Hello all. I hope you can advise me or share your own experiences.
I'm interested in getting a BSN. I already have a bachelor's degree and the obvious choice is to go to a second degree BSN program. The problem is in fulfilling the pre-requisites. I live in DC and the second degree BSN programs recommend I take my pre-reqs at a Virginia community college. However, there isn't any tuition reciprocity for DC residents in Virginia or even Maryland, so it would cost me $264.80 per credit to attend. I am working right now, but most of my paycheck gets eaten up by rent. So when I asked if it would be just as well to take pre-reqs at the University of the District of Columbia, the admissions officer repeated (this was over email) that they felt that NVCC best prepares prospective applicants for their nursing program. I asked her if they though UDC was a bad school and she never responded. What I got from this exchange was that they preferred NVCC over UDC and it would be held against me during the application process.
I would bite the bullet and go to NVCC, but not only is it too expensive for me, I also don't have a car to get to their campus, which is not near the Metro or any reliable bus lines.
I thought I might sign up for online classes through two very inexpensive New Mexico community colleges, which I can afford, but I worry that this will be held against me during the admissions process. Furthermore, it would be nice to actually attend a real classroom-based course.
I hoped to apply to Georgetown, CUA and Johns Hopkins, but it seems impossible if I don't attend the "right" school for my pre-reqs. I do have a bachelor's and master's degree (non-science) from a prestigious liberal arts college, but I don't know if they would even care. It doesn't seem to really matter where I went for college and grad school.
I know the BSN program will be expensive, so I don't want to start spending a lot of money on pre-reqs.
What would you guys do if you were me in this situation? I'd like to go to nursing school sooner rather than later.
Wow, does DC not have any CCs? I imagine if someone is looking at George Mason, they'd want you to go to NVCC but I've asked other people who got accepted to George Mason and they took their pre-reqs at other places. I'm taking my pre-reqs at MCC but I live in Maryland.
(George Mason is not really in my list of schools but I am including them as a backup plan, it'd actually be a shorter drive to there than Baltimore for me. They require bio-ethics but MCC doesn't offer it, I may pay the $1k to take it at NVCC)
Well DC has UDC (which is essentially a community college that offers an array of Bachelor's degrees, as well as a law school) and the newly opened CCDC (which is really just an offshoot of UDC). I have much respect for public education and how DC is working towards providing their residents a quality education. Unfortunately, it seems chancy to me with all of their previous troubles. I might just have to contact both schools to feel them out. If it's NVCC, then I'm going to have to move to get in state tuition (which I planned to do anyway for GMU's in state cost) a little earlier.
leenak
980 Posts
Wow, does DC not have any CCs? I imagine if someone is looking at George Mason, they'd want you to go to NVCC but I've asked other people who got accepted to George Mason and they took their pre-reqs at other places. I'm taking my pre-reqs at MCC but I live in Maryland.
(George Mason is not really in my list of schools but I am including them as a backup plan, it'd actually be a shorter drive to there than Baltimore for me. They require bio-ethics but MCC doesn't offer it, I may pay the $1k to take it at NVCC)