Best route for immediate start?

U.S.A. Washington

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I'm in the US Air Force, stationed in Japan, in a non-healthcare career field. I'm going to be applying for a program that would give me a leave of absence from the Air Force for no more than 3 years, but it requires me to start school nearly immediately. I should have my BSN in Psychology finished in 2 years when I apply for this program.

The end goal is a BSN so I can become an Air Force nurse. I am willing to take any route needed, as long as I can go through with little or no breaks. So if I have to start with LPN, and then do a LPN-RN program, and then a RN-BSN program, that's all fine. I would need to at least be a licensed RN within 3 years, the RN-BSN I can complete online once I'm back on active duty.

Here's my problem, being in the military for 7 years now, I've done school when I could, and sometimes scheduling conflicts and deployments come up which cause me to either have to withdraw from classes well past the cutoff date, therefore earning an "F" grade. I've got about 5 of those on my records, and will not be adding any more to it. I'm in a much more stable position now, and have received nine A's and one B out of my last ten classes. I need to do a couple more prerequisites, just waiting for the school to offer them at my base next year.

So, with that said, my overall GPA is coming up, it's a 3.3 now, and I think I can offset those F's enough to get up to a 3.6. With those bad marks on my record, I'm guessing the more prestigious schools like University of Washington won't even consider me. Is that an incorrect assumption? I just don't want to waste my time and money applying to a school that won't give me any leeway due to my poor history with failing classes due to mission requirements.

Should I even bother applying for BSN and ADN programs? Or should I just go for LPN programs since they are apparently a little easier to get into? Also, I'm not concerned with the tuition costs, as I'll be using my GI Bill as well as student loans to cover any other expenses.

Again, whatever I do, it has to start very soon after I start my leave of absence.

I would appreciate ANY advice on this matter.

Thank You,

Jason

Before making any decisions you should commmunicate with admissions counsellors at any schools you are considering. Do not make any assumptions. It is possible that you could pass around the poor grades and withdrawals if you approach admissions on a personal basis and get a waiver if needed. Explore all possibilities.

Thanks for the advice. I will start e-mailing people once it gets a little closer to the time, I've still got about a year and a half before I even apply to this program, just trying to get things sorted out the best I can now. Another problem is I may not be able to make any personal interviews or proctored essays unless they let me do it at the school here or over the phone or something. A flight from Tokyo to Seattle runs about $1000 round trip.

Also contact the school(s) where you have the bad record and inquire about some sort of "academic forgiveness" policy. You (for the price of repeating online courses) may be able to get rid of bad grades or at least counteract them on your transcript.

I've already petitioned to have the grades removed, or at least have a note added on them, but they won't budge. I know I could retake them, but none of them are prerequisites required for my degree or to enter nursing school. So if I can complete my degree and have time to retake them, I will.

I'm in the US Air Force, stationed in Japan, in a non-healthcare career field. I'm going to be applying for a program that would give me a leave of absence from the Air Force for no more than 3 years, but it requires me to start school nearly immediately. I should have my BSN in Psychology finished in 2 years when I apply for this program.

The end goal is a BSN so I can become an Air Force nurse. I am willing to take any route needed, as long as I can go through with little or no breaks. So if I have to start with LPN, and then do a LPN-RN program, and then a RN-BSN program, that's all fine. I would need to at least be a licensed RN within 3 years, the RN-BSN I can complete online once I'm back on active duty.

Here's my problem, being in the military for 7 years now, I've done school when I could, and sometimes scheduling conflicts and deployments come up which cause me to either have to withdraw from classes well past the cutoff date, therefore earning an "F" grade. I've got about 5 of those on my records, and will not be adding any more to it. I'm in a much more stable position now, and have received nine A's and one B out of my last ten lasses. I need to do a couple more prerequisites, just waiting for the school to offer them at my base next year.

So, with that said, my overall GPA is coming up, it's a 3.3 now, and I think I can offset those F's enough to get up to a 3.6. With those bad marks on my record, I'm guessing the more prestigious schools like University of Washington won't even consider me. Is that an incorrect assumption? I just don't want to waste my time and money applying to a school that won't give me any leeway due to my poor history with failing classes due to mission requirements.

