I am a pre nursing student finishing my pre reqs in Austin. I applied to Austin Community College's ADN program for the Fall. I have a Bachelor's in Molecular Microbiology and 8 years research experience as a genetic engineer. Unfortunately with a B.S. the pay is dismal, and barely enough to get by just for me, but actually i would go in the hole to work in this field trying to pay for daycare.
I was looking into the web based second bachelor's program at Texas Tech. I am in the Austin area and they admit for the Spring in this location. Can anyone tell me how doable this program is? There is an insane number of units to take per semester.
Also what hours are the clinicals? I am a single mom of six kids and need to quickly generate a good income. Nursing seemed like a good place to go with my science background, and alot of career possibilities, and hopefully the flexibility to work around raising my kids. The youngest starts kindergarten this fall, so I can get started this year.
I was also looking into an online Nurse Practitioner program as a possibility. Can anyone tell me about UT Tyler's program, or UTMB?
Do you think I should stick with ACC and get the ADN and then do the online RN to BSN? Or should I just go for it and try this web based second degree program and forget about the ADN program?
I noticed most of the bachelor's programs want Sociology and Nutrition, and the ADN program doesn't require this, so I will take these in the summer. Also Texas Tech wants a CNA, a medical terminology class, and pathophysiology. I was going to try this all in the Fall.
Also I was thinking about doing the ADN at ACC as a web based program. Has anyone done that? I heard the failure rate is 50%. Does anyone have any recommendations for high paying and flexible positions in nursing that would work for a single mom?
What are my chances of getting into TT or UTT or UTMB if I have a 3.75 GPA?
Hey, I am considering applying to the TT 2nd Degree program for Fall 2010. I live in the DFW area and I'd like to know if you had any classmates that commuted to Abilene each week for clinicals and drove back to DFW for online classes? If you don't know of anyone who did it that way, since you've completed the program, do you think that it is doable? Thanks in advance.
I am from DFW and did exactly that. The way the clinicals are set up you have a certain degree of freedom. It's not like a traditional program where your clinical days are set in stone. You will need to work with your coach 2 shifts per week (12 hr) and you will have to schedule them according to your coaches work schedule. I would always try (as possible) to schedule back to back days, then head back to DFW for rest of week. Coaches usually have their hospital schedules set up for a month in advance so I always signed up for a month at a time. For specific clinicals such as Peds, OB, Mental Health, you need to plan to spend the whole week in town for each because you will have clinicals every day for that week. When I went through the recent program, we had online tests but they were all proctored in-person at the Health Sciences Center in Abilene. However, they were working on making all tests available to take from your home. So in my case, I ended up getting a cheap apartment in Abilene, in case I had to stay for more than a couple days at a time. And when I did the math, it was cheaper to have a $500/mo apartment than to pay for a hotel for multiple days a month. And it was always there waiting for you so it didn't feel like I was living out of a suitcase. Let me know if you have any other questions. It's definitely doable!
Thanks for that information. I was hoping that you'd say that it's doable. I do have other questions and i would like to speak with you about them. I live in Addison, would you mind speaking via phone?
I was in the Fall '08 Odessa Cohort. I graduated in August 2009. I cannot say enough good things about this program. I'm not saying that everything is perfect, because that is far from the truth, but I do believe that most of the instructors have your best interests at heart.
You should have no issues with the 3.75 GPA you mentioned. Be prepared for one of the most difficult years of your academic life. This degree was much more difficult to complete than my first degree in Biology. It's important to say that it's absolutely doable.
For those that point out you can't work, here's what I say to that: True, you can't work while in the program, but this is short term sacrifice for long term gain. If you sacrifice one year of your life, you will be able to make $40,000/yr. your first year easily! This means you could have all of your loans paid off and be well on your way by the time the other folks in traditional ADN programs are just graduating. Good luck to you. Let me know if you have any questions.
I have my interview this month on the 17th for the the January '10 start! I'm EXTREMELY nervous and was having a serious case of writer's block for my essay (which usually never happens). BTW, I'm also taking patho online with TTUHSC and it's pretty challenging. Where did you take it or are you taking it now?
I'm sure you left a great impression on them and hopefully we'll both get in!
Also, I was wondering if you knew anything as far as the interviews. They say that if you are scheduled for an interview, you're pretty much in the program but I find that hard to believe. The friends that told me that are going for the Masters and PhD programs for fields other than nursing and I think that just may be the case for them...
txscrubs1
6 Posts
Im sure you did great in your interview. It's definitely doable! Good luck to you.