Upset and Confused At GCU

U.S.A. Arizona

Published

Hello Fellow Pre-Nursing/Nursing students!

I am a pre-nursing student at Grand Canyon University. I came in as a transfer student and am almost done with my pre-reqs hoping to apply to the summer fast track program or fall program. This is my second semester at GCU and let me just say that I am not pleased with the school thus far even at a pre-nursing level!

I am not too thrilled about the 8 week courses. I feel like I am being rushed and not retaining a lot of information. Many of the instructors are students at the University themselves and have huge egos. If I am paying $18,000 a year I would like some qualified professors! I can't stand the financial aid department and how long it takes for them to work on things and the academic advisors have completely messed up my class schedules multiple times.

Basically, I just feel like I'm wasting my money and time working with this school/diploma mill. However, I know that many other Arizona programs are extremely hard to get into. How is ASU's program? How long is the "wait list"? What about the U of A? I'm looking for other options at state schools but am looking to see how others feel about where they are.

PLEASE HELP! =]

I hear ya!! I'm at the end of my 2nd class in the RN-BSN program. Fin Aide is TERRIBLE!! The only saving grace is my enrollment counslor whom I got to for everything! But ASU is riddled with fees, and don't do a wait list. You have to have high high grades, and do super well on the entrance exam, everyone is ranked by a score. It's really competative. I don't know about the quality of the program, but have heard poor things about the quality of ASU's and others BSN new grad nurses. I've heard that they focus more on paper writing for the BSN part than patient care. I graduated from MCC, and really like the community college route (most are pretty good and cheap!). However, the waitlist is about 2 years. The bright side is, maybe in 2 years, there will be RN jobs again!!!! Good luck!

I'm sorry you've had such a terrible experience, valadeybug. As a student currently enrolled in the 2nd semester of GCU's fast track program, I certainly understand where you are coming from, but hope you can stick with it.

I think the biggest issue here is doing the prereq's at Grand Canyon, which I don't think anyone would recommend. Since nearly all of those courses can be transferred in from community colleges, there is very little return on investment getting them from a 4-year school. Of course, there's the 'University Success' and other pointless courses only GCU offers. And yes, the financial department sucks! My money always shows up, but it takes 2-3 times longer than it should and I have to regularly call my counselor to ensure my paperwork is being pushed through.

However, I will say that I am enjoying GCU's St Jo's program and feel it has been a great decision. Clinicals are great and I feel like I'm learning a lot through both instruction and experience. The classroom instructors are definitely not students, though the teaching quality can be hit and miss. The 8-week courses are great for narrowing your focus to one or two subjects at a time. While I can't speak for the rest of Grand Canyon, I do take issue with accusing the nursing school of being a 'diploma mill.' As I'm sure you know, BSN programs nationwide are academically challenging and this one doesn't seem much different. You really have to hit the books hard and we have already had 4 students fail or opt out. My clinical nurse I was paired up with this last session graduated from GCU nearly 2 years ago and agrees with me that, while it may be easier to get into this school than most, the students who do graduate tend to be good nurses. St Jo's must agree, since they hire so many Grand Canyon grads.

As you can see, while some BS may carry over into the nursing program, I think you've already made it through the most unsatisfying part. I'm not sure what other help I can offer, but feel free to ask any other questions.

Thank you so much for your feedback. I feel a lot better about the program now thanks to your information. I just wanted to see how others felt about the school and the program itself. I'm going to stick with it and just do the very best I can.

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