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Discussion

rn to bsn program

Hi everyone, I've been a nurse for 2 years and wanted to finish my BSN. I needed help deciding which school to go to. I checked 2 different schools. 1st one was the western governors university, it's an 18 month program which will cost me about $9,000-12,000 and it's an online program. The other one is west coast university same 18 month but $30,000, this one's in campus. when i went on the california state board of nursing, I noticed that western governor's not yet accredited. I'm currently working at a hospital. And right now, stuck on deciding which one to go to, both seemed to be a good program. I would really appreciate your help. Thanks in advance

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Accreditation is pretty important, I would do my best to go to an accredited university. The concentration of my prior degree is Human Resource Management and I can tell you that employers look at accreditation of degrees. If an establishment is not accredited then they can give you a MSN and you could have been taking baking classes for all an employer knows. You want a reputable establishment so that you know you are not throwing away your money.

Hope that helps.

i am happy thus far with my choice to go with the university of wyoming. i also seriously considered ohio university. both are relatively cheap compared to other schools and offer all online completion. a bonus to ohio university's program is no clincal. u of w does require a clinical component. it is going to cost me about 6,000 to finish my degree with u of w. i was initially disappointed that i would have to take patho and pharm because i already took those for my adn but i have found both classes to be very challenging with much information i was not exposed to in my adn coursework. some other schools i looked at were univeristy of indiana and chamberlain college. for me in the end it came down to time and price, which is why i went with wyomoing's program. my caps lock key is broken so forgive the poor writing.

I'm getting ready to start Ohio University's program. It's a little less than 8K. Only 12 classes, 5 weeks a piece. Heard it's not too bad.

my caps lock key is broken so forgive the poor writing.

This just made me laugh! Only a professional would add that last sentence. You must be OCD like me!

You could also look under student forum as there are quite a few threads especially about WGU...WGU is CCNE but not regionally accredited, and that matters for MSN , also WGU is pass/fail and pass equals B average, not acceptable for all MSN programs.

Best of luck searching.

Try University of Texas at Arlington. Very good school and accredited. Also has a reasonable tuition for the RN-BSN program. You could be done in less than 16 months and the best part? No clinicals. Check them out.

I'm currently in the Ohio University rn to bsn program. It is definitely cost effective and MOSTLY online. The 12 classes they talk about are the core nursing classes required for graduation. You are also required to take a statistics course that requires proctored exams (but are open book, open note and calculators allowed...makes no sense), and a "junior level English" which is their Business Communication class. It also depends on what they accept in transfer credits from your ADN program if you will need to complete anything else. It's still cheaper than most rn to bsn programs and it's fairly easy to do while working, but it is time consuming. I have to take 3 additional classes so I anticipate being finished a year from now and I started in October. I would definitely recommend it. Good luck in your search!

Below is an excerpt from WGU's website re accreditation:

"Western Governors University is nationally accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC). WGU is also regionally accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, one of the major accrediting commissions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA).

Regional accreditation is considered the highest form of accreditation given to institutions. The Northwest Commission is also responsible for the accreditation of other major institutions such as the University of Washington, University of Oregon, Gonzaga University, University of Utah, University of Idaho, and Brigham Young University, to name just a few."

Isn't this the required accreditation for MSN school? UCLA said they would accept the BSN from WGU for NP school.

Below is an excerpt from WGU's website re accreditation:

"Western Governors University is nationally accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC). WGU is also regionally accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, one of the major accrediting commissions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA).

Regional accreditation is considered the highest form of accreditation given to institutions. The Northwest Commission is also responsible for the accreditation of other major institutions such as the University of Washington, University of Oregon, Gonzaga University, University of Utah, University of Idaho, and Brigham Young University, to name just a few."

Isn't this the required accreditation for MSN school? UCLA said they would accept the BSN from WGU for NP school.

My bad. Sorry perhaps when I was researching they were not regional but working on it. I spoke to several MSN programs who would not accept it because of not formally giving a graduate a GPA.. And WGU said pass was a "B" average which could mean 3.0 and some MSN programs require higher than 3.0.. but perhaps that has changed also. I have place 3 calls to them for more info and have not be able to reach anyone. I have gone on student forum but there continues to be a debate about who will accpet WGU and who will not..

Fort Hays State University - totally online, accredited, and extremely inexpensive.

nlmoore:

No problem. After all, we are here to discuss and we all have different experiences. Want people to know they have lots of options. And yes, the 3.0 gpa from a pass/fail program is a downside because I'm sure there are lots of programs out there that want a gpa higher than 3.0. For now, schools like UCLA, accept a 3.0. WGU has been responsive since the beginning. The enrollment advisor has been awesome. Their financial aid office is also accessible. They have been good to me so far. I start in June so we'll see how the actual program treats me...lol.

nlmoore:

No problem. After all, we are here to discuss and we all have different experiences. Want people to know they have lots of options. And yes, the 3.0 gpa from a pass/fail program is a downside because I'm sure there are lots of programs out there that want a gpa higher than 3.0. For now, schools like UCLA, accept a 3.0. WGU has been responsive since the beginning. The enrollment advisor has been awesome. Their financial aid office is also accessible. They have been good to me so far. I start in June so we'll see how the actual program treats me...lol.

I was accepted and started WGU RN to MSN program in Oct 2011, they were giving me excellent service. I was also caring for my mother who was terminal..3 weeks into program, she fell broke her hip, not surgical candidate. I was sole caregiver so I felt I was not able to dedicate time and attention to school so after talking with mentor we decided it was best for me to stop before end of Oct as then there would be not charge. I even had a AARP scholarship for being older student. If I re-started by Jan, scholarship was still mine. Mother died 11/27. In mid DEC I started calling WGU about re-starting.. I have left messages and get no return call. It is weird as most colleges bug you to death is you express any interest. I have even filled out online forms about being interested and get no response.

I am not sure what to make of this. I had all the credit..just needed to do nursing classes. I can not imagine they are mad I stopped since it was a valid reason. But????? They were super nice and I was happy with them ( I decided on RN to MSN so I would not have to deal with the GPA issue.

Does anyone have any insight? I mean it is now almost end of March???:confused:

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