OLOL accelerated nursing program EJGH

allison504 · Jun 18, 2009

So happy to get accepted in! But really bummed about the tuition situation. Does anyone know if there are any federal grants that apply even in you already have a bachelors degree?

kitti419 · Jun 18, 2009

Congrats! I know how you feel - we worked so hard to get in now part of what made the program so appealing is not even a factor anymore.

Your parish's unemployment office might participate in the Workforce Investment Act (WIA). I hear they might cover up to $5k or $6k. We aren't eligible for Pell Grants since we already have bachelor's degrees.

The address for the Jeff Parish office is 1801 Airline. Orleans office is 2330 Canal I think. There is also one in St. Bernard at 8201 W. Judge Perez, and one in Gretna on Lafayette St. Drop in and tell them you are interested in WIA funding for OLOL's accelerated RN program. There is tons of paperwork but ya never know. Get that FAFSA done & apply for financial aid through OLOL. You need to fill out an institution application & send it in. Good luck! See ya on 8/05.

HawtRN, BSN · Jun 18, 2009

Congrats! I know how you feel - we worked so hard to get in now part of what made the program so appealing is not even a factor anymore.
Your parish's unemployment office might participate in the Workforce Investment Act (WIA). I hear they might cover up to $5k or $6k. We aren't eligible for Pell Grants since we already have bachelor's degrees.
The address for the Jeff Parish office is 1801 Airline. Orleans office is 2330 Canal I think. There is also one in St. Bernard at 8201 W. Judge Perez, and one in Gretna on Lafayette St. Drop in and tell them you are interested in WIA funding for OLOL's accelerated RN program. There is tons of paperwork but ya never know. Get that FAFSA done & apply for financial aid through OLOL. You need to fill out an institution application & send it in. Good luck! See ya on 8/05.

Did you write an essay for the institution application?

HawtRN, BSN · Jun 18, 2009

Congrats! I know how you feel - we worked so hard to get in now part of what made the program so appealing is not even a factor anymore.
Your parish's unemployment office might participate in the Workforce Investment Act (WIA). I hear they might cover up to $5k or $6k. We aren't eligible for Pell Grants since we already have bachelor's degrees.
The address for the Jeff Parish office is 1801 Airline. Orleans office is 2330 Canal I think. There is also one in St. Bernard at 8201 W. Judge Perez, and one in Gretna on Lafayette St. Drop in and tell them you are interested in WIA funding for OLOL's accelerated RN program. There is tons of paperwork but ya never know. Get that FAFSA done & apply for financial aid through OLOL. You need to fill out an institution application & send it in. Good luck! See ya on 8/05.

Please disregard my previous message. I just read the document and it doesn't state writing an essay. Thank you

HawtRN, BSN · Jun 18, 2009

the website page that has the tuition and fees (don't forget those fees!) is http://www.ololcollege-edu.org/content/home-current-students-bursar-tuition-and-fees , then you select 2009-2010 under accelerated asn (accelerated associate of science in nursing program). my calculations came to $6550 for fall, $6234 for spring. i checked the chimes website a few weeks ago (it's having a server update right now so i can't look it) and came up with about $1000 in books for the fall semester but only $300 for spring. with the hospital not paying our tuition, there isn't going to be any contract.
dimecurves: i live in new orleans already, so i don't have to find a place to live. there are a number apartment complexes not too far from the hospital -- you should be able to find something.

i called early this week and spoke to a representative there at the school. she informed me that the program runs from sept 28 thru end of july 2010. we are going to take about 10 credits in summer session.

snickersBRaccel · Jun 22, 2009

Hey y'all,

I'm just finishing up the OLOL accelerated program in BR. I can give you some specifics as to what our tuition and fees were for this year, but keep in mind the tuition increase: Fall '08: 11 hours (Intro to accelerated nursing, Pharmacology, Fundamentals of Nursing) $3,640 plus $700 for books and $150 for scrubs & shoes. Spring '09: 18 hours (Mental Health Nursing, Adult health I, Adult Health II, Pediatrics) $5,326, plus another $300 or so for books. Summer '09: (Maternal-Newborn nursing, Adult health III) $3,348 plus another $150 for books. So that's about $13,600 for 10 months. Good luck, and enjoy your sleep while you can. Also a word of advice when it comes to studying for exams- FIRST, learn your notes, then when you know all of that, read the book if you have time.

HawtRN, BSN · Jun 23, 2009

Hey y'all,
I'm just finishing up the OLOL accelerated program in BR. I can give you some specifics as to what our tuition and fees were for this year, but keep in mind the tuition increase: Fall '08: 11 hours (Intro to accelerated nursing, Pharmacology, Fundamentals of Nursing) $3,640 plus $700 for books and $150 for scrubs & shoes. Spring '09: 18 hours (Mental Health Nursing, Adult health I, Adult Health II, Pediatrics) $5,326, plus another $300 or so for books. Summer '09: (Maternal-Newborn nursing, Adult health III) $3,348 plus another $150 for books. So that's about $13,600 for 10 months. Good luck, and enjoy your sleep while you can. Also a word of advice when it comes to studying for exams- FIRST, learn your notes, then when you know all of that, read the book if you have time.

Hi,

Congrats to you completing the program.

