Info on Hondros from a current student

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Specializes in OB, Occupational Health.

I've recieved a lot of questions and pm's asking about this school, so I thought I'd just put it out there for everyone.

I'm currently in the LPN program at the West Chester campus. I will preface this by saying that I'm not very pleased with my experiences with the school thus far. My aim, though, is to paint a picture of what student life is like currently at the school, not what they present to you in the "information meeting".

1. Hondros College is accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS). The ACICS is a national accrediting body. This simply means that credits you earn at Hondros may or may not transfer to a regionally accredited school.

2. The nursing programs at Hondros are not National League for Nursing (NLN) accredited. This does not affect your ability to sit for the NCLEX.

3. Both the LPN and RN programs at Hondros are now fully approved by the Ohio Board of Nursing. As long as a program is approved by the BON, you will be able to sit for the NCLEX upon graduation from said program.

4. Hondros is now approved by the US Dept of Education to accept Title IV funding. This means that students will be able to apply federally funded student loans to the cost of tuition, however, the full cost of attendance cannot be covered soley by these loans. It is pretty much a certainty that students will have to pay out-of-pocket, or take out a private student loan to supplement the total cost.

5. The Hondros program is a 1 + 1 program, meaning that if you do not currently have an LPN license, you must complete the LPN portion (Level 1) before you can enter the RN portion (Level 2) of the program.

6. Currently, there is no waiting list with four start dates per year. This may change, now that the school is accepting federal student loans.

Reason: Basically, up until now, only students that were able to take out private student loans based heavily on credit scores were able to attend. Now, the pool of applicants has grown substantially. It will remain to be seen what will happen in regard to a waiting list.

7. As of right now, classes are held on two separate campuses. The main campus in Mason, Ohio, and the nursing school campus in West Chester, OH. I currently commute between the two campuses for classes.

At some point the plan is to have all nursing classes on one campus consisting of two buildings. I was, however, told that the second building would be completed and ready for use by this summer, but as of today ground has not even been broken for that structure.

8. The school is not very up to date, technologically. As I understand it, students are now required to have a laptop and are given the option to purchase it through the school (to get a 'discount' from Dell) or to find one themselves.

(Tip: Find it for yourself. The models offered through Dell are much more expensive than other models that can be found at Best Buy, Circuit City, etc.)

Both campuses offer Wi-fi internet, and there is a 'computer lab' located in the 'library'(see #9 for more info) at the West Chester campus. The Mason campus offers no computer facilities.

9. The library is located at the West Chester campus. It is approximately a 12'x20' room that houses 5 computers and about 2-3 full shelves of magazines/nursing journals/books. If you're a student who needs to have a quiet place to study, you will not find that here.

10. Uniforms...I know, everyone wants to know what they look like! You will be charged for a uniform package, which consists of a lab coat, two pairs of pants (elastic waist, tapered leg--one ea., white and maroon) and two polo shirts (one ea., white and maroon).

In your Lab Supplies kit, you will get a Sprague stethescope, but be prepared to buy a better one. Over half of our class felt the Spragues were junk and bought Littmans so that we could actually hear the mannequins.

11. Some of the gen. ed. classes are offered online (Intro to Psych, LifeSpan Dev., English Comp., etc) via a Blackboard type program. The college is currently determining whether these classes will continue in the online format or be converted to actual classes on campus.

12. The school has added, and is currently working on, an online system known as CAMS where students should be able to access their schedules, grades, transcripts, etc.

CAMS went live just this week so there are a lot of bugs to be worked out.

I've covered a lot here, most of these are things that I've been asked by prospective students. If there's anything I haven't covered that you have a question about, please feel free to post it here or contact me privately.

Nursing school is a personal choice and we all have different circumstances, so hopefully this information will help steer you in a direction that will be best for you.

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Very good post! Thanks!

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Would you mind sharing what aspects specifically are negative to you?

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I am in West chester as well and am thinking about going to Hondros. Are there any study groups in this area.

Re'Keta

feel free to hit me off loop.

