New to Excelsior, Qs on finances, credits, etc

matynurse · Nov 12, 2011

Grrr, meant CPNE

Editorial Team / Moderator · Nov 12, 2011

Grrr, meant CPNE

No worries ... by the time you get to it, you'll have that acronym scarred into your brain forever.

I believe you have to do a FAFSA, and the scholarships are somewhat automatic. You might get special consideration if you contact the college ombudsman with any kind of hardship information.

As far as the A&P, I'm not sure ... I took EC's exam, but that sucker is like 6 credits. Maybe check out straighterline.com?

You can take Essentials of Nursing Care: Health Safety and Transition to the Registered Professional Nurse Role (something like that) before enrolling.

How often you test is really going to be up to you. People have done this program with a herd of children. How much time in a day can you reasonably devote to study?

You can do Info Lit and A&P while waiting for CPNE, but I think that you need to also allow yourself sufficient time to focus 110% on the CPNE without other class distractors. Also, for Info Lit, do a search in this forum on "Penn Foster" or "ENG 103" and you'll find information on a MUCH cheaper alternative to EC's Info Lit.

Closest CPNE site to you would probably be York. I don't think you can see much CPNE information until you're enrolled. There used to be a site in Chambersburg, but I think it closed. Either that, or there's a site in Chambersburg and York closed ... LOL. It could completely change by the time you get to the CPNE point. There is also a site in Ohio -- Mansfield -- that would be reasonably close-ish to PA. I lived in NW Virginia when I took my CPNE, and it took me 6 hours to drive to Mansfield. Not bad.

My employer reimbursed part of the total cost of the program, which was about $6700 for me. I also got an awesome $3K scholarship from my hospital's Ladies Board, which was a HUGE help. Unfortunately the ADN program isn't eligible for Federal funding because of the competency-based nature of the program.

Nervous1 · Nov 12, 2011

For A & P ask them about straighterline, its cheap and can be done quickly but you could do it while waiting on your CPNE arrival, Straighterline is $99 month +$39 a course, so less than 150 and rent the textbooks they require, don't buy unless they are dirt cheap. FInd out if you need the lab with it or not.

For Info Lit, once enrolled, request approval from your advisor to take it at Penn Foster, about $100 bucks and fairly easy too, did mine in a day.

I have no idea about financing, I think Lunah has that covered.

CPNE sites: PA (CHambersburg I think), NY (about 6 sites all over the state) , OH (Mansfield) would be the closest ones to you and the NPAC sites have the shortest wait time, as of right now.

matynurse · Nov 13, 2011

Thank you so much Lunah and Nervous1!! That helps a ton. I'll be back plenty:hug:

jp1234 · Nov 20, 2011

for any prerequs you could look into a local community college....many have online classes....just a thought