I am a current student at Trinitas Nursing School in Elizabeth NJ. I am currently in my third semester and have a 3.7 GPA. I have also worked as a tutor in Nursing. Please feel free to ask me anything about the school - from application to the day to day- and I promise to be brutally honest.
As a tutor, I have had the chance to get to know a lot of students who are entering 130, or have aspirations of entering the program, and have gotten to bit more about what it takes to make it through (along with the challenges students face).
The initial 130 class is about 200 students when I took it. By 132, it was down to 80. Truth be told, they admit far more students than are able to make it through to the end. The information used to be available in the student handbook, but they recently removed it, the passage rate is about 50-70% for each clinical course.
It is mandatory that you attend lecture. However, for 130 and 131, lecture is not useful. Read the textbook, follow the slides, and do test bank questions. That alone will get you a B.
Trinitas is somewhat unorganized when it comes to registration. Trust and believe, if you don't have your stuff together, they have enough willing students to take your place. For their re-entry students (people who took the class and have to repeat or are out of sequence), they actually failed to notify half of the students that they were accepted.
Dean Santee is not a kind person. If you can, minimize your interactions with her. It's not even tough love with her, she just doesn't care. I've watched her laugh in the face of re-entry students who didn't have their documents because they weren't told they could register until the night before.
The long and short of it is that you have to advocate for yourself as a student. It doesn't mean brown nosing, but always speak up if you have a question or concern. I find that the staff and administrators are more willing to help, but only if you show that you are serious.
The professors are very knowledgeable and helpful. Most of my professors were really kind and dedicated to making you the best nurse possible. The resources are available to make the education experience worthwhile, but you have to make it happen.
