Direct-Entry Masters Program Pre-Requisites (Mass)

Jess RN · Apr 5, 2006

Hi Becky,

I took Organic Chem (a prereq for BC and darned hard to find without a qualifying prereq itself) at Curry College in Milton. My teacher Marie Turner was great. It was a summer sesson class called "Chemical Concepts" and it was basically Chem for Nurses. I took it the summer before starting at BC.

I did all my other sciences at community colleges (A&P at Mass Bay, and Micro online at ccconline) and I think it was fine. My professor at Mass Bay was on the faculty at BU and was just moonlighting at Mass Bay for the $. I think that is really common. There were at least 4 other direct entry applicants in my class with me. I feel like I learned a lot.

I took Psych and Stats through the night school at BC because I thought it might help my chances and BC was my first choice. I have no idea if it did. The classes were more expensive, but they were very good. Especially Stats with Prof. Dan Chambers- I am so *not* a math person.

Good luck!

Jess

pachouly · Apr 5, 2006

Hi Becky,
I took Organic Chem (a prereq for BC and darned hard to find without a qualifying prereq itself) at Curry College in Milton. My teacher Marie Turner was great. It was a summer sesson class called "Chemical Concepts" and it was basically Chem for Nurses. I took it the summer before starting at BC.
Good luck!
Jess

Jess,

Thanks for the response! That helps a lot! When I started looking at programs and looking at the list of pre-requisities I started feeling like it would take 3 years to even be able to apply to programs! I understand the need for them and am looking forward to taking them, but it felt very daunting as I have a very demanding day job that often requires unpredictable night and weekend hours. Knowing I have flexibility with taking some of them as online courses helps a lot.

Regards,

Becky

cfrimer · Apr 5, 2006

Hi there,

I was recently where you are now! It can seem so confusing, I know.

One word of caution about micro and A&P is that many schools require these classes to have a lab component. If you're just taking them as a refresher for your own edification, it's probably not a big deal, but I was told that one class I was looking into wouldn't satisfy the NP schools' requirements b/c there was no lab. Also, be careful about how long ago you took your classes; I nearly had to re-do chemistry because my intro chem class in college (B.Sc. in Neuroscience) was >10 years ago (luckily I managed to scoot in under the wire with a biochem class that came later in my college career!).

I took Biostatistics via Harvard Extension School (STAT E-102) and was quite pleased with it. They offer it in both Fall and Spring semesters. (Not sure about summer.) There is an online option, too, where the lectures are posted as video you can watch, which also comes in handy if you have to miss a class! The prof is Scott Evans and he was very good.

Currently I'm taking micro at Bunker Hill CC. It's ok. I had also been taking their Human Growth and Development course online, and it was so bad I dropped it. There was no lecture component as there was for the Harvard class (I personally do best with a lecture, but that's just my learning style), and when the instructor changed mid-way thru, there was honestly no way to tell. I e-mailed the new instructor when I was dropping the class and got no response, which makes me think the instructor is just a figurehead to lend credibility.

The online powerpoint slides/notes that were provided were less than useless. I felt like there was absolutely no direction or synthesis whatsoever. Since we were covering the entire textbook cover-to-cover, I think some small hint about which concepts were most important would have been nice! And to add insult to injury, the workload was relatively high, (much higher than micro, which I like so much better) so I spent lots of time agonizing over what they were looking for in the answers to the questions (since it often was not obvious from the reading and was made even less obvious after looking at the notes!).

OK, rant off. Sorry. I feel very strongly about that class, obviously!

Regarding taking the summer classes offered by the individual NP schools (which I'm going to do for A&P and a Nutrition requirement that my school has)... I found that several schools stated that their Biostatistics course wasn't compatible with any of the other offerings. So you may want to check on that and consider it in your planning.

Best of luck with this process. You seem to be in great shape, though! I was a ball of stress -- mostly because my decision was more last-minutes and I decided that I COULD NOT wait an extra year to apply -- but I must say, after all the worry and confusion, nothing feels so good as getting that acceptance letter in the mail! It's all worth it! Good luck!

~Chantelle

HeleneRN · Apr 5, 2006

I am just finishing up the RN to BSN program at Northeastern. Over the course of ten months, I have taken thirteen courses, many of which were online. Northeastern as a load of online courses, including statistics, although I found that course to be challenging in the classroom - don't know if I could have done it online. Have you looked into U Mass/Lowell for A&P? The price difference is remarkable. To be completely honest, my education at Northeastern has been good, but not as good as I expected. I think taking A&P at a community college may well give you the same or close accomplishments. I'm just starting to look at MSN programs, but I know I won't be going to Northeastern.

pachouly · Apr 6, 2006

Currently I'm taking micro at Bunker Hill CC. It's ok. I had also been taking their Human Growth and Development course online, and it was so bad I dropped it. There was no lecture component as there was for the Harvard class (I personally do best with a lecture, but that's just my learning style), and when the instructor changed mid-way thru, there was honestly no way to tell. I e-mailed the new instructor when I was dropping the class and got no response, which makes me think the instructor is just a figurehead to lend credibility.
Best of luck with this process. You seem to be in great shape, though! I was a ball of stress -- mostly because my decision was more last-minutes and I decided that I COULD NOT wait an extra year to apply -- but I must say, after all the worry and confusion, nothing feels so good as getting that acceptance letter in the mail! It's all worth it! Good luck!
~Chantelle

Chantelle,

Thanks for the response! If you don't mind sharing the name of the instructor at BHCC, would you PM that to me? I haven't found many good options in the area for this over the summer but if the instructor is the same I'll start looking harder.

