Maryville University FNP Program Recent Student's Reviews

Nursing Students NP Students

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I had an appointment this past week with an admission's advisor for the Maryville U online FNP program. I was really impressed with how she described the program and since our conversation I have been able to easily get in touch with her through email. I can not say the same for University of Cincinnati. I have emailed my advisor and she has yet to get in touch with me nor call me back. Simmons College's advisor has also been very helpful and is great with the follow up phone calls. This makes me think that these are my two programs that I will apply. My only concern is, that when I research Maryville's program on here to read reviews I have seen a lot of mixed reviews. Most of these reviews were from a year or so back when the program was still so new to online. What I would like to know is how are current Maryville students liking the program? Is it user friendly? Work load manageable with working and family life? Do you feel like the program is giving you a great education and preparing you to become a well versed and knowledgable FNP that will pass boards?

I have just completed my 3rd semester and can now say the first year is done (18 hrs) at Maryville. I am in the FNP program and have been fairly happy with things so far. There is a lot of independent learning, but that is grad school in general. There is a platform for the classes, which includes videos, printed info, etc. plus your books and specific assignments. Grad school requires you dig and learn a lot yourself and Maryville has the program tailored expecting this. There are not truly lectures in class, but there are meeting times for each instructor to meet with the class. How this meeting is handled depends on the instructor - some give a lecture or review and others are just there to answer any questions that come up. I had an awesome instructor for patho, which was also the class I probably put the most effort into. All of the other firzt year classes are required basic grad school classes that I don't have a lot of interest in so not as engaging to me with theory, leadership, etc, etc. I have had one instructor who just didn't care and was always behind to return calls, emails or give grades and another instructor who was over zealous and made things much more difficult than was necessary. Otherwise all the instructors have been okay. The program was extended since I started due to changing the length of the courses for a couple classes including pharm and patho. All of the classes before clinicals start were 8 weeks and most still are, but patho and pharm are now 16 weeks. This was an improvement in my opinion.

One of the great benefits and also somewhat of a negative is the group work required in the program. At first I didn't realize this and hated the idea with an online program. Now I am used to and actually thankful for the group as I have become friends with some other students due to the amount of time we have had to spend discusing group projects. The group work forces you to know others in your online program and they will become part of your own support system.

Overall, the program is completely doable working full time if you can schedule some time in for school regularly. I am looking at school stuff pretty much daily and a few days a week for multiple hours each day. I do think it will be a program that fully prepares one for FNP licensure if the student puts their own full efforts and independent studies into it. Hope this review helps you in your decision making.

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Do you know anyone who has graduated and passed the licensing exam? How hard was it to set up your clinicals? What is the eval process re: clinicals? Did you have to pay your clinical instructors?

Thanks,

Jennifer

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Specializes in ICU, Allergy/Asthma, and Primary Care.

Thank you for your informative response! How many hours a week would you say you put in to the program? One thing that makes me nervous is that you do not get any breaks in between classes until December. My advisor said that you get the sylabus at the beginning of class and are able to work ahead if you have a vacation coming up. Do you find this to be true? Also how hard was it finding preceptors? And like the last post, did you have to pay for them? It is nice knowing that you feel like you are getting a good education. I asked my advisor about the $44,000 versus $34,000 and she said the FNP program is $34,000. So my question is where did $44,000 come from? Is it because they extended the program? And is the program still 2 years and 6 months? I would be starting on a B term and so I would be graduating the same time the A semester started, per my advisor. I just can't imagine going to school for much longer. And if the program truly is $44,000 that is a bit of a price difference. When you mentioned group work, over all do you find that your entire cohort is having a good experience like you are with group work. It makes me slightly nervous knowing that I will have to rely on other people and their schedules to do school work, but on the other hand I think it is great that you are forming close relationships with your other student colleagues.

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I currently attend Maryville and I do love it but be prepared to teach yourself! My main instructor is YouTube. Not much teaching. Some will teach some dont. There are adobe connects but some of the time no teaching is conducted. We depend on the students in other classes to upload their Adobe conbects to Facebook so we can learn.without each other we would be lost.group work is a pain.if ur blessed with good group members for the course u should be fine but it never stays the same. I just complete pharmacology and advanced health assessment and no teaching was done at all.network and you should be fine

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Hi Smartypants31us

Can you give me some insight into what to expect with pharmacology and patho. I start these next semester at Maryville. Is there still group work, any case studies, what are tests like.

thanks

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Group work for each class. Some weeks more may be in one class than the other.the group work assignment is case study format. Study guide is given for pharmacology but none for health assessment. If your lucky to have a teacher that actually completes the Adobe connect and teaches you will be fine.just dont get behind in your readings for both courses.