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does any one know what the passing score is for the hesi test and what parts are you required to take

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First of all. I am a current student in the RN program at Hondros. If you did not take the LPN course at Hondros, or (at least) if you did not take it within the last couple of years, I do not suggest taking this course. It is rigorous, and they base everything as if you just learned it, so get ready for serious advancement into the world of medicine! If you thought nursing, umm, hmm? This program was set up by N.P.'s and M.D.'s. I feel they think we need to learn what they learned. Down and dirty into the very basic cellular structure, forget about actually taking care of patients, they really want you to dig down deep and grab the concepts of physiology. The amount of material is abundant, and almost inconceivable. Hondros Nursing is very unorganized, for instance: When going to lab, the material covered is covered the next week in lecture. It should be covered the week prior in lecture to instill an understanding of the material. The nursing course is 3 hours long and the Professor reads (verbatum) out of the book and from power points. Now, I understand why major University's have pre-requisites prior to the actual course. Oh, so a person can actually learn and retain the info. get it? Some of the Professors are wonderful and they are all very brilliant. Another thing, if you don't know APA, take a course on it first because this is what they base every single piece of homework and essay on. Yup, the homework and essays are not necessarily in the syllabus either. I could go on and on. Good Luck. :banghead:

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This may be a really dumb question, but are books included in the financial aide or do you have to pay for books & uniforms out of pocket? I thought I remember someone saying it all was calculated together, but i could be wrong. If someone could please let me know, thanks!

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Yes everything is included in the tuition. So if your financial aid covers all of the tuition then you're set!

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Is the laptop included or do they take that out? I'm just needing to know if I need to spend my own money on one or not. Thanks!

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that is great info, I am trying to find out the tuition for curiosity's sake. I read that the ADN program is around 23k what about the LPN? thanks

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I am a student at the Columbus campus of Hondros. The cost for the LPN only program, banana, is around 18k (17 if you don't purchase the laptop through them).

The program certainly has its ups and downs, but I think most of the downs are from it being such a new college of nursing. The school of nursing across the street (Bohecker) just lost its accreditation, but Hondros is in the process of acquiring a second accreditation (NLN) so that tells you they are still ahead of the game.

Although all the campuses talk to each other often and course instructors collaborate to keep the material the same on all campuses, I do know that my campus lab does not operate the way Queenie's does - we have lecture, then the lab going with that lecture follows a few days afterwards.

My biggest complaint to date was my first term clinicals. Granted, at this clinical, you are only allowed to bathe and change beds and take vitals, but my clinical site encountered some serious issues with JCAHO and had to remove all student nurses from the facility. Hondros had no backup plan whatsoever, leaving the 10 of us with no clinical facility. We ended up sitting in a lab and assessing the mannequins every Thursday and Friday for four weeks.

Other than that, the classes are rigorous, thorough, and will teach you how to be a great nurse. I'm entering week 12 out of my 44 week LPN program, and I'm amazed at everything I've been learned so far and am looking forward to my next term.

You need to be dedicated to your study and learning to attend Hondros - this is not a school that teaches you to only pass the NCLEX, or the basics of nursing. They teach from the ground up, and this is not a program you can "skate by" in. To get an A in a nursing class, you need a 93% or above. Before the finals in term 1, my class had already lost about 12 students due to poor grades or too many missed clinical days.

It appears (at least on our campus) that they are looking into different uniforms. We did not get assigned one white/maroon pant and shirt like West Chester, but rather, were able to choose our combinations (most people simply got the maroon scrub pants with white polos). There were complaints regarding the polos because there were no pockets and some felt we looked out of place with only scrub pants, but I saw two students from 3rd term this last week wearing new all-scrub uniforms, and I know they're looking into something different.

I know I wrote a lot, I just think people need to go into this with the right attitude. If you're only becoming a nurse for the salary and aren't interested in a difficult program, this isn't for you. If you're wanting to be a career nurse with a solid foundation to later obtain an ADN, BSN, or MSN - this college will give you that, but they state right out in your course materials that you're expected to study 2 or 3 hours for every hour in class.

With that said...best of luck to everyone!

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Hello, has anything changed from 2009 to now about the way hondros operates? and its accreditation and transfer credits? to go on for ur rn-bsn?

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