Utica College Online ABSN

Christine · Jul 14, 2021

Approval from the state took like 3/4 weeks and I got my ATT right after I got the approval from the state

MMftRN · Jul 15, 2021

I have a different perspective of this program, as well as pretty much every single student in my cohort (the few of us that are left, anyways). First thing I want to say in response to the comments above: no, negative reviews are not "just from students who didn't put enough effort". This statement alone makes me think this comment was either sponsored or written by faculty ?

Back to the program. I would not recommend it even to my enemies. I was a A- to A+ student all my life, working full time and achieving all of my degrees without any difficulties. I know very well how to "put effort in", as well as how to balance my time and study well. This program is not about all those skills. It is simply a conveyor belt, designed to make money on students. If you don't read past this - THINK VERY CAREFULLY before you choose this program and believe every single bad review out there. I wish I believed them back then.

Now, to the facts and details. First of all, there are no "virtual lectures". It is a 100% self-taught program, with some labs. Instructors encourage us to watch Youtube nursing videos, and will even test you on those. Some instructors will record short review videos or overviews of the material, but they don't go in-depth on anything. Often those videos are years old, or simply read from the powerpoints provided with our textbook. The "great tutoring done by alumni" described above is definitely not great. Most of my classmates stopped attending tutoring since tutors almost never can provide any explanations. Most of the time they just read questions aloud, waiting for attendees to type in their answer choice and then show you the correct answer. Most tutors come to sessions unprepared and are not usually aware of the material in the textbook that students are going through right now (I personally attended numerous sessions with many different tutors, and have met only 2-3 tutors who were beneficial in some way).

Labs: most labs are virtual, with few immersion days in between. Most of the virtual labs are a waste of time (hours spent on working on virtual simulations in silence, or answering questions on a long case study with a small group of other students, playing a primitive medical-themed Jeopardy, etc). There are rarely any skill demonstrations by the instructor. Immersion lab days are where you get to practice skills in the lab on the mannequins and to have some of your skills checked by the instructor. There are few immersion days per semester, plus you are able to schedule some extra hours in the lab if needed. Definitely not as many hands-on lab hours as I was promised to have, but it's all blamed on COVID these days (yet, when we are in the lab we are on top of each other for 8 hours, and that's OK). BTW, if your admission counsellor promises you all these high-tech mannequins you'll practice on - do not believe them. I am yet to see one.

Didactic part. Let me tell you: cramming THIS MUCH material over so little time without any lectures is a very bad idea. You are expected to read all of the chapters (sometimes 4-6 per week for a single class, and there are 5 classes most semesters), plus extra materials like Youtube videos, peer-reviewed articles, etc. It is not an easy read, especially pathophysiology, pharmacology, med-surg nursing or OB. It is physically impossible to quality-study. Expect to skim through chapters, choosing what you will pay attention to and what you will have to ignore. Expect to research many areas on your own, trying to understand difficult concepts from videos online. On top of this, there will be papers to write, presentations to put together, numerous discussion posts that require a certain amount of journal articles to be used with proper citations, and other weird projects like pamphlets or animation to make. The amount of material is simply too much to process in a quality manner. Judge your abilities adequately before entering this program: if you are not a super-fast reader, or are a very detailed-oriented person eager to learn things on a deep level - you will be disappointed. While they always tell you you'll learn everything on the job, it is scary to go work on live patients after you skimmed through the chapters.

