Why would nurses voluntarily sign up at for profit schools?

[RNdynamic]

Some backdrop: I went to a traditional 4 year school for my first degree then went to a community college for my associate degree in nursing. While I worked as a nurse, I received my BSN online from Penn State University, which is a flagship state school in PA which a very good academic reputation. It is currently the highest ranked school in the country that offers a totally online RN to BSN option.

My question is, in contrast to attending a highly reputable, cheaper state school, why do many associate degree nurses opt to complete their BSN online at for profit universities like Kaplan, Phoenix, Chamberlain, and Grand Canyon? The for-profits are way more expensive and encourage you to take out loans. Those schools cost more, are less reputable, and aren't any more convenient than the online public state school options. They are also notorious for piranha-like, harassing recruiting tactics and baracuda-style collection practices. So for what purpose..? To what end..?

I recognize that a large portion of the nursing world does not care where you got your nursing degree. But, a significant portion does. One of the most frequent questions I get asked by my colleagues in a new unit is "where did you go to school?" I would be horrified and embarrassed if I had to reply with "University of Phoenix," "Kaplan," or "The Grand Canyon." So what piece of information am I missing here? Why are those schools so attractive?

[AmyRN303, BSN, RN]

Just for informational purposes, I graduated from a local college with my ADN. My school offers a bridge program for LPNs (on campus/clinicals) and an RN-BSN program, which may be taken as a hybrid or completely online. Both are flexible in terms of completion time: one may take as many or as few classes as one wants and be finished between 1-2 years. I'd like to do it in a year's time, but I've just been hired into a new grad residency program on a step-down unit and would rather take it as it comes. Point I'm trying to make: even some B&M schools are flexible in their timeline to BSN.

[SunshineDaisy, ASN, RN]

I'll tell you, even though I don't have labs or clinicals, I am working just as hard for my grades at GCU as I did for my ADN at the local CC! I will just ditto the other GCU alumni here...

[openyourmind]

My curiosity is which would a nurse recruiter hire: someone who got their ADN degree at a competitive, affordable school, or someone who went to a noncompetitive for-profit school and recieved a BSN?

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

Sorry, I thought because of the name it was geographically related to the actual Grand Canyon and/or was situated within the Canyon for recruitment purposes.

Uh...No.

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

My curiosity is which would a nurse recruiter hire: someone who got their ADN degree at a competitive, affordable school, or someone who went to a noncompetitive for-profit school and recieved a BSN?

I'm not sure where you are going with this. What is your definition of non-competitive? GCU holds the same certs that any other 4 yr program holds. Secondly, read further back and see that GCU put me on probation for a third of the program before I was considered a student. No other university had that stipulation, even other state universities that I checked into.

So what would a nurse recruiter do? Probably hire the BSN, is my guess.

Lastly, I see you are a nursing student who stated they will most likely go the online route, and you seem to be very biased in your statement of for profit being non competitive.

All I can say is, you guys, really need to do your homework, just like we did. Many of us asked peers, with PhD's, and MSN's who are heads of departments on our choices. All of us, who asked, were given thumbs up. Again, I can't speak for ALL online schools, profit or non profit, but I can speak for the quality of GCU.

[openyourmind]

I'm not sure where you are going with this. What is your definition of non-competitive? GCU holds the same certs that any other 4 yr program holds. Secondly, read further back and see that GCU put me on probation for a third of the program before I was considered a student. No other university had that stipulation, even other state universities that I checked into.

So what would a nurse recruiter do? Probably hire the BSN, is my guess.

Lastly, I see you are a nursing student who stated they will most likely go the online route, and you seem to be very biased in your statement of for profit being non competitive.

All I can say is, you guys, really need to do your homework, just like we did. Many of us asked peers, with PhD's, and MSN's who are heads of departments on our choices. All of us, who asked, were given thumbs up. Again, I can't speak for ALL online schools, profit or non profit, but I can speak for the quality of GCU.

Anyone who is paying 80 grand for a nursing degree is almost always guaranteed admission vs trying to get in a state college. A lot of people who are turned down by the more competitive programs usually turn to for-profit schools. That's just what I've noticed.

To clarify, I said I would go the online route after working as an RN in order to obtain the BSN.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

My curiosity is which would a nurse recruiter hire: someone who got their ADN degree at a competitive, affordable school, or someone who went to a noncompetitive for-profit school and recieved a BSN?

