Galen College of Nursing Reviews of Associates in Nursing

"After avoiding student loan debt for the first thirty years of my life, I naively decided to enroll at Galen College of Irreversible Student Debt and pursue an Associate degree in Registered Nursing. The biggest red flag for this school is what makes it appealing to people like me who are new college students with no transfer-in credits, they accept 100% of applicants who pass the TEAS test. 100% acceptance with 90% NCLEX pass rate, sounds like a dream, right? More like a nightmare. Galen is upfront about attendance policies (can’t miss <20%} and academic policies (>74% pass & failure of 2 or more nursing courses is grounds for expulsion). The problem is that voluntary withdrawal from any course is documented on official transcripts as course failure; even with documentation of adverse circumstances (serious illness, death, etc.). You can be on academic probation for withdrawing without ever being notified. This program is a minimum two-year commitment and, unfortunately, for a vast majority of alumni, serious illness, hardships, and loss of loved ones will occur during enrollment. Other ethical nursing programs have Leave of Absence programs that give grace to students in need of pausing academic pursuits, allowing them to maintain earned credits without penalizing them for negative circumstances that are likely out of their control to begin with. At Galen, if you have withdrawn from courses and proceed to be academically successful fourteen months after and then have your first course failure, they can dismiss you from the school. Then you have to repay the loans you now owe for the pre-requisite courses they charge double for, without an increase in income. Or pursue readmission. After sitting out multiple semesters and finally being approved for readmission, you are once again set up to fail. You continue the program with not only your earned credits, but also the negative course credits. If a re-admit passes retaken courses, the cumulative GPA will remain under 2.0 unless they achieve over an A-grade in ALL REMAINING COURSES. If the cumulative GPA is under 2.0, the student is again up for dismissal as well as non-approval for student loans to pay for this shark of a school. Greedy Galen will let a hopeful re-admit rack up even more debt, allowing the student to dig a deeper financial hole that they’ll likely never recover from, without advising them of the slim likelihood of success. There is also no official disciplinary probation period, so it can last as long as your Program Director likes(this is not universal & varies between students & campus). Again, past negative academic marks never dissolve, even after successfully retaking the courses, permanently staining student GPA’s! This school accepts all applicants so they can charge double for pre-requisite courses. Galen ensures NCLEX pass rates remain high by weeding out weaker students so that only self-taught academically gifted students who never fail or withdraw from a course make it to taking the NCLEX. My cohort started with >60 students, there are currently <20 students left that have two terms until graduation. I wish I would have looked at the statistics for students who successfully complete Galen’s programs before I wasted my time and money. I hope the BBB shuts down this money trap."

"I had a horrible experience at Galen in Gainesville. I should have known something was wrong from the first semester I started they were passive things like giving me a brand knew pair of scrubs pants that was ripped down the middle. The classes are too expensive. Second semester fundamentals is $5,000. So if you don't pass it, that's what you have to pay again. When I took pharmacology, I withdrew because they brought in an instructor who told Cortney jokes the whole time would make passive aggressive remarks to get the students to single me out because he was targeting me. I knew the material but because he refused to give me my correct grade I was failing when I got my third grade. The pharm test was on scantron. The instructors have the pen, so they pretty much give you what they want. When I took sociology, I would always have issues when writing my papers on canvas too, like Grammarly would always mess up on me but not in any of my other courses. In microbiology online, that was just terrible my courses on canvas for this course and pharmacology were removed for no reason for about a week which delayed my studies,then my worksheets in Canvas got removed. I reported this to my instructor but she couldn't understand why I was having these issues. She did everything she could to try and help me, but I could tell that something else was going on to try and prevent me from studying. When I finished all my prerequisites I was supposed to start clinicals for med.surg. the next semester but all of a sudden it said I didn't have any financial aid to cover my tuition at Galen, even though I was told that I had enough financial aid to finish the program."

"Horrible school, school instructors set up the students for failure. Instructors turn over rate very high in which makes learning in a classroom environment nearly impossible. School was convenient and heard great outstanding results from one of the other locations. 60-75 percent of the cohort is borderline failing and the instructors show no empathy or concern. RUN away before you invest your money and time"

"Great experience so far! New campus with a great location, faculty and staff are helpful and understanding. I’ve met so many new people and am in a study group that meets every week. Looking forward to my first clinical rotation next term…if you’re looking for a VN to ADN Bridge program, I would check out this one."

"Would Not recommend! The new program director is rude and condescending. She had me unenrolled the day before finals and the last day of class for an error in attendance. I had proof on my phone I was in class. She ignored me told me to take it up with the instructor who was quitting anyway so he didn't care. Then come to find out the same instructor was counting me present back in the fall when I had dropped the class and had proof. so she would not let me continue after being half way done with the program. Even though it was an error on her instructors."

