Some facts about the West Coast BSN program

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Mar 16, 2013

Moved to our California State Nursing Programs since state specific info.

kabfighter · Mar 16, 2013

That price is insane. Please look elsewhere.

Virtual, LVN · Mar 16, 2013

I dont know, I need the bridge from lvn to rn. I couldn't pass their entrance exam. You needed a 80% and i got a 76% and a 78%, which was 2 years ago. They said you can only take the test one last time and thats it. I never went back. ha

MusicEMT · Mar 17, 2013

I am going to be starting West Coast University in April. A lot of people gripe about the cost, sure it is quite a bit of money, but the price is sigificantly reduced if you do all your pre-reqs done at a community college. My price dropped to about 80k for two years (which is still quite a bit, but about average for a private schoo!). i looked up the price at Azusa Pacific University (also a private), it costs about 30K a year. I know i am echoing what the orginal poster said, but the orginal price tag of the school should be taken with a grain of salt.

Another Point i want to point out is the NCLEX Passrate is not too shabby, while it isnt the best in California its still at a high 87.01% (which is higher than UCI's 78.26%!!!!)

http://www.rn.ca.gov/schools/passrates.shtml

One thing about the job placement rate: it can be a bit hard to trackdown as some former students leave the state or dont bother calling back. as well as now, just about all new grads from any school are having a hard time finding a job:

I read somewhere that new grad nurses throughout CA as a whole had a 56% employment rate. I unfourtunately cant find that source!

Now for the good news: I have talked to a couple friends who are nurses, they all said that they knew someone who graduated from WCU that got hired. I was talking to one of our ER techs at the hospital where i work, she told me that our hospital hired two WCU grads. There are also a couple people on these bords that went to WCU and got hired as well.

It seems to me that the BSN is worth its weight in gold more than an ADN in today's economy.

one of the selling points of WCU for me was the: WASC accredidation, which would allow me to pursue my grad degrees at any other accredidated insituition such as SDSU or other brick and mortar school.

From what it seems like from the outside, its a school thats improving year by year, in fact they are in the process of starting a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program soon.

People should really take the negative reviews with a grain of salt because some of those complaints are outdated or have been corrected.

fancyeyes, BSN, RN · Mar 17, 2013

I looked into this, because it's technically undergraduate, you can only get $10,000 in Federal loans. That means the other $30,000 has to come from private loans. Do your research about private loans, there is no 6 month grace period for finding a job and you can't do any public service loan repayment programs.

itsnowornever, BSN, RN · Mar 17, 2013

There are also scholarships that you can get if you are a prudent person. I hate that people complain about the cost. Lets do a quick comparison-

Average yearly RN salary in Ca- $50,000; length of time to get in and complete WCU 3.5 years- total employment wages lost- $175,000

Average length of time to complete a CC pre-req: 2.5 years: wages lost: $125,000

Length of time to get accepted into CC nursing program: -0.5-2 years: wages lost $25,000-100,000

Total cost of WCU $140,000

Total cost of CC- $5-10,000 (guessing)

Total wages lost attending WCU- $175,000

Total wages lost attending CC- $150,000-$225,000

Total WCU expense:$210,000

Total CC expense: $$155,000-$235,000

Yes it is more expensive, but in the long run it breaks even (or close to), and in one scenario you walk out with a BSN in the other you have an ADN.

Posting from my phone, ease forgive my fat thumbs! :)

ElliotPB · Mar 18, 2013

These two scenarios are similar financially if a person is paying out of pocket and taking out no loans.

I do agree that there could be some savings from being able to potentially enter a nursing job earlier. But a major caveat is that making $100,000 by working two years earlier is not comparable to avoiding $100,000 of debt.

Students in most other fields often discuss the consequences of high student loans, but I rarely ever see this being discussed in the nursing forums?

There are also scholarships that you can get if you are a prudent person. I hate that people complain about the cost. Lets do a quick comparison-
Average yearly RN salary in Ca- $50,000; length of time to get in and complete WCU 3.5 years- total employment wages lost- $175,000
Average length of time to complete a CC pre-req: 2.5 years: wages lost: $125,000
Length of time to get accepted into CC nursing program: -0.5-2 years: wages lost $25,000-100,000
Total cost of WCU $140,000
Total cost of CC- $5-10,000 (guessing)
Total wages lost attending WCU- $175,000
Total wages lost attending CC- $150,000-$225,000
Total WCU expense:$210,000
Total CC expense: $$155,000-$235,000
Yes it is more expensive, but in the long run it breaks even (or close to), and in one scenario you walk out with a BSN in the other you have an ADN.
Posting from my phone, ease forgive my fat thumbs! :)

lepez · Mar 18, 2013

There are plenty of scholarships available to help ease the cost of tuition.

Scholarship Program

The one offered by Nurse Corp Scholarship does work for WCU students.

Im currently attending WCU right now, and the clinical sites and teachers are what I would expect it to be from a BSN program. I can only compare it to my LVN instructors and the instructors here are much better. The school does have its share of problems, but what school doesnt. They are working on improving, thats a plus

Im doing the LVN-BSN route and I believe you get what you put into the program. So your success correlates to the amount of effort you put into it. I came in with all my pre-reqs done at a community college. Im using PELL grants, scholarships, government loans and private loans to help pay for tuition. Its good to note that PELL grants offer up to $5500 a year(money you dont have to pay back).

In the end its still a lot of money to take as debt, so I do work as much as possible

ShyeoftheTiger · Mar 18, 2013

In my opinion, places like WCU prey on those who want a fast way to through a nursing program and are willing to spare no expense... I would research the hospitals you are looking to work at afterward. Ask them how they feel about hiring WCU graduates... Take what those WCU representatives say with a grain of salt because they stand to make quite a profit off of your decision.

You can take the negative reviews with a grain of salt, too, that won't cost you a dime :)

itsnowornever, BSN, RN · Mar 20, 2013

Tiger---WCU grads have been present in every major verdant program in SoCal, so I think that would mean hiring managers like us

Posting from my phone, ease forgive my fat thumbs! :)

SquishyRN, BSN, RN · Mar 20, 2013

There are also scholarships that you can get if you are a prudent person. I hate that people complain about the cost. Lets do a quick comparison-
Average yearly RN salary in Ca- $50,000; length of time to get in and complete WCU 3.5 years- total employment wages lost- $175,000
Average length of time to complete a CC pre-req: 2.5 years: wages lost: $125,000
Length of time to get accepted into CC nursing program: -0.5-2 years: wages lost $25,000-100,000
Total cost of WCU $140,000
Total cost of CC- $5-10,000 (guessing)
Total wages lost attending WCU- $175,000
Total wages lost attending CC- $150,000-$225,000
Total WCU expense:$210,000
Total CC expense: $$155,000-$235,000
Yes it is more expensive, but in the long run it breaks even (or close to), and in one scenario you walk out with a BSN in the other you have an ADN.
Posting from my phone, ease forgive my fat thumbs! :)

This is flawed logic. You cannot use an RN salary for total employment wages lost while in school, because you would not have been earning RN wages while in school. You do not earn RN wages until AFTER finishing school and having become an RN.