Goldenwest vs. Saddleback College

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I am currently debating between Saddleback College and Goldenwest for their nursing program. I live in Huntington Beach, so I am a lot closer to Goldenwest, but mostly everyone I have talked to or looked up has preferred Saddleback College. 

Anyone have any opinions on either school and which they prefer? I am stuck between the two and don't know which one to choose... 

Specializes in Pediatrics.
2 hours ago, Rachel Rachel said:

I know someone who dropped out GWC RN program first semester then did saddleback, and said that saddleback was much easier with better and nicer teachers and it wasn't as strict as gwc first semester.they say GWC first semester was a lot more stressful than saddleback

I did get accepted to both so I'm still waiting on what the schedule is for Goldenwest to compare that as well. 

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1 hour ago, Jennifer96 said:

I did get accepted to both so I'm still waiting on what the schedule is for Goldenwest to compare that as well. 

Hi, the schedule for first semester students for the fall is Monday 8am-2pm and Tuesdays 8am-12:55pm and an online course on Tuesdays 5pm-7pm for 8 weeks (it’s not a hard class at all). The Monday class is going to be in the lab where you learn skills and do simulations. Tuesday will be lecture, and the online course is professional nursing where you’ll learn about the ethics of nursing and nursing diagnoses etc. It seems like they changed it up since I was in first semester (I’ll be entering my third semester this fall) because we had a Friday class that was also lab and for the recent Spring semester the first semester students had a Thursday lab ?‍♀️.  By week 7 you’ll be starting clinical at the hospitals which include Huntington Beach hospital, Fountain Valley Regional, Orange Coast Memorial. 

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Specializes in Pediatrics.
2 hours ago, breaditarian said:

Hi, the schedule for first semester students for the fall is Monday 8am-2pm and Tuesdays 8am-12:55pm and an online course on Tuesdays 5pm-7pm for 8 weeks (it’s not a hard class at all). The Monday class is going to be in the lab where you learn skills and do simulations. Tuesday will be lecture, and the online course is professional nursing where you’ll learn about the ethics of nursing and nursing diagnoses etc. It seems like they changed it up since I was in first semester (I’ll be entering my third semester this fall) because we had a Friday class that was also lab and for the recent Spring semester the first semester students had a Thursday lab ?‍♀️.  By week 7 you’ll be starting clinical at the hospitals which include Huntington Beach hospital, Fountain Valley Regional, Orange Coast Memorial. 

This is great information! Thank you, it's super appreciated! 

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31 minutes ago, Jennifer96 said:

This is great information! Thank you, it's super appreciated! 

You’re welcome! I know they’ve been changing around the first semester schedule and I think a recent change is adding sim lab to first semester. They add clinical sites for second semester which include Hoag (Newport beach location), UCI, Los Alamitos medical center. Third semester adds Choc hospital! The professors in my experience have all been very nice, even the intimidating ones are actually sweethearts. The nurses at our clinical sites always get excited about GWC students because we can do so much (you can start IV’s in second semester!) and are always on top of it! You’ll come across tons of GWC grads at the clinical sites as well and they are always helpful to talk to. I’m biased towards GWC of course but you’ll be in good hands and receive great education at either school you choose! 

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I'm in the exact same situation! I live closer to GWC but am wondering whether to choose between GWC or Saddleback.

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Specializes in Pediatrics.
2 hours ago, Kochi said:

I'm in the exact same situation! I live closer to GWC but am wondering whether to choose between GWC or Saddleback.

Do you know which one you're leaning toward more?

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2 hours ago, Jennifer96 said:

Do you know which one you're leaning toward more?

Right now I am leaning towards GWC because of the current gas prices and shorter commute haha, but if I lived in between Saddleback & GWC, I think I would choose Saddleback because I read really good reviews on the Yelp page for their nursing program

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Specializes in Pediatrics.
7 hours ago, Kochi said:

Right now I am leaning towards GWC because of the current gas prices and shorter commute haha, but if I lived in between Saddleback & GWC, I think I would choose Saddleback because I read really good reviews on the Yelp page for their nursing program

Same! I basically had the same thought process as well. 

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Hey everyone! I'm in the same boat, got accepted into both programs and have a hard time picking which one to go with. GWC is way closer to me, but Saddleback's curriculum and higher NCLEX pass rate is appealing. 

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On 6/3/2022 at 12:16 PM, breaditarian said:

Hi, the schedule for first semester students for the fall is Monday 8am-2pm and Tuesdays 8am-12:55pm and an online course on Tuesdays 5pm-7pm for 8 weeks (it’s not a hard class at all). The Monday class is going to be in the lab where you learn skills and do simulations. Tuesday will be lecture, and the online course is professional nursing where you’ll learn about the ethics of nursing and nursing diagnoses etc. It seems like they changed it up since I was in first semester (I’ll be entering my third semester this fall) because we had a Friday class that was also lab and for the recent Spring semester the first semester students had a Thursday lab ?‍♀️.  By week 7 you’ll be starting clinical at the hospitals which include Huntington Beach hospital, Fountain Valley Regional, Orange Coast Memorial. 

Hi what's the schedule for the first semester of the RN program? Is it Monday through Thursday do you have any Friday classes?

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