Grand Canyon University Reviews of Bachelor's in RN to BSN

"Not the best school if you are still working while doing the RN-BSN program. While it’s not impossible to meet to coursework requirements, there are other universities that provide more flexibility for working RNs. You will be required to do 2 discussion board posts a week, 6 weekly peer responses scattered on different days, and one essay or PowerPoint presentation a week (or sometimes more). I switched school and we only have 1 discussion post and reply a week, and 1-2 essays for the whole course. I’m glad I switched"

"Worst educational experience of my life. This university is focused ONLY on getting your money and will drag you through whatever hells they can in order to secure it. They charge you for every little thing, even if it is one of their administration or faculty that caused an issue. Having issues with a teacher and looking to switch to the same class but with different faculty? SORRY! We're going to charge you for the time you spent "in class" as well as for your book. As soon as you get into the correct course, guess what? We're going to recharge you the full cost of the class per credit as well as the cost for your book, again. It is flat out highway robbery disguised as "a good Christian university." Double dipping much? Best part, there is no financial aid office, no finance department, you get to deal with your counselor ONLY and if they don't get it, you're screwed! Joy! Information varies amongst counselors as well. Communiation between students and their counselors, or in my case field experience counselors as well, is almost non-existent. Field experience counselors will push paper your way and expect you do all the work. The curriculum is outdated, inconsistent, and varies between instructors. In a field that demands to be at the forefront of current practices and research, all of the resources presented in class are more than 5 years old! Practice what you preach. If you want me to utilize resources no older than 5 years, then shouldn't everything you teach with or present to me "in class" mirror what you're instructing me? Spelling, grammar, and incomplete sentences plague the online classrooms. The same overly critical instructors on those points are the same ones that can't seem to proofread their own work. There are a few outstanding professors in this degree department, but not enough to outweigh the beyond bad ones. I got into this university because I was presented with, what I thought, was a really awesome scholarship. Imagine my surprise when they got rid of the scholarship and kept the "discount" as the standard tuition cost. I feel like I got roped into this school and have been regretting it ever since. If you have the chance to go somewhere else, ANYWHERE else is better than here."

"I am currently in my last BSN course at GCU and I have not had one problem with tuition, customer service, grading times, instructor responsiveness, etc. I don't particularly like online group assignments or spreading out response posts throughout the week but that's to be expected with an online learning platform. I've been unclear instructions about assignments and instructors usually get back to me within a few hours, grades are in no longer than a week after the assignment is due and my counsellors have all been super responsive and helpful. I just saw a lot of bad reviews on here and I don't quite understand why people are having different experiences than me but I felt the need to share mine. I honestly wish GCU offered a Psych NP program so I could just stay with them."

"I did not do my research before attending GCU's online RN-BSN program. I went because my nursing school advertised them A LOT. The degree is extremely difficult for those who work full time. At first, it's easy with 1 paper a week and 2 discussion questions, and 6 peer responses. But then as the program continues you have to do community projects (you have to have signed papers from administrators and organizations in the community), interviews with nearly unattainable people (community health workers etc.) , presentations at churches/community centers, a 10 week 100 hour clinical that they DO NOT help you with. I still do not have a clinical site PLUS who has that kind of time when theyre working full time?! Also, with all these assignments in the community it is 100% your responsibility to find sites and people willing to work with you on very short notice. I am absolutely thinking about transferring, it sucks because I am already so far in. It is just becoming too hard to do while working. Do your research before starting this program."

"Their RN to BSN is not designed for full time working nurses. Extremely difficult, and you always have a research paper on Sundays. Aside from, writing 3 assignments per week and at least 4 “peer interactions”. The professor was not understanding, in the very least. Played favorites, was not helpful and when you had a question, she would tell you to check syllabus. Very confusing program since it’s was my first online class. Professor had little patience and just docks points on assignments instead of HELPING. Paid them And dropped the program. NEVER AGAIN!"

"Way overpriced. It might be a good school if you are actually attending but if you are doing an online program and working, forget about it. There is absolutely nothing that is self-paced or "on your own time". You might as well be required to attend class and labs etc. Minimal flexibility. The online platform is not user-friendly at all. No notifications if you get a message from the instructor or other students. This is terrible if you have a group project. I would NEVER recommend attending this school. If you want a RN to BSN specifically, try WGU. I have two other bachelors' degrees prior to being a nurse, and actually enjoyed school before attending here. Highly suggest looking elsewhere."

"I graduated from the RN to BSN online program at GCU in 2017. I had nothing short of a great experience. I've read many complaints in the reviews. I can't think of one single complaint, other than the occasional lazy instructor. I worked 2 jobs and was able to maintain my grades. The only time I felt stressed is when I waited until the last minute to write a paper. Otherwise, I highly recommend this program and University. The course was very user friendly and I'm happy to be starting the MSN in Education program in a couple of weeks. I pray that I have another great experience."

