jennifer2021

Hello there. Since you keep mentioning me, I'll take the time and respond to you directly. What I wrote about was MY experience at Wilkes. Just because your experience has been different (good for you) doesn't make my experience inaccurate. This is the nature of personal experience. I wrote about what I experienced because I wanted others to make an informed decision. Enrolling in graduate education is a sacrifice and is costly so being well-informed is necessary. This is a platform designed to share information with other nurses which is why I selected it. Yes, this was my only post and my account was new when I posted. This does not mean that my post was inaccurate or suspicious. It means that I was fed up and wanted others to know what I wished I had known about Wilkes prior to enrolling. For someone so quick to accuse another of being inaccurate and making false assertions, you seem to be pretty quick to point the finger at Walden. Weird how that works. Anyway, my views are my own. Though many of my classmates felt the exact same way I did. For anyone in doubt, check the many FB pages for Wilkes PMHNP classes or the program in general. I'm not lying and I'm certainly not a secretive operative from Walden. As to your comment about the online lectures, that's great that they started to include them. They should have been included from the onset. I started the program and graduated before you did and I did not have a single online lecture. As far the citations in the online course modules, I stand by that. Yes, the required and recommended textbooks for the courses are the latest editions. That was not what I addressed. I said the content in the weekly course modules has old information with old references. Finally, I know the platform is Live. I never mentioned the online platform used. What I said was that Wilkes uses an education management company, Keypath. This means that they don't have Wilkes employees serving in the capacity of admissions, advising, and clinical placement. Hence there are sales people who recruit students to enroll and stay enrolled. I know of other potential students that have received numerous emails and phone calls pressuring them to make a deposit to hold their place in the upcoming cohort. I know of one student (who eventually decided to go elsewhere) who had to write a letter to the Dean just to get these people off her back. These people also serve as advisors and placement coordinators. This is problematic because they have very little to any experience or exposure to nursing so they are unhelpful at best. My experience with Keypath has been akin to calling my cable company. You get the drift. So before you come at me or anyone else, please read the post carefully. Also remember what the purpose of this platform is...to share experiences. You and I both did that. I had a bad experience. Fortunately, you have not. Great. That gives people more information to weigh their options. But please don't insinuate people are being untruthful or are undercover operatives from other schools. That's silly and unhelpful. We're here to help each other. This is a stressful career as it is without having to incur the additional stressor of a poorly run program. I get why you feel so protective. Aside from your positive experience, you likely don't want the school to get a bad reputation as it reflects poorly on your degree. I don't want that either. What I do want is for Wilkes to see posts like these and take them seriously. Had they taken a single concern of mine seriously, I would not have posted this. However, by them listening to these types of complaints and attempting to address them, they make the program better. It sounds like they've addressed at least one of the issues. Finally, I will add one positive that may make you feel somewhat validated and give others some additional insight. After taking my boards, I feel as though Wilkes adequately prepared me for the content and style of the exam. I truly feel like I could have taken the boards the day after I finished up my last class and passed easily. Now a lot of that has to do with me doing the work throughout the program (and it doesn't negate anything I said previously), it just means that the content of the courses is relevant and appropriate for success on the boards. We'll see how it fares in clinical practice. Stay tuned.

I just want to urge anyone considering applying to a Wilkes graduate program to reconsider. This is a warning. 1. Content: Everything is self-taught. There are no lectures whatsoever. Some professors will supply supplemental materials and others won't. The administration's solution to this was not to provide more support but to forbid any professors from providing additional resources. All of the modules have outdated sources (some dating from the 90s, no joke) and most of the citations are wrong. I don't really care about citations but considering that they profess to, you'd think they would fix their own citations. 2. Support: LOL. There is none. The school uses Keypath, an education management company. The advisors provided are not nurses and have no idea what the program entails. They cannot offer any useful information, advocate on your behalf, or even register you. You also can't register yourself. Who registers students? No one actually know. Also, you will NEVER be able to speak to an actual human being ever. Have a problem? Search for the right person, send an email, wait 2 business days, and hope you get an answer. Also, the people at Keypath are just rude. They don't actually want to help you. They're pushing paper and you, the student, are only getting in their way apparently. 3. Professors: Again, LOL. These programs have NO onsite professors. All the professors or should I say instructors because they don't actually teach, are adjuncts. Typically, they work for several online programs at a time. Some are decent but most are unresponsive, flippant, or just downright rude. 4. Placement: They do very little to find placements. Like the bare minimum. You have no idea whether you will be one of the lucky ones and get help finding a preceptor. You cannot speak to the placement team directly so you are not even able to follow up. In my cohort, less than 10% of students were placed by Wilkes. Everyone else had to find their own preceptors. Most paid thousands of dollars for preceptors. 5. Administration: The administration changes almost yearly. Again, you can't speak to anyone on the phone. Instead of developing appropriate and relevant content, they troll facebook and accuse people of cheating and plagiarism. They've had facebook pages shut down because people were sharing self-developed study guides. That's right, student created study guides. Um, okay. 6. Culture: Rude. Condescending. Unhelpful. Unreachable. The administration just does not care. Have a problem? Struggling? Need help? You cannot reach out to these people and get any sort of support. You are in an online environment and there is NO ONE to assist. And if you do manage to reach someone, you will be met with irritation and contempt. Just a nasty, nasty place. 7. Admissions: They've lowered their admission standards to the point where if you have a BSN and a pulse, you're accepted. This is such a disservice to those in the program or that have already graduated. They have turned themselves into a degree mill and consequently every degree delivered now looks suspect. In short, I hate this school. I wish I never attended. The experience has truly been one of the worst experiences of my life. Learn from me. Spare yourself. Go someplace, anyplace else.