Grand Canyon University RN to BSN Reviews

Howdy all, I bit the bullet and after much research, I decided on Grand Canyon! Wow, I did not expect BSN schools to be like used car salesmen--hounding me by emails and phone calls. Rather impressed on how Grand Canyon sort of left me alone, but at the same time kept in touch.

Commence my first class Sept 30th, excited, yet very nervous, as I'm not a big fan of school, LOL! I did extremely well on my Associate degree, graduated back in 2009 from Northern Virginia Community College. We shall see.

Would love to hear from past and present Grand Canyon RN to BSN students.

[PrismRN]

[PrismRN]

Prism- A welcome was actually very helpful! Thank you! Seriously AN was insanely helpful when starting my nursing program originally and then now has proved very helpful with figuring out where to go for RN-BSN. Where are you in the program? If you have any suggestions on instructors to avoid or take i'll gladly accept. Also- what should I expect in this first course and how do I make an A? I'm working full time and moving onto nights during that time so i'm a little worried about the time commitment i'll need to make.

Welllll, your mileage may vary on time requirements. Some in this program can whip through a paper in 2-4 hours (we hate them) and do very well. I am not one of them. I hadn't written a paper in __ years, had never done a PowerPoint, and had heard of APA. Like tokmom said a while back, I'm from the footnote era. I was like, "What do American psychologists have to do with where my margins are?" So, how to make an A, how to make an A... I agree with tokmom on this. Read your instructors' announcements to find hidden directives, post your 2 weekly DQ answers on time (by Wed/Fri), and post at least TWO replies to other students on THREE different days of the week. Read the rubric over and over, and style your project/paper around that because those are the scoring criteria. Don't underestimate how long your project/paper will take you, start early in the week if you can - nothing like that 2345 Sunday night panic when your hands are shaking so bad you accidentally upload Grandma's chili recipe instead of your PowerPoint!

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

This ALWAYS makes me laugh (or cry, take your pick)

Maybe hours spent is based on one's IQ or alcohol level throughout the week :wine:

It would explain why I spent waaaay more time than needed on assignments.

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

Welllll, your mileage may vary on time requirements. Some in this program can whip through a paper in 2-4 hours (we hate them) and do very well. I am not one of them. I hadn't written a paper in __ years, had never done a PowerPoint, and had heard of APA. Like tokmom said a while back, I'm from the footnote era. I was like, "What do American psychologists have to do with where my margins are?" So, how to make an A, how to make an A... I agree with tokmom on this. Read your instructors' announcements to find hidden directives, post your 2 weekly DQ answers on time (by Wed/Fri), and post at least TWO replies to other students on THREE different days of the week. Read the rubric over and over, and style your project/paper around that because those are the scoring criteria. Don't underestimate how long your project/paper will take you, start early in the week if you can - nothing like that 2345 Sunday night panic when your hands are shaking so bad you accidentally upload Grandma's chili recipe instead of your PowerPoint!

2-4 hours on a paper :barf01: BANISH TO THE ISLAND, I SAY!

[Winterwhite28]

I'm curious when many of you will be starting the capstone?

Hmm...depends on how many breaks I keep taking...I think I am looking at June, maybe. I lost my discount because I took that long break after Stats, now I am not motivated to take just 2 week breaks, if something comes up to fit family schedule, then that is what takes priority, it will be finished in 2015 one way or the other though!

[drea588]

This thread moves fast!! Thanks all of you for the suggestions, and no- not an athlete! The 'Get College Credit' was a suggestion by my advisor and you pick an exam and pay $80 + to take. Passing it can count for that last 3 credit hour filler course I need and seemed more reasonable on cost for me (~$80 vs $1000+). Also, I'm starting Nov. so that I can whip through the first course which as you all said kinda preps me. Then I take advantage of the two week break during the second course and hopefully can work ahead during that time and then maybe be in well enough of a groove to keep on pushing!

How about books- i'm not footnotes era, but I like my hard copy textbooks and always find it difficult to read texts off of the computer. Do we use the textbooks enough that I should plan on having them on hand each course?

You guys rock. Thank you so much for settling my mind in some areas- others not so much (i.e. hours spent on homework!)

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

Well, about those books. I to am a hard copy person too and you do use the books and you already paid for them.

What I did was highlight what I needed and copy it to a word doc print that out and kept it handy. The book can time out which forces one to sign back in. Other times I would cut and paste directly on my paper and summarize off that and delete when done.

Another plus with the electronic book is the citation feature, search, and of course highlighting. Try it and see if you like it.

I did a lot of printing and probably killed a forest in those fifteen months. But with kids constantly interrupting me.."mommmm, Billy Bob is trying to bathe the cat" kind stuff I had to stop many times and restart, so having it printed gave me a chance to read it later.

Oh another feature is the app. You can read your books on a ipad.

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

Don't worry about the hours. You will find a groove and a new routine. It will become so second nature that when you are completed with the program, you feel rather lost for a bit.

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]16280[/ATTACH]

Having troubles focusing, Grasshopper? LOL!!!

[PrismRN]

Also, I'm starting Nov. so that I can whip through the first course which as you all said kinda preps me. Then I take advantage of the two week break during the second course and hopefully can work ahead during that time and then maybe be in well enough of a groove to keep on pushing!

I dunno about "whipping through" the first course, but then again if it hasn't been that long since you've been schooled maybe you'll get your groove quicker than those of us that had no clue what we were doing. The thing about that first class is that it only seems "easier" AFTER you've done a couple more, like in a comparison sort of way..."oh now that I'm in class #4, that first one seemed like a breeze!" And you won't be able to use the 2 week break to work ahead for class #2, you don't get granted the almighty syllabus until 3 days before the class starts (Fri). Unless you were talking about working ahead for the Get College Credit class, that you can do!

How about books- i'm not footnotes era, but I like my hard copy textbooks and always find it difficult to read texts off of the computer. Do we use the textbooks enough that I should plan on having them on hand each course?

Do you mean can you buy the hardcopy textbooks? No. This was, and continues to be, the hardest part for me. I love a book, a real book, and this screen-switching and scrolling and highlighting and copying/pasting (oh and as tokmom said logging back in because the dang thing timed out) is not fun for me.

[PrismRN]

This thread moves fast!!

Oh, and to add to your reading pleasure (and distraction), there are *two* GCU threads going on simultaneously. This one is the original tokmom thread that started our little family: https://allnurses.com/nursing-online-distance/grand-canyon-rn-793249-page204.html#post8190816

Whatever isn't here is probably over there (pearls of wisdom, barrels of monkeys, you know)

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

Can you imagine if we combined both threads? It would be well over 400 pages!