Fortis College Reviews of Associates in Nursing

"I have been at this school for a couple of months now, and I love it. I am a single mom who also works, and this school has been very flexible. I attended IUPUI for a year previously, and though it is a good school it is a difficult school to attend with a busy outside life. Before I discovered Fortis I was very nervous thinking about how I was going to get through college to support my child. Looking through other students reviews, I think they many don't know how lucky they are to have found a program like Fortis. You can't expect to go in a accredited program and not have to do any work for your degree. With that being said you will have to work at this college, but they are very helpful and work with you as much as possible."

"Avoid this college for your own good. They only want your money. They will not help students be successful. They have teachers that just show up and mindless spit out information for a couple hours and then tell you to "know everything". After you pay for your seat they stop being nice because they have your money. The dean also doesn't care. Whole classes go to the dean with teacher issues and just get brushed off as stupid angry students. The campus in Pensacola is where all of this happens. I urge you to find another way to get your education."

"I have not 1 good thing to say about Fortis. I was new to college and had no idea what was going on. They all new that and ran with it. I went there for 2 years. I was trying to drop the school 6 months after I started but they would make a reason why I couldn't or told me how much of a bad idea it was. Instructors- the instructors are horrible. Some examples , one of my teachers would fall asleep in class, never cam prepared to class so he didn't know what he was teaching until class when he opened the book. All he did was read the book , no teaching involved. He couldn't hear so a lot of questions were unanswered. Another teacher would just pass kids for no reason. Kids that never came to class got passed on. I'm not sure how that works , and he would mark kids there when they was absent. Another teacher I couldn't understand what she was saying because she was only in America for 3 years so I had to drop that class. They didn't have no tutors so if you needed one you would half to go out and find your one resources a lot of time I had to teach myself after class. I'd go home and Google the information and found teachers on YouTube teaching it. That's how I learned. So Iam paying them for what? FINANCIAL AID- They was all very rude , as well as any of the office people. They charged me for things I didn't get. If I would ask a question about anything regarding finical aid they couldn't answer for some reason they answer something totally different. They would do things without telling you so you'd owe them money. They didn't inform you at all in anything! Their is so much more I can say but I'm going to stop. If your thinking about Fortis I hope my review helps you make your decision. I probably won't be able to get my credits to transfer because of financial aid so that's 2 years down the drain. If you still want to try Fortis my advise is to take someone who knows how the college system works with you!"

"I just graduated from this college. Literally, I finished yesterday! I love this school. Expensive? Yes. I did all my pre-reqs at a community college so that saved tons of money. I just took my NUR classes at Fortis. This also helps with credit transfers. I know the U of Utah will accept any NUR classes from here, but not the pre-reqs. I felt the teachers here really cared about my success. They are easy to reach outside of class and give lots of positive feedback. I feel completely prepared to take the NCLEX. School is strict. You have to be in uniform anytime on campus and you must attend class. They want you to be professional (as you should be if you are going into the medical field). Attendance is necessary, because it is a lot of information to process, if you miss a class, you can fall behind quickly. Also, if you fail two classes, you are out of the program. However, if you are willing to work hard, this is a great school. If you are looking for an easy degree, then nursing is probably not for you. Not at Fortis or anywhere else. Go get a degree in the art history and make 10 bucks an hour. Good luck!"

"I wouldn't recommend this school to anyone teachers are not helpful they stick together tell you not to drop their class to get your money and leave you hanging after they are paid they will not return your phone calls financial aid over charge for classes taking all of your federal aid you get to school the best way you can while they pull up in bmw and Mercedes Benz and all of the staff have houses bigger than the White House it self."

"Fortis is approved by the Florida board of nursing if you look on the departments page. It is not accredited. This means that you may sit for the NCLEX and become an RN for the state of Florida, but not nationally. It also means that when it comes time for you to get a BSN, you have to use one of their ''articulated agreement'' schools, which is mostly online as well as fortis is, and they are just as pricey as fortis. If you attempted to go to a community college or accredited college, they will not accept any credits from a non accredited school. Bummer I know. It costs about 45,000 to attend fortis vs a community college for around 13,000. So when it comes to paying student debt, fortis only transfers to those ''articulated agreement schools'' and there is only a handful of them and you have no choice but to attend them to advance your degree. They are a profit school and the schools quality is poor from my experience. If you are willing to pile on the extensive debt and risk the chance of not being able to further your RN license, then you will be state approved at least. I was in It for the long haul for BSN and I didn't think it was a wise decision. My counselor at PSC said he has to be professional with his words but what they are doing is nearly criminal and students tend to be desperate when they find the school so accepting. If you are confused and have questions like I did, Check it all for yourself on your states board of nursing page, you can look up the school and call them to verify. Fortis counselors legally twist their words and make it seem like they don't know about their reputation, go to any accredited local college counselor and they will tell you. I had to argue with the councilor I had at Fortis about their accreditation and she had no problem telling me they were...she said her students told her they checked and they were. Just FYI!"

