Los Angeles County School of Nursing

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Any one here graduates of the program? Or are in the program?

quick question, ive heard quite often that LA county has the "best" program in LA. does anyone know if this is true?

i also heard this is why they are a bit strict with their students.

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I believe that is true frito. La county is highly reputable for putting out nurses that enter the battlefield. Also, heard the clinical experience that you will receive is unlike any other you will receive from other adn programs. In the end, it really doesnt matter where you attend for nursing just as long the school you attend has an excellent nclex pass rate.

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I've also heard the same things about the County program from people on this thread and from people who work at LAC+USC.

But I also agree with kosmic2003. NCLEX pass rate is a big factor. But so is having connections and knowing people that can help you with job leads.

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I was wondering if anyone got accepted to LA County with a B in a science course like Phys? I'm stressing!

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quick question, ive heard quite often that LA county has the "best" program in LA. does anyone know if this is true?

i also heard this is why they are a bit strict with their students.

The people who actually 1) graduate from the program or 2) graduate on time from the program without having to retake one or more semesters would probably agree with your statement that County has the "best" program in L.A.

The problem is, these people (the ones who don't fail at least a semester or get kicked out of the program entirely) represent a teeny-tiny minority of the students that actually attempt County's program. To put things in perspective for you, there were about 60 students in my first semester class. By the time the class graduated, there were less than 10 left from that original group. Therefore, over 80% of students who entered the program either failed out of it or dropped because they were failing.

Of those that fail or drop, maybe half of them come back and actually graduate. But, even if they do come back, they are now a semester or a year or in some cases 2 years behind. That really hurts people financially and personally in terms of lost money (since you have to pay to repeat), lost wages (since you usually have to take time off work), sacrificed family time you can't get back, etc. And don't think, "I'm smart so that won't happen to me." Believe me, it's not always about how smart you are because I've seen people with advanced degrees from reputable universities fail theory and I've seen some of the best students in theory get failed from clinical.

The clinical experience you get in 4th semester is somewhat comparable to working as an RN since you are expected to competently and independently care for a full load of patients. However, that's where the problem lies, in my opinion. As a student, you are being pushed into a situation that you are not ready for. This results in one of three things happening -- 1) you either learn to hide mistakes from your instructor so you don't get failed and graduate with permanent PTSD, 2) you make a mistake you can't hide and you get failed, or 3) the stress/worry/sleep-deprivation/workload (because you are still expected to complete clinical paperwork on all 4-5 pts every day) are too much for you and you quit.

I am not trying to be negative or squash the dreams of people who have their hearts set on this school. I am trying to present the reality of this school as I experienced it so students can make an informed decision on whether or not to attend the program. Had I known the 80% failure rate when I started, not to mention the downright hellish clinicals, would I have gone to another school? Most definitely. In the end, you have the same degree for a lot less grief.

Good luck to those of you who do choose County. You will need it!

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Has anyone received or heard anything yet??

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I haven't, but from reading comments earlier on this topic, it seems we may not know until the end of this month.

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I just called and they said they will send them in a couple of weeks!!!! So yea pretty sure till the end of the month

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i was hoping i was wrong, hate the waiting game. btw, for those who took 2 separate classes for science, like my micro class which was a 2 unit lab, and 4 unit lecture, county will avg the grades. 3.5 is the avg for an A. I got an A in lec, but a B in lab, so it rounded off to 3.67, so i think i'll get the 15 pts for an A, but yeah, fyi in case anyone else was wondering about this.

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[quote=\()=()/;6582000]The people who actually 1) graduate from the program or 2) graduate on time from the program without having to retake one or more semesters would probably agree with your statement that County has the "best" program in L.A.

The problem is, these people (the ones who don't fail at least a semester or get kicked out of the program entirely) represent a teeny-tiny minority of the students that actually attempt County's program. To put things in perspective for you, there were about 60 students in my first semester class. By the time the class graduated, there were less than 10 left from that original group. Therefore, over 80% of students who entered the program either failed out of it or dropped because they were failing.

Of those that fail or drop, maybe half of them come back and actually graduate. But, even if they do come back, they are now a semester or a year or in some cases 2 years behind. That really hurts people financially and personally in terms of lost money (since you have to pay to repeat), lost wages (since you usually have to take time off work), sacrificed family time you can't get back, etc. And don't think, "I'm smart so that won't happen to me." Believe me, it's not always about how smart you are because I've seen people with advanced degrees from reputable universities fail theory and I've seen some of the best students in theory get failed from clinical.

The clinical experience you get in 4th semester is somewhat comparable to working as an RN since you are expected to competently and independently care for a full load of patients. However, that's where the problem lies, in my opinion. As a student, you are being pushed into a situation that you are not ready for. This results in one of three things happening -- 1) you either learn to hide mistakes from your instructor so you don't get failed and graduate with permanent PTSD, 2) you make a mistake you can't hide and you get failed, or 3) the stress/worry/sleep-deprivation/workload (because you are still expected to complete clinical paperwork on all 4-5 pts every day) are too much for you and you quit.

I am not trying to be negative or squash the dreams of people who have their hearts set on this school. I am trying to present the reality of this school as I experienced it so students can make an informed decision on whether or not to attend the program. Had I known the 80% failure rate when I started, not to mention the downright hellish clinicals, would I have gone to another school? Most definitely. In the end, you have the same degree for a lot less grief.

Good luck to those of you who do choose County. You will need it!

thank you for all of the info! i really appreciate it. ANY nursing program is going to be tough however, from what you wrote it seems as if LA county is making it a bit too hard for their students. i understand that this profession is not easy but they shouldn't act the way your describing it. I've heard about other programs like glendale and ventura who seem to have great teachers/program. these programs are so tough. teachers should encourage their students. ive known this counselor for about 4 years and she basically encouraged me not to apply to LA pierces nursing program because the teachers literally tell their students "you wont make it". its pretty sad actually. especially since they have been where we are today and they know how hard it is.

anyway, do you happen to know what are the gpa's of the people who get in to county? online it says overall 2.0 and that's pretty low especially since their program seems to be quite challenging.

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2.0 is the minimum to qualify for entrance to the school. The points cut off for last semester (my class) was around 81. This equates to almost all A's in the pre-reqs. All of my classmates are used to being the smartest students from their pre-reqs at their CC's, and now we're all surrounded by the smartest of the smartest. But this isn't exclusive to LACCON. Almost all students who get in to merit-based nursing programs nowadays have to have fairly high GPAs.

As a current student who just finished the first semester, it's really demoralizing to hear about the real on-time graduation rates at this school. As well as the Valedictorian GPA of the 10 that did graduate. Hopefully, this isn't the norm for the school. Before coming into this school, LACCON was always my first choice, even though i heard about how much harder this school was. Knowing what I know now, I would also have chosen differently.

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Just received a call from County- I've been accepted!! Good luck to all others that applied!

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