Looking to change career

[jpgmavs]

I have been in the Information Technology field for 7 years. I am 27 now and am tired of what I do. I have been interested in medicine for a while. I am very interested in nursing.

The issues I am facing are that I do not have any college and would be starting from scratch at 27. I am worried that I will get good grades but never get accepted since they take so few people each semester in these programs.

What advise do you have to increase my chances of getting accepted? I know that you need a 4.0 in most cases in the pre-reqs and other relavent classes to have a real shot.

How many times do most people have to apply to get in? What schools in dallas are easiest to apply to? I am thinking of stating at North Lake.

J

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

The easiest schools to get into are the ones located out in the boonies, on the outskirts of DFW. My coworker got into Tarleton State's RN program with a 2.8 grade point average. This school is located 80 miles southwest of Fort Worth, in Stephenville.

North Central Texas College is in Gainesville, and their RN program only has a few prerequisites. There are other schools on the outskirts with relaxed requirements for admission, but you need to be willing to commute.

[jspacegirl]

JPG,

I understand where you are coming from. Although I was 25 when I made the decision to quit my job and go back to school, I still felt like it was too late and I was starting from scratch. Despite having a 4.0 in all of my nursing prereqs, I was very nervous about getting into nursing school! It's scary knowing you put your life on hold, took a risk, not knowing whether it would work out or not. Luckily, I just got accepted to TWU's accelerated BSN on my first try.

If you already have a bachelor's, my advice would be to take your prereqs at a community college, like DCCCD, and then apply to either a regular or accelerated BSN program. Either way, after you have your prereqs done, you will have a BSN in 2 years or less. It seems as if a lot of the ADN programs at the community colleges have much bigger applicant pools, and you may have to wait to get in. And you DEFINITELY need a 4.0 to even be considered, at least that's what a counselor at El Centro told me.

It seems like a majority of people on AllNurses have chosen nursing as a second career, so don't worry about being too old! Just make sure to have a 4.0 on your prereqs and score well on the NET and you should hopefully get in. I know it's easy for me to say that, but if you know that this is something you want to do, believe me, you will put forth the effort and make it happen.

Good luck!

[jspacegirl]

Sorry, I missed that you didn't have any prior college experience. In that case, go for the ADN, but like I said before GET A's!!!