Tests. This is a painful topic. Tests are taken at home, using software that records you all throughout the test. You cannot have a sip of water or go to the bathroom for an hour. You can't close your eyes for a second or look away accidentally. You will get an alert from your instructors and will have to explain yourself, otherwise, you are reported and eventually can be kicked out from the program. Some tests are more or less straightforward, they come from the textbook. In these tests, you will be asked some nitty-gritty detail that you might not even notice while reading the chapter. Questions like these are normal difficulty, NCLEX level questions that are expected. But in some classes, instructors write questions themselves, and that's where the issues begin. Many of those questions don't have a reference point in the book or are based on the instructor's personal beliefs or past experiences. Sometimes, the textbook states the opposite but the instructor will tell you that still, the answer marked by her as correct is correct. Sometimes, there is more than one right answer according to your text, and you see it right in front of your eyes when you read the textbook. When you try to fight it, providing the textbook references, they shrug their shoulders and say they can't discuss the questions with you. The biggest issue is that you will never see what you answered wrong after the test. This program's policy is never to let you see the test questions other than during the monitored test. So if you are meeting with the instructor after the test, the instructor will not even tell you which questions were answered wrong. Not even when you are shocked as to why you got a 60 if you answered hundreds of practice questions and nailed them, as well as studied the material in the textbook extensively. They will review the general concepts and suggest what you should study more. Just imagine the frustration of the students who know that there were faulty questions on the test and now are failing the class, but they can't prove anything.

Clinicals. My clinical actually have been my favorite part of this program, except the virtual ones (those Zoom meetings have nothing in common with the clinical experience and are simply designed for you to acquire the needed amount of clinical hours to *** the course). Clinical instructors are not the same as the on-site instructors, and the ones I've had were helpful and taught us a lot. After each clinical you will be expected to write nursing care plans and fill out a fake EHR with patient's assessment, medications, etc. Al instructors are different and their expectations vary a lot - some require just the minimum documentation, and some make you work on the charting for hours and hours.

Failing. So... the NCLEX pass rates that you are seeing are great, no doubt. What you are not seeing, since UC will not post these stats publicly, is the class pass rate and retention rate. My cohort started with close to 90 people. After the second semester, there were fewer than 30 of us left. Just let that sink in for a moment. All of these students have bachelor degrees already. They are not kids straight out of high school, who couldn't care less about their education. All of us took out decent-sized loans to pay for school. I can guarantee that I haven't seen a single student who was unmotivated or lazy. Yet, there is less than a third of us left. Many failed a class and now are retaking it, which will make them pay for the class again and graduate late. Some dropped out. My guestimate is that fewer than 20 of us will actually graduate. Out of these 20 or fewer students, most will likely pass the NCLEX, so the high pass rate will be maintained. Another point - if you are planning to continue your education past Baccalaureate, think about your GPA. It will be close to impossible to maintain it high. We heard "C's get degrees" from many of our professors, but C's CAN hurt you in future. Many of us are A students, now getting Cs in classes and dancing in joy because we passed.

Failing brings us to faculty support. Most schools do something when more than 50% of the class fail the exam. Especially when more than 50% get below 60. Especially if it happens on the next exam, as well. Not this program though. There is no curve, no remediation, no acknowledgement or investigation by the instructors as to why all these students are suddenly failing. You can complain to your instructor, the program director and anyone in between, but nothing is done.

Organization. This makes me laugh because literally every single UC ABSN grad I've talked to rolls their eyes and lets out "They are sooo unorganized" as soon as you ask them about the program. This is 100% true. They will forget to send you directions all the time. They will fail to make your online textbooks work until you are in the middle of the first week and there is a ton of assignments due in 3 days. They will tell you the night before that you have a virtual meeting scheduled at 7:00 am the next day. They will forget to notify the floor at the hospital that you'll be there for the clinical (surprise!). They will forget to give your clinical instructors directions and proper training. Your lab immersions might be total chaos, trying to figure out what exactly you are expected to do. Many instructors are not capable of writing professional emails, often forgetting to even sign them. Often, your emails are ignored for days or even weeks. The program lacks leadership, structure and proper management. Maybe it is because it is run by nurses who are not strong educators. Maybe it is because there are no set rules in place. But this part is especially sad to observe since they expect you to be all professional and put together but act irresponsible and unprofessional themselves.

