Need advice: ADN or ABSN in Boston

[mother_of_zeus]

Hello,

I am currently taking prerequisite courses at community college and will be planning to move to the Boston area where my fiance lives in September. I had planned to apply to ABSN programs but I'm starting to second guess this decision because I already have >70K in debt: 56k from a masters degree and 15k from undergraduate. I have a BA in psychology and an MPH and 4 years of experience in public health evaluation. I do not enjoy evaluation and and want work more in the community. My intended career goal and dream was to work in maternal child health but upon graduating from my MPH, most of those jobs require a nursing degree so I found myself stuck in evaluation. I have a 3.98 undergrad GPA and a 3.86 graduate GPA and I am pretty confident I will have strong prerequisite GPA. I'm trying to save up money in hopes of paying for a state school in Massachusetts but I'm worried about getting accepted or not being able to cover the costs and I really don't think it's wise to take out any more debt.

What would you do in my situation? Thanks!

[NurseCaitB, BSN, RN]

Figure out what degree is needed in your desired field (maternal/child health). Do you know of ADN nurses who are doing the job you want or do most of these positions require BSNs? Look up job postings - do they say BSN preferred? You could try to go the route of cheaper ADN from a community college (NECC and Middlesex have good programs) then a cheaper RN-to-BSN bridge but it would take longer to get your BSN vs. being able to get your BSN in a second-degree program in 15-18 months/4 semesters full-time (I'm in MA right now and this is what I did but I absolutely do not recommend my school if you're in that much student debt - I went to a prestigious school and their ABSN program is well-ranked but it is a private university and INCREDIBLY expensive).

[idkmybffjill]

With that amount of debt, I would go with the cheapest option, which is most likely the ADN and then your RN to BSN as you work.

You can check the cost of some of the ABSN programs though just to make sure. Some programs are relatively inexpensive and might not be much more than an ADN.

[mother_of_zeus]

Thanks for the advice! I'm leaning more towards an associate's and completing a bridge program but will likely apply to both ADNs and ABSNs to see what admissions into these programs will actually look like.