Avoid the College Network!

[keepingitalive]

A friend of mine is a paramedic and said he could not have finished his RN course any other way than thru The College Network. He is doing his clinical next month. It only took him about 1 year and he worked really hard. But HE DID IT using the college network. Guess it's just not for everyone, but sure was for Jim.

[Lvnguy]

After alot of months of thinking about it and reading different posts online, I have decided not to go with TCN. It may be a great deal and may work the way they claim but I cant take a chance spending that kind of money to find out.

If TCN had at least a partial refund policy or something along those lines, I would do it in a heartbeat. The fact that they are unwilling to give any kind of refund is a HUGE red flag.

No refund is akin to a company not standing behind their product, no warranty... To force people to pay for the whole course even if you don't use it tells me that, in part at least, it is a scam.

I am saving my money to go to a brick and mortor school. I may take some of the pre-reqs online (very expensive but at least a sure thing) but in the end I am going to go to a real school for BSN.

I am actually VERY disapointed because I had hoped to be able to go online. Having to go to a regular school definately sets me back a couple years.

[Ricu]

After alot of months of thinking about it and reading different posts online, I have decided not to go with TCN. It may be a great deal and may work the way they claim but I cant take a chance spending that kind of money to find out.

If TCN had at least a partial refund policy or something along those lines, I would do it in a heartbeat. The fact that they are unwilling to give any kind of refund is a HUGE red flag.

No refund is akin to a company not standing behind their product, no warranty... To force people to pay for the whole course even if you don't use it tells me that, in part at least, it is a scam.

I am saving my money to go to a brick and mortor school. I may take some of the pre-reqs online (very expensive but at least a sure thing) but in the end I am going to go to a real school for BSN.

I am actually VERY disapointed because I had hoped to be able to go online. Having to go to a regular school definately sets me back a couple years.

LVNguy,

Check out Excelsior University. You know that TCN is not necessary to complete their Nursing program, right? Excelsior has their own study guides and student advisors. It's what I did and the only class I had to take "brick and mortar" style was Sociology. The rest was self paced with syllobus and exam when I was ready. No papers. No online assignments. No instructors to schedule meetings with. Just the textbook reading. I don't know if you would save money anymore- I did, but there is definitely potential to save a lot of what would be classroom time.

Think about it.

R

[nursinghumor]

There are enough red flags with the college network for most people to scrutinize it more carefully.

The scary part is that I see their advertisements all over the web, including Google Adsense which almost every webmaster uses or wants to use.

When in doubt, look elsewhere. I think there is plenty of reasonable doubt demonstrated here. I won't be posting or linking to any of their sites on my network. Have to see if I can filter them out of Adwords/Adsense.

Andrew Lopez, RN
http://www.nursefriendly.com

[Lvnguy]

In California the only online school we are allowed to use for LVN to BSN is ISU.(for a degree/license) There are no online LVN to RN classes accepted. I was hoping to use TCN to get the general education credits CLEPed as well as a few of the nursing subjects.

I can not afford to take ISU or Ivy Tech general education classes online because they are almost $300 a CREDIT and was hoping TCN was going to save me some money. But I am just whining.. I will still be able to go to school one way or another.

[keepingitalive]

I guess no matter where you enroll, you have to commit to the program. I have done the test-out thing in the past and it was awesome. Saves so much time and time is money in nursing!

[Aaron C.]

There are enough red flags with the college network for most people to scrutinize it more carefully.

The scary part is that I see their advertisements all over the web, including Google Adsense which almost every webmaster uses or wants to use.

When in doubt, look elsewhere. I think there is plenty of reasonable doubt demonstrated here. I won't be posting or linking to any of their sites on my network. Have to see if I can filter them out of Adwords/Adsense.

Andrew Lopez, RN
Nursefriendly.com, A National Nursing & Consumer Health Directory

Andrew,

A couple of things that come to mind from my perspective.

First, you CAN filter them from adsense now with the new beta category/site/advertiser filtering.

I agree there are some questions raised by people unhappy with the College Network and I will not be addressing any individual complaints however it seems like to me that a program serving as many students as they do is going to have SOME people who are unhappy.

Whether they are valid concerns or not...that would be up to each individual case. I am sure a number of them are.

But I think the College Network is getting a bad rap here because people are searching for info about the college network and often entering in negative search terms when they are finding this site.

That tells me that we are getting an extremely disproportionate number of visitors coming here with opinions that are already negative about the college network whereas people who are HAPPY with the College Network are not going to go out searching for a forum to sing their praises. They just go on about their business.

This opinion also comes from my experience with our reviews section. Happy Travel Nurses rarely go to the reviews to write something good about their employer unless they are asked to. But pissed off nurses who are looking to complain will seek out an avenue to do so.

I would say that if there is a disproportionate number of complaints for one company versus all of the others, then there is likely a problem. I can't say that in this case because The College Network is really the only one being discussed.

Also, if you look in our reviews section, (and many OLD OLD reviews have been removed because they are no longer relevant after so many years) you'll see more negative reviews for the BIGGER companies because they've got WAY more employees. They may also be bad companies, but it's hard to really tell.

I would like to hear from students/nurses who have had GOOD experiences with the college network to get their side of the story.

[cali510]

In California the only online school we are allowed to use for LVN to BSN is ISU.(for a degree/license) There are no online LVN to RN classes accepted. I was hoping to use TCN to get the general education credits CLEPed as well as a few of the nursing subjects.

I can not afford to take ISU or Ivy Tech general education classes online because they are almost $300 a CREDIT and was hoping TCN was going to save me some money. But I am just whining.. I will still be able to go to school one way or another.

Western Governors University just started a new LVN to BSN program in SoCal. You should look into it. Western Governors University

[nursinghumor]

Andrew,

A couple of things that come to mind from my perspective.

First, you CAN filter them from adsense now with the new beta category/site/advertiser filtering.

Good news, I will check that out. It is important to get both sides of the story and I'd encourage people with good experiences to post here as well.

Best service we can provide to users is to get the information out there, and let people make their own decisions.

Andrew Lopez, RN
http://www.4nursing.com

[Lvnguy]

Western Governors University just started a new LVN to BSN program in SoCal. You should look into it. Western Governors University

Thanks. I called them and they do have a new program but they do not offer any pre-reqs online. They have to be completed elsewhere. The clinicals have to be completed with the school taught by one of their instructors but the nursing classes themselves can be done online.
At the moment they are in Socal but said they are going to be coming to Norcal in a couple years and at about that time expect to be offering prereqs and general ed classes online.