Mental health. I've gone through many traumatic, stressful things in my life, but this program probably tops the list. Not just because it is difficult, that is expected in most nursing schools. Mainly because it is unreasonable and unnecessarily difficult. It is one thing to deal with the difficult material, but a different thing to deal with unprofessionalism and lack of support on top of that. It is like a boot camp, where you are on your own and expected to survive. It is not designed to make you flourish. You will be deeply disappointed in your instructors and might start hating some subjects simply because they are taught so poorly. You will be anxious and drained empty most of the time. Many of your instructors will tell you over and over that their nursing school experiences were horrible too, which will make you think of why are they making it so miserable for you if they know the pain. There is no make-ups or late submissions, no matter what. If God forbid your family member passes away be prepared to show proof of that to submit to your instructor if you missed a deadline. You can't get sick. They work you right away that making up clinicals is extremely difficult to set up and you might fail the whole course if you miss one clinical, no matter the reason. This program is not a pleasure to go through by any means. You have to be physically and mentally strong, have a good support circle and means to support yourself with no or very little work, and be able/willing to basically miss 16 months of your life.

Bottom line: this program is definitely not worth the added cost. There is no added benefit or quality, other than the fact that you will (well, may not) complete it in only 16 months. Now I would gladly prefer to get an associate degree at a community college, and a bachelor's later through the workplace. In fact, I have quite a few friends who are in CC nursing programs and they are having a much better experience with more lab hours, lectures and professors actually teaching them. I would save a lot of money and nerves that way, plus I think my knowledge of the material would be much better. Also, I would have a life during school time. I don't have kids and can't imagine what people with children go through in this program.

Christine · Jul 15, 2021

I completely respect your view of the program and it definitely has its faults. I'm definitely not faculty or a sponsor haha I literally just graduated with the last cohort. We started with 22 students and graduated with 11 of us, 1 or 2 of those 11 were students who were held back with our cohort as well. So yes it's definitely not going to a breeze however, I have friends in other programs all over the country who have the same complaints about their programs as well. And as you said, I have friends who seem to be in better programs- trust me, I know utica ABSN is not the best program. However, I never said it was organized haha. I had to bust my *** to stay on top of everything and as I said in a previous post, I had to apply myself way more in this program than I ever have in either of my two previous bachelor degrees- that's nursing school for ya.

As far as the tutoring, I agree with you that not all of the tutors are good but at least they offer multiple tutors as everyone learns differently. In my opinion, Vince was the only tutor I found helpful.

There are positives and negatives to every program. It sounds like I had a better experience than you have had within the program and that really sucks.

MMftRN · Jul 15, 2021

We all have our own experiences, no problems there. But I will not agree to be labelled as someone who is not working hard enough just because my experience is not good. I've seen so many of my super smart and hard-working classmates fail some classes for reasons far different from them not working hard enough while doing great in other equally difficult classes. Test taking skills and grades don't define how smart or hardworking one is. I used to believe it does and would cry getting a B on a test ? Well, definitely gained a different perspective now, and thankful for it. Furhtermore, in some classes it is not even about student's test-taking skills - it is about the test-making skill of the instructor and their integrity to own it when they made a mistake.

Also I'm in Syracuse, our program is quite a bit bigger. At least you had about 50% of students graduate - we will likely have 25% if so, unfortunately. Glad you guys made it OK!

Christine · Jul 15, 2021

Nooo I definitely didn't mean to imply that anyone who struggled didn't try! I'm sorry if I did! I was really just relaying my own experience of really having to work crazy hard- and I definitely did struggle and had break downs weekly, sometimes daily LOL. What semester are you in??

PCelyy · Jul 15, 2021

Honestly, MMftRN summarized this program so perfectly! DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY!!

I am not sure if FL is different but in Syracuse, it's just not worth it. I came despite the reviews and I deeply regret it. The professors are not helpful, they are beyond unprofessional and you have a "success" coach that doesn't help with anything. This program has a good way of destroying your confidence and your mental health. Nursing school is not easy but this program seems to go out of their way to make it a million times harder.

Oh, one more thing about the exams - THE TYPOS!! Imagine taking a NCLEX style exam with a bunch of typos and some questions not even being completed.

Do yourself a favor, go elsewhere!!!

jazzytee · Sep 17, 2021

Anyone still questioning going to UTICA in Spring '22 SYRACUSE?

