[divsky]

I'm about to get out of the Navy this summer and move back to Iowa. My goal was to attend nursing school starting the fall semester at Kirkwood and then transfer to the University of Iowa in hope of obtaining a BSN. What I never realized was how hard it actually is to get into a nursing program. Anybody know what the wait time is to get into the nursing program at Kirkwood? Do I have any hope at all of getting in by this fall?

[calla2114]

If you have all your pre-reqs done the average wait is about 3-4 semesters for the day programs and 2-3 for evening weekend. So I would say the chances are pretty slim, not impossible but slim!

[rph3664]

........assuming it's not under water..........

[divsky]

Originally Posted by rph3664

........assuming it's not under water..........

.. Which is why I've been very patient with them. I was in Iowa City back in '93.. never thought I'd see something like that again. I guess I was wrong.

Anyways I hear the wait is at least a few semesters. I plan on a BSN though, so, I should be able to start college to work on the pre-reqs immediately, right? Anyone know how many semesters it takes to get through the pre-reqs?

[calla2114]

You should be able to start the pre-req's right away..at least most of them. And they will be underwater..most likely, that area tends to flood. But heck my hospital is underwater(some) right now, so we are all dealing.....

[purple_rose_3]

Pre-req's take 2 years full-time.

[GlennCoco]

I might be able to offer some insight for you.

The college did not flood. Downtown Cedar Rapids flooded BIG TIME. Kirkwood did not flood. Classes were canceled for a week though because travel around town was nuts and they actually used the Kirkwood campus for recovery efforts and FEMA personnel, as well as a landing pad for Marine One.

I am actually in the first semester of the program at Kirkwood. If you schedule it right, you can get through the prereqs done in two semesters. You'll want to do A&P I and Health Skills I during your first semester and the second halves during the next semester. Of course you'll need the computer class, Professionals in Health, and First Aid somewhere in there, they're so easy, you may as well try to cram that in the first semester if you think you can handle it or wait until the next semester if you want to ease into it.

Only after you get those seven classes done can you get on the waiting list. They'll tell you it will be a 3-4 semester wait. For me it didn't feel as bad as I thought it would. I finished the last of my prereqs in May 2007 and got on the list, and I was somewhere around #188 on the waiting list. Every semester they gave me an updated number. Sometime probably in March or so they sent me a letter telling me that I had been accepted for Fall 2008 and asked me if I wanted to be on the standby list for Summer 2008 if enough people dropped off. I marked that I did, and they told me that they would be calling the standby people on May 1st, 2008. Sure enough, May 1st came around and they called me and asked if I wanted to start the summer, which was May 19th. I said I did and here I am, nine weeks in. If I could have done things differently, the only thing differently that I would have done is assumed that I would have been getting in for the summer and started filling out the compliance paperwork sooner, because basically I had a ton of papers to fill out in about a week. So anyways, for me the wait ended up being exactly a year, or 3 semesters.

Another thing you will want to do is either while you in your first semesters of prereqs, or during your 3-4 semester wait, is get started on the other classes that aren't in the actual nursing program but are required to graduate, which would be Intro to Psych, Developmental Psych, a speech class, Microbiology, Comp I, Intro to Sociology, and an elective. Several of those you can take as the Anytime/Anywhere class if you are so inclined. If you can get that stuff knocked out so that by the time you start the actual nursing program you ONLY have the core nursing curriculum left you'll probably be better off.

If you have any other questions don't hesitate to ask.