Excelsior Graduates please help

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Sep 23, 2014

thread moved for best response.

NotMyProblem MSN, ASN, BSN, MSN, LPN, RN · Sep 23, 2014

One friend of mine went to WGU (she had her sciences with labs from a community college), two others went to American Sentinel University (all 8-week courses), I started out at Chamberlain and took one nursing course and college algebra. But when they wouldn't accept my statistics course, I returned to Excelsior. Had I stayed the course with EC in the first place, I would have been done just under 1 1/2 years. But I was taking more time than a snail in a race with a turtle. So, I was with EC for just under three years, but that includes a year long break in 2012, with taking a couple of exams in December of that year, and having only taken 2 or 3 general education exams in December of the year prior (2011).

My friend finished wgu in 6 months. That's where I really wanted to go, but I didn't have a lab for my sciences and I was not about to repeat those. One of the moderators, TheCommuter, is in that program now and has more information under the Western Governors link under Colleges on this forum.

I got serious about completing the BSN during the Spring of 2013. That's when I took my remaining general education exams, writing course through BYU (after gaining approval from EC), (I finished it in 30 days but sporadic grading turnaround on assignments produced a total of 8 weeks for completion), and by August of 2013, I was so ready to be done that I took four courses in that one semester. It was a piece of cake! I took two courses this past spring semester, and finally, the capstone over the summer. Just finished on August 17th.

University of Texas at Arlington is another one that I wanted to attend because of the length of its program and $8000 (?) price tag, but just like all the others, they were not accepting the stats course and had other scientific requirements that I just could not repeat. At the risk of sounding ungrateful, I was 'stuck' with Excelsior because of my own fear of those sciences. I can't say why I didn't choose American Sentinel; I don't think I even had a good reason because at the time, they weren't even requiring statistics or college algebra. It was probably that I was simply tired of looking by the time they were next in line on my list of checks and balances.

So, that's my testimony.

Editorial Team / Moderator · Sep 23, 2014

I think American Sentinel is/was lacking regional accreditation, maybe? I looked at that one as well, and I think that immediately took it out of the running.

I went to Chamberlain. I had 206 credits already, and they went the furthest there. Chamberlain us expensive, but I had great tuition reimbursement through my employer at the time. Took me about 18 months to finish, and that was mostly one class at a time and with a session off to study for the CEN exam.

My second choice was University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. Also a great looking program.

featherzRN, MSN · Sep 24, 2014

I'm an excelsior grad and I went to WGU. Loved it. They WILL make you retake any sciences that you tested out of without a lab, but it's really very painless. I did physiology over a weekend, the lab took a week. Micro was about a week, lab the same. So it's not a horribly long process. Other than that, it's very similar to the Excelsior program in that classes have final 'tests' and/or projects to complete a class and can be done at your own pace.

NotMyProblem MSN, ASN, BSN, MSN, LPN, RN · Sep 24, 2014

I think American Sentinel is/was lacking regional accreditation, maybe? I looked at that one as well, and I think that immediately took it out of the running.
I went to Chamberlain. I had 206 credits already, and they went the furthest there. Chamberlain us expensive, but I had great tuition reimbursement through my employer at the time. Took me about 18 months to finish, and that was mostly one class at a time and with a session off to study for the CEN exam.
My second choice was University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. Also a great looking program.

Ahhhhhh....that's right! I remember that. When I questioned the advisor back then about it, she was shocked that I had asked; so much so that she had to check to see if she was talking to the same potential student who had contacted her before said student (me) had even officially graduated from EC.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Sep 24, 2014

I think American Sentinel is/was lacking regional accreditation, maybe?

This is correct. American Sentinel's online nursing programs are all CCNE-accredited but the school's institutional accreditation is through the DETC, an entity that accredits distance education programs. Since American Sentinel is not regionally accredited, I decided to not enroll.