gurnick, uniteck,.american college of nursing vn programs.

hunnybunches · Jan 29, 2013

Hey Kels! You do seem a little overwhelmed! I am in CA and I have interviewed many for profit schools in order to find the one that suits me. I can tell you my basic experience: many times I simply walked into the school and told them I was interested in learning more about the VN program and they got me to a counselor right away. The counselor than asked me about my life, why i wanted to be in the program and (the good ones even asked what things were i afraid of holding me back from the program) told me the prices ($19,000-$30,000 depending on the school), got me over to financial aid for a quote (because there are payments that need to be made while in school), gave me a tour and loaded me up with informative paperwork. Whether the program is full or part time the state requires that it be a certain amount of hours total, the schools I interviewed had between 1500-2000 clock hours, with clinicals starting starting as early as the third week at some schools.

Yes, it does seem overwhelming because it is. There are many many many choices. What I did was make a list of my requirements, such as distance from me, class hours etc, and that narrowed down my list. Then I went to the school and got a feel for the campus and staff. If the receptionist was rude or ignored me, I left. I am a paying customer and if that is how they are going to treat me before they even get my money, imagine after they actually take it! I actually met with counselors I paid attention to what they mentioned about the school: if they were upfront and honest, if they answered all of my questions directly, they have a tour, let me talk to current students. I was and am extremely picky and thorough because I will be paying for an education and I expect to get my monies worth. Was it a lot of work? Yes. Time? Yes. Gas? Yes. Phone calls? Yes. Research? Yes. But at the end of the day I found the school that has small class sizes, is affordable, experienced working instructions and they even told me their clinicals sights when I asked! So the sweat, pavement pounding And millions of questions paid off!

The info is not going to fall into your lap and no one from allnurses is going to be able to hand you all that you need. Good luck!

Twinkle007, LVN, RN · Jan 29, 2013

Hi

Try to talk to people who actually graduated from the school that you are trying to get in,or the one that are in the program. I have visited at least 6 diff schools and I always "catch" students on the hallway and ask them about the school. Ofcourse as hunnybunches said customer service is very important but I would be carreful with this bc once I got in to short term school (NOT Nursing related) where receptionist was extremely nice so you would choose the school, but the teachers were not knowladegable, not helpful, and my experience overall was really bad (don't judge book by it cover , it might look great from outside but its not good from inside or other wey arround). Since that time I am trying to check everything before I sign. Look at NCLEX-pn % of ppl who passed, check their clinical sites, take a tour , ask them if they offer a job assistance, who are their teachers-you can talk to them , seat in the clasroom for a trial etc.

All the best

Twinkle lil'

hunnybunches · Jan 29, 2013

Twinkle is right on point. There are a lot of factors that you need to look into when choosing a school, whether it be for profit, community college or four year university. Everyone's experience will be different and a word of caution when reading online reviews for for profit school: while some students may have legitimately had a bad experience, many negative reviews are just upset people venting. So like Twinkle said talk to actual attendees! All of the reviews I read about Summit were horrible but the people who graduated from that program who worked in my doctor's office had many positive things to say. Of course there were things they did not like Nd days that were hard but overall they enjoyed it. And that's what you want: a positive experience OVERALL. Nothing in life is happy go lucky everyday all day.

nursemedic33 · Jan 30, 2013

I was looking into all 3 programs mentioned and actually ended signing up with one. We started Monday. I talked with students, looked at pass rates, and checked out facilities. Ultimately it came down to price and how well previous and current students liked it since other factors were similar. Let me know if you have specific questions and I can let you know what I found out along the way. By the time you decide to enroll you should have a feeling for which school is right for you.