Need education advice!!

[Hausfrau]

To my surprise I recieved two letters in the mail today. The first was a financial aid award letter for a Federal Stafford loan for Summer 2 at Rio Salado. I'd been waiting on this, so huge sigh of relief. I can finally get started on pre-reqs!!

THEN-- I get a letter from Central Arizona College saying they are offering me a 4 semester scholarship. I have to be enrolled in at least 12 credits per semester and it has to be consecutive.

Free school sounds REALLY nice but 12 credits seems like A LOT. I don't work, I am a stay at home mom. The rio Salado online college seems ideal to me.

But also, I wonder if I go the CAC route then if I was lucky and got into the nursing program within 1-2 semesters I'd have at least 1 year of nursing school paid for. (Assuming the scholarship covers that)..

Just confused. Would you take the scholarship or just go the "at my leisure" route via rio salado?

[sassiebaz]

I agree that 12 credits can be difficult especially when they are all academic classes. I tried algebra and BIO in one semester and really it was too much for me. Now, Im probably not the norm because my youngest was only 2 and I had some issues and guilt with being away and having reliable child care. With that being said, I also took 12 credits back in the day when I only had 2 kids and I worked part time. I did just fine. Not A's but B's and C's. You can do it but like "Multi" said, you may not want to take too many of those difficult classes in the same semester.

[RobynBobbin]

Also, for the CAC nursing pre-reqs it says this:

• Eligible to register for MAT 121
  
• Eligible to register for ENG101

So does that mean you don't have to have them completed at the time of your application just be eligible?

No, you technically don't have to take these classes before getting into nursing school, although you do have to take the placement tests. 11 years ago when I took the placements tests for my first degree I tested into the lowest math but right into ENG 101 so I had to take 3-4 other math classes before I could take MAT 121. I would recommend taking the co-req's before getting into nursing school though which would include MAT 121 and ENG 101. That way you only have to take the nursing core classes during the program. I'm a SAHM too and 12 credits is a lot especially when you get to A&P/CHM classes, but you can do it! I'm attending CAC right now and will (hopefully) start their nursing program in January so let me know if you have any questions!