Do places really turn you down based on school?

[Dezzyb95]

So I made the mistake of enrolling into the nursing program for Fortis in Indianapolis. I've been trying to switch elsewhere but they only told a half truth. They didn't mention that nowhere accepts there credits. Their own schools don't even accept all of their credits from each other. Upon googling I found a couple of reviews where people said they attended this exact campus and have had employers turn them down because they don't want Fortis graduates. Is that really a thing?

[TheDudeWithTheBigDog, ADN, RN]

If there's that bad of a reputation from the school, maybe. But let's be honest, how many jobs have you been turned down for in your life and given a specific reason for?

There's a common trend on these forums. They didn't get into nursing school beacuse their 3.8 GPA wasn't competitive enough, they didn't get a job because their school wasn't CCNE accredited... No. Their application for nursing school just wasn't as good as enough other people who applied, and they didn't get that job because their resume wasn't convincing and their interview was just full of saying cliches.

Call the jobs in your area and talk to their recruiters and get it directly from them if they're going to be turning you down because of going to that school. They'll know way better than anyone on these forums can tell you.

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

For-Profit schools such as Fortis preyed on students that were not able to get into the community colleges. They charged high tuition rates and produced graduates that had an NCLEX pass rate of 20-70%. My guess is that many of the threads on the NCLEX forum on AN from graduates that have failed NCLEX multiple times are graduates from for-profit schools like Fortis, ITT, Brown Mackie that have been shut down. The one for-profit school exception in the Indianapolis area was Harrison College. Unfortunately, they shut down in 2017. The only real choice you have is to start over at Ivy Tech.

If a hospital has a choice between a graduate that went to Ivy Tech which has a 90% NCLEX pass rate and a graduate from Fortis that has a 50% NCLEX pass rate, the safer bet is the Ivy Tech graduate. My assumption is the hospitals have been burned too many times hiring Fortis graduates.

[llg, PhD, RN]

I can't speak to the job market in Indianapolis ... but in my locality, there are some schools whose graduates have trouble finding jobs at the best hospitals. Those schools are a mix of for-profit and not-for-profit. But either way, their graduates have poor reputations usually have to settle for less popular jobs.

If you were to ask our Recruiter, she would not say that "We don't hire people from those schools." She would not want to be accused or sued or bring negative publicity to my hospital. However, it is rare that a graduate from those schools would be hired. Usually, when you hear that someone from such a school is hired as a new grad it is because she worked here as a CNA and did well -- or something like that.

So, yes, the school you attend can have an impact on the types of jobs that will be available to you when you graduate.