what you are doing wrong, what you got wrong and why was it wrong.
9) There were always 1 or 2 questions that were wrong, and students have to reach out to the professor(s) so they can discuss if credit will be given or not.
10) You are not allowed to review your exams, until the final course grades are posted ONLY IF you failed the final exam. Plus, it must be done within 3 days after finals are posted.
11) In my case the Fall semester ended on 12/07 and class start again for the Spring semester on 01/07; which in my opinion You can squeeze an extra week or two of classes and not compressed the courses as much.
12) Class schedule, you will practically be there all day even if not necessary. Depending on your group (this cohort has two groups A and B) you will come in one day from 8 - 11 am or 4-7pm. The rest of the week you have class from 8 -11 and then your next course is either at 4PM or 6PM (one day you will have class from 11-2PM). Then one day dedicated to clinicals and another for lab (lab can be 1 to 5 hours).
13) After the second week of class, you will have an exam every week
14) Lab, clinicals and care plan assignments are P/F ONLY
15) Not the typical program where attendance and participation count towards your grade. Depending on the course, each exam can be 25% or 31 - 35% (and as mentioned earlier ATI assignments are 1% - 5%)
16) Lab is not really hands on, at some point it felt more like a mini lecture with demonstration.
17) Just some "fun facts":
a) In my cohort, most people failed the first fundamentals exam... and the professor said "the exams are not based on what is taught in class, your experience or what is on the book, it is Critical Thinking and Nursing Intervention ". Now you either learned how to do that QUICK or be ready to fail the course.
b) There are a lot of typos on the exams and even power point presentations
c) Confidentiality? Not quite there. I received an email with some other classmates stating that we will be withdrawn from the program due to our medical record status. If you ask me, that is an email that should have been sent to each individual or simply "Bcc:" the rest of the recipients.
d) After I failed my first Med Surg exam, I received an email.... Suggesting that I drop the course. However, there were two other exams left for the remainder of the semester worth 31 % each. Passing is C+ = 77%
e) We asked for extra credit, since a lot of students were not doing well on Med Surg. And they offered three points (to whoever attended an event on campus) if they successfully pass the course. How do you like that?
f) At first you are going to feel like you are being treated like a kid. For the exams you can only walk in with your computer, empty pockets, no watch, ONE number 2 pencil (make sure it is just ONE, because they will ask you to throw the pencil or put it back and come back), no ID badge except your name tag. One day I pinned my pencil to my hair, while sitting down waiting on the exam to begin, and I was asked to remove it. At first it is ridiculous, but I must say you get tired of the whole process and just do as they say.
g) The campus does not have a computer lab room. You will find computers in the library and 5 printers. The cafeteria only has 1 microwave. It is a campus suited for a small number of students, even though judging by the time it takes the staffs to process anything it seems like they have 8,000 students on campus (referring about staff outside of the nursing program - financial aid, registrars....)
h) We have a "surprised med math exam" to determine who can administer medications during clinical. And surprise everybody failed and next exam was in 6 weeks, so we could not administer med during the whole semester (even though we had 2 weeks of clinical left after the second exam).
i) The cohort started with 78 students, 19 failed Fundamentals (since they already paid for a full-time tuition, and they could not move on to Med Surg 1) they had to take 2 exam taking strategies courses to maintain their full-time status. Out of the 59 that proceeded to take Med surg approximately half of them failed the class. At this point there are more students that failed one course, than students that have failed none. And school policy (maybe every nursing school policy) if you fail a second class you are out (and 2 W = fail). This Spring cohort will have all the students that failed one course (and decided to stay in the program), and are considered "decelerated". This is something new, since previous cohort had to wait a whole year to retake the class. At least for us, we just enroll the following semester. Please know that these numbers are based on conversations with classmates, at no point I went in myself to go count the number of students that failed (I had no time for that).
In conclusion, nursing school is completely different from the prerequisites courses we must take. The program works for some of my classmates, but it is not designed for everybody. Saying it is a program for career changers is a very broad statement - close to false advertisement. You do not go in there to learn about nursing. You need to have basic knowledge, like common drugs and diseases (side effects and all), that is the ideal in my opinion. Honestly, the first day of class I felt like I was in Med school, I did not know anything about the diseases or medications they talked about. Therefore, I can simply say the program is not what I expected. I feel they make the process easy for you to get in, and then you are in for a surprise! My suggestion for my fellow career changer especially business students, if you cannot stay away from Concordia College, make sure before the semester start you watch Nursing fundamental videos pay attention to nursing interventions. Know your drugs by system (name, side effect, contraindications, antagonist, use, route). Watch registernurseRN.com videos, pharmacology made easy all day everyday starting today. That will give you some knowledge and hopefully prepare you to perform better than me. Do practice questions, I heard it helped some students, expect the unexpected at any point. And pray for your sanity and health, nursing school is not easy, and it is stressful and at Concordia they specialize in adding extra dosages of stress. Remember their slogan "SMALL SCHOOL, BIG IMPACT" .... Definitely a big impact to my mind, pockets, plans, health... and the list goes on. I personally would not recommend this program, even though I did not go to any other program to compare this to. I have talked to people from other schools and even the seniors from last cohort were shocked to hear the things we were going through.... So best of LUCK!
If you have any questions, feel free to reply. Please take my notes as a Warning... once you are IN, your complaints would not matter. I hope somebody finds this helpful.

On 12/18/2018 at 8:36 PM, nursling01 said:
Welcome to the 2019 Cohort! I was in Cohort 11, (Will now be in 11.5 now due to not passing MedSurg1). DayWall hit pretty much everything any of us could say about the program. I only made this account because I genuinely appreciated the effort she took to write all that. I would deff hope those that are accepted have some prior medical field experience, even knowing any of the terminology will be helpful. Now granted I'm not sure how other programs are run, but expect massive disorganization at Concordia!

Hey, so you won’t recommend the program? I just got accepted and getting ready to pay my deposit i am currently a biology major.

_Career Changer · Jun 1, 2019

Thank you so much, Daywall, for taking the time to share all those details. I'm currently considering applying to Concordia so your post is very informative.

I wonder if most accelerated programs do require some pre-knowledge. Another school in Missouri that I've been highly considering applying to requires taking Pathophysiology offered by their school before officially starting the program probably because of some of the struggles you shared in your post. But that particular school has an even shorter accelerated program (12mo) vs Concordia's 15mo program.

Anyway, thank you again for this informative post.

DayWall · Jun 2, 2019

Glad my post can be helpful. I am considering a school that has pathophysiology as a prerequisite. I personally think it is a good idea to take that course or do study that topic before enrolling a nursing program. Based on my experience, having some knowledge of pathophysiology can help with pharmacology, med surg and perhaps health assessment. Best of Luck Career changer.