"Pros: 1) Very helpful and pleasant staff. They seemed to want me to succeed. 2) The Website was easy to navigate and once used to it, I could find nearly everything I needed. 3) Price was reasonable. Help with student loans was almost too easy. 4) Classes are short. Cons: 1) The instructors often had differing views on what constituted a "substantive response" it created some confusion when moving from one class to another. Often the "substantive responses" that were given were more to comply with the instructors requirements than any real response to the essay from the student. 2) Most of the email conversations that I had with the instructors went either unanswered or were answered too late to provide any real help. One such communication occurred after the class had ended. 3) I was not adequately informed of the process for getting time off school and it seemed overly complicated. This is an online course and as such caters to people who have jobs and families. I would have liked to know beforehand how much of a hassle it was to take time off. 4) The initial classes were great. I felt that I could really hit my stride and work out a rhythm for completion of assignments without impacting my family life too much. Then the gotcha happened. The 5th class in the assignments really started increasing and at one point I was expected to conduct an interview and write an essay on it, prepare an education plan for a teaching assignment, write 2 other short essays and one more long essay, and respond to other classmates with"substantive responses" at least six times over the course of one week. In the same 5 week course I was supposed to secure a teaching assignment, develop a teaching plan, get it approved and teach it. Now, in theory this totally sounds doable until you realize that virtually no one in the real world will allow a stranger to teach in their institution without thoroughly vetting them first. This is NEVER a 5 week process. Most people I spoke to completed this assignment through creative writing rather than actually completing the assignment as written. The school should never assign anything that is so difficult to complete as to ensure either cheating or failure. Either eliminate this unrealistic expectation or provide more guidance on success and give it a longer class time. 5 weeks is not enough. 5) The group assignments that I had were dismal. Again, most of us are working nurses with families attending an online university across 5 time zones. No ones schedules meshed with anyone else. Those who did participate did most of the work and those who did not benefited from those who did the work. I pretty much feel that this is a part of the instruction that should be modified or done away with. 6) The online library costs money to access. (its included in the tuition) And it is utterly worthless. The search engine is outdated and useless. Google Scholar was easier to deal with and free. (unless you count the enormous amount of documents there that require you to pay for access to the article)"

"This school is disciplined adult learners. I thought the professors were fair and responded in a timely manner to any questions or concerns. The school is exactly what I expected and I am glad I knocked out a degree without having to take any tests. The last instructor I had was hell bent on not giving me an A, so I ended with an A-. This was the worst part of attending this school. I'm not complaining. If you are looking for a program that is self directed and timely, I would recommend this school. If you need to be coddled through assignments, or need a lot of additional instruction, perhaps a brick and mortar education is a better idea."

"I would advise any future students, do not apply to this school, just run away, anything else is better that this one, this is an scamming institution and the other reviews here are accurate, i enrolled in online RN-BSN program and as soon as i noticed (less than 4 days) how hard was the professor, i requested to Drop the class, counselors delayed to respond or help as long as they could, i was attending just less than a week and i was so frustrated, that i decided to withdrawn from school. I was in class less than a week and they are charging me north of $1700, (i have the invoice to prove it, and now the are sending me to collection), please don't take the bait and fall into their scamming tactics, they may look nice, they will make you feel good to convince you to enroll with then, you will regret it."

"I do not have anything negative to say about my RN to BSN program experience at GCU. I never had any issues with starting courses, financial aid, required documents and more. Everybody was very helpful and my instructors were awesome. Of course, some were more helpful and eager than others but I always had positive things to say about the instructors. The classes were 5 weeks longs, except the final course was 10 weeks long. I finished in 14 months. If you put in the effort, you will simply get through this program. I would recommend this program to many others."

"The 490 nursing class appears to be a way to coherce another quarter of tuition with poor professors that tries to find ways to fail students vs educating. GCU for some reason does not manage that student professor and the instruction and instructor was so poor that it over shadowed GCU ."

"This school gave me the opportunity to continue my education while working, having the chance to do it all online was great. The counselors were great, always there to answer your questions at any time. They are also great motivators in wanting you to succeed."

"My experience with GCU online RN to BSN program was wonderful. All my credits transfered, the work load was easy to manage with organizational skills. I worked full time as a Med Surg RN. Don't let bad reviews scare you away. I loved it so much I am actually trying to see what I can do to teach for the school. The assignments were doable, they required the work but it was manageable. Upon starting the program I was nervous about the workload and working full time. Assignments are due on sundays by midnight, requires 2 initial discussion posts by Wednesday and Friday and 6 responses, all writing is required to be in APA format. Most papers were 3-4 pages long, 10 of my courses were 4 weeks long and my capstone project was 10 weeks long. I highly recommend the program."

"Excellent school; Great experience; I cannot speak for anyone else, but my experience was great! What I saw with others is that if they put forth the effort and completed the work as assigned then there was no issue. Only those that did not fair so well grumbled and complained. It was a tough program but I learned a lot. My advisor was great and now my friend just started her first class there and was able to get my old advisor. I now have a MSN from another college and will be returning to GCU in the Fall to begin my DNP."

"I had an awesome advisor who helped me through personal and school struggles. I made it through and the classes were helpful and interesting. The Christian based learning also was great because it created a positive learning environment. The computer courses were easy to complete and didn't require a masters in computer knowledge. I would recommend this school to anyone wanting to get their BSN in nursing while working."