Associates or Bach.

[SelenaRios97]

So I am going to my local community college and I first have to finish my general courses until I start my perquisites. I am trying to plan out my entire year(s) schedule to get into the nursing program. Then I noticed that I would be credits short (to live on campus you have to have 12 credits) I decided to mix in my college's bachelors nursing program prerequisite. That's when I came to realize why am I getting my associates? When in order to live in the dorms I am adding bachelors prerequisite? Should I just go ahead transfer to a University and get my bachelors?

[HedgieMama]

Might as well just go all the way now and get the BSN! That way you can be done with school when you graduate and be a better candidate for specialty units (NICU/ICU/ED etc) and magnet hospitals right out of the gate when you graduate. I just turned 20 and am starting my 2 year BSN program in a month. I'll be 21 when I (hopefully) graduate. :)

[rquinn0111]

Go for the BSN!

I'm in the same boat. The ASN program at HCC is cheaper than a BSN anywhere else, however, it is harder to find a job with an ASN, at least in Houston. There is a trend to hire only BSNs. Many hospitals do offer to pay ASN nurses to become BSN, but from what I've heard, they have been working in that company for awhile and it is an incentive for them to promote their own rather than hire someone new. If they had to choose from an ASN and a BSN applicant, they'd choose the BSN.

At the hospital I'm at, to qualify for the ASN-BSN reimbursement, I have to work full time while in school. I'd have to pay upfront first, then get reimbursed after I receive my grades, and they only pay for passing grades. I don't know of anyone who as taken advantage of this option being that nursing school is already a full time job!