Passaic County Community College RN program

Hi there! I was wondering, has anyone received their acceptance letter and was accepted into the PCCC nursing program for the Fall of 2012? I've read from other posts that applicants last Fall 2011 received theirs around May 11 or 16. I'm nervous because I still haven't received mine.

This program has been a nightmare experience for me and almost everyone from my entire cohort has been kicked out. We started with 80 and now have 9. The professors are so nasty they make many students break down in tears on a daily basis. People get thrown out for all types of subjective reasons, such as slight hesitation before hanging an IV. The tests are also a nightmare as well, questions are unclear and mistakes are often in the exams, if you check with the person who grades them you will also find that many exams are graded incorrectly. Information such as page numbers to read will not be given by the professors. All of the professors and lab instructors are derogatory and will not answer questions saying: "You should know that already." I do not recommend this school it was a has been one of the worst experiences of my life.

Hi, beware of the Passaic County Community College (PCCC) nursing program. While it is inexpensive, very few students actually pass and graduate. For example, most cohorts begin with 80 and only about 9 people finish. People get thrown out for all types of subjective reasons, such as slight hesitation before hanging an IV. The tests are also a nightmare as well, questions are unclear and mistakes are often in the exams, if you check with the person who grades them you will also find that many exams are graded incorrectly. Information such as page numbers to read will not be given by the professors. All of the professors and lab instructors are derogatory and will not answer questions saying: "You should know that already." I do not recommend this school it was a nightmare, save yourself the misery and apply to a better school.

Our group started nursing 1 with 78 students and at pinning only about 22 of the original class was there.....it IS a tough program. And I agree with you about the exams - we always had issues! Either with the book contradicted what the professor said was right answer OR the person that grades them made an error *(happened often!). Being an older student and a mom - I felt I had to suck it up and deal with it because I had already invested so much time and money in PCCC. Now that I'm out and have that RN after my name - I feel like I can BREATHE again!! There was only ONE professor that I feel really wanted to be there - wanted to see her students succeed! The others taught by intimidation.....I don't miss them! LOL If anything - I learned what kind of nurse I wanted to be - a nice one!! Whenever I see students now I just want to put them under my wing to protect them from the mean nurses!

In every program there are going to be complaints - I have nothing to compare my experience at PCCC to, so I don't know if it's better somewhere else. BUT I will say - I passed NCLEX on the first try in 75 questions - so, they definitely prepared me!

Yes, every program is difficult, but PCCC nursing professors use "nursing school is hard" as an excuse not to answer questions or bother teaching the material when students ask legitimate questions. That program is lacking some serious integrity. So much of staff is so rude for no reason, and the ones that try to help you often seem to have the hands tied by some bureaucracy or politics.

I've worked in the health care field for over 10 years and if attending nursing school at PCCC had been my first and only experience in healthcare, I would have never become a nurse. Thank goodness I have had other experiences and I also have another degree so I KNOW that PCCC is not a true representation of the entire nursing field. And thank God I am done with that place!!

I just graduated from this program, and I honestly don't have much nice to say about it. I've been following this thread since I started in 2011. I have found every single negative thing I've read in this thread to be true about that school (actually, downplaying how bad it really is), particularly with the grading of the tests and material being disorganized and all over the place.

These comments I've found to be absolutely true:

"Some of the professors aren't the nicest and the comments they tell you aren't nice either but just block it out and show them you can do it. One in particular tries to belittle the students..."

"The handouts they have given us are wrong and will say to read a certain chapter on something and when you go to read that chapter, it is not on the subject or doesn't exist at all.

"There was only ONE professor that I feel really wanted to be there - wanted to see her students succeed! The others taught by intimidation.....I don't miss them! LOL If anything - I learned what kind of nurse I wanted to be - a nice one!! Whenever I see students now I just want to put them under my wing to protect them from the mean nurses!"

"This program has been a nightmare experience for me and almost everyone from my entire cohort has been kicked out. We started with 80 and now have 9. The professors are so nasty they make many students break down in tears on a daily basis."

"Another bad thing I heard about this school, which I'm finding to be true, is that you really feel like you are "self learning" most of the stuff with very little direction. I'm a little disappointed that I have to learn so much from DVDs."

