Associates or BSN

LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN · Aug 9, 2013

Welcome Sophie to AN!!!

Depending on the schools, your region, your previous degree, a Nursing education takes four years-that's including pre requisites. Your first two years are general courses needed first before you enter your required courses. You didn't stated whether you had all the pre req's, so that will shave off years if you have all your pre req's.

In my area, the community college Nursing Program had similar pre requisites to more than 5 of the schools in the area, plus or minus a few courses. It was still going to take me four years to get an Associates degree, instead of a Bachelors; I wanted the flexibility to do more, so when I decided to enter a program, it didn't make sense to my plans; so I went for the BSN...I had another journey, in addition to this revelation, but that's a whole 'nother thread. :)

What CCs are helpful in are if they have relationships with local universities, you can make sure you take the required pre-requisite courses for the program of choice, and transfer in, or if they have a program for you to do your Associates, then transfer into the program for your Bachelors, so you can most definitely take advantage of that.

There are many roads to Rome...you are still correct in choosing what is BEST for YOU...best wishes! :up:

DisneyNurseGal, BSN, RN · Aug 9, 2013

Would you have the option to do a bridge program at some point in the future? I believe a BSN is important, but in the real world, I needed to work as soon as possible (and I wanted experience), so I am getting my ASN and starting a BSN bridge right away.

Mchs4735 · Aug 9, 2013

Im having the same problem, but decided to take the Asn route because the bsn program i want to go to is 50,000 a year and,if i go to the asn program i wouldnt take any loans,and plus its one of the top school is California. And it will only take me one more year to get my bsn after that. And im only twenty so i have plenty of time to do whatever. If the bsn program is a good school then i would just go with that if you want to get done fast.

Sophie15 · Aug 9, 2013

Thank you for your reply! I have a BA and MAEd in Education. I have most of the pre-requisites except the sciences which I am working on now in addition to taking the HESI and all the other minor requirements. Decisions Decisions! I'll keep you all posted! :)

Guests · Aug 9, 2013

What I would do depends on where I wanted to work. Many of the larger facilities, especially academic medical centers, are moving toward BSN required. If my ambition were to work at one of those, I'd go straight for a BSN/MSN.

LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN · Aug 10, 2013

What I would do depends on where I wanted to work. Many of the larger facilities especially academic medical centers, are moving toward BSN required. If my ambition were to work at one of those, I'd go straight for a BSN/MSN.[/quote']
OP a sage decision as well.
Good luck in your decision! Glad to see you will keep us posted! :)

Herrington · Aug 10, 2013

I went and spoke with a bunch of nurses last month who I saw while I was in the hospital in March regarding their academic route. Pretty much across the board was to just go straight for the BSN. I guess the general thought process is "Why spend extra money on an ASN, then go for the BSN, when you could just skip the former?". So that's what I'll be doing in the coming years while I take care of pre-reqs.

barcode120x, RN, NP · Aug 10, 2013

I wanted to do BSN as well, but I didn't want to rack up a large bill while being waitlisted. BSN programs at cal-states and UCs here in SoCal have a long waitlist and I didn't want to waste my time taking classes at a university and wasting money while waiting to get in. So, I took my brother's advice and started off at a JC. I did wait 2 years to get into the program, but those 2 years was spent taking not only GEs, but also lower division courses required to transfer into the BSN program at a university so it wasn't too bad.

I don't regret my decision at all. Not only do I not have a large bill to pay when I finish the ADN program, but I can literally start working when I finish end of next fall (assuming I get a job haha, but I have that all planned out already). That will give me experience and money (which is important) so that I can then transfer to a BSN program.

As for timing, it just depends on the factors involving you as mentioned in the posters above. If you want to get in right away and get done, you should hit up an accredited private school; however, you'll need to shell out a lot of money. If you want your BSN and want to skip the ADN since your concerns do revolve around the boards and employers focusing on a BSN, hit up a university. If you don't mind taking a bit of time and saving a lot of money, go for the ADN program at a JC/CC.

mmcc26 · Aug 10, 2013

I wanted to do BSN as well, but I didn't want to rack up a large bill while being waitlisted. BSN programs at cal-states and UCs here in SoCal have a long waitlist and I didn't want to waste my time taking classes at a university and wasting money while waiting to get in. So, I took my brother's advice and started off at a JC. I did wait 2 years to get into the program, but those 2 years was spent taking not only GEs, but also lower division courses required to transfer into the BSN program at a university so it wasn't too bad.
I don't regret my decision at all. Not only do I not have a large bill to pay when I finish the ADN program, but I can literally start working when I finish end of next fall (assuming I get a job haha, but I have that all planned out already). That will give me experience and money (which is important) so that I can then transfer to a BSN program.
As for timing, it just depends on the factors involving you as mentioned in the posters above. If you want to get in right away and get done, you should hit up an accredited private school; however, you'll need to shell out a lot of money. If you want your BSN and want to skip the ADN since your concerns do revolve around the boards and employers focusing on a BSN, hit up a university. If you don't mind taking a bit of time and saving a lot of money, go for the ADN program at a JC/CC.

It's the same here in New Jersey. I am in an ADN program because all of our BSN programs are wait listed and it would cost me around $80,000 to go straight through to BSN. In the long run, for me, ADN now and then bridging after I am licensed is the best choice.

Ultimately, I think it comes down to finances for most of us. It really depends on what's available in your area. In New Jersey and California for example, schools are extremely costly and have long waiting lists, but I've read posting on here about people getting BSNs for $10,000 in other parts of the country.

If you can afford it and have the time, I would say go for the BSN. If programs in my area were cheaper and/or not wait listed, I would love to do the same, as the majority of the hospitals in New Jersey are now magnet and won't hire ADNs.

Sophie15 · Aug 10, 2013

Herrington, I agree! However, another point that was made was to get your associates pass the NCLEX get a job, get more experience and perhaps work for a job that can pay for your BSN degree later. That sounds nice too, doesn't it!:)

Herrington · Aug 10, 2013

Herrington, I agree! However, another point that was made was to get your associates pass the NCLEX get a job, get more experience and perhaps work for a job that can pay for your BSN degree later. That sounds nice too, doesn't it!:)

Heh, yea, that's the mindset I was under. But again, the problem is that a lot of hospitals (at least here in San Antonio) want all of their nurses to have their BSN by 2020, which, in all reality, isn't very far out. It seems to me that there's a balance of time and money that's approaching an intersection. I've got the time to get it, but I hardly have enough to pay for it and I'd really rather not take out loans (still paying off a few from my first B.S. degree).

Like I said, I'm knocking out pre-req courses, and I start volunteering at the hospital I'm seen at next month, hopefully. From there, I'm looking to network my way into some position there so I can get a bit of experience, and help fund my way through Nursing School. I know just about every doctor and nurse in the transplant clinic and telemetry ward, so I'm really, really hoping that I can land something soon.