JaninAZ

Relax already. Granted they working hard. I never alluded otherwise. However, going the Excelsior route will most certainly limits one's marketability. This is indisputable. Try talking to a few nurse recruiters. We are currently living an employers market. Therefore, employers can afford to be choosy- and they are. "Why are so many nurses so miserable?"

Thank you for being open-minded, LunahRN. In the future, I will forego the phrase mickey mouse. Perhaps "questionable" would have been a more appropriate description? In any case, I hope 2011 is treating you well.

"Do employers look down on it? Sure, if they take it at face value." You said it yourself. Look. No offense whatsoever. Personally, I won't have an issue with an Excelsior nurse taking care of me. I know the clinical exams are demanding. In fact, they are very, very hard to pass. Still, employers will learn where you obtained your degree by way of your interview and resume. It's unavoidable. The bottom line is that it's especially hard for newer Excelsior grads to gain employment. As I factually said. Some states won't even grant you a license if you go this route. Sure, if you have several years of experience, a particular employer "may" be willing to overlook the fact that you got your RN through Excelsior. Believe me. It initially sounded like a good program. Then I did a little investigating which included talking to various hospital department heads. Comparatively speaking, when it comes to landing jobs, Excelsior grads will always be at disadvantage compared to those who went the traditional route, i.e. though a universally accepted program. You can get your license, in most states, but simply being NLNAC-accredited doesn't mean hospital X will hire or even look at you.

The word is, DON'T DO IT." Nearly all employers frown heavily on Excelsior graduates and will NOT hire them. I know for a fact that certain states, including California, won't grant you a nursing license if you went through this mickey mouse program.

The word is, DON'T DO IT." Nearly all employers frown heavily on Excelsior graduates and will NOT hire them. I know for a fact that certain states including California won't grant you a nursing license if you went through this mickey mouse program.

Don't you just love these changes? It's all about money folks. By the way, the word is Pima Community College's nursing department staff are not particularly friendly nor do they necessarily care about the success of their nursing students. While I don't know firsthand if this is entirely true, I will say that this has been a ongoing rumor.

Update regarding the bridge between CTD's LPN program to Pima's RN program: The answer you'll get as to how long the wait is to get into the latter half of West Campus's RN program, after you have completed all the necessary prereqs and the work experience requirement has, and will likely remain vague. There are too many variables to give specifics, i.e. how many students are applying at any given time, yearly FUNDING, availability of nursing INSTRUCTORS, clinical sites, last minute student dropouts, etc... All of which effect wait times. By the way, for those who have taken science courses in the more distant past, understand they expire after 6 years -not 8 as they used to! I feel people should really think twice about other possibilities as far as careers go. Realistically, with the amount of time spent taking nursing prereqs and dealing with wait-lists, one could more quickly, and less painfully, complete training in a number of other fields which both pay well and have HALF the stress of nursing. And don't think for a minute that as a new nurse grad., LPN or RN, that jobs will be easy to land, because they won't be. I'm not being gloomy here. This is all food for though, so to speak. Just do yourself justice and think carefully about the long run. Not just about time and money invested, but the quality of work life you'll have at the end of whatever road you choose.

Hello everyone, I recently completed my LPN at a community college in Arizona and wish to quickly bridge into a LPN to RN program that is universally respected. My community college offers a bridge program, but it would still take me a year to get into. Excelsior College initially looked like a possibility. However, after speaking to a few hospital nurse recruiters (from a couple of states including CA) I was told point blank that they DO NOT hire Excelsior grads. Of course the College Network folks won't dare mention this. I really do not relish the idea of having to gain tons of experience before a hospital would even consider hiring me. I welcome all opinions on going the Excelsior route.

Hello everyone, I recently completed my LPN at a community college in Arizona and wish to quickly bridge into a LPN to RN program that is universally respected. My community college offers a bridge program, but it would still take me a year to get into. Excelsior College initially looked like a possibility. However, after speaking to a few hospital nurse recruiters (from a couple of states including CA) I was told point blank that they DO NOT hire Excelsior grads. Of course the College Network folks won't dare mention this. I really do not relish the idea of having to gain tons of experience before ANYONE would consider hiring me. I welcome you opinions on going the Excelsior route.