"Will not recommend this school to anyone. Specially to someone that you love. It is the WORST school ever. The quality of management, the quality of the education and the quality of the professors are all the lowest can be for a college. This is not a subjective evaluation. I have more than one testimony to prove it. Go to a decent school."

"Fortis was a great school to start my nursing career with. The teachers there, for the most part, were awesome and cared about the students. Was it difficult...you bet. Is it expensive...oh yeah. Luckily, I have the GI Bill so I switched from a community college to Fortis because there was no waiting list to start clinicals. Honestly, even without the GI Bill it would have been worth it. The class sizes, teachers, and overall experience was more personable than the local community college. Most of the negative reviews I read on here are some of the same things I heard some of my prior classmates complain about and honestly, there is probably merit to less than 10% of it. You know it is a for profit college before you start, so why complain about the tuition. You know it is nationally accredited so most regionally accredited colleges won't transfer their classes (which doesn't matter if you plan on stopping at your ADN). However, I have just started a RN to MSN program with WGU and they took all my Fortis general education classes. APU, Chamberlain, and Kaplan do also so some regionally accredited and CCNE accredited will take Fortis transfers, just have to know where to look. Most of the people I found that complain either failed out and want someone to blame but I found Fortis to be a great place to get a education and start my nursing career. Is it perfect, of course not, but what in life is? It is better than the community college I attended though and I am glad I switched!!!"

"The worst decision I ever made in my life!!! I don't recommend this school to anyone...accreditation not very good, bias clinical instructors who favor their love ones, the school is not well organised, instructors quit in the middle of the semester....."

"I highly recommend Fortis College. I thank God, my family, as well as my nursing instructors who believe in me. I believe that being in nursing school it is very challenging. I realized being a nurse takes a lot of efforts, challenges, patience, and grace to overcome each challege but with the right attidute, the right fellow students, and the right instructors who are passionate about nursing, you can managed to get into the end. The nursing instructor not only teach you textbook material, they help you see out of the box, and help you change the way your mind processes, (Critical thinking)The Director of Nursing did provided all the educational tools needed to successed. Its a lot to study, you are expected to give 200%, but when you take your Nclex-RN Examination and passed, then you get interviewed for a RN position in a Hospital and get hired, at that point everything that you had to study and sacrified becomes insignificant. Believe me patients will feel safe when the RN give 200% to them. You as an RN will guard your career, especially when you had gone throu a lot to get your license."

"My former job at a manufacturing company moved out of the country. Because of this I had an opportunity to go back to school that was paid for. Out of all the schools I could have picked, I picked Fortis College. I have a 3.5 GPA and I need to pass the HESI exit to pass the school. I have taken the Hesi Exit several times now and I have came close but not close enough. When I signed up for this school I thought if I passed every class and did everything I was suppose to like a 3.5 GPA and a Kaplan predictor score of 86%, which means if I took the NCLEX boards most likely I would pass. This school has cost 48k and now they want me to pay more to take a class (Capstone) over I passed with A-, I should not have to pay anymore money. I am going to take Capstone over but I think I should not have to pay for a class I got a A- in. IS CAPSTONE going to help me pass my HESI EXIT? Only time will tell......wish me luck!"

"I would never recommend this school the teachers are unprofessional and act like your in high school you font learn anything and all the school is concerned about is money the financial aid sucks and always say you owe money when you don't and always mess up something you as the student are lost and don't get your schedule until the day before your new mod if your lucky this place absolutely sucks"

"I don't even want to take my time to write lots of words about this school. I can only say that you will regret for the rest of your life if you go to that school where you will not learn will be treated bad disrespectfully and won't be able to practice or transfer your credits. I can write a book about the bad things abou this school and won't find a single good word on the dictionary for anything there. It is absolutely true."

