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Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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Just got accepted as a pre nursing student to my first choice college (Ursuline College), and I am super excited :) However, I have some questions for current pre nurses and an issue I hope you van all help me solve

First is the issue. My parents want me to go to a community college despite my protests, and I just need to know how to convince them to let me go where I want. They say I should do a CC first because it would save money and because I "don't have homework" at my school. I don't really have homework because in English we just do projects, in Algebra our teacher dies it with us, and in Civics we have tests twice a week and notebook checks. The rest if my day is my EMT class, and we do our books in class. I try explaining this to them, but they cut me off. Any advice?

Second, I was accepted into pre nursing because I didn't fully meet the requirements to be directly accepted into nursing. What is the difference? Don't we all have pre reqs first year and nursing courses second?

Next, what are your schedules like? I want to volunteer as an EMT in college to build my résumé and maintain the certification, but I'm not sure if I'll have the time.

Lastly, will you all have to take classes during the summer? It looks like, with pre reqs and core courses, that that'll be necessary, but I don't know how college classes work.

Thanks in advance, and I hope to hear from you all! :)

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Specializes in ICU Stepdown.
Just got accepted as a pre nursing student to my first choice college (Ursuline College), and I am super excited :) However, I have some questions for current pre nurses and an issue I hope you van all help me solve

First is the issue. My parents want me to go to a community college despite my protests, and I just need to know how to convince them to let me go where I want. They say I should do a CC first because it would save money and because I "don't have homework" at my school. I don't really have homework because in English we just do projects, in Algebra our teacher dies it with us, and in Civics we have tests twice a week and notebook checks. The rest if my day is my EMT class, and we do our books in class. I try explaining this to them, but they cut me off. Any advice?

Second, I was accepted into pre nursing because I didn't fully meet the requirements to be directly accepted into nursing. What is the difference? Don't we all have pre reqs first year and nursing courses second?

Next, what are your schedules like? I want to volunteer as an EMT in college to build my résumé and maintain the certification, but I'm not sure if I'll have the time.

Lastly, will you all have to take classes during the summer? It looks like, with pre reqs and core courses, that that'll be necessary, but I don't know how college classes work.

Thanks in advance, and I hope to hear from you all! :)

When you're accepted directly into nursing as a freshman you don't have to worry about applying to nursing as your major when you're done with pre-reqs. Therefore, when you're not accepted and you're only accepted as a pre-nursing student, you have more pressure to maintain your grades because your grades depend on whether you can get into the nursing major.

Currently, I am enrolled in a community college and taking my pre-reqs. I am registered for 15 credit hours right now and will be working part time as a CNA in a nursing home. I do not have any other responsibilities so my schedule is doable.

Finally, I plan on taking the last of my pre-reqs in the summer so that I can begin nursing classes in the Fall. Hopefully my answers help some :) good luck!

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You are accepted to the school, but not the nursing program. You will need to apply again to the nursing program before you can take nursing classes. You probably will want to talk to an advisor about what you will need to do to gain acceptance to the nursing program.

And, if the school doesn't care where you do the prerequisites, a community college is a great option. You can take those classes and transfer them once you are accepted to the nursing program. A little bit of a compromise....

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Here's the thing, you are an adult now so you can make your own choices, just make sure you understand the ramifications. You don't have to convince hour parents of anything. You need to look at things like an adult and see both sides, then decide for yourself 100% that your decision is the right one. If you know it is, then you'll be fine to make it on your own.

Community college is less expensive and if you were accepted as a pre-nursing student you'd be wise to take these classes wherever is the least expensive. You will need the money later in nursing school; even if tuition was free nursing school would still cost a lot.

As for EMT. You probably are wasting your time. Most places won't hire you as an EMT unless you are 21. Maybe you could work as an ER tech but knowing how most nursing programs are competitive you'll need to focus on your grades. EMTs often work 12 hour shifts and a full time job with full time school isn't impossible but why make it harder than you have to? Basically work smarter, not harder.

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Prereqs take 1-2 years to complete. Try to do really good on your prereqs the first time. don't complete it for the sake of completing it. Take them like you mean it. CC is a very good option to take your prereqs. Have you determined if the nursing program requires you to take an entrance exam?

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First off, congrats on the acceptance! I remember how excited I was when I got my first letter of acceptance to start my prereqs!

As for your first issue, unless your parents are paying out of pocket for your education, it's your decision where to go. In January, be sure to fill out the FAFSA (I'm sure your high school will go over specifics with you). The FAFSA, if you don't know, is an application for federal financial aid (pell grants, federal loans (which I highly recommend over private loans), etc). Your state may have an additional website for state aid. You can ask your hs counselor for more info, but if you qualify for financial aid and you have the means to pay for your own school, then you should be able to decide which school to go to. I also went to a high school that didn't assign much homework, and I didn't really have a problem adjusting to the workload at my university. BUT if you don't get to go to the school of your choice, just know it isn't the end of the world. I got accepted to all but one of the schools I applied to, including my first choice, and I ended up at my last choice/safety school because I couldn't afford to move away from home. I was crushed because I worked so hard for 4 years just to turn around and have my dream shatter right in front of me and end up at my safety school. But after completing my first quarter, I saw that the school I ended up at had benefits too. It's close to home (which doesn't sound like a plus when you are in high school, but trust me, sometimes it's nice to have mom's opinion before making big decisions), I won't be $100K in debt for undergrad like some of my friends will be, the nursing program is still reputable with NCLEX pass rates in the mid to high 90s, etc. Sure I still wish I could have gone to my first choice, but that's life. So if it does turn out that you cannot attend the school of your choice, everything will be fine as long as you keep an open mind about the school you end up at.

To answer your second question, my first quarter of prereqs was very hectic. That was probably due to my schedule being all over the place. On Mon/Wed I had a class, then I was out for an hour, then I had another class, and was out for two hours, then I had a lab. I only had three classes those days, but my first one started at 10am and my last one ended at 8:45pm. Small breaks in between classes like that made it difficult to study, because once I got into the material, I had to stop and go to a class. Luckily this quarter I'm in and out - I have about 15 minutes between classes, so I can get to school at 8:30am and leave by 3pm on my "busiest" days. As far as how many hours I spent studying, generally about 20 hours a week on anatomy, 5-10 hours a week on philosophy (usually closer to 5 though), and maybe 30 minutes to an hour a week on critical thinking (that was an easy A for me). The sciences (chem, anatomy, micro, and physiology) are going to be the classes that require the most studying, so I would recommend only taking one at a time. If you MUST take two at a time, though, then I would think that chem+anatomy would be the easiest to handle together. So whether or not you'll have time to volunteer as an EMT will depend on a lot of factors, so that's something you'll have to decide on your own when you start classes. It may be doable, it may not be - it just depends how your classes are scheduled. If it starts interfering with your grades though, then quit. Nursing programs will be much more impressed with high grades than they will be with EMT experience. To put this in perspective, my school gives 20 primary points for a 4.0 GPA, but only 3 secondary points for having work experience in healthcare.

And no, I will not have to take summer classes (which is good, because my financial aid doesn't cover summer courses!). Some programs require summer classes, but the majority have summers off. You can always call the nursing advisor at the schools you're interested in and ask if their program requires summer classes.

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