There are many LVN schools in California to choose from. How does a potential nursing student decide which program to choose? Many students are working and going to school at the same time. Therefore, it is useful to find a program that offers LVN certification with some flexibility of schedule. There are some schools that offer morning and evening programs in order to accommodate working students, or students who are also parents, or students that have the responsibility of taking care of elderly relatives.

The number of LVN schools in California has increased over the last 5-10 years due to an increasing need for nurses, and state budgetary restrictions on community colleges, state colleges and the state funded university system. Many nurses, both LVN's and RN's, find themselves having to participate in a lottery system in order to earn their way into a nursing program. Some have taken the prescribed and required prerequisite courses but programs are already full. The lottery system places all qualified applicants in a lottery pool, and from the most qualified candidates a selected number of students are offered a place in the program. Some have waited for 2 to 3 years, re-entering the lottery system each year, not gaining any kind of seniority just by virtue of the fact that they have already been waiting one, two or three years for entrance. Meanwhile, their prerequisites, which must be taken within 5 years of entrance into nursing school, begin to age. Will they get into a program before their prerequisite courses lose their usefulness and "expire" 5 years from the date they were taken? Also, the student is further and further away from even remembering what she learned in anatomy and physiology, psychology, microbiology, chemistry and nutrition. Most devastating is the feeling that their dream of becoming a nurse may be impossible.