Excelsior ... Next Steps ... Advice Please ... ?

rehab nurse · Apr 29, 2006

ok, i'll try to make this as simple as possible.

first, go to the excelsior website, and set up a free account with them. you will need this the entire time you are in their program. you'll see a section called "my ec" and that's where you want to go. i don't remember if there is a difference between screens if you are enrolled or not. but mine has a sections for beginning nursing students, near the bottom. click on that, and it has the same stuff that comes ine mail.

you have to have your transcripts sent in to excelsior from your old school, and they have to be official, meaning sealed and sent from the school. you also need to send in application and copy of license, that is 65 dollars when i did it last year.

on excelsiors website, there is a place to order study guides (or you can print them off). in the first nursing concepts guide, it tells you all the books you need. but to tell you frankly, you don't need everything. a good fundamentals, med surrg, peds, psych. a great resource i used for every ec exam was saunders nclex review for rn. i could have passed some of those exams just reading that. i got a lot of my books of half. com for half the price. buy older editions. they are usually the same, just have different chapter numbers.

you can take your general eds (if you need them), then nc1 and nc2 without enrolling. then you need to enroll to take nc3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 (foundations of professional pradtide). when you are on number 6, call and request to be sent your cpne study guide, then you'll have it when you'll need it.

i got all a's and one b on my exams just following ec's outlines. i looked up what they were asking for, wrote my own notes, made flashcards, reviewed the sectiojs in saunders book and make more notes.

before you start your journey, call your state's board of nursing and ask if they accept this program. most do, but some have restrictions. the more informed you are, the better.

you can always call the college and talk to an advisor, they will be happy to tell you what you need to know and get you started in the riight direction.

or you can email the nursing adviros at [email protected] they have alwayst responded to me within 24 hours.

another great resource is to joiin the yahoo groups. if you pm me, i will send you some of the links. too many to p0st here. also, if you have any questions at all, feel free to email me, i will be happy to answer your questions. if you want, pm me and we can swap emails. i am nearly done with my program, waiting on a cpne date. i fiinished all the prereqs and nursing exams in just over a year. have been a lpn for 10 years, so i have a lot of experience to help me.

good luck with your decision. it was the best thing i have ever done for myself, since i am not able to attend regular classes.

in fact, i have somethings downloaded to my computers about beginnings.....if you pm me your email, i can send them.

again, best of luck to you on this crazy hard journey!

edited to add: when you are ready for as exam,,call excelsior, pay for exam, then you can go online to 2test.com and register. the tests are takem at prometric centers, and are video and audio recprded amd proctored.

pissalyss · May 12, 2006

I am gloing thru excelsior for my RN at home. I've tried Rue study guides,Chancellors and The college network. I didn't know which way to go either. I started buying a few books thru excelsior but found that there were just too many to buy. Then I bought 7 study guides that come with books from Rue for $2200- only to find out that in filling out one study guide would take at least 2 months(doing it daily). The info. in these are adequate to pass the exams but I get overwhelmed by how much time it takes in filling them out. The college Network guides are my choice coz they're already filled out and all you have to do is study them. I took sociology and lifespan psych on the same day and within 2 months of studying for them.

ChesterRN · May 14, 2006

I am gloing thru excelsior for my RN at home. I've tried Rue study guides,Chancellors and The college network. I didn't know which way to go either. I started buying a few books thru excelsior but found that there were just too many to buy. Then I bought 7 study guides that come with books from Rue for $2200- only to find out that in filling out one study guide would take at least 2 months(doing it daily). The info. in these are adequate to pass the exams but I get overwhelmed by how much time it takes in filling them out. The college Network guides are my choice coz they're already filled out and all you have to do is study them. I took sociology and lifespan psych on the same day and within 2 months of studying for them.

Back in the day, I went in with 4 other people and shared the cost...Do you have access to other folks in your area who are in EC?

pissalyss · May 14, 2006

I'm not sure. There is this one guy who works occasionally at the same facility that I do but he bought all the guides from RUE. I now buy and sell my guides on ebay after I take the tests. I definately am not getting what I paid for them but at least it's something.