"When classes were postponed because of the weather, I called to confirm the time that class started, they told me to "check my email". I was like "I already looked at my email, and it doesn't say, which is why I'm calling". I mean, seriously. There is no need to be rude! ( BTW, they never answered my question and I had to turn to other students, who also were unsure about the starting time but were afraid to call and get scolded!)"

"Information is not relayed properly and not one person will answer a question over the phone. I am directed immediately to the portal which is inundated with so much information it is difficult to tell what should be printed and what is redundant."

"Yes I called too regarding the TBA lab times and was told as well to check the sheet. Directed to the portal during the flooding, even though I explained I could NOT access the portal and that IT support is NOT available due to the storm. I don't understand because I go out of my way to attend some, "strategies for success" seminar, where we talked for two hours about what a nurse does and how to take notes...are you joking! One decent syllabus should provide all the strategy I need."

"The tests are also a nightmare as well, questions are unclear and mistakes are often in the exams, if you check with the person who grades them you will also find that many exams are graded incorrectly. Information such as page numbers to read will not be given by the professors. All of the professors and lab instructors are derogatory and will not answer questions saying: "You should know that already."

"We got an email yesterday that told us to "have the content we should have received on September 1st prepared for the first day of class" and none of my fellow classmates, nor myself, received anything on Sept. 1st!"

Some of the teachers don't speak English very well, so when they write exam questions, they don't understand that things like a "double negative" equals a positive (i.e. "Nobody doesn't like Sarah Lee." Actually means that everyone likes Sarah Lee.), so if you DO speak English as a first language, you are going to get all "English as a second language" teacher's questions wrong. And I'm not saying that to be mean. Some of the foreign teachers were the nicest, sweetest ones, but they shouldn't be writing test questions.

And BTW,This post has HAUNTED ME!! "I have 2 semesters left at PCCC and LOVE the RN program and all the professors....The professors are tough - but you'll learn soooo much from them. And they are ALL approachable and are invested in your learning. As long as you do what is expected of you - you'll be fine!!"

REALLY? I thought about that comment for the last two years and I was like "WHAT PROFESSORS IS SHE TALKING ABOUT!!!??? ARE WE IN THE SAME FREAKING SCHOOL??"

NOT my experience at ALL! I have found maybe two professors to be approachable. The rest of them, if ANYONE dare ask them a question, you will be on their radar and be sorry you ever asked anything. "UN-approachable" is a word I've heard MANY times throughout the last four semesters when students were describing our professors.

The worst is, people were really blatant about cheating (taking and usingcell phones during tests, googling answers) and it went unnoticed because the professors were too busy picking on the WRONG students. A few people spoke up about the cheating and they punished the entire class. LOL!

Yes, I have unfortunately found every rotten rumor I heard about this school to be true.

I, like another poster, also chose this school because it was cheap. Please learn from our mistake. Nursing is TOO IMPORTANT to go to the wrong school. It is WORTH it to go into debt or to beg your relatives for money to go to the nursing school that is RIGHT for you.

If you are the type of person who would choose to learn nursing on-line with little direction, you don't need structure or tutoring, you don't like to ask questions, and you are good at faking things when you don't really know what is going on, and you don't mind learning your skills off of you-tube (that's how I learned them!) this is the school for you.

And yes, I passed in four semesters, I aced the exit exam and feel confident I will pass the NCLEX, but guess what? If you don't pass PCCC's nursing school you won't even get the opportunity to take the NCLEX. (ALL of us had straight A's when we started that place!)

And guess what else??? People go to other nursing schools and pass the NCLEX ALL.THE.TIME.

(And BTW, when I relayed my experiences to friends of mine in other programs, they were stunned and never heard anything like it.)

To anyone that has ever failed out of PCCC, please don't let that school discourage you. It is not the ONLY program and it's NOT the only representation of nursing!!

My advice, as someone who successfully completed the program at PCCC, take your money elsewhere. Even though it's the cheapest school, it's still a lot of money, and you won't be saving any time or money if you have to repeat a semester (or heaven forbid, you fail more than one semester and have to do the whole thing all over again), and nursing is too darn important to just learn anywhere and off of DVDs.

