Fail Rate In Reno:

[Terrace54]

I am a 54 year old woman that got accepted into a nursing program here in Reno, NV. This program lost 15 people in 8 weeks! All I heard was how many people failed every semester. You could re-apply one more time, so the classes would fill up with about 15 people from the previous semester that had failed out. The instruction was so poor, maybe because these instructors were all new. They seemed like a bunch of burned out nurses who were sick of their job, so they got their Masters so they could teach; however, they seemed to hate that too. I quit this program and will be attending a LVN school in Ca. I am to old to get into my 3rd semester and fail (as my friend and others did). The tests we were given were a mess. The correct answers were marked wrong! When I called a instructor and gave her page numbers and told her the problem, she screamed at me and told me never to call her or any instructor about a test question. I needed to make a appointment. I know I am older and education has changed, but after what I saw I can see why there is such a nursing shortage. This program did everything to get you out, not keep you in. You had to pass a math test 100% (MAPES Testing) or you were out; however, there was no instruction given in math except for a 10 minute poorly explained math problem. I am still in shock over what I saw. Is this the normal for all nursing schools???

[DesertRain]

I'm at CSN and they accept 134 students, I believe after the first semester we were down to almost half of that. I think our class is getting used to the boot camp like atmosphere. I know that CSN has a really high NCLEX pass rate that they are too proud to let go of so my assumption is that they are trying to weed out what they consider the bad apples. Unfortunately they way that some of these schools weed out students is sometimes unfair, I feel like they may have excelled in their nursing careers if they had been given a better chance in school. Don't feel like you were sole victims though--actually a lot of schools have that 100% Math test. We have it every semester as well, we are allowed to get 1 wrong, but I know that is not specific to the school, it is an NLN requirement. So is the 75% test/exam pass rates.

If it is your dream to be an RN though, I would take that high GPA to Orvis and go the distance. Good luck!