Should I even bother applying for BSN and ADN programs? Or should I just go for LPN programs since they are apparently a little easier to get into? Also, I'm not concerned with the tuition costs, as I'll be using my GI Bill as well as student loans to cover any other expenses.

Again, whatever I do, it has to start very soon after I start my leave of absence.

I would appreciate ANY advice on this matter.

Thank You,

Jason

Why are you doing the BS Psych rather then going straight into a BSN program? Is this specific to your military leave of absence?

Have you looked at the pre-reqs for nursing programs in this area? They generally take about a year to complete as they are sequential.

If military nurse is your end state goal there are some 'better' options IMHO but based on a few things.. do you need to do the psych degree on your off time, do you have pre-reqs completed, when is your ADSO complete so you could attend BSN full-time. Depending on these you could do a straight BSN program, or you could do a post-bach direct entry masters programs, etc. I'm recommending BSN over ADN as after pre-reqs are completed they both take 2 years to complete.. where as if you do ADN its 2 years and then another 1 year for ADN to BSN.. also the BSN programs here in WA have certain classes (mostly pre-reqs) that create your competitive score vs cumulative as a way to 'judge' you.

Lots of info over in here:

Government and Military Nursing - Nursing for Nurses

best of luck

Why are you doing the BS Psych rather then going straight into a BSN program? Is this specific to your military leave of absence?

Have you looked at the pre-reqs for nursing programs in this area? They generally take about a year to complete as they are sequential.

If military nurse is your end state goal there are some 'better' options IMHO but based on a few things.. do you need to do the psych degree on your off time, do you have pre-reqs completed, when is your ADSO complete so you could attend BSN full-time. Depending on these you could do a straight BSN program, or you could do a post-bach direct entry masters programs, etc. I'm recommending BSN over ADN as after pre-reqs are completed they both take 2 years to complete.. where as if you do ADN its 2 years and then another 1 year for ADN to BSN.. also the BSN programs here in WA have certain classes (mostly pre-reqs) that create your competitive score vs cumulative as a way to 'judge' you.

Lots of info over in here:

Government and Military Nursing - Nursing for Nurses

best of luck

Thank you for the information.

The psychology degree is simply something to pass time as I'm fairly limited on what degrees I can do, and I have a genuine interest in it. I've active duty tuition assistance which pays for pretty much the entire degree while I'm in the military, so I'm taking advantage of it now.

I would like to go the BSN route or maybe even the MSN route (not positive I'll be able to have my BSN done before my leave of absence kicks in), but I'm concerned that my past bad grades will disqualify me from those programs, even though they were due to work situations that were completely out of my control. This is why I'm looking into just about anything to get that end goal for me, even if it does take a year or so longer.

All of my prerequisites are not complete yet, but they will be within the next year as long as the school cooperates and offers the microbiology and A&P that I need in a timeframe that works with my schedule.

I know there are better options out there than this leave of absence, like the Air Force NECP (Nurse Enlisted Commissioning Program) which would have me making significantly more money, but I have to get accepted into a BSN program directly, and the school tuition couldn't be over a certain amount (which eliminates most out of state schools) so then I'm limited to BSN programs in Washington state, which I'm not sure I can get into still.

Specializes in None.

Superbike81

Have you considered NECP as opposed to taking the POC-ERP (Im assuming that’s the leave of absence program your applying for). I was seleced for NECP and am currently attending University of Missouri- St louis. I attended college for a year before joining the AF and needless to say academics was not my focus and this was reflected in my grades. As a matter of fact my cumulative GPA was a little lower than yours at around 3.2 and not only was I picked up for NECP but I got into UMSL. Don’t let your GPA discourage you there are a lot of military friendly schools out there nationwide. UMSL reserves 5 guaranteed slots for active duty military as long as you complete the prereqs prior to beginning the clinicals program, have a 2.5 cumulative/ 2.5 in the sciences (a&p, chem, micro, etc), are active duty, and the slots haven’t been taken your in. If you want to go the AECP route Southern Illinois University –Edwardsville doesn’t have a guaranteed program like UMSL but I know of someone who was accepted with a lower gpa than yours. If you don’t like Missouri or Illinois I would also apply to UAB, UTHSCSA, University of Oklahoma to name a few. Also if you do consider NECP check out the USAF NECP facebook page lots of good info also if you do a search for NECP on all nurses there’s some good info available as well

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