Back to College after 20 Years

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I earned my B.A. twenty years ago, and now I want to become an RN. I was a pre-nursing major for a brief time, even taking Microbiology, Anatomy and Phys I and II. I do not even recall if I finished the courses (I will find out tomorrow when I pick up my unofficial transcripts!) From what I can tell I should take the required nursing pre-reqs, then apply to the Accelerated BSN program in a couple of years. I am committed to doing this and I know it will not be easy. I have a lot of classes to take, and will work full time now with the goal of NOT working once accepted into the 14-month program. Am I on the right path here? Anyone else in my age range on the same path?

I just turned 41 and am in my second year of nursing school. I started prereqs after being out of school for 20 + years. I worked full time and had a 10+ year old (who just turned 16). I was worse off because I didn't even have a bachelors. I am going for my BSN now. I remember working full time all day and then taking prereqs at night. That is why it took me so long to get through them, but I knocked each one out methodically and was able to maintain straight A's. You really do become much more focused and determined when you are older. I shudder to think about my high school grades. Luckily my prereq grades got me into the schools I applied to and so far I love nursing school. (I retired from my job of almost 21 years to attend nursing school full-time) It is certainly challenging and there are times when I can imagine myself pulling out all my hair, but overall it has been a good experience. I am looking forward to becoming a nurse. And even though I am 41 I feel there is plenty of time.

Best regards,

Jean

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Specializes in MedSurg.

Mossback - I feel the same way about the focus we have as older students and, at times, the 19 years old would get to me because they could pull As after studying 4 hours while I was spending 4 days to squeak out a B. But I got to know quite a few of them and was able to share a lot of life experiences with them and even become a Mother figure to some - which I enjoyed.

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Specializes in Obstetrics.
But I got to know quite a few of them and was able to share a lot of life experiences with them and even become a Mother figure to some - which I enjoyed.

That's exactly why I like being in classes with "older" students, because I enjoy talking with them and learning from them. I like to hear their perspectives on different things. I feel that obviously older students are more mature and focused than some of the people my age, which I LIKE a lot. In general, I'd rather be in a class with older students than people my age, as odd as that may sound.

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Specializes in MedSurg.

Doesn't sound odd at all. Nice to hear. Good luck with your studies.

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Specializes in Obstetrics.

Thank you :]

You as well!

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Count me in! I graduated from college way back in 1987. I've really enjoyed being back in school. I feel as though I've regained about 20 IQ points! I never took any life science classes when an undergrad before, but I've found that I really like the field. I'm almost done with my prerequisites and am hoping to be accepted into an ABSN in 2009. Go for it!

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Hi,

I have been taking my pre-reqs for nursing for a few years part-time while working fulltime at a newspaper here in Arizona, and I've been out of school for 20 years, too. I've been surprised by how well I've done compared to the few semesters of college I took all those years ago! My biggest mistakes were trying to take chemistry and bio online (but I learned a good lesson there). Now that my paper has laid off a bunch of us, I am going to go as fast as I can finishing up those pre-req's. The slots for entry into a nursing program have been cut back, though, so I'm a little concerned. If you all are in a program, how long did you have to wait?

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Wow. I also got laid off from my full time newspaper job. I worked at the Kansas City Star for 24 years. I started as a paste-up artist for the news pages and as technology changed, my last job was in advertising as a graphic designer. KC Star is a McClatchy paper. I decided to use my generous (lol) buyout and unemployment as my opportunity for a new direction. I am attending an accelerated ADN program and just finishing part of the pre-reqs. It's more expensive and I think the future terms are going to be really hard, but at 49 I wanted to get this done! I was afraid to be laid off after all those years, but this is so exciting and I feel as though I've been set free!

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Thanks for the reply, CJ. Kansas City Star, now that's a good paper! I've been at this paper, The Tribune, for almost 15 years. It's a Freedom Communications paper. We compete with the Arizona Republic, a Gannett paper. I've been in newspapers for over 20 years, even did pasteup, too, before I became a marketing assistant and paginator. They blamed the downturn on the general public not reading print papers anymore. I don't know if I buy it or not, but I saw this coming awhile back and started taking classes towards nursing. I wanted to do a job that I could be proud of, that made a difference and helped people directly. Not that papers don't do that, too, but I think that you know what I mean.

I've thought about going directly into a private nursing program, and I actually am torn between going into an electroneurodiagnostic program to get my foot in the door at a hospital (and maybe they'll pay for the nursing program), or just getting the student loan and going into the private nursing school (Pima Medical Institute). I'll have to see how it all pans out. I know what you mean about wanting to get it done! I have a younger friend who has taken all of her pre-reqs, like, over a year ago, and she is still waiting to get into a program. They're saying now that the average wait time is going to be 2 maybe 3 years. I can't afford to wait that long. If you don't mind my asking, how much is the program that you are in?

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Almost $36,000. It's alot, but I figured that since I would be able to work so much sooner it would be worth it. I wanted to be able to this without having to work and believe me, you wouldn't want to have a job in addition to the workload that the school puts on you. I will run out of my severance and unemployment before I'm done, so I plan to use part of my 401 that I rolled into an IRA for income until I graduate. I put all the school expense into a student loan. It's kind of scary. I'd better do good! Also, I got into the WIA program, since I was laid off. They outsourced my job to India.

Anyway, the program is contributing $6,000 towards the education!

It's time consuming to become part of that program, but well worth it.

Check with your unemployment office.

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You will do well! The best thing about all of us doing this when we're older, is that we really appreciate what we're doing now as opposed to when we were younger, and we're driven to succeed. We've found out that our brain cells do NOT atrophy as we get older, and that we can learn new things and excell in them. Hey, you went from pasteup to graphics on a computer! Nursing is another new skill set that you will excell in.

Thanks for the tip on WIA, I'll check into it. Pima is going to cost about $39,000. I'll run out of my generous severance before I finish my pre-req's, and the 401(k) is going towards paying down some bills, but I'm going to attempt working part-time this year to make the severance last longer.

Hang in there, all of you, and the best of luck to you all!

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Wow. I also got laid off from my full time newspaper job. I worked at the Kansas City Star for 24 years. I started as a paste-up artist for the news pages and as technology changed, my last job was in advertising as a graphic designer. KC Star is a McClatchy paper. I decided to use my generous (lol) buyout and unemployment as my opportunity for a new direction. I am attending an accelerated ADN program and just finishing part of the pre-reqs. It's more expensive and I think the future terms are going to be really hard, but at 49 I wanted to get this done! I was afraid to be laid off after all those years, but this is so exciting and I feel as though I've been set free!

Hekat and CJ, I work in the newspaper industry, in ad sales. Besides the direction the industry is taking, I am just bored. I have a friend who worked for the Tribune a few years ago, I want to say Sun City edition? Trust me, word spreads quickly throughout other newspapers when there are layoffs like you have experienced. There's a real sense of uneasiness amongst all of us, with good reason. Glad you are both finding your way into a new field. I am not going to take any classes online. I think I will do better in a traditional classroom setting, at least to start. I was going to dive in with Chemistry, but decided to do Lifespan Development first, and then take two classes the next go-around. Good luck to everyone!

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