"Crappy crappy school. I got mostly As and it is still hard finding a job, plus this school just got fined $13.3 million for defrauding students and making misrepresentations to students. I got my RN from this but I wouldnot recommend it to anyone. There are tons of good public colleges nearby to go to. Plus it is a rip off financially and they could care less about the students. The teachers were mostly pretty crappy and they have a very high teacher turnover. Most of the people who start the program don't finish, in fact they only have a 48% retention rate, which is crappy; they will flunk you in your senior year after spending over 50K if you do not pass their exit hesi which no other college makes you do. Definately would not recommend this school. They treat students like crap, and the facilities are sub standard."

"I am a recent graduate of Fortis College and wanted to share some of my experiences from during the time I attended the program. I’ll start out with the few positive things I have to say about the school. I believe anyone who can make it through the program will be well prepared for their NCLEX. That being said you must be able to teach yourself the majority of the content because there is not time in class to go over everything, and as a student you are held responsible for knowing all of the content covered in each textbook. Now I’ll address the issues I faced on a department by department basis. Admissions- This was the easiest admissions process I have ever been through (I’ve applied and been admitted to about 10 various schools across the country). The fact that it is so easy shows that the school does not screen candidates for an appropriate fit, but just wants to increase numbers, and hey every student that is admitted makes at least an extra $5000 for the school per quarter they make it through. The admissions staff also give a very deceptive view of the program. I understand their job is sales and so this part will probably never change (it is a business after all), but that’s why I’m here to give you a more realistic view. I was told that many students are able to work full time throughout the program. This is not true. In my graduating class only one student worked throughout the entire program. I was told by the admissions staff that nearly everyone graduates, and they didn’t know anyone in particular who had failed the exit exam. I don’t know if they are just ignorant or choose not to look at the results so they can continue to tell this lie, but many people fail the exit exam (some people multiple times which extends the length of the program at least 3 months after every 2 attempts). The admissions staff make the program appear easy, and it is not. It is extremely difficult and many people fail. My original cohort had 26 students. Of the 26 only 4 remained in the program, and only 1 completed the program in the 2 years that the program is designed to take. Financial Aide- This school has screwed up the billing and financing of nearly every student I know that attends Fortis on multiple occasions. Their system is setup to auto charge students for random things like immunizations and physicals, even if you are not having those things provided by the school. Unless the student notices these charges and has them removed from their account they are over billed. During my final week at Fortis, every person in my graduating class was pulled into the financial aid office and either told they owed the school more money and would not receive transcripts until they could pay or they were told the school owed them money. That’s great I guess if you over payed and now the school owed you money, but the fact that this happened with at least a dozen students shows serious flaws in their billing methods. These obvious flaws make it hard to trust that they are doing anything correctly with the $46000 you’re spending on your education. About half way through my program I was told I could no longer attend class because I had an outstanding balance. However, I had actually prepaid several months and was ahead but because it was inputted into the computer incorrectly I was not allowed to attend class. Not only that I was told it was my fault, and that I needed to make sure it was inputted properly to show that my balance was not past due. I essentially had to hold their hand through the process of doing their own job. The Dean and President of the school- There is absolutely no consistency whatsoever in the leadership over the nursing program. There were 4 or more deans during the 2 years I attended (I don’t know the exact number because I lost track). How could any program succeed and grow if they are under new leadership at least every 6 months. You also have to wonder why nobody wants to invest in the school and stay for any decent amount of time. The faculty give the impression of being open to constructive criticism and are always asking for feedback, however concerns do not get addressed. Most of the issues I’m mentioning here today I was afraid to bring up for fear of being kicked out of the program. About a year into the program I had some serious concerns about a class and the way it was being ran. I brought these concerns to the teacher who did nothing. I then went up the chain of command to the dean. About a week later I was pulled into the Dean’s office and given a written warning for being a bully and told that if it happened again I would be dismissed from the program. Any concerns with the school I have had since that day I have kept to myself out of fear. Me and other students were scared into submission, and once you’ve invested $46,000 dollars I wasn’t willing to risk being kicked out for trying to improve the program for the students behind me. General Education Instructors- The general education teachers I had were good for the most part. The only issue I had was with an instructor (who no longer teaches) that was unable to keep professional boundaries with students. She is friends with many students on Facebook, and I was very bothered when she spoke about a student on Facebook saying that she had told him that day that he would never make it through the program. She didn’t mention names, but it is completely unprofessional to have the social interactions she had with students. Nursing Instructors- Some of the nursing staff was good, but education affiliates (EA) who owns Fortis does all of the teachers a disservice. They don’t give them any freedom to teach in a way that would be effective (this is why you must be a self-learner to succeed at this school). EA writes the syllabus for the instructor, chooses the text book, writes the tests, and provides the power points. The instructors don’t get to see the tests prior to giving them so they have no clue if the content on the test was covered in class or the textbook. And many times the test content did not match the syllabus causing many students to fail tests. The nursing faculty is short staffed (I guess that’s just part of being a nurse in any setting), but this causes teachers to not follow through with anything they say they will do. By the end of my program I took anything any teacher told me as a grain of salt, because I had been let down on multiple occasions by every professor. During the program you are treated like a high school student not an adult. You are spoke down to and belittled. Students are told on a regular basis that they are “high risk for failing”. This does nothing for the student other than demoralize them and make them feel like a failure. I could go on and give more specific examples, but I wanted to keep things broad to give you an idea of the issues you may encounter at Fortis. Just know that every school has its problems. There is no perfect school, but be aware of the problems the school you are attending has. Ask lots of questions before attending, and be sure this is what you really want. If I could do it all over again would I go to Fortis probably not. If someone I cared about was interested in attending I would discourage them, but you have to decide for yourself. Just do your research."