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In response to the questions after I posted the lengthy information above, I will try my best to answer what I can. No, I do not personally know anyone that has graduated and passed boards. I have heard about many, but have not personally spoke to any of them. It is grad school so lots of self direction, learning and teaching here. You typically get the syllabus one week before the course begins, but this is somewhat limited information and the full details on the assignments is not available until the course opens on the first day. You can work ahead, but usually cannot turn in the assignments ahead of time. Maryville does require that you log on to the webpage 3 or 4 times a week so if working ahead you will still have to check in. I went on an 8 day vacation and a few 3-4 day breaks in the last year and was fine. I worked ahead and then had to check in and respond to some discussion boards while traveling still. How much time I spend really depends on the class and what week - some weeks it may be 8-10 hours for the week and then there are other weeks where it may be more like 25+ hours. Group work has been okay and allowed me to connect and make friends who are struggling with the same issues, especially balancing school-work-life around our families. I will say that I have heard others really struggle with their groups so obviously it all depends on how well your group works together and as we all know one person can really make or break a group. I am thankful for the group now, but it was not one of the pros on my deciding list.

The program was extended somewhat due to a few changes from 8 to 16 week classes, which was an improvement IMO. Patho, pharmacology and health assessment are now all 16 week classes when previously they were 8 weeks. I have liked the 8 week courses when taking subjects like theory and policy, but more time was definitely appreciated in patho and my soon to be upcoming pharm course. The total program length for me was Jan 13-May 15 and was extended a semester so now Jan 13-Aug 15. Basically it is 2 years and 8 months now versus the previous 2 years and 5 months.

Finding preceptors is the most difficult part of the whole process, but I know people in different NP programs and this is common every where. Very, very few schools provide the preceptors for you and it is your responsibility to find them and get it all lined up. If not, you cannot go forward. I begin clinicals in May so I am in the midst of this process right now. I have some set up for my last year, but still trying to figure out summer and fall of 2014. Yes, it frightens me and is very time consuming trying to find places. Hopefully, I can find what I need and it all works out. I have never heard of anyone paying their preceptors so this should not be an issue anywhere. There is some flexibility of the type of settings allowed for preceptors and you can work with an MD or NP.

I have not taken pharm yet, but completed patho last summer. It has been my favorite class up to this point. It was not easy, but very interesting and I had an excellent instructor who shared many case studies and specific examples relating the information to real scenarios making it much easier to learn and remember. It was hard work and there is still group work basically to do some case studies together.

I hope this helps answer some of your questions.

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Specializes in Family.

Hello, I am an FNP student at Maryville University in the cohort graduating December 2014. I will agree with the other posts in stating that you have to have discipline and be self-motivated to learn. It is difficult to find preceptors. I actually changed jobs in order to be within the network of a major county hospital to secure preceptors for school. I have been able to work full-time 40 hour work week even throughout the clinical hours and theory work. It has been tough doing the clinical hours, but it is manageable. You have to really organize your time. I believe that I am learning sufficiently to practice after graduation. Sadly, I believe a lot of the learning experience depends on your clinical site and preceptors you choose for practicum. However, with all that being said, If I am able to do this then you can as well. Good luck

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BEWARE!!! Do not believe the online reviews...they are fake and made by private companies. Is Maryville in the top 20 fnp colleges for real. Answer is NO. Expect tuition hikes like crazy. Went up $14,000 in just a years time and don't for get the $325-350 technology fee every quarter. But my biggest problem is the pass rate stats online. They are fake. They are not 95-98%. The program is very workable until they last few quarters and they slam very hard tests, no study guides, and inaccurate tests. There are many questions we contested with Quotes from the book and did not give us credit. The book they used was a new book and was horrible. Any, in my midterm half the class failed and NO curve. My program got extended to 2.75 years and there was talk to extend it again. If you want consistent pricing and program length, my co-workers go with Walden. Very workable with students. They also are flexible when it comes to practicum and Maryville is not. For instance, Maryville will not let you work with PA's. Most MD's have PA's working for them and you do not work with the doctors but you work with their team. It is puzzling because we have other online students from Georgetown, University of Indiana, Walden, Chamberlain which allow PA's for preceptors. Not Maryville. Walden is very flexible for practicum and can even consolidate classes. All in all, if I could do it again, I would do Walden. I am 61,000 in the hole with maryville and not even graduated yet.

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Nismo,

Correction, I am a Chamberlain student and they do not allow PA as a preceptors, only NP or MD/DO.

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So... I have been reading the reviews and most people seems pretty unhappy... But most of these comments are also a little older... I spoke with someone yesterday about the BSN to DNP program they said it was 3 years and 3 months long and would cost about 59k. Does anyone know about this program? Is it worth it? The negative reviews on this school is making me weary but I have few options as my husband is active duty military so I have to go to an online program...

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Specializes in Home Health, Podiatry, Neurology, Case Mgmt.

Are you dead set on a DNP program? If not Simmons is a great school online for military family members (I am an Army Veterans wife myself), I have several friends who are military spouses in the program, one being my best friend who started the cohort behind me =) There is a facebook page you can ask questions to as well.

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