I've heard that many Harvard Extension courses are good -- I'll look for that one for the Fall. I'm a little concerned about workload if I take A&P. So you decided to get all your classes out of the way except A&P first then?

re: patience -- well, by the time I seriously started thinking about this it was too late for entry Fall 2006. It's a tough decision for me as I make a good salary and don't hate my work -- just really looking for something more meaningful.. and healthcare has been a long-time dream that I thought was unachievable.

Regards,

Becky

pachouly · Apr 6, 2006

I am just finishing up the RN to BSN program at Northeastern. Over the course of ten months, I have taken thirteen courses, many of which were online. Northeastern as a load of online courses, including statistics, although I found that course to be challenging in the classroom - don't know if I could have done it online. Have you looked into U Mass/Lowell for A&P? The price difference is remarkable. To be completely honest, my education at Northeastern has been good, but not as good as I expected. I think taking A&P at a community college may well give you the same or close accomplishments. I'm just starting to look at MSN programs, but I know I won't be going to Northeastern.

Helene,

That is very interesting -- I attended an open house at Northeastern and liked the woman who gave the talk about direct entry programs. I'll be attending more open houses in the months to come to get a better idea/comparison to other schools.

I'll take a look at U Mass/Lowell as well. To be honest, so far I haven't considered schools outside of the city for the pre-requisities because I live/work in the city and it is difficult enough to leave work 'on-time'.

Regards,

Becky

sumdae · May 6, 2006

Hi Becky,

I took my prereqs for 2nd-degree BSN programs from BHCC and was accepted to both Simmons and Curry College (no rejections), so it won't be a negative to take the courses at a community college.

A&P I and II were fine. The prof was a space cadet - Prof Koul, but he is also a prof at the Umass Worcester's Nursing Program, so that's a plus. I learned a lot and got a big fat A, although I believe his teaching needs some major improvement.

Micro was fun and easy (with proper studying) for me. I took it from Belinda Kadambi, and I believe she still teaches the course on weekends and possibly online now. I LOVED her style and while I first dreaded the course, I ended up thoroughly enjoying it and getting a 98%.

Human Growth - I believe I took the same class as Chantelle, online from Dr. Reeves... he may be the only prof "teaching" it online. If you are willing to be totally independent and just deal with not having a prof, then this class can be a positive thing, as in my case.

There are two exams, basically two midterms, all short essay, consisting of around 10-12 questions, with the first 2 or 3 that you MUST answer, and a choice is given for the remaining questions. Here's the kicker - you get ALL of the questions before the exam!! it's just that they come along with 20 others.

From the beginning, all coursework and exam questions are on the syllabus. You're required to answer 6-9 (approx) questions short essay per chapter, with two chapters due each week. 19 total i think. The exam questions don't always correlate with the chapters, so I would do my homework for each chapter AND answer the test questions for myself at the same time (saving the stress of going back to remember it all at test time). Then at exam time, I'd put the answers on notecards, drill myself on them, and end up knowing way more than I needed to know. I learned a lot and got a 99.3 or something ridiculous.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

SebagoLaurel · May 11, 2006

Hi,

I took most of my pre-reqs at Middlesex CC in Bedford or Lowell. The A&P there was great (interesting, since growing up in Bedford I would have considered Middlesex "below" my level then). I took A&P I online - it was fantastic but a LOT of work. Definitely have to keep up with the reading and research. There is a lab - it is an afternoon 1 times a month. I took the A&P II in Lowell (had a job by then). It was ok - but not as challenging. Human Development has to include birth to death (at least where I just finished my NP program at Regis). A lot of Human Development courses only cover birth to 18, or 18 to death). Find a combined birth to death is easier than 2 different semesters of Human Development.

I was able to do all the requirements except Nutrition and Ethics and HD in one year. I was allowed to start my program as long as I had all lab pre-reqs done. But would recommend finishing them first if possible.

Regis had the most pre-reqs required when I was looking (cannot believe that was 4 years ago and I am FINALLY done).

birthmamaew · May 11, 2006

It doesn't sound like you will have this issue, but at a lot of schools, including mine, the new rule for classes "expiring" is 5 years. It did used to be ten.

SebagoLaurel · May 12, 2006

Yes - the science lab courses needed to be within 5 years. Others not. My psychology class was MANY years ago and it was counted. Same with my computer (of course that was my career and I had a degree in computer science).