"To be honest I’m not even sure when I am graduating from this school anymore. They are trying to block my graduation because apparently they think some students should not graduate so they can keep the NCLEX pass rates high and block the students they think won’t pass. Last semester they switched clinicals from once per week to twice per week. Now they are choosing clinical sites and they’ve enrolled me in a 2 hr away clinical while working full time. If you actually want a degree, choose a different school. They make all these promises when you are applying in and then it’s the complete opposite. They said they had clinical sites close to me. When in fact there was only 1 and they split away from Galen when I started. I was fortunate enough that they accepted my other credits from another school but others weren’t that lucky. Just stay away from this school at all costs!"

"I see that someone using my name has written a terrible review for Galen. I DID NOT WRITE THAT POST. I had an excellent experience with Galen. Their communication is lacking in some areas but overall felt that I was VERY prepared for NCLEX and the world of nursing."

"I would say me personally if I knew what I know now. I would have never picked this school. i’m currently attending and finishing a course but as soon as it is done. i’m taking the lost of money I spent in this school and leaving. the program is designed to failed students at first they tell you a bunch of promises and they don’t even keep any of them. first of all I was told we was able to pick our clinical sites and when you do. they just chose a random location far away and sent you and then they refused to give you a reason. The tests are on paper and scantron for a such expensive school it shouldn’t be like that. I barely was able to read the paper test because of the printing. You CANNOT review your exam because they use the same exam every quarter. They claimed that they had opened lab till 6pm it’s a LIE. the open lab prof only here 9am-12pm basically the time you’re in class and he’s barely there at the time you show up you have to search the building for him or he doesn’t show up because of he’s doctor appointments. The medsurge prof one particular for bridge doesn’t even know what is on the exam herself always telling us to read the book and tell us oh you should focus on this and that and nothing she says focus on is on the exams so it’s a trick. THEY’RE Trying to fail you. Retaking the course is more money for the school. There is no study guide, no assignment to help boost Up your grade. ONLy 4 exams which are 25% of your grade which are so confusing. and a dosage test. if you fail dosage you failed the course, if you fail Cpe, you fail the course, If you fail ATI you fail the whole course. If you don’t have a 74 in the course you fail the course. They also do not round if you missing a point. IF you happen to choose this school GOOD LUCK TO YOU. I didn’t see those reviews until after I was already in the school I had high hopes until I realized nothing was how I was told and looked to see if I was alone then I found the reviews and i’m warning you guys that is thinking of this school."

"These teachers are unprofessional. You can’t take them seriously. Sometimes I feel they don’t want some of us to be successful. The one professor has a mean look on his/hers face. It’s very hateful. I will never recommend anyone going to any campus. I see a lot of bad reviews about a lot of the colleges, and other areas. Apparently they all must work about alike. They want your money not your success. This school is a big joke."

"If I could score them lower I could. It’s designed to make you fail, they do not teach at all what is on the test. It’s about tricking you not about your knowledge. The skills assessments are completely unrealistic. The teachers don’t teach, instructors don’t instruct, nobody works in the front office, registration is a nightmare. If you work they will tell you to stop, the program is ungodly priced and they don’t even teach. Go anywhere else it’s a horrible school."

"This school is a joke. They try to encourage you by saying you can work full time while doing their class work because they have a "flexible" program. Nothing could be further from the truth. They assign you what they want to and you had better make your schedule work around it or you will be dismissed. You basically teach yourself through their "modules" on a computer. You will be lucky if you have a clinical assignment in the SAME STATE you are attending."

"Some of The staff at Galen college in Pembroke Pines branches is very rude. They don’t have no customer service skills when you email them you have to begging to get an answer back.they pretend like they going to help you when they are not.the way they respond to you give you a sense how much they hate their job.this is very sad to deal with people like that."

"This school for the most part does not care about the student. The last year during the pandemic, we had to self teach ourselves. Missed out on Galen's million dollar lab and did not get any reduction in money for having to teach ourselves and use youtube to learn content. This program is very disorganized and people fail right and left. Things change and are not told to students. The "flexible" schedule is a joke. They do not work with your schedule. They make a schedule and you work around it. If I could go back. I would have gone to a community college. Gotten credits that actually transfer to other school and paid less than half of what I paid for my tuition. I am thankful I am an RN, but Galen is NOT A good school, is not organized and benefits so much from failing students. Please look elsewhere."

