Online College Degrees

The College Network has been around for many years.  They are one of the pioneers and original “Study Guide” formats to completing your college degree.  The majority of their customers are nurses looking to complete their LVN to RN, LPN to RN, or RN to BSN.  I don’t have accurate statistics, but my guess is that makes up 80-90% of their customers.

The College Network is not a college.  They are, in many ways, a specialized text book company that works together with various colleges and universities around the United States so that nurses can complete their degree.  These specialized text books, or study guides, walk nurses through various courses from Statistics, Microbiology, A & P, and even some basic courses like History or Government.

Here are 3 tips for working with the College Network in completing your nursing degree:

1. Don’t believe the hype – one way or another.  There are some nurses who bought into the study guide program thinking it was going to be easy.  It wasn’t.  So, they tell all their friends how bad it was.  That’s their fault. Studying on your own is almost always going to be harder than sitting in a classroom having a professor lecture to you while you take some notes.  If you have the ability to study on your own, then you might want to try them. 
2. Evaluating Your Transcripts – one of the TCN advisors will evaluate your transcripts.  They do this quite often and have seen many transcripts.  They are usually pretty accurate, BUT, the advisor who evaluates your transcript is NOT the final word.  The registrar at the college is the final word.  He/She has the right to make any adjustments to your evaluation. It may be just one course or two, but just be ready for that. It’s okay too.  The next tip will show you how to get around that initial evaluation.
3. Take A Few Courses – your transcripts may reveal that you need 9 of their study guides to take the courses you need to complete your degree.  But, you don’t have to sign up for all 9 at once.  If you were going to a community college, you don’t sign up for all 9 courses at once.  Just sign up for their minimum number of courses, if you need their financing, and work through those first.  This doesn’t obligate you to the entire 9 courses, and you can work through the first few courses to insure this is how you want to complete your degree.  If not, then you’re not out the entire amount.

Overall, I like the TCN program.  They have been around for quite a long time, which is saying something these days.  No university would work hand-in-hand with The College Network if their system wasn’t actually working.

Over the course of 4 years, I met with hundreds and hundreds of LPNs, LVNs, ASNs, and BSN nurses.  All of them interested in moving forward in their career and earning a higher level nursing degree.  One of the most crucial points of meeting these nurses is when the transcripts came out.

What courses will transfer so I will know what I have to take?

One of the hardest things was when a nurse realized that some of her college credits were not going to transfer.  There are different reasons a college course will not transfer.

1. The college you went to was not accredited.  This is mostly true for degreed nurses, or for nurses who did not attend a traditional college.
2. The course they took was more than 7 or 10 years old.
3. The course you took is not “quite” the same as the one the new college requires.
4. You didn’t have a lab with the science class.

Those are the main 4 reasons.  Other technicallities may arise, but those are the ones you need to be aware of.  So, let me address each one.

First, if your degree is going to be worth anything, it must be accredited. No exceptions.  That means the courses you took must come from an accredited college.  If you took Microbiology from a school that wasn’t accredited, it is quite likely you’ll have to take it again.  Check on your accreditation with the school you attended.

Second, every school has the right to regulate what courses they will accept and what they will not.  Much of this is dependent on the age of the course. Many schools will not accept courses that are more than 7 years old. This is because technology and science changes.  The college course you took in the 1990’s is different than what is being taught now.  Be prepared if you have some “aging” courses, you may be required to take them again.

Third, every college may have their own twist on how a college course is taught.  Therefore, a college course you took may be “similar,” but not the same.  The college admissions of the school you are applying to has the right to say the descriptions do not match.  Worse case scenerio is you have to take that course again, but the course you did take in the past can still possibly transfer in as an elective instead.

Fourth, and you know this.  Science has to have labs.  There are still some colleges out there teaching science classes without labs.  They won’t transfer and you will be have to take that class again.  This is true mostly if you are going from LPN to BSN.  Some ASN to BSN programs will allow it.

Here’s the bottom line (in my opinion).  Colleges and Universities are businesses. They have boards of directors that set their degree plans, as well as state and federal guidelines to follow. If you want to earn a nursing degree from a particular university, then you must follow their rules if you want their name on your degree.  They have the right to say yes or no when it comes time to transfer courses.  They’re not just being mean. 

In the big picture, it may require you to take one or two extra courses to complete your degree.  Don’t get lost in the details.  Look at the big picture and get your degree!