Second bachelor's degree in Nursing

U.S.A. Virginia

Published

I obtained my first bachelor's degree in Biology and wish to apply to the accelerated BSN program at the same university. I have completed all of the prerequisites needed. However, the university policy states that in order to complete a second baccalaureate degree, you must complete a minimum of 30 semester hours that are beyond the requirements for the first degree. I was a transfer student with an associate's degree so I only needed to take the upper level requirements at the university to obtain my bachelor's degree. Would this mean that I would need to complete this 30 SH requirement prior to applying into the A-BSN program? Has anyone been in this situation to offer some advice? Thanks in advance :)

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Specializes in NICU.

You have both a Bachelor's degree and an Associate's degree? Are they from different schools? How many credits are they accepting from your associates and how many from your BS?

The intention of the rule is that in order for the school to grant you a degree, you need to complete a minimum of 30 credits at their school for that degree. This rule does not apply to you because I am assuming that the ABSN program has more than 30 credits in it.

It is intended for students that have a BS from another school and want another BS at this school. For example, a student got a BS in Biology from school A and wanted a BS in Microbiology from school B. The Microbiology degree is 125 credits and school B accepts 110 credits from the first degree so the student only needs 15 credits to complete the degree, but the student needs to complete an additional 15 credits to satisfy the rule. The school is saying if you want a degree from us, you need to pay a minimum of 30 credits worth of classes.

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Yes, I have both degrees from different schools: an associate's degree from a community college and a bachelor's degree from this particular university. The university requires 120 credits to graduate with a biology degree. A minimum of 25% of total # of credits must be fulfilled at the university. In other words, 30 credits in 120 credit must be completed at the university. I completed 41 credits at the university and my associate's degree fulfilled the lower level requirements, as well as the prerequisites for the biology core courses. I was advised by a few people from the biology department and nursing department. Some say what you have just said and others tell me that I am still required to complete 30 credit hours beyond the BSN degree requirements which is also 120 credit hours. I was told by one person that I would need to complete 19 credit hours since I was 11 credits beyond the first bachelor's degree. So, as you can see, I'm not exactly sure which is right. I really hope what you have just said is right because I don't want to take any more classes than I need to.

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I forgot to add this:

The university states that one needs to complete a minimum of 30 semester hours that are beyond the requirements for the first degree. A minimum of 150 credit hours is required for students earning two baccalaureate degrees.

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Specializes in NICU.

So you are saying that if you getting a second degree from this school, they are requiring you to put in an extra 30 credits (150-120) of general ed classes??? I have a BS from the same school that I am getting my BSN (ABSN program) and there is no requirement beyond the credits required for the BSN. I can see the requirement like I stated in my previous post, but if they are requiring 150 credits for a 120 credit degree then that is ridiculous.

I would talk to the Registrar office directly instead of Biology or Nursing to get clarification . This is a university issue and not a departmental issue.

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Thanks for the advice! I know that I have 41 credit hours from the university so far that went toward my first BS and will obtain 66 credit hours from the A-BSN program totaling 107 credit hours. This, in addition, to all my transferred credits from other schools will hopefully be enough. I will go and ask the Registrar office this week. Thanks again!

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