RNfairy · Oct 21, 2021

How often are courses on campus?? Would a someone out of state be able to fly in for just clinicals?

aTullz · Dec 20, 2021

Does anyone know or have experience attending this school as a veteran and how much the VA covers? This school is a little pricey for the area, thanks for any help ?

nurseLilly2021 · Jun 21, 2022

UTICA's ABSN program may seem great because it’s "fast, hybrid, and ABSN". It appears you have the mentoring, guidance, resources, and anything else you may need to succeed...this is FALSE. I initially thought great, I enjoy teaching myself and learning on my own and did very well in my previous undergraduate degrees.....even with the negative reviews I thought well " I'm an honors student with another healthcare degree, I can grind for a year”, Man do I regret it. Although I did not have to re-take courses/didn't fail classes…I only passed because I spent 12-16 hrs a day SEVEN DAYS A WEEK reading textbook chapters, watching videos from outside nursing student resources from SimpleNursing, purchasing UWorld NCLEX-prep, practicing as many questions I could find as possible, pulling multiple all-nighters...this was pure torture. NOT because nursing school is hard and I didn't put in the effort, but because this program is unrealistic. This program is not structured based upon student success, passing rates, evaluations, or frankly off any curricular structure that reflects a valid nursing program let alone any educational program.

Even with the greatest learning skills, health-science-based knowledge, and time management skills, you will STRUGGLE in this program because it is not sustainable or feasible to maintain.

I would read between 15-20 chapters a week averaging 20-30 pages a chapter on top of hours for projects, discussions, and papers. I figured like other hybrid programs, there would be recorded lectures or concise Powerpoints to offset this amount of material; I quickly learned that the voice recorded powerpoints were not lectures from true educators but staff members called "professors" reading from the textbook then literally copy and pasting into powerpoints. This was one of the hardest parts of this program in terms of organizing study material on top of the responsibility of checking MULTIPLE platforms like e-mail, canvas, PrepU, Google drive links, tutor links, etc to gather all necessary study material. This was madness and caused unnecessary miscommunication and anxiety.

The exam material will not reflect the given material no matter how hard you prepare. On multiple occasions, more than 90% of our class missed the same question because of how it was written or wrongly presented in comparison to our textbooks, yet we never received credit. You also cannot review your exams or ask questions about missed questions even though there are comprehensive finals.

Communication. Our director and professors ignored ALL OF US for weeks about questions pertaining to our senior project due dates conflicting with preceptorships dates, overlapping clinical dates, canceled office hours, changed exam times or incorrect unit material, etc. COPY-PASTE is all that these professors did. Us students ultimately took the fault and had to figure out how to pull DOUBLE SHIFTS for clinical to meet hours. I lost work-based school funding because of this poor communication. There is a new director now and I cannot speak to her but the individual who oversees this previous director was happy to explain that our complaints were not valid. NOTE: The previous director is still with Utica as a professor. This individual has countless negative evaluations, yet the school kept her on staff.

UTICA, If you listened to your evaluations from your students, you would not have graduates begging potential students to run. I know you may post a comment to this reply that I can e-mail [email protected] but what good is that if you didn’t listen to me as a student?

In conclusion, I graduated because of my previous healthcare experience and ability to make educated guesses on exams after ridiculous hours spent teaching myself from various platforms every single day...and paid an insane amount of money to do so. Go elsewhere.

Guest1177054 · Jun 22, 2022

13 hours ago, nurseLilly2021 said:

UTICA's ABSN program may seem great because it’s "fast, hybrid, and ABSN". It appears you have the mentoring, guidance, resources, and anything else you may need to succeed...this is FALSE. I initially thought great, I enjoy teaching myself and learning on my own and did very well in my previous undergraduate degrees.....even with the negative reviews I thought well " I'm an honors student with another healthcare degree, I can grind for a year”, Man do I regret it. Although I did not have to re-take courses/didn't fail classes…I only passed because I spent 12-16 hrs a day SEVEN DAYS A WEEK reading textbook chapters, watching videos from outside nursing student resources from SimpleNursing, purchasing UWorld NCLEX-prep, practicing as many questions I could find as possible, pulling multiple all-nighters...this was pure torture. NOT because nursing school is hard and I didn't put in the effort, but because this program is unrealistic. This program is not structured based upon student success, passing rates, evaluations, or frankly off any curricular structure that reflects a valid nursing program let alone any educational program.

