choice between casa loma college, american careers college, or everest college 4 LVN.

Nursing Students LPN/LVN Students

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im trying to make a decision between these 3. the thing is, casa loma college is much closer to my place than ACC or Everest. but i heard that Everest and ACC has a good progam for LVN. pls state your opinions(tuition, program, environment, campus, etc..) for these 3. i really need help.thanx.

Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

I completed Casa Loma's LVN program back in 2005, when the tuition was $19,995.

Personally, I would pursue the program with the cheapest tuition because, in the long run, you're going to end up with the same LVN license as every other person in the nursing workforce. Future workplaces generally do not care where you attended school, especially in So. Cal. Good luck to you!

I would make this question my deciding factor.."What's your school's passing rate at the NCLEX?" I felt horrible when I couldn't even get an application for the VN program at a local community college due to scores on accuplacer. I hadn't planned on taking a 5 hour test when I went to gather info. Later found a private tech school at twice the price and passed the entrance exam. Bonus for me was not having to do pre-req's to get started and turns out their pass rate was 93%. One year later that community college lost their nursing program due to fail rate.:lol2:

Specializes in LTC, cardiac, ortho rehab.

i graduated from acc back in 2005. really great school with really great teachers. they are kind of strict with grades, dress codes, attend... overall, i think it was a great school and they really prepared me well for the real world.

My first advice is to try really hard to get into a community college LVN program. The only community colleges that I know of, that offer LVN programs are Pasadena City College and Antelope Valley College. Those colleges may be quite the distance for you but worth it, tuition and education wise. If you can't take advantage of a community college program, go to a non-profit school instead of a for profit school. For profit schools are nothing but sales people with promising sales pitches and high tuition fees. I've heard too many horror stories about American Career College, Concord College, Everest, Kaplan and the rest. Those schools also have a bad reputation in the workforce, as they are not taken seriously. Non profit schools curriculum is a little harder but that's good because you'll have a higher passing rate. I read that Casa Loma has a 93% NCLEX passing rate and those for profit schools have very low passing rates like 67%. That's an indicator that they're not teaching what you need to know or that they're not teaching you at all. Casa Loma even has a 4 day intensive, NCLEX preparation program, to help students build the skills and apply the strategies needed to pass the exam the first time! If you want a really good intensive program that will teach you what you need to know, then go to either community college LVN programs or to Casa Loma College. Getting into an LVN program has it's advantages. 1. You won't have to wait in a waiting list, to see if you get accepted into an RN/ADN program at a community college. 2. there are a couple of highly recognized medical universities like Loma Linda University, Azusa Pacific University and even Mount St. Mary's University, that offer an LVN-BSN bridge program. So you can skip the ADN/RN and go straight to BSN. Obviously having a BSN is much more beneficial to having an ADN.

OK, just yesterday I had a LONG convo with an LVN about ACC and the other for-profit schools and whether I should go for it - my main concerns were that ACC's clinicals locations didn't seem as...well, good?? as, say, Mt St Mary's and the like. However, I could start right away at ACC, which I like. My other concern is that little gnawing doubt at the back of my mind in that the admissions lady, as nice as she is, has been kind of pressuring me to SIGN UP NOW! LET'S GET YOUR FINANCIAL AID INFO IN! WHEN ARE YOU STARTING?? And I keep thinking...hm, are they good if they have to pursue me??

This LVN told me to do ACC if I were going to go for LVN and that's *it*. However, she told me that if I eventaully want to go on to BSN/RN, a lot of colleges will not accept ACC's pre-req courses!! :uhoh3:

Now, I don't know if this is a fact or not, but I thought I'd let you know.

There's so much info to wade through, I"m so grateful for this board!!!!

Suzanne

I need help! What lvn school is a good one? I need somewhere where they help u and respect students so we can be good nurses!

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