Watts School of Nursing

I do not recommend Watts School of Nursing in Durham, NC.....The cost is totally overpriced and the instructors are sorry excuses. During the calculation dosing testing my class lost around 7 students....I made it through that but seriously I believe years ago it was a great school, now forget about it they are money hungry set up via Mount Olive College... more

I do not agree with the last post by k.c....I currently attend WSON and it is an excellent school. The school is really hands on and make sure you are well prepared before going into the field. Watts grads are looked highly upon in all of the surrounding hospitals (the reputation is incredible). And I am also a minority (African American) to be exact so to the comment of them not being ""minority friendly"" is ridiculous, I am treated as every other individual that worked hard to get there. This school is very strict and expects you to display professionalism at all time (which should be expected of all schools). And yes Watts is expensive but it is well worth it in the end. Look at the statistics (job placement rate, NCLEX passage rate). I do not regret my decision of attending Watts and I am very proud to one day be able to call myself a Watts graduate! more

I at first thought that this school was a great school to attend for nursing. It was very easy to get accepted to the school (the admissions test was the easiest test i've ever taken, and the pre reqs needed are minimal). the pre reqs included english, college algebra, anatomy, history, and life span/developmental psych. I was somewhat skeptical of the lack of classes such as chemistry, biology, etc for nursing. After attending attending for 1.5 yrs I had had enough of the school. They are very focused on getting you through the program as quickly as possible without really taking the time to thoroughly explain things and walk you through different procedures and skills. You spend the majority of your time looking at videos of the skills from youtube and a nursing website the school subscribes to. After the first year all you feel like is an advanced CNA. There are a few great instructors and then there are the ones who are very rude and do not seem to genuinely care about your success there as a student. Overall the school is not a ""minority friendly"" school either. In my personal experience several of the instructors as well as staff did not seem to care about providing exceptional teaching to ALL of their students, not just caucasian students and it was easily seen, there was also a lot of favoritism shown. After bringing some of my concerns to the attention of the director and assistant director I was asked whether or not I had considered attending NC central since I was black and it was an HBCU, that was the last straw for me. Watts may have at one time been a great school but now they are about making money from students. You can not learn how to be a great RN by looking at youtube videos and reading a website. Its a hands on profession, therefore you should be taught in that way. Do yourself a huge favor (esp. if you are a minority) and look into other local 4 yr universities that offer nursing or look into the many local great community colleges that have great NCLEX scores and who produce excellent nurses. You will be glad you saved your money, time and efforts in doing so! good luck! :-) more

I had no problem getting a hold of anyone. Jennifer never took longer than 24 hours to get back with me, and she was always very helpful. The application process is a lengthy one, but Watts is a highly respected school, with a very long history of excellence (it was the very first nursing school in NC). Watts was my only choice for a nursing program because it is so greatly respected. I'm from TX originally and even in TX people had heard of Watts and knew that the nurses that come out of Watts are the best of the best. Everyone on staff is incredibly helpful and friendly, I have no complaint about anyone. As far as the price of tuition, that price includes books (atleast for your first semester) and some supplies. So really Watts, for the education you're getting, is cheap. Duke has an accelerated program that is over $30,000 a year! If I can finish my nursing education and only have $25,000 in loans I'll be more than happy. Now that I'm in I'm very proud to call myself a Watts student. If you're really honestly serious about your education and willing to do the work, Watts is an excellent choice. Number one in my book. Pros: Long history, highly respected. more

The Watts School is a school of excellence. I would recommend attending an information session. Here you will get a chance to meet the instructors as well as the director, ask questions and tour the school. The education you get is an invaluable experience and when more

It is very hard tog et a hold of anyone. Half the time when you call you get an answering machine for the school. If you are lucky enough for someone to answer the phone you are then transfered to jennifer Hawkins voicemail (she never picks up the phone). Don't bother to leave a message because she will not call you back, most of the time this is due to her being on vacation. She is the only person that can give you any information, so you get to wait until she comesback to work. She is also not very good at returning emails. They also cost a fortune, you can go to a community college and come out with an Associate Degree in Nursing for about a fifth of the cost. In my opinion, it is a waste of time and money to try and get in. I applied to a community college about 6 months after starting my application with watts and was accepted before watt's board could review my application. I ended up giving them about $90 to waste my time. Pros: Less people are willing to pay $25000 for a degree they can get for 5000 Cons: cost, staff, application process, not very informative more