And BTW,This post has HAUNTED ME!! "I have 2 semesters left at PCCC and LOVE the RN program and all the professors....The professors are tough - but you'll learn soooo much from them. And they are ALL approachable and are invested in your learning. As long as you do what is expected of you - you'll be fine!!"

LMAO!!! This was ME!!!! Nursing 1 was a BREEZE!!! Nursing 2 - Not so bad.....BUT Nursing 3 and 4 (last two semesters) were absolute NIGHTMARES!! Different professors than 1 and 2 - and it made a HUGE difference! There was only 1 professor that really "taught" - and wanted to see you succeed - I truly believe the others enjoyed failing people and kicking people out of the program.

That above comment was probably the LAST positive statement I made about PCCC.....

The cheating was disgusting! And it was done by the students that the professors LOVED! The students that worked the hardest and were the most focused were the ones constantly under the professors microscope and grilled on a daily basis.

Just typing this post and thinking about my time in PCCC makes me nauseous....

"That above comment was probably the LAST positive statement I made about PCCC....."

"The cheating was disgusting! And it was done by the students that the professors LOVED! The students that worked the hardest and were the most focused were the ones constantly under the professors microscope and grilled on a daily basis."

OMG! Are you F*cking kidding me???? YOUR CLASS CHEATED TOO???

And same thing here: THE TEACHERS WERE SO BLIND THEY LOVED and CODDLED THE CHEATERS IN OUR CLASS TOO! AND YES! They seemed to HATE the students who wanted to learn!!! and LOVED the liar two-faced students who cheated. WOW!!!!!! I can't believe this happened in your class too.

Yeah, makes me nauseous, too!!!

They viewed students who asked too many questions as being lazy somehow.

So this wasn't just OUR class!!! There is a culture of cheating in that school and by punishing everyone, including the non-cheaters, they have effectively made sure that the cheaters are protected.

That happened in our class, some people thought they saw others cheating and told the professors. Then everyone got mad at the "snitches" because the teachers made the entire class retake a math test, even those that didn't cheat.

After that, everyone learned the hard way that the "integrity policy" they made us sign was a joke and we should protect the cheaters and let them cheat so that the whole class wouldn't get screwed.

I hope PCCC is proud of that!!! LOL!

I swear I feel like the teachers were actually mad at people for calling the cheating to their attention!!! One of my friends actually overheard a professor say "I don't want to know who cheated because then we will have to kick them out".

SUCH and INSULT to everyone else who worked their asses off.

The only place that has anything nice to say about PCCC is St. Joe's hospital They LOVE PCCC graduates because if you can pass PCCC you have effectively mastered the art of "putting up and shutting up". Just the kind of employee an old-school-from-the-dark-ages organization that refuses to give women birth control pills for anything other than a "medical problem", loves!

THANK YOU NJ GIRL FOR VALIDATING MY EXPERIENCES!!!!! That was a truly awful experience I wouldn't wish on my worst enemies. It's nice to know it wasn't just my class, and it wasn't our fault. This school needs to do some soul searching.

Stay away from PCCC!!!

YES they cheated!! I'm talkin' copies of pharm exam questions and even had question banks for some of the exams. I agree that professors were annoyed if they were told people were cheating because it would create more work for them to create a new exam, etc...

BUT I have to say.....it was pretty funny watching these cheaters STRUGGLE through the HESI exit exam....most of those people failed it the first time or couldn't pass it at all and then couldn't go to pinning. So, it bit them in the you-know-what in the end.

The NCLEX Predictor was also a good one....most of them failed MISERABLY and were then forced to take an NCLEX prep course.

Glad I validated your experience - you are NOT the only one. :)

Hi how is bergen community college? Is it different or similar to pccc?

Does anyone have any updated comments about PCCC? I am planning on applying for the evening program to begin in January 2016. I have heard great things about PCCC, but this thread has only negative comments! thanks :)

can you please share tips with me?? thanks so much!!

hi!! do you have any tips or notes from nursing school that i could please have?? thanks so so much!!