Nevada State College?

U.S.A. Nevada

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Okay, is anyone going to NSC? I was talked to about it and stuff by someone that supports it big time and was talking to me about the scholarships there. and I dunno..I remember I heard some bad things ab out it. Is anyone attending currently or graduated and doing good? Fill me in, I was thinking of checking into it.

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Specializes in Psych.

I'm currently attending NSC, prenursing major and will apply for Fall 2007. I have a friend who is in the accelerated nursing program there as well right now. I chose NSC for a couple of reasons. I already have a bachelors and masters in another field so I didn't want to go the ASN route (plus I heard CCSN is extremely competitive and with the way they do thier point system I'd never get in), UNLV was just plain rude and unhelpful (they wouldn't even let me talk to a nursing advisor, said I had to apply to the university first). I found NSC very helpful. Granted, they are a very new state college established only a few years ago and are undergoing alot of growing pains with their programs but their nursing program was just recently nationally accredited and they will soon have their provisional state board approval changed to a full approval. The instructors have all been extremely helpful. Have I had my share of "boy this school is a pain in the butt" moments? Of course, but I think I'll get a good nursing education there.

Dee

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Specializes in Peds, PICU, Home health, Dialysis.
I'm currently attending NSC, prenursing major and will apply for Fall 2007. I have a friend who is in the accelerated nursing program there as well right now. I chose NSC for a couple of reasons. I already have a bachelors and masters in another field so I didn't want to go the ASN route (plus I heard CCSN is extremely competitive and with the way they do thier point system I'd never get in), UNLV was just plain rude and unhelpful (they wouldn't even let me talk to a nursing advisor, said I had to apply to the university first). I found NSC very helpful. Granted, they are a very new state college established only a few years ago and are undergoing alot of growing pains with their programs but their nursing program was just recently nationally accredited and they will soon have their provisional state board approval changed to a full approval. The instructors have all been extremely helpful. Have I had my share of "boy this school is a pain in the butt" moments? Of course, but I think I'll get a good nursing education there.

Dee

Dee,

I just wanted to quickly comment on your statement regarding your negative experiences dealing with UNLV. I too had the same impression when thinking of transferring to UNLV. The School of Nursing refused to let me speak with a pre-nursing advisor, and instead pointed me in the direction of their website. However, now as a UNLV student I completely understand why. The wait for a UNLV pre-nursing student to speak with an advisor is sometimes a 2 month wait. When I first started at UNLV in 2005, there was only one pre-nursing advisor for approximately 600 or 700 pre-nursing students. Now they have 2 and I believe another that works part-time for nursing and part-time for other health sciences. However, the number of pre-nursing students is enormous (I think over 1,000). There are still wait times of usually 4 weeks to see a pre-nursing advisor. The reason they don't allow anyone to speak to them is simply because they literally cannot fit non-admitted students into speak with them. I believe that they should still offer advice to non-admitted students, but I just wanted to shed light onto your experience, as I experienced the same thing.

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Specializes in Psych.

Mike,

I would love to be more understanding of their situation, and I don't mean to sound completely negative, but there just is no excuse for the way they conduct their advising. Before moving to LV I had scheduled to talk to a nursing advisor at a very large state university back home and got in to see an advisor in less than one week without even being an admitted student. I also just called the nursing advising office there to see if anything had changed. They still have over 2000 students, 2 advisors, and wait times are at most one week. They do not have walkin in hours, but anyone can schedule to see an advisor including high school students and returning adult students. I can honestly see absolutely no excuse for UNLV nursing advisors to refuse to advise nonadmitted students in such a terse manner. Sorry for ranting, but there just is no excuse for this policy. The only way I can see that this would be excusable is if the advisors are nursing faculty and also carry a teaching load (very scary in that case because I've found faculty to make the worst advisors)

Dee

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Specializes in Peds, PICU, Home health, Dialysis.
Mike,

I would love to be more understanding of their situation, and I don't mean to sound completely negative, but there just is no excuse for the way they conduct their advising. Before moving to LV I had scheduled to talk to a nursing advisor at a very large state university back home and got in to see an advisor in less than one week without even being an admitted student. I also just called the nursing advising office there to see if anything had changed. They still have over 2000 students, 2 advisors, and wait times are at most one week. They do not have walkin in hours, but anyone can schedule to see an advisor including high school students and returning adult students. I can honestly see absolutely no excuse for UNLV nursing advisors to refuse to advise nonadmitted students in such a terse manner. Sorry for ranting, but there just is no excuse for this policy. The only way I can see that this would be excusable is if the advisors are nursing faculty and also carry a teaching load (very scary in that case because I've found faculty to make the worst advisors)

Dee

I totally 100% agree with you. Like i said, I think they should figure out a way to advise non-admitted students. There is one nursing advisor that was just hired this past summer that strictly does pre-nursing advisement. However, the other "full-time" pre-nursing advisor is also an instructor (not a nursing instructor -- i forget what she teaches), and the other advisor only does pre-nursing on a "part-time" basis, as she is the advisor for other health sciences. The problem with their system (in my opinion) is that the pre-nursing advisors spend far too much time in an advising session. My advising sessions would usually be 30 minutes long, thus a nursing advisor can only fit in 20 students or less a day. Thus, the wait to see an advisor is a very long wait. But I agree that UNLV should develop a system where non-admitted students are able to get advice.

