rue representative called today

Rue is not in any way affiliated with Excelsior college. They are merely a company that will sell you study materials to prepare you for the Excelsior exams. They charge great big prices for a few books and workbooks. Rue is not a school. It can't grant a degree. It is a for profit company. Excelsior is the college. You can get free study content guides downloadable from the Excelsior site. Buy some books from half.com (basic nursing books) and look up the info from the content guide....much cheaper and wiser. A good NCLEX review book to go along with the texts as you study for each exam is also helpful. If you visit Excelsior colleges web site you will even read warning about these companies. Once you sign these enormous contracts you can'y back out....If you decide not to do the program, you are still stuck paying! RUE has nothing to do with the NCLEX! Excelsiors grads pass well above the national average as a whole (not just RUE users). Beware! A smooth talking rep can talk you into a big financial obligation that is not necessary--then you are stuck. Many on here will tell you the same thing...turn around and RUN from this one. Go exclusively with the frre Excelsior content guides and the college themselves. No middle man is needed.

You only have to pay the EC admission fee once. After that, you pay a Student Services Annual Fee and there are payment plans for that through Excelsior.

The NLN not only accredited Excelsior, but named it a Center of Excellence for 2005-2008. Only four schools received that honor. I would be interested to know what accreditation a publishing company is eligible to receive.

The stats in regard to NCLEX pass rates are difficult to assess, because it treats Rue and Excelsior as separate programs, when Rue students actually become enrolled at Excelsior before graduation - which raises the question, if Excelsior College is so bad, why are they helping students earn degrees with the Excelsior name?

Excelsior does take payments (saw it on their site).

That RUE rep is feeding you a lie. Run the other way!

Wow, I knew there were questions about Rue but had no idea that they were SO BAD that they have to lie to get business!

1. Everything I paid Excelsior I paid in installments, except the nursing exams which I paid for one at a time as I went along. That's lie #1.

2. Excelsior most certainly is accredited, or there would be no employed nurses with Excelsior degrees! That's just bizarre, it doesn't even make sense. Rue is a publishing company not a college, what are they accredited for? Printing books? Lie #2

3. I don't know the current pass rate for Excelsior with the NCLEX but I've heard it's pretty high. Much more than 63%. Sounds like an invented number, or lie #3.

While it may be true that SOME people do better and study better with the Excelsior degree by using a publishing company I most certainly would stay away from any company that would just flat out lie like that. If you want to see how you do with study guides, buy them used and try a few different publishers to see if you find them useful -- for that kind of investment (contract) I'd definitely want to try before you buy! The good part about that is you can usually resell them when you are done for about what you paid for them. Maybe try Ebay.

I finished the program (passed CPNE today), and while it's not for everybody it was the only way I would ever have been able to finish my degree. I used quite a wide variety of resources, and there is so much out there personally I'd avoid a publishing company. But honestly, it does work for some people, but there are others that seem to be more straightforward (honest) in their dealings.

Laurie,

Not to get off-topic, but i wanted to send you a big CONGRATULATIONS :balloons: on your CPNE! Truly a relief to have that behind you, I am sure.

A rep from RUE called today. When i told her I was looking heavily at just going through Excelsior she said I should use their program because:

1. You can not make monthly payments on Excelsiors admissions fee and with RUE you can and will only have to pay it once.

They do take payments and you only pay the admission fee once which is about the cost of only two of Rue's books.

2. Excelsior is not accredited and they are.

That's a load of ****. Excelsior is accredited. I'm a graduate of Regents aka now known as Excelsior. Rue offers nothing that could even be accredited.

3. Excelsior only has an NCLEX-RN pass rate of 63% and RUE passes with 94%

Here again a load of ***. Excelsior has a higher pass rate of the NCLEX-RN than traditional college programs. The reason is believed to be that Excelsior students have perfected their study habits and because of all the NCLEX type exams they take and the end of each course. If I remember correctly it's around 85%. However, only 10% of LPN's who start Excelsior ever actually finish because you have to be very self motivated. Traditional nursing schools blow that statistic out of the water compared to Excelsior.

Does anyone have more experience dealing with Excelsior that can help me out with what the RUE rep said.

I'd call that sales persons' boss and c/o about their outright lies. Here's a site that will help you tremendously if you decide to go for it. I enjoyed the program and haven't been sorry for one minute. I did not use one for profit study guide and made straight A's. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rnstudygroup/ Good Luck!