Touro - BEWARE

[jeanbeth, MSN, DNP, RN]

So I have been waiting patiently for an admission decision from the DNP program at Touro University Nevada. An decision was due "two weeks after the application deadline" which was May 1st. So after the 15th had come and gone I called my admission counselor on 5/19 asking if there was a problem and was told there was a delay and admission decisions would be made soon. Today I received an email:

At this time, the Doctor of Nursing Practice program will have limited admissions restricted to students from the following states: Arizona, California, Illinois, Nevada and Texas. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and your application fee will be refunded to you. Please email me the confirmation number for your payment transaction and we will process the refund to your credit card.

This arbitrary limitation to their ON-LINE program to residents of 5 states was not included anywhere on their website. One reason I applied to Touro is because I pass by their sister campus in NYC frequently. This waste of my time makes me furious!

[sailornurse]

Is it possibly due to the individual state board of nursing not excepting online programs?

[AspiringNurseMW]

Well they owned up to it and are refunding your fees and it sounds like a new development.

It sucks they didn't inform you until now, but at least they didn't take your money and string you along

[benegesserit]

I doubt it is an arbitrary restriction. State-based limitations are common with online programs, and often have to do with having agreements with the board of nursing for each state.

I wonder if there was a recent change? It doesn't benefit the school to limit enrollment, or to have people get that far into the application process before making it known.

[jeanbeth, MSN, DNP, RN]

Sailornurse - You're right, that is the case for some states and some programs I considered. Most programs alert you to which states do not accept their programs or at least recommend that you check with your state, which I did. That's how I knew about my state and that I was okay. My own state does not regulate or accept/reject DNP programs. It just bothers me that Touro didn't know two months ago when they accepted my application that they would begin restricting applicants to certain states. Only now does the Touro site let applicants know about their restrictions to applications from certain states. Arghhh!

[NICUmiiki, DNP, NP]

My board of nursing is very specific as to which out of state schools you can go to. They publish a list (and which programs within the school) are eligible. I'd never apply to a school and program that wasn't on that list. That's your responsibility to find out. If you can't find a list online, you can call your BON and ask them. The school could have enrolled you, took tuition, and then you get in trouble for having clinicals in your state illegally.

[jeanbeth, MSN, DNP, RN]

Miki, yes, it would be easy if there was such a list as you have in your state, but as I mentioned in my post my state does not publish a list. Of course it's my responsibility, thank you. I did contact my BON - they specifically state they do not accept OR reject DNP programs and recommend that applicants check for accreditation, which I did, so I knew I could work with this program. The school still lists 38 states (including my state) and DC that they accept applicants from and so other students will be wasting their time when they find out that really only applicants from 5 states will be admitted.