How are you paying for Excelsior?

Out of a settlement for totalling my car

:imbar actually. Course that's just for the 7 exams.

I might use tuition reimbursement to pay for English, since they won't accept my English CLEP. Course I only get reimbursed for a percentage of it. I will also take an IV and phlebotomy course and might possibly be reimbursed for those as well.

I figure the best I can do is look for an educational rebate type thing when I take my first job. The hospital I work at will likely allow me to observe (clinical observer type thing) and might consider letting me attend some inservices, but everything else is out of pocket. And that might be best, all considered, because then I won't have a work commitment to fulfill and personality wise I just do better as an independent.

Out of my own pocket....one class at a time!

I am doing the tuition reimbursement thing as well as getting a yearly scholarship from my BON, and using tax returns to pay for some of the bulk fees. The only complaint I have about the tuition reimbursement thing is that it takes me at least a month to get the money back, so it's taking longer to get through the program than I anticipated (have to use the reimbursement $ to buy more exams).

Out of pocket, tax returns, bank robberies...er, I mean robbing my bank account. :) Oh well, its all been worth it.

just got my s.o. to take out a student loan (he is currently attending a com college) so i can use the money!!!:roll

I am doing the tuition reimbursement thing as well as getting a yearly scholarship from my BON, and using tax returns to pay for some of the bulk fees. The only complaint I have about the tuition reimbursement thing is that it takes me at least a month to get the money back, so it's taking longer to get through the program than I anticipated (have to use the reimbursement $ to buy more exams).

I'm curious. Does your tuition reimbursement program pay for "tuition" only? In the guidelines of my program, it states that it pays for "tuition" only and not testing fees. Since technically, there is no tuition for Excelsior, I'm struggling with how to make this work. There's gotta be a loophole!!! Any suggestions?

I'm curious. Does your tuition reimbursement program pay for "tuition" only? In the guidelines of my program, it states that it pays for "tuition" only and not testing fees. Since technically, there is no tuition for Excelsior, I'm struggling with how to make this work. There's gotta be a loophole!!! Any suggestions?

Have you signed a tuition reimbursement contract yet? If not, see if they will add the testing fees to it as part of your tuition- I even got them to cover my practice quizzes on the EC site, since they were pertinent to the courses. It worked for me. What I did was to start off with making payments on the $845 registration fee (the Pay-Your-Way plan EC has). As I got reimbursed for 1 payment, I would make the next payment with that. I kick-started paying for my exams with my BON scholarship, and paid for my yearly renewal cost and CPNE with tax returns. I got reimbursed for those as well (I had to wait several months for the CPNE reinbursement, though- had to show that I passed it before they would reimburse me). You have to request receipts for your registration & renewal payments so you can prove your cost to your employer. If you do get your employer to cover your exam fees (which they should, because it is kind of a tuition, and frankly you will get done faster with financial help in being able to pay for them), take your letter grade paper in to your employer (that you will get as soon as you pass the exam) to prove you have passed. Have HR copy everything and keep the originals yourself- my file has gotten lost about 3 times.

If you haven't signed a contract yet, make out a plan with the courses you expect to take, plus your costs for everything and present it to your employer- it will show them how little it actually costs for you to go to EC even with the exam fees, and they might agree to cover those as well. If they cover CLEPS for traditional students, you might be able to make the argument that it would be a similar investment to cover your exams. You can PM me your email address if you need help with writing out your plan and your argument for having your exam fees covered. Good luck- you can do it!

Not to sound stupid or anything, but what is the "tuition reimbursement"? I have never heard of it before. (Since I am Canadian, it may be an American program) Wish I had some kind of reimbursement program! I had to take a $20K loan to pay for Excelsior, exams, CPNE etc. That's $20K Canadian....about $14K US. I must say though, some of my expenses are due to the fact that I have a four hour trip, each way, including a two hour ferry ride, just to take an exam!!!! We won't even begin to think about the expense of going to the US for the CPNE! I'll cross that bridge when I come to it!

Tuition reimbursement is a deal that you work out with your employer: they reimburse you for your RN school tuition, and you agree to stay with them for a predetermined length of time once you pass the boards. My agreement was to stay with my employer for 1 year for every $4000 they reimbursed to me. I was going to stay there anyway, so it was a good deal for me and my employer (I'll have a guaranteed RN position when I'm done, and they'll have an RN with LPN experience).

Well, I received a small inheritance when my mother passed last year. I have saved a bit of it to pay for tuition. I plan to save a piece for the clinincal tests and probably will pay for the individual tests out of my paychecks. Books I haven't figured out yet. I'll try to find someone to borrow from, I think.

Thanks for the info re tuition reimbursement. It sounds like a win-win situation. I wish we had something similar here. We are frequently working at least 1 RN short, and almost always have to call in an RN on OT to staff the place, but we have no incentives to upgrade from LPN to RN. Nada. I can't even apply for the scholarships available from outside businesses because I am doing this through a US college, not Canadian. Duh. Don't you think if a Canadian school had offered this type of program I would have stayed here to do it???? Oh well, maybe I'll have my loan paid off by the time I reach retirement!

Books I haven't figured out yet. I'll try to find someone to borrow from, I think.

For the books, you can save a lot of money at http://www.half.com. I bought Kozier for $30.00, instead of $90.00 at the college bookstore. You can save even more if you buy the last edition of the book. The material changes very little from edition to edition.

I paid as I went. The bad thing about Excelsior is that they do not offer Federally-backed student loans. The good thing about not offering student loans is that it forces the college to keep their prices down, otherwise nobody would be able to afford it. Plus, it is great finishing a program with no student loans to pay off.