LPN to RN

[The College Network]

SarahTN,

There are many options for obtaining your RN besides choosing The College Network. I will say that we have many satisfied customers who use our programs because they suit their lifestyle and easily work within budgets.

I would recommend fully investigating any program before you make your decision.

Best of luck in becoming an RN!

The College Network

[Grandma-RN]

SarahTN,

There are many options for obtaining your RN besides choosing The College Network. I will say that we have many satisfied customers who use our programs because they suit their lifestyle and easily work within budgets.

I would recommend fully investigating any program before you make your decision.

Best of luck in becoming an RN!

The College Network

Correct me if I am wrong, but, no one actually gets a degree from The College Network? You supply books and such, right?

[The College Network]

That is absolutely correct. The College Network is an educational services company providing materials, support, and services to assist people in obtaining degrees. The College Network is not a degree-granting institution.

I would be more than happy to answer any questions or clear up any misconceptions about The College Network, our materials, or our services.

Thank you for the opportunity to participate in your discussion.

Sincerely,

Rick
The College Network

[SeasonedRN]

I went directly through www.excelsior.edu. There's no reason to go through a for profit publisher such as the college network, istudy smart, etc...

Going directly through excelsior was not difficult and I went while working full-time. They have study guides. I purchased the books they suggested from Half.com. I purchased the edition prior to the current one and saved a ton of money. I bought a notebook. Looked up everything the study guide said I needed to know, wrote it down in my notebook. When I was finished with the notebook I taped it in my own voice and listened to it at night and in the car. Once I felt like I knew the information well I scheduled my test through Excelsior and passed each one. I felt I learned and retained the information better because I had to look it up myself and write it down. Virtually the only money I spend was on the tests and the excelsior fees which you have to pay anyway no matter who you go through. Books cost me anywhere from $5 to $35 and I resold them when I was done. I would reccomend this program to anyone.

One expense I would not scrimp on is CPNE. Taking a CPNE workshop is well worth the money. I failed my first CPNE. Had to pay for a second ($1,500). I went to a workshop in between for $750 and that made all the difference. The second CPNE was a breeze and I didn't study anything more just reorganized myself.

I know for profit publishers don't like to hear this information but people should have a view of both sides of an issue before making a decision about what's best for them. I know people who went through publishers and reccomend that as the way to go.

[dogtoy]

To stay in business College Network had to change its name from Rue Educational because of a long history of problems and complaints, and they actually just add greatly to the expense of your nursing program- you can do better without them. All the study materials you could ever actually use can be bought hundreds cheaper at Ebay, but you will not have time to mess around with attempting shortcuts if you just do like Excelsior wants and read the book assignments like SeasonedRN did successfully. Most of all, the newly rewritten NCLEX-RN hammers you very hard on your weakest areas to see if you KNOW TOO LITTLE TO BE LICENSED (capital letters for emphasis in new test approach) rather than old testing basis which checked whether you knew just enough minimum to get a license. So, you need a system like SeasonedRN described to get ready- I used her same system to get my LPN, and I was glad when I took the new NCLEX-PN. I ran out of money while needing only 2 more semesters to finish my LPNtoRN conventional classroom program, so I am going to work and do the Excelsior nursing program directly through Excelsior without any expensive middlemen (who needs a College Network [formerly Rue] collection agency?). One advantage of Excelsior is less classroom pressures and less job problems while you are both working and studying. I do suggest that you use TN's RODP Program (Regents Online Degree Program at https://rodp.org) to do some classes thru a community college to get your prerequisites affordably and without job problems- you will get an official accredited transcript from that community college just like the folks who sat in a classroom, and you can even do accredited online Labs (Wow!) in anatomy/physiology and in microbiology, etc. Your RODP online class skills will help you later to do Excelsior online. You can work while getting your associates RN degree. It is all about an RN license. Go for it.

[Ricu]

I myself, am a graduate of Excelsior, then Regent's College and part of the University of the State of New York. I have nothing but good things to say and recommend the program but cautiously, because the student has to be 100% engaged. Included in the tuition, the school offers guidance and support, course syllobi, study materials and test outlines. The student does work independently and is obligated to seek help and guidance when needed, perform the work and take the tests. Be careful about adjunctive programs like TCN. Their study guides are costly and redundant