Confidence and time to success s/p AALN vs. VMI courses

[lionrn]

LionRN here, also considering AALN vs. VMI courses.

After consulting various friends (and a few LNC's online whom I've never met) to discuss my personal history, I'm satisfied I could do well as a LNC based in Los Angeles.

I've reviewed the AALNC online course offering, and have received the VMI introductory materials, and it appears they both cover the basic information, with VMI leaning more towards the all-important marketing aspects of independent LNC, but at an increased cost.

It also seems to me the self-confidence of the (almost) immediately available CLNC title is an asset to VMI's own marketing, and whether by coursework or some other mechanism CLNC's are getting their names out there successfully, so I'm inclined to suspect a lot of VMI grads are doing OK.

I know less about AALNC grads, but the course is still pretty new.

I certainly recognize the merit of an independent board certification (LNCC through AALNC), but such accreditation is not available to the newbie, as it requires several years of practice and thousands of hours LNC time over a fairly recent and short span; unless one can include time spent marketing, these thousands of hours within a short span cannot be accomplished with a startup business, unless by extremely unusual good fortune.

It looks to me as though these two certs. are apples and sponges, both useful, very different.

One wonders, of course, how the two groups of graduates compare 2, 5, and 10 years out, but since the AALNC curriculum is so new there's no way to determine yet.

That's my take so far.

What's your experience with either curriculum, and/or with the grads of either program?

What was your level of confidence on finishing either course?

How long did it take to become "successful" (any way you define it yourself)?