DL Nursing School info

There are a few DL Nursing Schools accredited by the NLN that offer the LPN and RN through a series of challenge exams, distant learning, some attendance, etc. I guess it would be safe to say that Excelsior College Has the largest DL program.

After doing some research, I found many "3rd party" organizations that claim to offer tutorial help in passing these challenge exams. An interesting fact to note is that these companies charge very high rates for their services. One student reported $18,000 in loans for her "tutorial" program. Thank heavens she passed her RN and can start paying them back!

After speaking with 3 of these 3rd party "tutorial organizations" which have been in business for 2+ years, I asked these 3 questions which I believe any consumer should:

1. How long have you been in business?
2. How many students are enrolled
3. How many students have graduated and received their RN license?

Surprisingly, the answers were
1. 2+ years
2. 200+ students
3. "do not have that information" However 1 of the schools reported 2 graduates that received the RN.

I feel it is important to ascertain what kind of graduation rates schools have when searching for a nursing program. Quite frankly, although a small sample, these stats reflect a very low success rate when using "3rd party tutorial companies" that help pass the ECE exams. I was able to determine that in my state, Excelsior College had approximately 25 graduates for the RN in 2003. This is the same state that had over 600 combined enrollments in 3rd party tutorial businesses. Of course out of the 25 graduates, I am guessing a percentage of them did the program on their own without help from a 3rd party tutorial company.

I can conclude 3 things:
1. Either the DL nursing program is extremely difficult or,
2. These 3rd party tutorial companies charge lots of money and don't adequately prepare you for DL studies in Nursing. or
3. Both of the above mentioned.

It would be interesting to find out how many students enroll at Excelsior College nursing program or others of the like, and what the graduation rates are. My guess is that it is very low!!!
Any feedback?

Delta
Consumer advocate and RN

 

From http://www.excelsior.edu/enrolled/nur_indx.htm :

I'm sure if you contacted Excelsior directly (rather than one of the sleazy publishing companies that charge ridiculous rates for material that is freely available from EC) they would be happy to give you some actual numbers.

DJ

 

If they currently have 11,000 students enrolled this year and they only have 26,000 graduates in the past 32 years, that tells me that there is a high rate of those that enroll who don't complete!

In any case, you are right in contacting a school about actual completion rates.

 

I can't really address Excelsior as I didn't get my nursing degree from them. I can address though why their actual graduate numbers seem low. In my area (about a 30 mile radius) there are 5 nursing programs in one community college and 4 universities and colleges at both the associate and bachelor level. The failure/attrition rate is near 50% per entering class on average. This is due to many reasons. Most of the people won't even get through the door as schools require a "weed out" class in Anatomy and Physiology that will fail the majority before they even get to apply to the nursing programs. Mostly though I don't believe the average student understands how truly tough nursing programs are, they watch TV shows like ER, they hear 50,000/year (they don't realize this is after working nights for 6-8 years) and they think they can do it. In my school, anything under a 78 was failing and there was no rounding up, if you had a 77.8% grade you were done. Rigor is a word used a lot on this board, I went through a very rigorous hellish 2 1/2 years.

I can't imagine trying to get the license by DL. From my understanding these DL learners are trying to tackle the anatomy and physiology, psychology, micro, chemistry, etc. concurrent with the nursing classes, all via DL. It's a recipe for disaster. If you want to see panic, look over the yahoo groups that are Excelsior nursing student based. My heart goes out to them.

There is a whole market catering to these students to help them pass the classes. They are expensive, ridulously so. One could easily sink several thousand into them trying to get through. I would have to believe that because Excelsior is preparing students for the same NCLEX exam that is given all over the country, their program is also "rigorus", it would have to be and doing it DL would be very very tough.

 

I can't really address Excelsior as I didn't get my nursing degree from them. I can address though why their actual graduate numbers seem low. In my area (about a 30 mile radius) there are 5 nursing programs in one community college and 4 universities and colleges at both the associate and bachelor level. The failure/attrition rate is near 50% per entering class on average. This is due to many reasons. Most of the people won't even get through the door as schools require a "weed out" class in Anatomy and Physiology that will fail the majority before they even get to apply to the nursing programs. Mostly though I don't believe the average student understands how truly tough nursing programs are, they watch TV shows like ER, they hear 50,000/year (they don't realize this is after working nights for 6-8 years) and they think they can do it. In my school, anything under a 78 was failing and there was no rounding up, if you had a 77.8% grade you were done. Rigor is a word used a lot on this board, I went through a very rigorous hellish 2 1/2 years.

I can't imagine trying to get the license by DL. From my understanding these DL learners are trying to tackle the anatomy and physiology, psychology, micro, chemistry, etc. concurrent with the nursing classes, all via DL. It's a recipe for disaster. If you want to see panic, look over the yahoo groups that are Excelsior nursing student based. My heart goes out to them.

There is a whole market catering to these students to help them pass the classes. They are expensive, ridulously so. One could easily sink several thousand into them trying to get through. I would have to believe that because Excelsior is preparing students for the same NCLEX exam that is given all over the country, their program is also "rigorus", it would have to be and doing it DL would be very very tough.

 

Nursing grad rate

You said it seekinghelp....
In my RN (diploma nursing) class we started with 192 students and finished with 26. It's essentially boot camp. My heart goes out to these students.

BTW I think I recall a DL nursing program in Bear's Guide at Regent's College in New York???? However, this was an earlier guide so I am not sure if the program still exists.


Take care,
Carol Anne

 

CONSUMER ALERT TEST PREP SCAMS

http://www.dantes.doded.mil/dantes_web/examinations/index-text.htm?Flag=True

 

Having graduated the Regents/Excelsior DL nursing program perhaps I can give some input.

The program is intended for those with YEARS of related medical experience. The clinical is extremely demanding and stressful and just like in house nursing programs it is my understanding many students wash out of the clinical.

You still need the exact same amount of college credits as if you attended the program on campus and must get the credits the same way such as attending on campus courses, getting credit for prior evaluated military courses or testing out of the subject.

Please do yourself a favor and don't go to a third party before you go to the excelsior website at www.excelsior.edu
You will save THOUSANDS by going to them directly. Keep in mind this program is not for everyone.