Ahrum

Hi, I'm a 3rd semester student at CONAH. I think the program is very very good. The instructors are all full time and they care really deeply about educating good nurses. The academics are solid (our NCLEX pass rate is consistently in the high 80's to low 90s), but the real meat of the program is the clinical experience. Most students do their clinicals at LA General, which is a Trauma 1 center that takes care of a very underserved population with a ton of comorbidities. There are a lot of complex cases, which are great to learn on. You start with 1 patient in first semester, then add another patient per semester until you're taking care of 4 pts by the time you graduate. I don't know any other schools that have this focus on progression, and CONAH has a reputation among LA hospitals for turning out nurses with excellent clinical skills. There are a lot of shady nursing programs out there that are terribly run and are basically profit-motivated scams. Then there are others where all they care about is their NCLEX pass rate while hand waving at the clinical component. CONAH focuses on your clinical judgement and skill first and foremost, and the solid NCLEX rate just kinda comes with the territory. It is hard. You should be prepared to work in this program and it can be stressful. But it's fair. The teachers aren't looking for reasons to fail you; they really are your biggest advocates and cheerleaders. IDK I feel like I really lucked out with this program, especially when I take in to account how cheap it is.

Do you have any idea how many interview groups there were? I'm curious...

I don't work, but many of my classmates do. Every semester is slightly different but you can count on about 10 hrs of lecture per week, give or take depending on the structure.

The limit for new cohorts is 60. You typically lose a few students every semester but also pick up a few who need to repeat. You also pick up a number of LVN-RNs between 2nd and 3rd semester.

I love the program, and I know the feeling is generally widespread among the student body. There's a lot of County Pride. The instructors are generally amazing, and they genuinely care about teaching you and preparing you for success. I had heard and read so many horror stories about terrible nursing programs — places where the students are left unsupported, where the teachers are barely present during clinicals, where the school is basically run to maximize profit and NCLEX pass rates and that's it. I had some expectation CONAH wouldn't be like that, but I can honestly say that the quality of education combined with the price makes me feel like I hacked the system or something. Don't get me wrong, this place is hard and people struggle. Nursing school should be hard imo. But you'll never feel like you're not given every opportunity to succeed. I've never heard of a white coat ceremony for nursing students... isn't that a med school thing? On graduation, there's a pinning ceremony.

Clinicals are T and W every semester until you graduate. The large bulk of students have their clinicals at LA General (formerly known as LAC + USC), though there are also clinical sites at Olive View, Rancho, and Harbor (there won't be a clinical group at Rancho and Harbor every semester; there usually is at Olive View). Clinicals usually start at 7 or 6:30. First semester, they are 6.5 hrs and every semester will add an additional hour in length. First and second semesters will have one to two pts; third semesters add a third and fourth semesters have 4-5. LA Gen is a teaching hospital with an extremely diverse, under-served pt population, typically with many co-morbidities; it's an ideal place to train. CONAH has a reputation for turning out very seasoned and clinically skilled new grads... it's why I chose the school. Lectures will always be M and Th; F are always off.

Hi, I'm a current CONAH student, 3rd semester. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have!

Seriously! At this time last year I was super depressed because I didn’t get into any of the ABSN programs I applied to. I didn’t know about conah then and now that I’m going here I couldn’t be happier to have been rejected from the programs I applied to last year. There’s always a chance you’ll still get a slot, and even if you don’t, the extra year of wanting it will just make you more motivated student when you finally get in somewhere you want to be.

Congratulations everyone who made it! I’ll see you at the preregistration session! For everyone that didn’t, I’m sorry for your luck; I hope you can keep your chin up and get in somewhere next cycle.

I believe the term starts Aug 15, with a few mandatory pre-registration all day obligations.

Thanks for the heads up, and congrats! If you don't mind my asking, where did you decide to go instead?

This seems like there’s a mistake somewhere unless they haven’t finished mailing out invites (maybe they do it in batches?). I would call the office tomorrow to see if they can tell you anything. The deadline to register for the interview is the 24th

I have 90 or 91 points depending on what class they use for my liberal arts req.

Yeah, if you don’t get an invite with 86 points, I’m suddenly nervous for my interview if that was the threshold.

I just got my interview request email! Looks like it will happen April 29. Good luck to everyone waiting, hope all yours arrive soon.

Anyone hear anything from the school yet? I know interview invites are coming any day now and I can’t help being anxious that I accidentally missed something stupid on my application.

The document tracker says “not required” next to proof of residency, and I didn’t see anything on the website about sending documentation, but I’d also be curious to know if anyone has asked them directly.

Yeah, I think it was a bug when they refreshed the system. When I logged on again a couple days later, the statement of purpose field was gone. Good luck on your application!

Looks like they fixed the application system (kind of). I timed out when I hit the button to create my new account, but when I hit the back button I was already logged in. For anyone that has applied before, I have a ton of questions regarding this application portal. It's asking me for a statement of purpose, which I didn't know I needed to provide. It's no big deal, but I was surprised since there's no mention of it in the application procedure; is anyone reading these? Also, in the TEAS score reporting, do you report the percent correct, or your national percentile? I assume it doesn't really matter since they'll have your official TEAS report, but I was curious how other people interpreted that.

Yes, I’ve tried numerous times since the application link was posted to the website. Different computers, browsers, etc. Always the same bug you’re getting. I left a message on the CONAH answering machine but doubt anyone’s been in the office because of the weekend + holiday. Hoping it’s fixed tomorrow.

Hi fellow applicants! I logged onto the site today to start my application. I found the application portal log on page, but on the account creation page, the button to create my account seems dead. I click on it and nothing happens. Is anyone else running into this problem?

That’s very helpful. Thank you so much!

Hi, I’m curious to know how the admissions process works. The LAHC website says admissions are 50 percent selection points, 50 percent lottery. Does that mean they put everyone who meets a certain selection point threshold into a lottery? Or that they admit half the cohort purely based on selection points and the other half based on lottery selection?

As far as I know, 2021 was specifically covid related. They’re far from the only school that had large impacts from COVID and who canceled or pushed back cohorts. Regarding the attrition/on-time graduation rate, my understanding is LACCONAH is a particularly strenuous program that has a reputation for turning out nurses with clinical skills considerably more advanced than other programs. The rigorous nature of the program is actually what attracted me in the first place. All that said, this is all second-hand information that I’ve gathered piecemeal on the web, so if anyone has any more accurate info or can elaborate, I’d be very curious to hear your thoughts

Oh! So the cutoff was 86 post-interview, not pre-? I’m asking because I currently have 86 or 87 (depending on which grade they accept for my humanities). I can jam English 101 into my schedule to boost my pre-interview score higher but I wasn’t sure if I was safe with my score as is. Good luck with your applications in the next cycle!