Hello, Even private schools like Concord and Kaplan which offer LVN programs are costing at least $30K these days. However, once you have your LVN, or LPN as it's referred to in some states, you can more easily become an RN with additional schooling down the road. Again, realize that 90% of these tech schools that "sell you", sorry, let you "earn" an AS degree are worthless when you try to carry them over to a so-called real school, i.e. CC, or universities. That's a bummer, but at least the license itself is as good as gold. Take a look! Some community colleges offer a 30 unit LVN to RN step up program. If you have English and math, hopefully at least intermediate algebra, then that's a great start. A&P, general chemistry, and micro are basically the only classes left. Check into San Diego City College for their ROP LVN nursing program. If you don't have the time to take the aforementioned sciences, plus any wait-list, then by all means pay say $300/mo which starts 6 months after graduation from a Kaplan or such and be working as a nurse in about 20 months instead of 3-4 years from now! It's expense, but every year you're not working as a nurse is a year you're not making better money right? I see I strayed from your question. Your LVN will transfer to another state; however, you will need "real", transferable general ed and sciences courses at some point to move forward.

I agree in part that schools such as Kaplan are not first tier. However, bare in mind that such ADN programs are quicker and easier to get into. Community College route- Two years of pre reqs followed by a two-three year wait list. National is better as the actual degree is accredited, but it's also a BS program. Therefore it's much tougher to get into and complete. Kaplan is approved by the nursing board. That's who gives you the RN lic. But, the AS degree isn't worth a darn if you want to build upon it. That's the big downfall to going to a Kaplan. If you're 20 years old then by all means go the conventional college route. Those older and, or less patient can consider the $$ private for-profit schools as a viable choice.

Hi Liberty Bell, I'm still learning to navigate and post messages here. RE: Kaplan College's RN program I recently visited Kaplan's San Diego campus this December. They did not give me a hard figure for the 20 month RN program, but suffice to say that it's a good $50K. By the way, the max they will take off for credits earned elsewhere is about $8K. Credits earned meaning A&P, math, English, and micro etc. from an accredited college. One nice thing about Kaplan, as compared to say Pima Medical Institute, is that Kaplan does not make you retake general ed and science courses over again. This way you can focus on the core nursing curriculum if you already have the the other stuff out of the way. Make no mistake; however, Kaplan is a non-WASC accredited, for profit entity. Page 19 in their catalog openly states that credits earned at Kaplan are unlikely to transfer to other colleges, or universities. This includes National University people. So, why pay the steep tuition? If you want your, non-transferable, ADN, yet can't wait 2-4 years on a community college's wait list then these private schools are a viable if not expensive alternative. Bare in mind that obtaining your BSN down the road will be more difficult if you go the Kaplan route for your ADN. Yes, they have a pricey ADN to BSN program, but that's a whole separate BIG student loan proposition. Hope this info helps. At this point I'm still thinking it over. John

RE: Kaplan College's RN program I recently visited Kaplan's San Diego campus this December. They did not give me a hard figure for the 20 month RN program, but suffice to say that it's a good $50K. By the way, the max they will take off for credits earned elsewhere is about $8K. Credits earned meaning A&P, math, English, and micro etc. from an accredited college. One nice thing about Kaplan, as compared to say Pima Medical Institute, is that Kaplan does not make you retake general ed and science courses over again. This way you can focus on the core nursing curriculum if you already have the the other stuff out of the way. Make no mistake; however, Kaplan is a non-WASC accredited, for profit entity. Page 19 in their catalog openly states that credits earned at Kaplan are unlikely to transfer to other colleges, or universities. This includes National University people. So, why pay the steep tuition? If you want your, non-transferable, ADN, yet can't wait 2-4 years on a community college's wait list then these private schools are a viable if not expensive alternative. Bare in mind that obtaining your BSN down the road will be more difficult if you go the Kaplan route for your ADN. Yes, they have a pricey ADN to BSN program, but that's a whole separate BIG student loan proposition. Hope this info helps. At this point I'm still thinking it over. John PS I'm not replying to the above post. Couldn't get my message posted as a stand-alone message. ??

At this point it sounds like both of us just need to get an RN of some sort to start making decent money. Later on you can have the hospital pay for your online BSN courses, if you choose. You do know that many hospitals have such an education policy? By the way, don't feel old. I'm 44!

Just on a personal note. Despite some short comings I will still be checking out Kaplan's marginally accredited ADN program in San Diego this month. However, I still didn't like the idea of everyone over there playing dumb when I called asked what the tuition was. They just kept saying they didn't know and would forward me to someone's voice mail. Anyhow, I have lived in SD for years, but right now I'm in Arizona as I own a house here. I am going to look into two separate private programs out here in AZ also. I won't mention their names until I learn more about them.