ChesterRN · May 14, 2006

I'm not sure. There is this one guy who works occasionally at the same facility that I do but he bought all the guides from RUE. I now buy and sell my guides on ebay after I take the tests. I definately am not getting what I paid for them but at least it's something.

I'm not sure about these guides, but if they were anything like the ones I bought around 14 years ago or so, they only helped with confidence. One thing I did is bought a bunch of NCLEX books that were broken down in categories and used the index of the exam syllabus to guide my study. What I lacked, I looked up in the regular books in the exam bibliography to bridge the gap. Again, its all in your confidence.

After you study for comprehensive exams, you may find yourself second-guesing yourself because you may feel like you haven't really mastered the material. You always have to give yourself credit for what you know, which is usually more than you think you do. The NCLEX books and exam preps will help prove that.

traumahawk99 · May 14, 2006

jasmine, you're making a great choice. i wouldn't give a dime to rue or the college network. you can get all of excelsior's practice exams for $75 a pop. take those exams, and look up the answers in detail. one question might give you 4 things to look up and study.

i bought most of my texts used through amazon online.

the first place to start is get your evaluation done, which means get your transcripts headed to excelsior!

if you're a good test taker, you might elect to study for and take clep exams. for example, if you haven't had human growth and development, you could clep that rather than taking the more expensive ec course. i clepped 4 prereqs and it sure worked wonderfully for me.

i also took prereqs at my local community college. there's more than one way to skin a cat, and you need to find a way that works best for you.

i just completed ec and i'm here to tell you it's a great feeling to be done! i think it's a wonderful route for paramedics and lpns.

EricJRN, MSN, RN · May 14, 2006

there's more than one way to skin a cat

Traumahawk,

Just wanted to say that I was tickled to see the above expression. I must say it ten times a day at work. It's to the point where my preceptor gives me a hard time about saying it so much. :) Congrats on passing that super-stressful CPNE!

Jasmine,

Sounds like you've gotten some great advice to get started. There really *is* more than one way to skin a cat when it comes to getting through Excelsior. I agree with traumahawk that the practice tests can give you a great feel for the types of questions to expect on the real thing.

Good luck!

Born2BAnurse · May 15, 2006

I am soo confused myself. Just when I got ready to sign my name on the dotted line for Distance learning I seen EC online and realized that I can go through the college itself.. my question is it less money.. Are there good study materials.. Im lost I need Help

jksapphire · May 18, 2006

I visited with a rep from The College Network and to go from LPN to RN, it would cost $10,955 thru The College Network. Excelsior college is now charging $250/credit hour and for the 46 credit hours I need, tuition alone would be $11,500, plus books, enrollment fee, clinical fee, info literacy course and graduation fee, which are included in the $10,955 from The College Network.

This seems confusing that it would cost so much less thru The College Network.

Can anyone help me? Am I missing something thru The College Network?

Thanks

yvonnemuse, BSN, RN · May 18, 2006

I feel like I beat a dead horse whenever this is brought up. Bear in mind that the college network is a PUBLISHING company and NOT a degree conferring institution.

I Graduate from Excelsior 5/19/06. I did NOT use publishing companies, scrounged most of my books off friends,ebay and libraries. I used the FREE study guides from EC.I did do one of the practice exams and it bolstered my confidence to show I was on the right track.I did NOT do any Clinical workshops. YOU CAN DO IT!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE contact the college and investigate before you sign any contracts. As the poster wrote, there IS more than one way to skin a cat. IMO these publishing companies make monies off people's insecurities.If you use em...get em used.all the best.....

traumahawk99 · May 18, 2006

I visited with a rep from The College Network and to go from LPN to RN, it would cost $10,955 thru The College Network. Excelsior college is now charging $250/credit hour and for the 46 credit hours I need, tuition alone would be $11,500, plus books, enrollment fee, clinical fee, info literacy course and graduation fee, which are included in the $10,955 from The College Network.
This seems confusing that it would cost so much less thru The College Network.
Can anyone help me? Am I missing something thru The College Network?
Thanks

why not do all your pre-requisites through your local community college? mine offers all those online, and they're cheap since i'm in state. that leaves you with 7 exams, and the cpne.