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Specializes in Psych.

Mike,

I can see why they are having a problem now. They really need two fulltime professional advisors. In my experience professional advisors know alot more than instructors do about requirements, make less mistakes advising, and are better at advising appt time management. The one that I saw back east had me bring in everything she needed to see, reviewed everything and advised me in about 15 minutes which included answering my questions. She was awesome. At that state university all advisors are professional advisors and faculty are only advisors to graduate students. But I'm sure its hard to find good advisors out here with the cost of living. Why be an advisor when you can make more as a cocktail waitress?

Dee

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Specializes in Peds, PICU, Home health, Dialysis.
Mike,

I can see why they are having a problem now. They really need two fulltime professional advisors. In my experience professional advisors know alot more than instructors do about requirements, make less mistakes advising, and are better at advising appt time management. The one that I saw back east had me bring in everything she needed to see, reviewed everything and advised me in about 15 minutes which included answering my questions. She was awesome. At that state university all advisors are professional advisors and faculty are only advisors to graduate students. But I'm sure its hard to find good advisors out here with the cost of living. Why be an advisor when you can make more as a cocktail waitress?

Dee

Funny you bring up the cocktail waitress because the advisor that also teaches (she's only teaches one or two classes -- i think her title is lecturer), she also works at one of the local casinos as a cage cashier.. kind of funny. And like you said, she is absolutely HORRIBLE at advising. She is a wonderful person and extremely personable; however, because of her I am one year behind because she failed to tell me I needed a class and failed to tell me the pre-req's for a few of my biology classes. I have heard the same stories from many of my classmates as well. I even talked to the Director of Undergraduate Admissions about the poor advisement I had received, but of course nothing was done to accomodate me. I love UNLV and love the staff and faculty, but I agree that UNLV (especially the school of nursing) has many many kinks to work out.

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Specializes in Lactation Ed, Pp, MS, Hospice, Agency.

I graduated from NSC Accelerated program & LOVED it! I am a UNLV grad (2005- with my Community Health Ed degree- was a dbl major, w/nursing but changed my mind). I had the opportunity to attend, but forewent it & applied to NSC after I got a bad feeling from UNLV. The unhelpful advisor was very rude to me & spoke about "if you fail." Bad vibe for me. I already failed out of U of A nursing & didn't want it to happen again. The shooting at the CON @ UA was enough of traumatic experience to go through (3 prof. murdered on campus, then the student killed himself, 2003-my 1st & last sem there) I thank God I wasn't there that day when it happened.

So... my tour of NSC was WONDERFUL! {YES, I got a tour!} the advisor (actually the DOS) spent time w/me & took me through the lab, asked me q's & told me about how much of a supportive roll NSC try's to play there. What impressed me was when she expressed how impt it was for her students to succeed. I needed to hear this! Granted, the school still has many kinks to work out (don't all programs? But overall I was very happy w/my program- as was a majority of my class.

Recently I went in & was able to see my Instructor & she worked with me on my resume & gave me hints & tips to searching for a job. I have even been able to get beautiful letters of recommendation from her & our other Instructor that are in charge!

Do I recommend NSC? Heck YA! {BTW: graduated with a 3.29 & passed NCLEX 1st time!-& my GPA t/o the program ran a 3.75. Not bad for a FORMER student that flunked out}.

In my opinion you have to find the right program for you & only you know when it is right.

Go with your gut!

~MJ

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Well Sister and Dee, thank you for your input on UNLV, I haven't really gone up there, UNLV kinda intimidated me I guess. I went to NSC before, worried about the Chemistry part of the BSN, i suck at math. Do they help you w/ stuff like that?

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Specializes in Psych.
Okay, is anyone going to NSC? I was talked to about it and stuff by someone that supports it big time and was talking to me about the scholarships there. and I dunno..I remember I heard some bad things ab out it. Is anyone attending currently or graduated and doing good? Fill me in, I was thinking of checking into it.

I actually took Chem 121 somewhere else and it was excruciatingly difficult. Now I'm wrapping up organic chem and have the most awesome teacher (Dr. Hansen). She goes really slow, explains everthing really well, and is always available when you need help. I have an A right now. I also heard that there is a new college with an ADN that just got provisional approval. Apollo College, check out the nevada state nursing board website for it. I don't think you need chem for an ADN.

Dee

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Dee,

Thanks..I went to a orientation for them, only thing that worried me about them was they haven't graduated their first class, so I was nervous..I know they got a class starting on the 30th...Maybe I'll go take their TEAS, see what happens. Thanks for the input!

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Specializes in Psych.
Dee,

Thanks..I went to a orientation for them, only thing that worried me about them was they haven't graduated their first class, so I was nervous..I know they got a class starting on the 30th...Maybe I'll go take their TEAS, see what happens. Thanks for the input!

Are you talking about Apollo? What was the orientation like? What is the cost? I couldn't find that info on their website and haven't gotten a chance to call. What are their prerequisites? Let me know. If NSC doens't work out for me I might consider an ADN then a bridge to RN.

Dee

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