"I attended Galen from 2018 and was supposed to graduate in 15 months ...repeated 2 classes. During my final two quarters I failed advanced med surg by 1 point. I was in class via zoom. During this entire time I have had several serious personal issues occur and I was dismissed. During the first outbreak of covid I was working in a long term care facility with no RN in the building and of course no DON we were under severe distress. When I didn't make it this last time my administrator contacted the program director explaining what we had experienced and to allow me to return. We all are under so much distress. They told me to reapply. I did but they still denied me readmission. More now than ever they should be more flexible. They did not take anything into consideration. The first time that I had to repeat med surg 80% of that class failed. That should send out a red flag that possibly there is something wrong with the instruction. I'm very dissatisfied they will not allow me to go back and get my degree I have been an LVN for 29 years and now in debt due to GAlen over 27,000.00 and no degree. I agree they do make it hard to pass. I told several people since I started that this is not a good school to attend"

"Expensive, difficult and worthwhile. Many of the students that started with me did not graduate with me. Not perfect but nothing is. I'm happy I chose Galen for LPN to RN. Wish they would have offered LPN to BSN at the time of my attendance. I am currently considering returning to obtain my BSN and would use Galen again without hesitation."

"This school personally sucks. Instructors suck for the most part, especially once you get into the nursing classes. The way they have accommodated things for Covid is absolutely terrible and of course they have not offset any cost knowing that the education we are receiving isn't the same versus being in class nor was it the same of what most instructors or faculty received. The graduation and retention rate is what it is for a reason! You pay so much money for bs they pull off sites like Pinterest. You pretty much teach yourself throughout the course. If that's the case, we may as well be able to just teach ourselves the material and be able to sign up for the NCLEX exam on our own. This program is designed to fail, not uplift students. Our tests are all online which we have to take via Zoom and they supposedly are doing away with paper tests all together. I personally don't like this because the purpose is to get through nursing school and prepare us to take the NCLEX. I know for a fact it was not like that when any of these instructors were in school, so I'm not sure why they want to make this already difficult time even more difficult? Makes no sense. Since our grades are only based on 4 exams, you would think they would do more test prep. I noticed they have a little, but probably because all the poor evaluations and reviews. You can't poorly prep us for something then expect us to perform well or NCLEX type tests since you refuse to allow us on campus to take tests how you all took and how we were allowed prior. I can see if this type testing is done further down the line, but doing this during the first nursing course you take is not ideal in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, it'll be beneficial once you actually get to take the NCLEX, but we have to actually get through school first and need the proper tools and support to do so. I can see if we took those type of test towards the end when we take ATI's to predictor to see how we would do on the NCLEX, but solely basing our grades off just test, I feel things need to be a little more lenient and we need to be better prepared versus, just thinking we can go and sit down and take the NCLEX today. Some of us have been out of nursing schools for a while. You can't expect us to just come out and perform well on those test off the back. The rationale for this in the first place was thinking people were cheating on exams at home. We are healthcare workers and nursing is hands on. If you genuinely cared about the education of others and students you would've done something to help or at east stop being money hungry. The first time I tried to come back literally everything was online: Lab, theory and clinical. How can you do a clinical on zoom and why would you still expect people to pay for practically nothing? Some programs have done well with accommodating students, this is not one of them. This is one of those programs who's clearly strictly for the money. Continue accepting students, taking our money but are not properly educating them. I was readmitted to the school thinking it would be a great experience this time but this is awful and I should've stayed at C State. At this point I am contemplating dropping my current course and seeking another cost effective, more efficient program because they are terrible and if nursing is your passion, you should do yourself a favor and stay away from this school unless you just have money to waste!"

"I am very disappointed in the lack of communication between the staff (not necessarily the instructors, I have no bad experience with the instructors at this point) and the students. I have found that no one wants to assist you if you have questions, emails will go unanswered, you ask questions of one person you are told to contact another and that person never responds. I would recommend seeking out other programs if they are available to you and meet your needs. The 2 programs that I decided against have contacted me multiple times and only stopped when I told them I have decided on Galen. I knew much more about their programs then I still do about Galen and I have been attending Galen for 2 weeks now. I plan on discussing further with loan servicers and grant programs as I would expect if they are accepting government money they have some sort of responsibility to the students they are receiving those funds from. This program may be a good program for a person that is familiar with college and online courses however if you are not I recommend you stay far away."

"The staff provide students with answers to tests. I have personally witnessed these acts. They also punish other students for the same. Beware! Sure, you can get the degree, I did...but even though accredited, there are state colleges that do not accept the units. When you complete the ADN, you will need more general education requirements that werent included in the ADN program. Instructors helping some students cheat is the most disturbing, how they treat you is another."

"Very expensive and some teachers lack experience, but you will learn, some instructors are excellent. Staff is always saying how they care about you, but no one helps except for a 5-minute meeting with your academic counselor. The Cincinnati campus is overcrowding with students, but they're not expanding. They have converted dry labs to classrooms due to the fact they just keep letting students in; now there's nowhere to practice CPEs. It obvious they are more interested in the money now. I would give it three stars if it weren't for their terrible choices of clinical sites, some are being shut down or unsafe."

"Loved to be Galen student. Yes, it was challenging, any nursing school is not easy, and the only way to succeed is to study daily. Faculties are awesome, always ready to help. Clinicals and Lab gave me a lot of hands on experience. Tuition is high, however, the knowledge and skills I gained worth every penny."