"I was enjoying my time as a student at Fortis started in 2013. I got Diagnosed with Thyroid Cancer and I was told that they would work with as long as I need after my surgery. I went right back to school within 1 week of my surgery. I took a class that was messed up from the professor and she messed up the grades and did things she wasn't supposed to. I passed however with 1% higher then needed. I still got reamed by the dean for this; forgetting that I was still recovering and she had been through the same problem. Removed thyroid, however not from Cancer as myself. She still didn't care. So as I have went on my memory had worsened and I was now in a rut. I dropped from Med Surge, and was told that if I was to sit out that I would have to Appeal and may not get right back in, so I am damned at this time. Re-took class and failed was okay by t he Dean that I could Audit and take another class week 6 of last quarter. Then I receive a call same week classes start telling me I can not Audit and I have to take the class over or we part our ways. I got upset as any other would and was dismissed for conduct I feel it was a medical discrimination. Dean, " I looked ay your performance in the past and I see when you became sick." But there was no care of that, I still got kicked out. And another student in past called her a B*%@^ to her face and never got dismissed. HELP"

"Fortis is a joke,they are quick to take your money but after that you are just a number.No one can answer a question for you in management, they will write down a lot of info but it goes no where.Instructors for the most part have no education experience and just read power point to you.Hello you can read on your own.A don't expect to go to dean or assistant dean you will get no help from them.Save your money be patient and get into a state college and save your self the headaches and expense.Trust me on this."

"This school does not care about the student body at all! There only concern is money! They are disorganized, tell you one thing and do something different. They have instructors teaching classes that have no experience in the specialty, they will not return your calls or emails. The previous graduating class had to hire an attorney!!! I can not even begin to tell you the aggravation and distress this school has caused!!! Please, please, please do not waste your time and money at this sham of a school. It has been torture to watch my husband suffer through this horrible experience."

"I am an ASN graduate of the last Rets class after Fortis College took over the Centerville school in Ohio. After 5 yrs I decided to go back to school for my BSN I called 4 times in 2 weeks the registrar to have transcripts sent no replies. Unprofessional and disappointing my class had a 97% pass rate on NcLEX that helped get them out of academic accreditation trouble. I have already enrolled at a school for my BSN but I can't get into the school without official transcripts being sent. I have limited time and I don't reside in Ohio anymore. The website doesn't not allow me to take care of this item I have to speak with the registrar office who never answer the phone or their voicemails. I am have my family drive 45 mins to the school so I can further my education."

"Fortis College Cutler Bay is a very welcoming school. The staff is extremely helpful and are about the students. I am currently a nursing student. The professors are willing to meet with you whenever you need help. The school offers night time classes which is extremely convenient for those who work. You are able to finish within two years."