Pacific College

I’ve been researching various nursing program around my area. Had a chance to speak with Nadeem Zaidi at Pacific College. He was very attentive to my questions regarding my transcripts and also provided very comprehensive information about the curriculum there as well as my options for financial aid. I still have some other schools to check out but after meeting Nadeem, Pacific is at the top of my list.

I have to be honest.
When my coworkers and I first enrolled in the Pacific College LVN program, we were excited at the prospect of becoming nurses. 2 weeks into our program however, all 4 of us thought that we had Made a serious mistake.
I won’t go into details because today is a different day.
Now, it’s 7 months later, and PC is not the same. There have been a lot of changes made. A LOT of changes.
This one guy for example, David Castillo… he just will not stop with making sure that I am completely satisfied with whatever issues or concerns I have had, or may ever have, are addressed and resolved. He claims to have a drive to improve the image of PC, and you know what??? It shows. He has even spent his Labor Day holiday -(the HOLIDAY/​day off, people) — contacting me, trying to resolve the issues I brought to him, not even 24 hours before. As I recall, he was on a plane, on his way out, and yet still taking the time to address my concerns.
If his genuine attempt at taking care of his students is any indication, then this is not the Pacific College your parents grew up with. This is a new and improved Pacific College, and I for one, welcome the changes and would like to thank Mr. Castillo.

I am an RN student now and many of my classmates went to this college for the LVN program and had great things to say about it. I highly recommend this school to any aspiring nurses.

Great school Ashley helped me a lot going through everything one by one, looking forward thanks Ashley :)

I work here at Pacific College and I LOVE it. I love my students, and I love what I do. We are definitely OC’s best kept secret as far as nursing schools goes. We offer an almost full track of nursing programs and are rated number TWO in Orane County with our completion rates– and that is coming from the US DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. Pacific College is moving in a new direction and I am proud to be a part of this exciting change. If you have questions call us and ask for me :) Glad to help any one, even if you are curious and not neccesarily looking to start right away, or just have general questions regarding the nursing field. See ya’ll in my office loves! xoxox

I am looking forwards to starting the LVN course… the biggest reason for it is due to Ashley Barrios who made it really simple and smooth when it came to the whole enrollment. Her attitude is always upbeat and she made herself available to my schedule, since I work late. Like I said can’t wait to start and I will keep you guys updated with my experience at Pacific College.
Thank you Ashley for everything.

Note: My review is regarding the BSN program.
Came here because I know 2 former nursing instructors of mine from another school works here. One is the director and the other does the PHN portion here. They are very organized and great instructors so I know I cant go wrong. Its never about the school itself sometimes but who teaches and is in charge. Boy did I make the wrong decision had I known that both my former professors decide to leave a quarter way through the program. Everything went down hill since then. Correction: it wasn’t as bad until towards the end.
Throughout the beginning of the program, it went pretty smoothly and most of the instructors were great. Here are the bad experiences I had and hope none of you guys going to start the program there will have to deal with (especially now that I gave you heads up) or reconsider another school.
During signing of the contract, everything tends to sound good, organized etc but its not. Admissions never told me of the extra charges that will be applied towards the end. (In order to receive our PHN certification, there was a $ 75 fee to the Board, which was never spoken of. There was also another $ 125 graduation fee. REGARDLESS if you decide to walk for graduation or not (supposedly for processing your graduation paperwork etc.) My advice is this should be counted together with our tuition at the beginning of the contract process or at least inform the students of these charges then. Its not an extreme amount but its the principle of it. Did I mention I reminded them about the PHN application too? We were never told about it. None of the students would have known they needed to apply for it on their own. it if I didn’t pass the message to the front desk to email/​call the director, no one would have known and delay their certification process (minus 1-​star)
During orientation before we start the program, I do remember them telling us that we will have to do clinical’s but never said we couldn’t use our own workplace like many other schools allow. They also said if we cant find a location, we have an option to follow and be assigned to their PHN instructor at their affiliated public health location, which I chose. First week during the PHN portion (new instructor-​i think), the instructor said there is no location and that we need to find our own. Kind of last minute don’t you think? If we cant find a location at a given time then we will have to drop the course until we do. Unreasonable and trying to put the fault and problem onto the students, don’t you think? (minus 1-​star)
Same instructor was very unprofessional and gives horrible grades without a reason or explanation what we did wrong. Mind you that im not the kind of students who decides to complain about an instructor who gives a lot of work etc. As a professional, I take on whatever challenges that come to me. But for no reason, review, corrections, response and worse when I catch A LOT of her mistakes and typos on her part, sounds like a hypocrite don’t you think. School offered me a complaint and grievance form. I did all the filing, wrote a long explanation with evidence and what do I get out of out? The interim DOE said what the instructor did was adequate and I got what I got. In my opinion, if more than half the class ask a whole bulletin board of questions, it obviously means its an instructor problem (with poor communications) and not the students. (minus 1-​star)
Lastly, I was unable to walk for graduation due to reasonable circumstances and asked for a favor if I can receive my honor cord anyway as a keepsake. All I got was (without considering
my issue), honor cords were only given out at graduation only and encouraged me to attend. Hello? If I could, I would’ve?! So i explained again my reason and guess what? They simply ignored me and never responded to me again. My fellow classmate had text me in frustration during graduation (who decided to walk), was asking for her honor cord too and guess what? They said she doesn’t get one because she didn’t meet honors. She was surprised and said she did. They said well they don’t have her name down unless she has proof. She said, why would I bring my papers to graduation? So she never got one. At the end, I’m glad I missed it as who knows what else could go wrong. (minus 1-​star)
So many coworkers and colleagues are going back for their BSN and was going to come here depending on my experience (at least 6 people when I started until graduation). I guess that is no longer going to happen. Another former classmate of mine had decided to pull out from this school a few weeks into it and going somewhere else. I am so glad he did. Their loss, not mine.

