San Joaquin Valley College Reviews of Associate in Nursing

bad experience as scool, expensive. great time with students. but my guess is every private school is about the same now: get the money, grill the students to get passing scores, and get the students out. it boils down to what you want to get out the program. i can tell there were a few great inspiring professors, but most were about the gossip. NO ONE WILL FEED YOU THE KNOWLEDGE. prepare yourself , teach yourself, get a strong group of peers to get through it. quiz yourselves even when youre drinking,... Read More excercising , cooking, etc. plan on getting each one different quizz books to help each other (books are expensive). if you master ATI, you will pass Nclex. it was fast paced, but so its the real nursing. in real nursing it wont be about failing a test or mocking the students, etc. it gets worse. Your patient can die, you can actually harm someone, lose your job, fail a family, get sued. its a beautiful career, with big responsibility. That is the real msg. Dont fall in the trap of competition . help each other, stay together. thats how you succeed. it always feels as if you just keep your nose above the water, but it will be fine. i managed to work PT during school, n worked out fine for me. theres minimal to no tutoring help/ programs. overal rewarding career, good money, hard work.

Do not go to this school! It is true, the stories about this school. To begin with it is a hard program to start with already, if you're looking for a traditional study hour and lecture power points, GOOD LUCK nursing school is about self teaching because there isn't enough time to cover the materials during school hours, not to mention not enough time period! Be ready to learn how to self teach and that is with all nursing school. BUT SJVC is the worst program out there. What makes it the worst... Read More program is that the instructor and the director. Yes you have your a-Hole instructors, but not here, they are nursing major with not education teaching background, bad people in general. They are set to fail the student. No compassion at all! No help at all, No tutoring, no advice's, no advisory as well. Instructors don't like students and most of all instructors don't like each other. The instructors talk about each other during lecture time, I mean unprofessional. These are your co-workers for heaven sake. The previous director of this program (Dr. Spencer) walked out one day, just completely left the building and her belongings during business hours. Really sad and unprofessional. Like for reals walked out, that is how bad the program is set. Not only that we lost 4 instructors within this co-hort, less than an 18 month period, right off the bat. The program has this program within the program called Evolve, such a waste of time. You have to do so many questions to get to a certain level, the instructor and director really believes that it helps, but how can it help when you have to self teach yourself before even getting a level 2 or 3 on this Evolve stuff. If you don't get a level 2 or higher you will not pass the class regardless if you did well on quizzes and exams. Remember EVOLVE it is not BRN requested but students have to do it, my co-Hort fought and fought saying it is extremely a waste of time, you learn better on youtube than trying to earn a level 2 on evolve and the stuff you learn on evolve is 3% only on the test. Waste of time. ATI is a big one too! you have to score a level 2 or 3 on ATI testing out of class or good luck. Regardless of finals, you have an additional final ATI proctor test you have to pass or you're screwed. This ATI test is basically an exit exam. in addition, 10 question quizzes and 20pt, meaning you're only able to miss 1 question or you fail. Good Luck, new cohort from here on out, to my classes understanding is that they are adding more unnecessary work load to nursing students to get more grant money.

SJVC has one of the better programs out there, it really does! No proctor pass test, 90% on med math exams, and you finish fast for a huge chunk of $$. That program is awesome. Now don't get me wrong what is good comes with bad, really bad. I was warned about this school, but I thought it was just the students before me who had a bad experience. I regret going to this school, I honestly believe that if the instructors remember when they were students and how hard it was for them then they should... Read More back off just a little bit. The instructors and the directors set the program that SJVC created into a bloody sport of who will drop out next kind of game. It's not just up to the students to succeed but it takes a whole team to help make great nurses. This program has really made me question if I still want to be a nurse. The instructors talk about bad things about nursing than good about nursing. The instructors don't test fairly, it's more of a cat or mouse game with the exams and books. So basically take the Kaplan nclex class before going to this school. The instructor and director like to see student do bad on the exams. One time the class didn't do so well on a quiz and the instructor smiled and giggled and said I told you the test is gonna get harder. So.... If the class is doing well the instructors thinks it's a game to give questions from different books. And trust me even though the subjects or topic is the same the books define them differently. If you go here be careful. You will be questioning if nursing is what you want.