If you dont mind me asking, what was your typical schedule like on a daily basis while in the program? Did you just complete your final exams for the summer term?

snickersBRaccel · Jun 24, 2009

My last final will be in about 4 weeks, so I'm almost done! Typically we had lecture 9am-4pm for two or three days a week, plus clinical 7am-5pm or 7am-7am two days a week. There is no clinical for pharmacology, but there are a lot of lab hours for fundamentals in addition to the clinical in the hospital. On average, you can expect 2 days off for any 7 day period, not always on the weekend. Also, for example, if you have clinical Saturday & Sunday, you will have preclinical for 1-2 hours on Friday to get your patient assignments in order to do your care plans. You can expect these care plans to take anywhere from 4-8 hours to complete Friday evening/night, so for the majority of the program, you will be completely exhausted Saturday morning for clinical. That is really the worst part of the program- trying to finish those care plan in the early morning hours when you know you have to work 10-12 hours on two or 4 hours of sleep. But the worst of it is at the beginning of the program: fundamentals... Adult I and Adult II will get easier as you get quicker with the paperwork. The other classes clinical components aren't that bad.

kitti419 · Jun 24, 2009

Thanks for the headsup! Is there something we can do now to start preparing for these things? Also, do you just take one class at a time or are you taking all of them at once for a term? I heard that one of the tests is on 23 chapeters. Is it true that you are tested on an ungodly amount of material at once?

How many started in your program? How many are left now? For the ones who are gone, what do you think happened?

Is there any possibility of a life outside of school? :typing

Thanks so much for all of the info and congrats on almost being done!! Are they helping you all find jobs?

allison504 · Jun 24, 2009

snickersBRaccel, thanks so much for the info. It was really helpful. Were you guys eligible for grants? Or are student loans the only option?

HawtRN, BSN · Jun 24, 2009

My last final will be in about 4 weeks, so I'm almost done! Typically we had lecture 9am-4pm for two or three days a week, plus clinical 7am-5pm or 7am-7am two days a week. There is no clinical for pharmacology, but there are a lot of lab hours for fundamentals in addition to the clinical in the hospital. On average, you can expect 2 days off for any 7 day period, not always on the weekend. Also, for example, if you have clinical Saturday & Sunday, you will have preclinical for 1-2 hours on Friday to get your patient assignments in order to do your care plans. You can expect these care plans to take anywhere from 4-8 hours to complete Friday evening/night, so for the majority of the program, you will be completely exhausted Saturday morning for clinical. That is really the worst part of the program- trying to finish those care plan in the early morning hours when you know you have to work 10-12 hours on two or 4 hours of sleep. But the worst of it is at the beginning of the program: fundamentals... Adult I and Adult II will get easier as you get quicker with the paperwork. The other classes clinical components aren't that bad.

Wow snickersBRaccel! You must be exhausted by now but thanks alot for the info. So you are saying we will attend clinicals over the weekends when required. How was it for you when you first started and what suggestions can you advise new students starting the program? please reply when you are free (I know you are preparing for your finals and congrats again to you!!. :bow: :yeah:

snickersBRaccel · Jun 26, 2009

1. Is there something we can do now to start preparing for these things? –yes! Know your A&P like the back of your hand. So much of the exams is understanding the physiology. If you know your physiology, you will understand why you do the nursing interventions.

2. do you just take one class at a time or are you taking all of them at once for a term? –The first two classes (Intro to accelerated nursing & Pharmacology) are taken concurrently, after that, it’s one class at a time.

3. I heard that one of the tests is on 23 chapters. Is it true that you are tested on an ungodly amount of material at once? –We usually have between 3 -4 exams per class, so if you were to take the whole textbook and divide it into exams, you can expect at least 10 chapters per exam (and yes we have had tests covering many more). That being said, don’t expect that you will have time to read all of it. The first thing you need to study and know is the notes the instructors give you. If you know all of that, you can pass the test (passing is 79.5, and not 79.49) without reading the textbook. The books will mainly be for clarification and “good-to-know” knowledge, not “need-to-know.” However, if you are the type that has to read the book for your own peace of mind, go ahead and read it. I do have a friend in class that reads everything, and does very well on the exams.

4. How many started in your program? How many are left now? For the ones who are gone, what do you think happened? We started with 39, we have 20 left. We lost the most people in pharmacology (7), mostly because they got caught up in trying to learn from the book. Learn the notes they give you and what they say in class.

5. Is there any possibility of a life outside of school? –I think the instructors would like to pay those of us who are finishing to say that there is not life outside of school, but really, if you never do anything fun for 10 months, you won’t make it through because you’ll be so burned out from studying non-stop. There will be opportunities to do “daycations”, but I would leave any prolonged vacations to winter-break (2 weeks long) and spring break (1 week long). Other than those two breaks, there are not any significant breaks.

6. Are they helping you all find jobs?- no, they haven’t offered any advice on finding jobs

7. Were you guys eligible for grants? Or are student loans the only option?- we are not eligible for grants bc we already have bachelor’s degrees, All of us took out loans, unless you have built up quite a savings account to pay for tuition and living expenses. OLOLRMC did offer our class $12,500 for tuition if we signed a 3 year contract with them upon graduation. But if you sign the contract and don’t finish the program, you either have to work in whatever position they want you to for 3 years, or you have to pay back the money within 30 days. The checks from the hospital are disbursed semesterly.

8. So you are saying we will attend clinicals over the weekends when required. –absolutely. And they probably won’t allow you to switch with a classmate either.

9. How was it for you when you first started and what suggestions can you advise new students starting the program? –When I first started, I thought it was going to be really easy bc pharm is all understanding A&P (which I had just finished) and memorization. Then I got to fundamentals (which is probably the worst class schedule wise) and I learned I pretty much can’t function without naps :) My test-taking advice, besides learning the notes first, is: if you think you can prove your answer on the test by using the textbook, absolutely go to the instructors and state your case. There will usually be a question that you can state your case and receive credit for. And lastly, act humble and professional at all times. Please don’t be rude when you’re exhausted and stressed