RIC Accelerated BSN

John_T · Sep 14, 2015

I'm one year ahead of you and thought the whole application process was very confusing. You will need to first need to be accepted as a second degree student to the college and then need to apply and be accepted to the nursing school. If you just submitted your application to the college in August, call admissions now to move the process along because you need to have your RIC 'plan of study' completed in order to apply to the nursing program by October 15(for January start). You will also need to have the 3 pre-req courses (anatomy, human development, chem 106) completed by the end of this semester to apply for January. You can petition to take all 5 beginning courses at once) when you apply to the nursing program. I decided not to petition as I am working and I thought the course load would be too much. If you do decide to take all the courses at once, you should plan not to work because you'll be very busy (and you'll already be behind in NURS223 & 224). I was told that second degree students need a GPA of 3.3-3.4 to be competitive. I had a 3.6 and was accepted the first time I applied. We received our acceptance emails 2 weeks before classes started along with a fairly long 'to do' list.

Let me know if you have any questions I have not answered.

Good luck!

hbarbour1 · Sep 14, 2015

Thank you so much! This is exactly what I was looking for. I did contact Admissions last week and should have a decision this week. I have the 3 classes completed and my GPA is 3.66, so fingers crossed. I cannot believe the decisions are not made until January!

I have a question - what did you mean when you said I "would already be behind in NURS 223 & 224?" Do you mean because I did not take the 100 level nursing courses? Did you find it difficult to "catch up?" I am not sure whether I should petition or not -one of the reasons I chose this program is the ability to complete it quickly. However, I recognize that taking 5 nursing classes at once is incredibly time consuming and possibly insane :). For me, a lot will come down to financial aid. I am anxious to get my plan of study created! Thanks again for the response!!!

John_T · Sep 25, 2015

You can cut out 1 year if you do take all the 5 beginning courses at once, and also take 2 clinical courses over the summer. Most people I talk to recommend not taking clinicals over the summer because there is just too much information to learn at once...although I noticed that the summer course do seem to fill up right away!

What I meant by being behind is that NURS 223 and 224 build on Nurs 220 & 222. After I registered for 223, I received a lot of pre-work for the course (5 chapters each in 3 different text books and online courses). Both courses "hit the ground running". 3 weeks into the semester I have already taken 3 quizzes and 2 skills demos in 223 and had a cultural diversity activity and a practical in 224. The timeline to sign up for classes is really tight for January students. I found out I was accepted on Monday 2 weeks before classes started, had to have course selections in the following Tuesday and received my schedule on Thursday - classes started the following Tuesday. You will also need to be CPR certified and have your Health records approved for the first day of classes (only if doing all 5 classes at once).

I'm not sure if second degree students qualify for financial aid. I was only offered a federal loan.