Hi Everyone (preclinical students + alumni)
I hope this information here will help you decide if Lagcc is right for you. CUNY schools in general are very competitive because tuition is cheap at $1600 a semester so everyone wants to get in and tons of people apply. Admission is based on GPA so they start admitting the 4.0's then works it way down until its full.
Note / Disclaimer! All opinions and comments are mine alone,they do not reflect any endorsement by the school. Do your own research and make an informed decision. This review is from me as an alumni, graduate and a happy student.
NOTE Please check LaGCC school's nursing site for the most updated info as this original post is back in 2011-2012. There is now an entrance exam where previously there was not. http://www.lagcc.cuny.edu/RN/
* RESPECT is earned so please no prof bashing, name calling, cussing, insults, we are future nurses and professionals.
What is the GPA? Perquisites?
RN Program
Preqs: English 101 (ENG101), Chemistry (SCC210), Anatomy & Physiology 1+2 (SCB203+204), General Pyschology (SSY101)
GPA: 3.8 minimum
Seats: 70
Accepts: Spring and Fall
Entrance Test: yes: TEAS
Time: 2 years
LPN Program (as of spring 2012)
Preqs: eng 101, gen pych, medical dosage (MAT106), A&P 1+2
GPA: 3.4 approx
Seats: 120
Accepts: Fall only
Entrance Test: TEAS
Time: 9 months
Nursing Major - You are only a nursing student if you've been accepted into the clinical phase aka the competition for seats. all others its pre-nursing. Alot of people get very mixed up and what not on this title.
F.A.Q - All About Nursing At LAGCC
Campus
It's a small campus, consisting of 4 buildings E,M,B,C. It has your basic library, computer labs, gym, Olympic size pool, fitness center, yoga classes, free tutoring, writing center, and the like.
Support
Preclinical students are expected to read the nursing handbook, student general handbook and know what classes you need to register for as advisers are overworked and short staffed. THere is advisement the student advisement office if you're truely loss. When in doubt go to C107 they'll point you in the correct line to go to.
Clinical Students - Once you've been accepted into clinical phase you get an assigned adviser who is also a nursing professor. read the handbook before hand.. it gets very annoying to have to answer the same question 20x in a row when its printed on page X in the booklet.
Nursing Program
The training is rigorous, harsh and very complete. Anyone graduating from here is ready for the workforce, nclex you name it. At the end you have strong body of nursing knowledge, training, critical thinking, analysis skillz, and learn assertiveness. Professors drill into you the basics so its 2nd nature. Nursing process of ADPIE it applies to everything.
Money
Financial aid consist of your standard tap, pell, loans, work study, scholarships, and self funded. Most students work part time and some even FT.
Classes
Pre-Nursing classes like your prerequisite chem, A&P those fill up quickly, so keep hitting refresh and checking to see if there are spaces, register early and grab a section even if its not ideal at least you have something. Class size: like 25 with the occasionally mega class for chemistry of 100 those are rare.
Nursing Clinical Student
Once they accept you then you have a seat in all your nursing classes until you're done. No competing needed.
Lectures/Lab
Is usually 1 day 9:15-1pm and lab either on same day or separate either from 9:15am-12:45pm or 1pm-4:30pm
RN Classes
All RN nursing classes in day until you get to semester 3 and 4 then there's evening option because the evening class is usually the LPN-RNs. Day group is students that are starting fresh w/o nursing background. Kinda cool they keep the groups together so you level up with the same people you started with and graduate with.
LPN Classes
All day no evening / weekend classes
Clinical Days
It's 1 day a week 8am-3pm for the first 3 semesters and for the last semester 4 you get to do 2 clinical days back to back. Days well ya dont really get to pick unless you have truly extra ordinary situations like child care and such. WHICH DAY? could be mon, tue, thurs and occasionally friday.
Is it true that nursing ... just need to get a C to graduate?
Yes, but let me warn you that "C" is going to be the hardest grade you've ever had to study for. If you get the "C" amount of effort you've put in would have equaled an A+ in any class on any topic.
Uniform
You only wear it to clinical its nurse whites with apron for women and men its blue uniform top. See details when you get here. TIP: buy 2 sets with one as backup.. because i've had my uniform stolen left in lib, Had Ink pen explode in pocket, spilled coffee, grease drip from pizza. (skyblue apron = LPN) and (Navy Blue aprons = RN)
Tests
It's 3 exams of 50 questions in 60 mins with 1 finals at 100 Ques. style follows NCLEX so its suppose to train you for that exam, hmm critical thinking required by 2nd semester so gotta learn it. No one can teach you how to think critically but you need to figure out if given X data, what do i do with it? how to i keep my patient safe etc. Think out of the box
Homework
Clinik writing - a ton there's nursing process tool, teaching plan, care plan, reflection, eportfolio. You'll do more writing in nursing classes than you've ever written for any English class or what not. I once spent 21 hrs writing my tool and 25 pages long.
LAB PREP there's h.w to be done before each lab
Professors
Pre-Nursing (prerequisite) ... it's a hit or miss some are awesome others soso and some prof's need to learn how to teach. If you're out of luck and got a bad prof and you can't self learn the material for a high grade then you have to choose drop the course or take the risk you get a lower grade.
Nursing Professors ... all are highly knowledgeable in their area of expertise, some are better at teaching than others, they are available to students, have office hours, reply to emails fairly quickly. Remember these profs are not here to be your friend, they're here to make sure that you pass the stateboards NCLEX, learn what it takes to be a nurse so uh ya the training is harsh and students blame the prof, hate em. I am of the mind of take responsibility for your own training/education suck it up and do whatever it takes to pass those nursing classes and get your license.
Addendum: Nursing professors are tough but guess what? out here in the real world its even harder and the stakes are higher your livelihood, license and even freedom is at stake. Its a dog eat dog world, nurses eat their young and only the strong survive. Good luck, learn what you can
Mentors ... this is the fun part. Anyone can be your mentor whether it be your professor, an upper class-men, once you're in the nursing program they take care of you, and you're supported by your professors, fellow classmates, senior nursing students ..there's always someone to answer questions, give advice or reassure you about nursing fears.
Food ... there's awesome shiskabab by t-mobile corner. Van Damm Dinner is fabulous with Sinefeld like atmosphere and decor, 7-11 shop, pizza store, and cafe, Cafeteria and Atrium Cafe.
Coffee ... sigh you'd think upper management didn't drink coffee considering the inky stuff cafeteria calls coffee. 7-11 has decent one, atrium cafe drinkable.. no Starbucks within a 10 block radius go figure and there is one McDonald in 9 blocks.