Nursing school is not supposed to be easy. The test questions are different because they are NCLEX style questions. The instructions are great, the material we get exposed to is one of the best out there. The board exam passing rates are also good compared to FCC, it's high 80's. Again, the program is very hard and time consuming. Forgot about having fun for 20 months but it's absolutely worth it. So I would recommend the students to complain less and study hard. The help is ALWAYS available, the... Read More instructions and the dean are very approachable. They want you to succeed but the rest is up to you.

The Registered Nursing Program First off, if you are trying to get into the nursing program then there are a few things you should know. I am currently enrolled in the program, and these are a few things to consider, if seeking to apply. You need all of the necessary prerequisites completed before you can apply. You want at least a 3.0 GPA between your 3 biology classes such as Anatomy, Physiology, and Microbiology. You want to score well on your TEAS test. This test gets updated like every 2-3 years... Read More I believe. They only consider the score for the most up to date version. Right now, that version would be TEAS V. If your grades are good enough, and you have all the necessary classes completed. You will need a few feathers in your hat to make you stand out. Most students in my cohort are CNAs, Medical Assistants, Phlebotomists, and Pharmacy Techs. Practically everyone had some type of medical background. You need a CPR card, and 2 letters of recommendation. There is a list they have that involves different categories that are on a point system. If your application looks good, you might be selected for an interview. However, don't get your hopes up. They will choose 60 to interview from the pool of applicants. From the 60 they can only accept 34 nursing students. The interview is what decides if you become selected as one of the 34 nursing students. If the stars align, and you become selected to become part of the next cohort, the next two years of your life will have to change in order for you to succeed in the program. There is also a class you need called Ethics in America. This was one class I wasn't aware I needed. Most colleges offer it, so take this class. If you don't before you apply you can take it while you are in the program. However, trust me, that is something you do not want to do. There is an option. You can challenge this course. You will have to pass a test though. You need to score a 400 or higher. If you do, you don't need to take the class. If you take the class at the school you are looking at $1425.00 for a class you can challenge for $120.00. It's worth a shot, you will save yourself time and money. You need to study for it though. I'd advise to go to your local library, and get all the information you can for that class subject before you take the test. You need a great support system, because it will be tough. You need good transportation to get to school, and to your clinical sites. There is absolutely no way, you can work full time and do this program. That's setting yourself up to fail. If you have to work, you need to cut it to part time. However, if you can find a way to financially support yourself/family for the next 2 years without working that would be the wisest thing to do. If you have a family, find a way for child care. The amount of time you will need to do well in your classes is beyond anything you can imagine. If its a school day expect to put in like 2-3 hours of study time during those days outside of class. If it isn't a school or clinical day expect to put in like 8-12 hours. The amount of reading material alone per week for all your classes can seem like a challenge in itself. You will be tested and quizzed pretty much every school day. It could be for your theory classes or your skill check offs. If you add in any homework, worksheets, research papers, clinical packets, and care plans also due that week you'll begin to see what I am talking about in terms of workload. The best advice I can give you is time management. Make the most out of your time, when you study. Make sure you stay healthy during your time in the program. Make sure you get adequate sleep, eat a good breakfast, and try to eat healthy. Because you cannot afford to miss a day. You will constantly have something else you need to work on, and that feeling will never go away. The tests are very different, because of how they are designed. They are like NCLEX questions. You can have 4 right answers, but one of them should be the first thing you do, even though all of them are correct interventions. Then you have questions that have 3 right answers and 1 wrong answer. However, the question is asking which one is the wrong answer. Read the questions very carefully, and read each answer carefully. Then you have select all that apply questions. These are the most difficult types of questions. If there are 5 options, maybe 4 are correct. If you only select 3, then you still miss the entire problem. There is no partial credit for those types of questions. For each class you need to get 75% or better between your tests and quizzes. Once you do, homework % will kick into your grade at the end of the class. However, if you fail to not get 75% between your quizzes and tests, then pack up and go home. If you fail one class, no matter where you are in the program, you are done. You worked so hard to get here, don't blow it. The amount of stress you will go through will be intense, take at least 2 hours a day to relax somehow. Once a week, go out for a couple hours with your friends. This will help you more than hurt you. Lastly, make connections with your peers, you will need them, as much as they will need you. The faculty can be very helpful. If you have a question, just ask, and they will be more than happy to help you. My personal experience has been a wonderful one, so far. I have learned a lot in just 10 weeks. However, it was definitely a roller coaster ride in terms of my stress level. I hope this helps you get an idea of what will be expected of you. Good luck