looking foa a good nursing school

JessiekRN · Jan 5, 2008

Hi! I live in Clifton and am in my fourth and last semester at Passaic County. It's a very intense, but very strong program with 100 % NCLEX pass rate for I think the last 7 or 8 years, NLN accredited, inexpensive tuition (relative to other programs). It is literally ten or twelve minutes from my house by car- the school is in Paterson- with plenty of easy public transportation available as well. Clinicals are all pretty local as well, for the most part. Let me know if you have any questions- good luck to you.

bunnyangge · Jan 5, 2008

Are you taking RN for four years? Do they offer a two year course? How much is the salary of RN here in New Jersey? I hope you don't mind my questions. Thanks for your info.

JessiekRN · Jan 6, 2008

Hi! If you're asking about Passaic County specifically, it's a two year (four semester) program, for the associate's degree. The only actual pre-reqs for entry to the rn program are: above a 50th percentile on the NET exam, and completion (grade of "c") or higher in their Intro to Chemistry (Chem 103) class. Because of the high level of competition to get into the nursing program tho, it helps to have as high a grade on the NET exam as possible and as many of the program's co-reqs completed at the time of application... (A & P 1 and 2, microbiology, etc). The school's website is http://www.pccc.edu. I think starting salaries depend on which hospital and which area of the hospital you are in, like anywhere. The couple of recent graduates I know have started out around 70,000. Hope this helps!

bunnyangge · Jan 7, 2008

What kind of questions are in the NET exam? is it difficult and do they have sample test? thanks.

JessiekRN · Jan 7, 2008

I took the exam three years ago and it consisted of math and English. I've heard since then thay they have started including science on the exam as well, but I'm not sure if there is any validity to that. The most difficult part of the exam for me was the timing- I'm a slow test taker in general but it was hard. The math section wasn't that bad- a lot of algebra- but the English was brutal- a lot of reading comprehension and it was really tricky. I am terrible at math and always did really well in English and found the English sections more challenging than the math on this test. I didn't study for the exam at all but I know Barnes and Noble has a ton of books with practice questions and there's probably a lot of stuff online also.

http://www.testprepreview.com/net_test_breakdown.htm That's one site I found but if you google NET exam you'll probably get a ton of stuff. Hope this helps.

Also when I entered the program I had a lot of credits from the university I graduated from.. make sure you get a copy of an official transcript over to PCCC as soon as you can, if you are thinking about going there, so they can evaluate what you've taken and let you know what you still need to take (you might have taken a lot of chemistry, for instance, but if they decide your classes don't fit their requirements they may make you take their own chem class) so u shoulod find out as soon as u can.

bunnyangge · Jan 8, 2008

I'm scared already. Good luck and Happy New Year!

Thanks.

JessiekRN · Jan 8, 2008

I know.. it can be an intimidating process.. but you'll get it done! And you'll be there before you know it, don't worry! Let me know if you have any questions.. Happy New Year to you too!

nadianoelia · Jan 10, 2008

i'm also in passaic county college nursing program. when i took the NET i found the hard part to be time, because althou the exam is mostly basic math and reading, the paragrahs are long for the time given. i heard from some of the students who have taken it recently that its actually easy compare to the one before.