In the area where I live, as far as new grads are concerned, recruiters for most of the major hospital systems are hiring candidates with BSN degrees only.

There's a glut of new nurses in this area, so the BSN degree has evolved into the new weed-out tool to eliminate the number of applications through which HR staff much sort.

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

Anyone who is paying 80 grand for a nursing degree is almost always guaranteed admission vs trying to get in a state college. A lot of people who are turned down by the more competitive programs usually turn to for-profit schools. That's just what I've noticed.

To clarify, I said I would go the online route after working as an RN in order to obtain the BSN.

80 THOUSAND?? Seriously?? Who in the He** pays that????

Seriously girlfriend, do your homework!!

Even without tuition reimbursement from my employer, I paid less than 20K.

Some people turn to online for convenience. I highly doubt the vast majority turn to a for profit because they can't get into a state college, unless maybe they are waitlisted. Again, I cannot speak to that. My GPA was high enough for a state college, but borderline for GCU.

As someone who will be attending online program one day, after you pass your ADN and NCLEX, you will be subjected to the same narrow minded, bias, the rest of us online nurses face. You may want to do something about that now, IMO.

[openyourmind]

80 THOUSAND?? Seriously?? Who in the He** pays that????

Seriously girlfriend, do your homework!!

Even without tuition reimbursement from my employer, I paid less than 20K.

Some people turn to online for convenience. I highly doubt the vast majority turn to a for profit because they can't get into a state college, unless maybe they are waitlisted. Again, I cannot speak to that. My GPA was high enough for a state college, but borderline for GCU.

As someone who will be attending online program one day, after you pass your ADN and NCLEX, you will be subjected to the same narrow minded, bias, the rest of us online nurses face. You may want to do something about that now, IMO.

I don't think I need to do anything about that. I wasn't aware that I started letting the opinions of others make decisions for me...? Just being honest.

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

Well you do need to do your research if you are spouting off, what you assume, are facts. Show us where you see that GCU is 80k for an RN-BSN or any other online school.

As for your decisions, I have no idea what you are talking about. All I said, was you are being very judgmental concerning online schools, when you said yourself, in another thread, you have considered it. You will face the same narrow-mindedness that we are seeing now. So if you don't want to change that mindset yourself, be prepared to defend it, just like you will have to defend your ADN degree.

Edited to add, that in GCU, one must always defend their facts with research based facts. If you say that the school is 80K, then be prepared to defend your argument.

[A. Boogie, BSN, RN]

Thanks PrismRN.. I just made this exact same argument to another narrow-minded individual who did not do their research. Just spouted off their unfounded opinion.

[PrismRN]

Thanks PrismRN.. I just made this exact same argument to another narrow-minded individual who did not do their research. Just spouted off their unfounded opinion.

Thanks for the nod houstonrnhopeful, and believe me, you will never again read a post of mine where I waste my energy on this subject. As tokmom said back on page 1, been there, done that, don’t really need another topic thread fueling animosity amongst ourselves on a subject that apparently some people just can’t get past. The need to feel superior to others and put them down is just in some people’s DNA. I was just over at another thread that is remarkably similar to this, and the infighting is simply ridiculous. Frankly, I’m disgusted. I’m not going to go all “why can’t we all just get along” on everyone, but truly, this is embarrassing behavior for professionals such as ourselves. Engaging in healthy and lively debate is one thing, but rude, holier-than-thou remarks and needless nitpicking at the actual building (or absence of a building, as it were) or profit vs. non-profit institution from which one chooses to obtain their advanced education is making me cringe (trust me, the other thread is ugly). Every time this subject is brought up, we digress. All that really needs to be offered here is supportive advice to fellow nurses who are genuinely looking for the experiences of others, and the stern reminder to thoroughly investigate all potentials for proper accreditations, transferability, etc. That’s it. Yet, we can’t seem to help ourselves. There will always be those that feel the need to stir the pot (and then stealthily disappear, as this OP apparently has). The words “diploma mill” and “real school” will continue to rear their ugly heads on AN long after I’m dead and gone, so I choose to no longer allow it to make me want to stick a fork in someone’s eye. If my peers on AN think I’m an idiot because I chose an ADN-BSN program that people actually think is down inside the Grand Canyon, I’d say the learning curve is not necessarily on my end.