Marian University online program?

U.S.A. Indiana

Published

Just kind of looking into this. A couple questions - How and when do they do their clinicals? Can someone give me an idea what the clinical schedules are like? What days and times and do they give you options or do you have to just pick what they give you? Also, do they have any requirements for distance from the clinical sites because honestly I am not really in the radius of Indianapolis, but if the clinicals were in anyway flexible I'd be willing to look at a long commute.

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Marian University's online accelerated BSN second degree program has some flexibility in clinical work, but students must choose from among the pre-selected choices. All clinical experiences are in the greater Indianapolis area. Students must come to the site for exams which may be as often as twice per week plus clinical time. Exam and clinical days may change as often as every 8 weeks. As designed the program currently is not user friendly for long commuters.

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I would seriously reconsider the online program. I'm in my 2nd semester in the program and the program coordinator is a complete joke. Most of the instructors have no accountability in the online program and despite not doing anything, they're still renewed from class to class. There are some that are good, but others can't even tell you what's contained in the course. When you present issues to her, she is much like the online professors and doesn't even give you the consideration of a response.

They claim to be able to take 72 students. They've admitted 65 for this fall for a facility that I don't think they can sufficiently handle 50 students in a single class, let alone when they grow to 72 students in each class (mine has just 23).

But as far as clinicals go, they range from 8-12 hours at St Vincent for the most part and they can fall on any day of the week.

Our maternity course consists of powerpoint slides and chapter notes presented as the material for our class, which came directly from the textbook publisher. It might as well be an independent study course that we're paying $800/hour for when the only thing you can do is read the book because the instructor does nothing to provide value to the course.

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$800/hr?! That's absolutely ridiculous. I'm paying around $120/hr at Ivy Tech for their RN program... And I only have two semesters left. I honestly cannot imagine anyone paying that much for a nursing program, let alone an online one. If I were you would seriously reconsider your options.

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Thanks for the replies. I actually called them today and really don't think there is any way I could do this program. I appreciate all of your responses.

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$800/hr?! That's absolutely ridiculous. I'm paying around $120/hr at Ivy Tech for their RN program... And I only have two semesters left. I honestly cannot imagine anyone paying that much for a nursing program, let alone an online one. If I were you would seriously reconsider your options.

There are some reasons why...

First, I'm going to have a BSN in 16 months. Ivy Tech only offers an ASN and is so much more competitive to get into at this point. Because of this, how many people get in without being waitlisted? I looked at it from the perspective that being waitlisted for one semester meant that it was 5 months worth of pay I'd be losing.

Second, Ivy Tech's pre-reqs to even start the nursing program would take me LONGER to complete an ASN program through Ivy Tech than it would at Marian. I also wanted the flexibility to do much of my coursework online so I could do my own schedule rather than be tied down to a particular schedule in a classroom all week long.

There's a lot more cost than just the tuition alone when you figure out how much your costs really are. If I had to wait just one semester, aren't you easily losing $20-25k in income alone?

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Ivy Tech does not have a "wait list," that is a misunderstanding. Acceptance into their RN or LPN program is completely merit-based. If you have A's in your pre-req classes and a competitive score on the TEAS test, you should have a very good chance of being accepted to either program. Depending on your application, you'll either be accepted or denied, not wait listed.

I've known a few people whose scores were right on the edge who were selected "alternates," and most of them were accepted into either the RN or LPN class. Again, that's different from a wait list. Some other states operate schools on a lottery or wait list, but Ivy Tech definitely does not. It's 100% merit based. After reading posts from other nursing student hopefuls, especially those on the west coast where state nursing schools seem to operate on a lottery or wait list policy, I'm SO glad Ivy Tech operates the way it does.

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Ivy Tech does not have a "wait list," that is a misunderstanding. Acceptance into their RN or LPN program is completely merit-based. If you have A's in your pre-req classes and a competitive score on the TEAS test, you should have a very good chance of being accepted to either program. Depending on your application, you'll either be accepted or denied, not wait listed.

I've known a few people whose scores were right on the edge who were selected "alternates," and most of them were accepted into either the RN or LPN class. Again, that's different from a wait list. Some other states operate schools on a lottery or wait list, but Ivy Tech definitely does not. It's 100% merit based. After reading posts from other nursing student hopefuls, especially those on the west coast where state nursing schools seem to operate on a lottery or wait list policy, I'm SO glad Ivy Tech operates the way it does.

Why would Ivy Tech go to complete merit based acceptance? That doesn't seem to be the case in other fields not dominated by white males where lower merit applicants are accepted over higher merit applicants. Look at cut offs for graduate programs, law school, med school, etc and you'll see the numbers speak for themselves.

Regardless of a waitlist or whatever, there's only so many spots to go around. Sadly, I learned that a 19 year old taking a couple of classes and getting A's in them would have a higher PRIORITY of acceptance because I already have 2 other degrees.

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Why would Ivy Tech go to complete merit based acceptance? That doesn't seem to be the case in other fields not dominated by white males where lower merit applicants are accepted over higher merit applicants. Look at cut offs for graduate programs, law school, med school, etc and you'll see the numbers speak for themselves.

Regardless of a waitlist or whatever, there's only so many spots to go around. Sadly, I learned that a 19 year old taking a couple of classes and getting A's in them would have a higher PRIORITY of acceptance because I already have 2 other degrees.

Are you familiar with how Ivy Tech operates its nursing programs?

I started at Ivy Tech in the Fall of 2009. To be accepted into either the PN or RN program, they require that you take four pre-req classes: A&P1, A&P2, psychology, and English composition. I think that now they may also require a college algebra class. Your grades from those classes are added to your TEAS score, and the resulting number is used to select students for the nursing programs. Acceptance is totally, 100% based on your performance in your pre-req classes and on your score on the TEAS test. It is objective in every sense of the word. I was accepted into the nursing program on my first try and started nursing classes in the Fall of 2010. I have one year left. If you're not accepted you're welcome to re-take pre-req classes to try for a better grade or improve your TEAS score and apply again, but there is no "wait list."

Ivy Tech is a community college. It's purpose is to provide cheap, quality education to everyone, regardless of their age, race, gender, etc. To do anything else would be illegal. Comparing a state community college with law school or med school doesn't make any sense. The average age of people in my program is probably 30-32, and many of them have BAs already. One is a former teacher, a few have biology degrees, the list could go on and on. Many, many of them are second-career seekers. As a 22-year-old with no previous degrees or career, I am probably in the minority.

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Like I said, it would take me LONGER to complete just an associates at Ivy Tech than it would to be accepted at Marian's program for a bachelor's program. It would take no less than 2-1/2 years for me to go through Ivy Tech whereas it's 16 months at Marian, which is nearly a year's worth of salary in itself.

But as I said, admittance standards will always be done to benefit women/minorities when the numbers allow them to be able to do so. In a women dominated field, you'll never see men admitted with lower scores than that of women and in men dominated fields, you'll see cutoffs for women/minorities lower than that of white males.

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For Marian University Graduates did you get a nursing Job after graduation? Did you receive a job at ST. Vincent Hospital?

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i just graduated from marian's online ABSN in december. no, i did not have a job offer upon graduation and haven't had any luck since. i think one or two people in my class had job offers on graduation (out of around 40 people). the market for new grad hospital jobs in indianapolis sucks right now.

we were told that st. vincent likes to hire marian grads because we've done all our clinicals with st. v. i think this usually true, but st. v is not hiring very many nurses (especially new grads) right now.

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