Excelsior MSN

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Hi, I am about to finish my BSN at WGU in Dec. and am wanting to go straight on for my MSN. I was going to do it at WGU because it would have been a smooth transition but you have to do a research project at your place of employment for the Capstone. I am not currently employed and would like to finish my degrees while we can afford for me to be off work. I was wondering if anyone knows how long it takes to complete an MSN at Excelsior? I like the idea of Excelsior anyway because they offer an MSN in Informatics. I talked to them on chat but the link the guy sent me was a time completion calculator and it said it would take 0.0 years to complete, obviously that's wrong hahaha! Anyone done it in a year or less, or know if that's possible?

Specializes in NICU, Psych, Education.

I'm a little late to the party here, but I'm starting soon in the Education program. I'm starting with Theoretical Foundations in the Spring II 8-week term.

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No you are NOT late at all. I hated that class. How I got an A? I don't know. lol...Can you afford to take 2 classes? Do you have the time to take 2 classes? I ask because Profession Role Development isn't hard at all and it's only 8 weeks. You can probably squeeze it in.

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.
I'm a little late to the party here, but I'm starting soon in the Education program. I'm starting with Theoretical Foundations in the Spring II 8-week term.

Haha, welcome back to EC!! :)

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Specializes in NICU, Psych, Education.

Thanks, akanini! That's good info. I could probably afford to take two... I'll have to take a look. My plan was to just get one out of the way and assess what the workload was like. I just registered for the first one on my list. No grad student that I know seems to like theory, so I figured I'd just get it over with. Later I did start thinking that Professional Role Development sounded like a pretty straightforward class.

I do want to move quickly, especially since it sounds like the Capstone is going to be a long process. Keep me posted on your progress. Thanks again for your quick reply!

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Specializes in NICU, Psych, Education.
Haha, welcome back to EC!! :)

Thanks! I've been talking about it for a long time and just decided to do it.

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I'm still tossed between Education and Informatics. I'm taking Cultural Diversity in the workplace as my elective on March 3. Right now the EBP class is getting on my nerves. I can't wait for it to be over on March 2nd. I'm also taking NUR 531 right now. It's an interesting class. I HOPE to start my concentration in May so I have a little time to decide. I started in August with NUR 541, then picked up 502 and 514 in Oct. It was time consuming but doable.

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Eric, why is the Capstone a long process?? You're scaring me. Lol

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Specializes in NICU, Psych, Education.
Eric, why is the Capstone a long process?? You're scaring me. Lol

I don't know a lot about it yet, but in my welcome email the advisor said that she wanted to give me a heads up about it. She estimated that Capstone is about a 7-8 month process. You work on a project in your community for one trimester and take the actual Capstone 15-week course in the next trimester. The project has to be 20-25% complete before the Capstone course begins.

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.

For those of you enrolled in the MSN, can you see the capstone information on your "My Details" page? https://my.excelsior.edu/group/current-student-myexcelsior/mydetails

I'm not sure if it only appears when you're close to capstone, but I can see a bunch of capstone information on that page. I also got a message from an advisor after I enrolled in my last class before capstone. Here is some of the info:

"The capstone experience takes a total 7-8 months, and is comprised of three elements:

a project in your home community

a 15-week online seminar offered three times a year: Spring, Summer, and Fall trimesters

a virtual leadership retreat at the end of the capstone course

All of your required master's-level courses must be complete well before you will be invited to begin the capstone experience. When the time comes, we will send you an invitation and instructions for the capstone. You'll have one trimester in which to design, plan, and begin working on your capstone project. Then, you will take your 15-week capstone course in the following trimester. Your project must be 20-25% complete before the online seminar (a.k.a. the capstone course) begins."

So, for my scheduling, my current class (NUR680) finishes 20 April. The cut-off for the Summer Trimester of capstone was that all classes had to be done by March 3, so I missed that. However, the Fall Trimester requires all classes to be done by June 30, which I can meet. So here's what I'm looking at for my capstone:

June 30, 2014: Completed all Prerequisite Courses

June 6, 2014: Form Needs to be Returned

June 6, 2014: Copy of Current RN License

July 3, 2014: Register and Begin Capstone Project

August 25, 2014 - December 14, 2014: Online Seminar and Virtual Retreat

December 4-5, 2014: Virtual Retreat

February 2015: Degree Conferral

So I'll be done about a year from now, if all goes well. :)

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Specializes in NICU, Psych, Education.

I ended up registering for both Theoretical Foundations and Professional Role Development for Spring II. I appreciated the heads up about Professional Role Development. My financial aid is still in the works, but I registered anyway. May be stuck eating lots of ramen noodles for a couple of weeks, but I have to get going with this program. :)

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Specializes in NICU, Psych, Education.

Good luck in Spring II, guys!

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The 8 weeks will go by fast and you will be glad you got both classes out of the way. Best of luck and I'm available to help.

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