I wouldn’t recommend it. If you can take the traditional route to nursing. I went here after receiving a 4 year degree in a different discipline I was planning on doing lvn because its easy (its a career college like ITT Tech or Everest not like UCLA or anything lol its super easy here) and then doing lvn to bsn bridges. But it was horribly unorganized. The president of the school was an old man named mr nelson he might be dead by now because he was always out sick and would never talk to students if you have a problem with getting something done which is odd because the president at my university was available to hear students out even though you had to make an appt weeks in advance which is understandable but never just refused to hear a complaint. Basically if you’re like a single mother with no education or just someone who has no education besides an HS diploma or and AA (which is basically a 2^nd hs diploma lets be real people) never been to college ect you can get funding here and complete an easy lvn program so if thats all you’re looking for go ahead !
But. If you have goals in life besides just becoming an LVN I’d recommend you stay far far away. I’m now in a post bacc at a local university for people who want to study medicine (MD, DO, PA, ect), have a bachelor’s, and are either in need of pre-​reqs or have been previously denied entry and need classes to be more competitive.
Speaking to people on the boards they had no idea what Pacific College was and the clinical hours won’t be counted as patient contact hours for PA or any experience but you can use it in your personal statement.
A lot of people ask me about it since its at a hospital in my area but I always steer them to Westcoast University or Shepard College in Los Angeles !
Super sad. Kinda embarrassed I ever attended here :/​Its like ICDC
Best of luck to all of you with your careers !

Just finished the VN program and I have to say I’m very disappointed. The school is very very unorganized there is no communication among the staff members from the receptionist to the financial aid, to whoever is going to be covering for a class. There was numerous times that our class had to be canceled or sit at el torito or Denny’s because we had no class room available… yes this really happened. My advice to anyone that is considering going to this school. Look for a different school this program might be cheaper but its not worth what you get. If you are just starting make sure you read your contract thoroughly, if the school says they will do something or pay something’s make sure its specified in the contract. Goodluck

I highly recommend Pacific College. I am currently a student there in my 4^th term. My experience has been excellent. The instructors are knowledgable and compassionate nurses who want to see you succeed and will do everything possible to get you there. I have seen my classmates transform from awkward young people into to fine competent nurses and it would be an honor to work along side any one of them. At the end of the day we get out of life what we put into it. Nursing school is hard but like everything, if you want something bad enough you will put in the effort it takes to make it happen and at this school they will support you all the way.

I love Pacific College! To this day I can call the instructors with questions and I graduated in 2011. They helped me get IV certified and worked with my schedule to get me to school and work and still study. Graduated with honors from the LVN program while working full time and a single parent. I tell everyone considering getting their Lvn to go there. The director of nursing when I left there, Donna was so caring and passionate about helping students.

WELL SAID DEBBIE K!!!
I couldn’t agree more to what Debbie K said. They are, from start to finish, FOR-​PROFIT institution. In fact, they mess up on everything. From instructors to student loans. I mean seriously?
I would like to share a scenario. Pacific College said that on our second term we will have a different instructor considering it was going to be harder and more for a REGISTERED NURSE to teach… but of course, that didn’t happen. We were told in the first week of the second term that our instructor was somehow not available so we were stuck with our first term instructor, who is just absolutely clueless (bless her heart) of any subject for that term. Totally unacceptable right!!! I know. Obviously, more than half of our class failed that term and never came back to Pacific College again. I’m happy to say that two of whom have failed went to another wonderful school and passed no problem…
I can just write so much more… but Pacific College is just not worth it. Sorry.
I do hope they changed (since 2007) for the better.
Better admissions people, loan officer, and instructors!!!
That’s all I have to say.