Excelsior College or College Network

texas_lvn · Oct 31, 2006

I am eager to find an LPN to RN program. I obtained information on both Excelsior College:uhoh3: and College Network. It appears that the transition maybe easier with Excelsior College but I am not sure. Does anyone know which would be a better choice. LPN for 1 year and ready to move on.

I myself started a thread like this not to long ago. If you go up to search and type in EC or CN you will find many threads.

The basic end is that CN, rue, and many others are not colleges. They are simply publishing companies that charge for their books. You end up going thru excelsior anyway. (excelsior.edu). Do you have any pre reqs? That is something to consider.

With CN, you sign a contract. No matter what happens, it is a legal, binding contract that you will have to fulfill. When you go thru excelsior (which you will have to go thru anyway with rue or college network) you can buy your books on e-bay or from a recent grad. You save money that away.

Please feel free to IM me with any specifics. And good luck in what ever you decide.

Diamond01 · Oct 31, 2006

Thanks so much, you don't know what a big help you have been. I am going with Excelsior, already have the application.

Thanks again.

aka_steven · Oct 31, 2006

I am doing both, Collage network & Excelsior. Actually you have to do both. Like Texas lvn said. The Collage network sets you up w/ Excelsior. They sell you the books (CN) & give you all the info you need.

I read a book for a course, then go to Prometric to test, If I pass, I pass the course.

Oncce I get most of the courses behind me, THEN I enroll on Excelsior.

Some of the courses you can not do untill your enrolled in Excelsior. I think its some of the Nursing Concepts courses, maybe a couple others, I'd have to check.

I'm "registered" w/ Excelsior, but not enrolled. They know who I am & get my grades when I pass the tests. I use their web site to schedual my tests & pay them the registration fee for the tests. But I'm not technicaly "Enrolled" w/ them yet.

After I get all my courses done, then I do a weekend Clinical & graduate From Excelsior Collage.

txspadequeenRN, BSN, RN · Oct 31, 2006

you do not have to do both. you can go through directly ec and by pass all the publishing companies. all the books you can gt off e-bay for pennies and you can get a outline what you need to study from ec. you can complete concepts 1 and 2 before enrolling and if you are a lvn then you can skip concept 2 completly. ec warns their students of signing with publishing companies such as cn or rue. you can save thousands of dollars by doing some research in the distance learning forum. as far as your preclasses you can get the offical clep books at discount book stores or off line. there ways to get around spending all this money...

i am doing both, collage network & excelsior. actually you have to do both. like texas lvn said. the collage network sets you up w/ excelsior. they sell you the books (cn) & give you all the info you need.
i read a book for a course, then go to prometric to test, if i pass, i pass the course.
oncce i get most of the courses behind me, then i enroll on excelsior.
some of the courses you can not do untill your enrolled in excelsior. i think its some of the nursing concepts courses, maybe a couple others, i'd have to check.
i'm "registered" w/ excelsior, but not enrolled. they know who i am & get my grades when i pass the tests. i use their web site to schedual my tests & pay them the registration fee for the tests. but i'm not technicaly "enrolled" w/ them yet.
after i get all my courses done, then i do a weekend clinical & graduate from excelsior collage.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Oct 31, 2006

I am doing both, Collage network & Excelsior. Actually you have to do both.

You do not have to do both. Excelsior can be successfully completed without the College Network. The College Network is nothing more than an overpriced, unnecessary middleman. The materials can be obtained through other venues for one-third of the cost.

You would have saved thousands of dollars by avoiding the College Network.

aka_steven · Oct 31, 2006

I apollogize, I ment if you are doing The collage network... you have to do both.

I've been slowly working on it for 3 yrs now... (we had or first child just after I started, Then had twins a year latter, so school kinda went on hold for a while, but thats the good thing about these programs.)

:smackingf

RN34TX · Oct 31, 2006

I'm sorry, but it really bothers me to see any LPN/LVN wanting to use these publishing companies to get an EC degree.

I can't speak for paramedics or others pursuing this route for RN, but unless you've been out of LPN school for 100+ years, the EC exams are not much different than what you had in LPN/LVN school.

If you can graduate from LPN/LVN school, you can pass the written EC exams with little more than an NCLEX-RN review book.

That's what I used and I was not an "A" student in LPN school.

Those publishing companies are a big rip-off and pray on people's fear of failure.

aka_steven · Oct 31, 2006

I looked into the Collage Network 4 years ago, decided to sign up 3 years ago. 4 years ago... lets see... before I had Cable/DSL internet, I was on that old slow dial-up Internet where if you wanted to do any in depth research, you had to take the day off to have time to search the internet.

I believe at the time I was getting mailings from CN & Rue.

No, I did not do very good research into the other options. It never occured to me to check w/ Excelsior without going thru CN.

"If I had known then what I know now"... "hindsight is 20/20"....

At the time it appeared the only way to get there.

In the last 4 years, Just think of how the internet has changed the way we do things. Now more people than ever have Cable/DSL internet, and you can search out the best options in half an hour, instead of 5 min for each page to load.

Did this forum exist 4 years ago? where you can tap into a literal world of others experience to ask these sort of questions?

I asked around to other people I knew if they knew anyone who had done CN or Rue, and only heard of a few who had done CN.

Anyway... It would seem that skipping the middleman would be the best way to go. But I do not know what their policies are if you enroll directly w/ Excelsior.

texas_lvn · Oct 31, 2006

I looked into the Collage Network 4 years ago, decided to sign up 3 years ago. 4 years ago... lets see... before I had Cable/DSL internet, I was on that old slow dial-up Internet where if you wanted to do any in depth research, you had to take the day off to have time to search the internet.
I believe at the time I was getting mailings from CN & Rue.
No, I did not do very good research into the other options. It never occured to me to check w/ Excelsior without going thru CN.
"If I had known then what I know now"... "hindsight is 20/20"....
At the time it appeared the only way to get there.
In the last 4 years, Just think of how the internet has changed the way we do things. Now more people than ever have Cable/DSL internet, and you can search out the best options in half an hour, instead of 5 min for each page to load.
Did this forum exist 4 years ago? where you can tap into a literal world of others experience to ask these sort of questions?
I asked around to other people I knew if they knew anyone who had done CN or Rue, and only heard of a few who had done CN.
Anyway... It would seem that skipping the middleman would be the best way to go. But I do not know what their policies are if you enroll directly w/ Excelsior.

You are getting your RN. That is what matters most right now. Hey, you got any books you wanna sell? LOL:lol2:

ETA: You only need to go thru NC 4 before you apply for your clinical. Many people did not know this, and it caused them 6 months or more of waiting, even though they already finished NC7!!. So ask questions, and if they seem like it doesnt make sense, ask someone else. Good luck.

moodychick, LPN · Nov 1, 2006

I'm a current student of EC. How can I get an NCLEX-Rn review book? Thanks!!

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Nov 1, 2006

Did this forum exist 4 years ago?

This forum has been in existence for over 10 years. :)