Kaplan Sacramento

GraduateVN · Jan 20, 2011

High school transcripts are fine. I graduated from the sac vn program in November. I would recommend you run. Carrington or Unitek would be better for getting in and out quickly. Kaplan is so disorganized and the teachers aren't the best. When you complain, it either doesn't get addressed for months or you get threatened with being kicked out. But don't worry, they try to keep people in as long as they can. There were several students who were consistently late, missed excessive days, yet somehow were able to stay in the program and are eligible to sit for the boards. They didnt even make up all the time they needed to make up, there is no way they had enough hours. You know Kaplan fudged attendance. There were people in the program who didn't even pass the entrance HESI. The list was shown by an admissions rep to a student, and there were people with scores in the low 60s in the program. We also had HESIs on different nursing subjects throughout the program, and there were students by their own admittance that never passed a single one and were still allowed to be in the program. Clinicals? We spent more time being CNAs than doing nursing procedures. There's nothing wrong with CNAs, but when you're in a nursing program you should be doing not only CNA skills but nursing skills as well. It is what you make of it but it's hard to practice nursing skills when you have clinical instructors avoiding working. Teachers were very secretive about how grades were really calculated in the classroom and you would either get yelled at or the subject would be changed if you tried to ask to see the breakdown of your grades for classes (as in, how many points for something and what you got, you know what I mean). Teachers often pronounced terms incorrectly and criticized several students if a student pronounced something wrong, yet it's ok for a teacher to do it! Labs were disorganized.....they also passed everyone on a skills test, didn't matter how poorly someone performed. There were also students that failed a LOT of tests, assignments, didn't show up for presentations, etc yet still were able to pass the program/classes. So don't worry about grades, or attendance, none of that matters at Kaplan! There were even a few people that still got A's in classes even when they didn't do powerpoints, assignments, or show up for presentations! I guess Kaplan is ok if you need to get in and out and are approved for a year of school through EDD, but, Unitek IS less than a year also...carrington is a bit longer but it's better than Kaplan. Just run the other way if you can.

Ba464 · Jan 21, 2011

Thank you. I've looked into Unitek and I really liked them but right now my biggest problem with them is the money, they only accept Sallie Mae or whatever its called and the fact that only one type of payment (well company) is excepted makes me nervous. Kaplan excepts GI bills (hoping the soon to be husband changes his mind and passes that bill to me hehehe) I also considered Carrington but they require prereqs =/ and i honestly want my license as soon as possible so I can continue at CSUS for my BSN.

It sounds like this is a lot of independent studying. Would you say you learned a lot? I mean besides the clinicals. Did you feel prepared for the board?

Right now I am studying for the HESI and I'm sort of freaking out, I'm in my third year in college and with the way hings are going i'm going to be in school for a very very long time. And unfortunately I am at a point where willing to give up practically free college and get a $30,000 loan to be done in a year. tsk tsk.

But yes, when it came to you personally would you say you learned enough to pass the board with flying colors AND feel comfortable working as an LVN?

GraduateVN · Jan 21, 2011

Honestly, I'm scared to go out there and be a nurse. I was a good student, honor roll, and always have been prior to Kaplan but yes, a lot of independent studying. I don't feel like Kaplan prepared me very well, I am really worried about the boards. I'm studying like crazy. If you need to get in and out go for it, because I know it's hard to keep waiting on a lottery. I needed 6 more classes for sac state's nursing program, had already not been picked twice for sac city and arc lottery adn programs, and for other personal reasons I just needed to get in and out fast. Plus Kaplan accepts grants in addition to loans and was quicker than carrington. Hopefully they've made changes, they need to change a lot. I haven't taken my boards yet, not sure if anyone from my class has. The DON lied and sent in our paperwork to the boards later than she said she did. I know this because several of us called the board and asked when they received our paperwork, and the date they gave, there's no way the paperwork was sent in at the date the DON told us. We finally got stuff back from the board to mail to Pearson and just a couple weeks ago got our emails from pearson saying to schedule a test date. I personally did not schedule one right away and several others I know of are waiting awhile as well. We want to be prepared because honestly Kaplan didn't do the best job preparing us. Hopefully we can work at good places with really good orientations.

Sorry about the essays I'm writing. Anyway yes if you need to get in and out just do it. But if you can go anywhere else, try. I hope you like cleaning breast pumps and folding, stapling, and highlighting papers at WIC because that's what we did for maternity clinicals. Hopefully that changed. I hope you like being a daycare babysitter at head start because that's what we did for peds. Hope you like being at LTCs with not many opportunities to practice nursing procedures. But again, hopefully that's changed. The DON was "retiring" from Kaplan, HAH, so whoever gets that job I really hope turns things around.