Confused lady here about when to register for nclex, state licensure...

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Hi everyone :D

I'm in my final semester of RN school and I hope to take the nclex in January or February. I heard from a classmate that in order for this to happen, I need to apply for licensure now and schedule an appointment for the nclex. I'm confused :confused: I thought you graduate, schedule a date after graduation for nclex, take it, and get your license. What am I missing??

P.S. I'm sure my school will let me know what's going on in the near future, at least I hope so, but i just wanted to know in case there's anything I can do to take the exam sooner. I was told if I don't file by October 1st that I'll have to wait until April... I don't want to wait that long. :uhoh3:

Thanks!

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I think the registration process varies with each state BON. I'm in Michigan and I just graduated in August. I'll just let you know how I went about scheduling my exam.

First step started in June of this year (2 months prior to graduating). I filed my application with the state, payed the RN fee, and got my fingerprints. Mailed all that information to the board of nursing. Within a week, I received a letter from the Michigan BON stating that they received my information and gave me a number to check my application status online. Once I knew the state had my information, I went ahead and payed for the exam via pearsonvue website. This was probably about mid-July (hefty $200 out of pocket at this point) lol. Here in MI, your school of nursing needs to send out a graduation certificate to the board once your degree is finalized to prove that you've graduated. Not sure if this works the same way in other states.

So per my school of nursing, my degree was finalized on August 19. So for now I was just waiting for my university to send the proper paperwork to the board and then wait to get my ATT email stating I am eligible to register for the exam. I got the ATT email from pearson on September 15, so almost a month after my degree had been finalized. And now I am scheduled to test on October 13 (2 short weeks away) :\

So I would recommend applying for licensure with your state BON at least 4-6 weeks before graduating. The BONs can take a while processing your material and if they have everything done on your end by the time you graduate than once they receive your receipt of graduation the whole process moves quick.

We got an email from our advisor that the school had confirmation of our paperwork being at the BON on the morning of September 8. So it took the BON and Pearson about a week to make me eligible to test.

Some of my classmates who had not submitted their paperwork early enough had to wait a little longer but not by much.

If you're graduating in December, I would assume you'll be able to test February-ish. January might be too soon, the the holiday and all slowing things down but I could be wrong

Good luck with your last semester! (I should probably get back to studying)

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Thank you Magen for the detailed answer!!! Really appreciate it!! :D

:heartbeat:

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