NEED HELP! The college network a scam? Does Excelsior College work?!

Nursing Students Excelsior

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Hi Everyone!

I am in need of some guidance from someone who is either enrolled or who recently graduated from Excelsior College. I just graduated from my LPN program in New Jersey and have not yet even taken my NCLEX, however I am already eager and ready to start an LPN-RN Bridge program. I was looking into my local community college, but you have to work for at least 6 months and I have prereqs to take. Yesterday, a rep from The College Network came and explained their program and Excelsior-but after doing some online research, it seems that a lot of people are unhappy with TCN. I've seen some posts from this forum about TCN and Excelsior, but they were from 06. I just need to know if TCN's materials are helpful, and if they are really the monsters that everyone says they are. (Difficult to deal with, unexplained charges, and if you cancel you have to pay regardless). Is it better to go directly to Excelsior? The way that the TCN rep explained excelsior is that they overwhelm students with materials and TCN takes the list of books and narrows it down which guarantees that students will pass the exams. I like the flexibility of this style of learning-but not if I'm going to be scammed! If anyone has any good info, please help!

Motivation is the hardest part. Basing your whole grade on one test score is also intimidating, but it can be done. I've been working on my RN degree for 3 years, one class at a time, I had like 17 classes to do, and I am now down to 2 classes. It can be done!

In a traditional school you have two things that make it easier than Excelsior (EC):

1) Time, in traditional classes you are told by the school you must be there at a certain time, test on certain dates, turn things in at certain times. Not so of EC, you sign up for a exam (class) and you are given a list of books and a detailed in depth study guide. It is up to you when to study, when to test, how much to read etc. No one will tell you to do it. I did all of my classes in 10 months and finished the Clinical exam(CPNE) two months later. It is great for those students wanting to finish fast or those who need to be slower.

2) Power points! In a class you have a professor showing power points and saying such things as "you may see this again" or "You have this before so hint- hint!" In EC you have your books, an outline and if you want two practice exams. That is it. You have to read and use critical thinking skills and really dig to learn the material. You have acess to professors that will answer your questions just a phone call away however they don't just give out answers, they guide you in thinking and finding the right answers! I have a friend who teaches at a local RN program and she would look at my outlines form EC and my study notes and comment that "the students at the community nursing schools would not know a lot that was on the guide or practice exams and that they would never pass the CPNE, She did not say this as a put down on the community programs rather that EC makes you learn so much more.

Reading is a love of mine so it was not a hard part for me. If you hate reading it can be hard. Learing to focus on what is important is helpful. Hang in there and you will pass NCLEX! It does not matter if you do EC or Traditional schooling, just that you love nursing and that you study hard, and learn critical thinking.

@Prayernurse: I agree with you-and I do enjoy the classroom IF the professor actually teaches! In community colleges I'm guessing they have teachers that went to school to LEARN how to teach instead of reading these piddly power points. I pretty much taught myself MedsurgIII last quarter because my instructor read vague power points and the info was in the book anyway. I would have rather just read it on my own at home instead of wasting time in school! lol.

Here's what I'm used to: 30 or so page (sometimes 40 or 50) chapters and tests are usually 2-4 chapters. My problem tends to be more on application. I'm very book smart and can memorize facts-but applying them to test questions can be hard for a book learner. Since I'm used to reading and figuring stuff out for myself anyway sometimes I wonder if college is better. But I'm not sure. Thank you so much for your feedback!

You would be great at the reading. And if you can figure it out and memorize you would do great on the exams untill Life Span 1-2-3. It is applying what you have learned 100% critical thinking. However by that time you know the basic stuff and Crtiical thinking is not so bad. Get a book with critical thinking questions and practice because that is the NCLEX test, Critical thinking and choose all that apply! Don't care for choose all that apply! LOL! Best to you.

Prayernurse: I totally despise select all that apply! We used to get like 7 of those questions on our medsurg exams and I'd get like one right..if I was lucky haha. Thank you so much for the advice! Much appreciated

Specializes in Psych-LTC-Home Health.

@lunahrn: Yes! The rep said that they take all of the resources that excelsior gives us to buy and narrows it down. And he goes through the reference section in the back and says that all of those are what we're given to read..and it's 'overwhelming' for students.

Studygroup101 does the same for only $10! I got the books anyway (I'm a real book person) although older copies - I figure I will use them on occasion even after school. Overwhelming? Yes, It sure can be - but I expect to actually learn something so I can be a good RN!

I'm actually just going to Raritan Valley Community College. It may take a little longer but at least I can take spanish and be in a classroom enviornment. We'll see how it goes. Now the problem is do I wait until January to start classes so I can pass NCLEX and start a job? (so that way I can schedule classes around work) or do I start classes in August and then try and find work around class? I know the latter is more difficult, however I suppose either way it will be a challenge.

Just also wanted to say that last night I officially graduated! It was a nice ceremony and it just fuels me to further my education and become the RN I want to be

A girl I work with uses TCN and she really likes them. I just bought the study guide from sg101 for tests 1&2 for 10$ and I have 3000 pages worth of material. That seems like a hard deal to beat for me. There are hundreds of questions to quiz yourself on.

When you have your RN and want to move onto the BSN look into Arizona State University RN_BSN program. It is excelent! I think EC has a great one also however I am doing ASU's and I am very pleased so far! Just passing on info!

I tried reading everything excelsior recommended for over a year and was just frustrated and getting no where so finally looked into ten, chancellors, and rueEd. I chose to go with rueEd and have not regretted it. They financed my testing fees too sp yeah I pay them $125 a month for a long time but I have their study guides great, have passed everything so far and when I want to take an exam just request fee from them and they send me a check. It takes a good three weeks to get exam fee but with carefu planning is ok. For me this was an affordable option.

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