Even with the greatest learning skills, health-science-based knowledge, and time management skills, you will STRUGGLE in this program because it is not sustainable or feasible to maintain.

I would read between 15-20 chapters a week averaging 20-30 pages a chapter on top of hours for projects, discussions, and papers. I figured like other hybrid programs, there would be recorded lectures or concise Powerpoints to offset this amount of material; I quickly learned that the voice recorded powerpoints were not lectures from true educators but staff members called "professors" reading from the textbook then literally copy and pasting into powerpoints. This was one of the hardest parts of this program in terms of organizing study material on top of the responsibility of checking MULTIPLE platforms like e-mail, canvas, PrepU, Google drive links, tutor links, etc to gather all necessary study material. This was madness and caused unnecessary miscommunication and anxiety.

The exam material will not reflect the given material no matter how hard you prepare. On multiple occasions, more than 90% of our class missed the same question because of how it was written or wrongly presented in comparison to our textbooks, yet we never received credit. You also cannot review your exams or ask questions about missed questions even though there are comprehensive finals.

Communication. Our director and professors ignored ALL OF US for weeks about questions pertaining to our senior project due dates conflicting with preceptorships dates, overlapping clinical dates, canceled office hours, changed exam times or incorrect unit material, etc. COPY-PASTE is all that these professors did. Us students ultimately took the fault and had to figure out how to pull DOUBLE SHIFTS for clinical to meet hours. I lost work-based school funding because of this poor communication. There is a new director now and I cannot speak to her but the individual who oversees this previous director was happy to explain that our complaints were not valid. NOTE: The previous director is still with Utica as a professor. This individual has countless negative evaluations, yet the school kept her on staff.

UTICA, If you listened to your evaluations from your students, you would not have graduates begging potential students to run. I know you may post a comment to this reply that I can e-mail [email protected] but what good is that if you didn’t listen to me as a student?

In conclusion, I graduated because of my previous healthcare experience and ability to make educated guesses on exams after ridiculous hours spent teaching myself from various platforms every single day...and paid an insane amount of money to do so. Go elsewhere.

I did extensive research on this school and found many reviews that mentioned all of these issues. Luckily I got accepted elsewhere. Somebody needs to tell higher ups about this useless program so it can be taken down. This program is absolutely PITIFUL.

Guest1210462 · Jul 7, 2023

KaityKait said:

So, I looked through the archives and I couldn't find any recent reviews of Utica College's Online ABSN program. The courses are online and the clinicals are held near campus. Does anyone on here have any feedback for this program? I am not looking for advice on online vs. brick and mortar--that is research I have done a ton of: on here, elsewhere, via personal experience, etc, etc... Anyone go through this program? ♥️

I actually started in this program in 2018. After one semester I transferred to Galen. Back then, there was essentially no support and online faculty were very robotic acting when I'd reach out. Their only on site faculty that helped us ended up quitting or fired. Galen had in person and online live lectures which was more beneficial. I couldn't justify spending 60-70k to teach myself and not receive answers to my questions.
That being said, my boyfriend finished Utica's program. We started in the same cohort. There were about 50 and no more than 18 graduated ON TIME. Most repeated a course, were dismissed, or transferred. Above all, people cheated their way through and when Utica changed their exams once they caught on, grades were trash because they don't deliver to their students in the first place. It's doable; it just depends what you're willing to do and deal with to finish it. Ask them their on time graduation rates.
I'm happy I left. I've been an RN for a few years and now will be entering a DNP program soon. However, choosing a DNP program was so stressful and terrifying solely because of the experience Utica had given me and I dread being in that situation again. I hope this helps.