Rue vs.college network

Jo Dirt · May 24, 2005

Neither. The ony thing you need is the study guide you get for the asking from Excelsior. Rue and College Network offer no special advantage, they will just take you to the cleaners.

fiskurwoman · May 25, 2005

Which one?? Or neither? Input from anyone with experience of these at home programs greatly appreciated. Thinking about going back to school but traditional classes will not work for me.

I went with College Network and do not regret my decision at all.

Laurie888 · May 25, 2005

Which one?? Or neither? Input from anyone with experience of these at home programs greatly appreciated. Thinking about going back to school but traditional classes will not work for me.

Most will tell you neither. It's an unnecessary added expense. It does put everything into one book instead of having to buy all the ones Excelsior recommends, HOWEVER -- there's no guarantee that they have the right information in the guides. Having said that, they range from pretty good to OK for the most part, I've bought 3 different used guides and find Chancellor's to be my preference mostly because I like listening to the tapes to and from work, etc. And I also like buying on ebay and reselling when I am done, even though that way you often get an older guide but the basics remain the same.

I'm on my last exam (2 days!) and have bought notes, guides, whatever I can find. The notes on yahoo are also good. I use my old nursing books extensively, just looking up the pertinent material. Several people have mentioned just looking it up online. On those rare days that I'm bored at work I pull out whatever reference books happen to be on the shelf and look up something that I know will be on the exam. I even read the medical dictionary sometimes just for little tidbits. I'm not a nurse (yet!) I'm a unit secretary.

For me, a combination of resources is what has worked. I'm definitely going to the Chancellor's careplan workshop prior to my CPNE.

Spazzy Nurse, RN · May 25, 2005

I second everything Laurie said, except I went to the EC CPNE workshop before my CPNE and highly recommend it to anyone who can scrape up the funds to go. I have heard good things about the Chancellor's workshop also though.

barbiedee · May 25, 2005

Hey Spazz! I agree with Spazzy about the CPNE workshops. They are invaluable. I went to Chancellor's and thought it was great. I know many people do the Nursing Concepts exams using only the free NC content guide from Exclesior. This is a lot cheaper than a study guide company, for sure. However, that said, I went with a study guide company and have never regretted my decision. Having all of the course information, text books, etc., delivered to your door was a lot easier for me. Of course, I always check the study guide content against the course outline from Excelsior to make sure I am covering everything. I think if you did want to go the study guide route, I would check out eBay for used ones. Especiallly if you want to see which company you like best. There are always study guides for sale there. There are other posts on this website about some of the different study guide companies, good and not so good. (and downright rotten). No matter which study guide company you choose, you will always find people who loved it, or hated it! (try eBay and make up your own mind without spending a fortune!):)

Spazzy Nurse, RN · May 26, 2005

Hi back, Barb! :cheers:

And I agree with Barb..... if you want to get study guides from a 3rd party, head over to Ebay or other EC message boards and get one there. If you sign with a 3rd party you have to pay BIG BUCKS for the whole she-bang, and you might regret it. If you DO feel like you really want to use 3rd party materials (I used RUE and really regretted it) then check out the Chancellor's stuff. Personally, I think going straight through EC and using their study guides is the way to go. I ended up ditching my RUE crap and used theirs.

henurse27 · Nov 3, 2005

im new to this and the excelsior program. i havent enrolled or applied yet, but i want to go ahead and start studying. i only need micro and AP before nc1-7. anyone selling/trading chancellors studyguides?? i tried ebay, but they all bid them and i never am able to win-aghh! fustrating-this is all thats holding me back from beginning. im trying to get out of buying all those excelsior books! also-am i able to test and get the free studyguides without enrolling as student yet?-its all confusing to me.

THANKS all!

Heather

ps please email me if u know a way to get the chancellors studyguides at [email protected] -dont understand the whole message box thing yet..easier if u email me directly for now-thanks

cmswitzer · Nov 3, 2005

i have done a lot of research on the publishing companies. what you all need to keep in mind is that these places are like bookstores to Excelsior College. If you go onto any regular college campus there are multiple places that you can get your study materials from.

I like The College Network because they have actual partnerships with OTHER schools. I have a co-worker doing the RN-MSN program through Regis University in Colorado. Regis will send you directly to The College Network to get the study materials for the general education course requirement.

RUE is a good company, but i like The COllege Network because if you actually go to their website http://www.college-net.com, you will see what schools they really partner with. No, they don't have a partnership with Excelsior and that's because Excelsior wanted me to use the seven textbooks to do Nursing 1!!! i didn't have time for that!

Chancellors is also a great program. I work in a large hospital and some of my co-workers have used study materials from each of the different publishing companies.

yes, i could have gotten my guides off ebay, but, then what you need to be aware of is that you may not be getting up to date material! At least when you buy the study guides from TCN directly, they have an actual guarantee! if you don't pass the test after your second attempt, they will pay for it, and they will give me a tutor to help me study.

my college degree is worth something to me. i'm not looking for an easy route or the cheapest way of doing something. I want to be proud to know that i have the material that i need for the test.

Think about it people, if The College Network wasn't suppose to be doing what they are doing...why are they partnered with schools like Cornell Universtiy, Boston University, Indiana State University.

This is just my opinion. I'm just glad that i have an option instead of going back to traditional school.

henurse27 · Nov 4, 2005

thanks for the info on TCN...i totally understand what your saying about them and no matter what the cost, but, unfortuantely i dont have the luxury of spending an extra $3000 to sign a contract with TCN or any of those publishing companies. I know what you mean about being aware of material/studyguides on ebay being too dated-but, i guess ill just do my research on it before i would buy it off ebay. since you are using TCN, would u be willing to sell me any of your used guides??

THANKS!

cmswitzer · Nov 4, 2005

I'm going to keep my guides for reference materials, for now.

Have you called around to check out financing options? I paid $100 down to start and i'm paying about $109 a month for my study guides. However, i need 12 of the courses. I already took Psych and Sociology at another university and they transferred in.

My advisor at TCN went through various payment options with me. Depending on my down payment and how long i wanted to spread my payments out, depends on my monthly payment.

I am able to get this done WAY before my loan. so, once i become an RN, i'll be able to pay it off quicker and there are no penalities for paying it off in advance.

just a thought. give them a call...wouldn't hurt

henurse27 · Nov 4, 2005

yeah, in the very beginnning i actually talked on phone to rue, tcn, and chancellors and they told me all about the monthly pay-but i did my research and i heard hundreds of feedback from students who told me do not go directly through them-extra expense cuz u can get same ones from other students on ebay or sites like this. so, thats my plan. im def. leaning towards chancellors over any others. but i do have a friend trying tcn as well, so, ill be getting his opinion soon. again, thanks for sharing your info, im just not spending an extra $3000 i dont have too, whether or not its in a monthly payment-it still adds up to all that money i dont have to spend on top of all excelsior needs me to dish out!

take care and best of luck to ya :)