Failing high school Pre-Calc... can I still be a nurse?

NurseSN45696 · Mar 9, 2014

My you sure do have your stuff together :) If it's any help, I didn't even take pre-cal in high school or college and there are plenty of nursing schools I was eligible to apply for.

SoniaReb · Mar 9, 2014

Well I will be going to a "community" college, so I guess I am in the clear. I am just going to focus on the health sciences and take a very basic math course at my local college so I don't have to suffer through any more of this horrid calculus. Thanks very much to all of you :)

Are you located in Florida? You can pretty much complete ALL your Nursing School prerequisites through your High School Dual Enrollment Program, which can be completed while you are in High School at one of the Local Community College. The courses are free to High School Students and Books are also free. You could get your Associates Degree by the time you finish High School and it would cost you nothing. Frankly, I think Dual Enrollment is "better" than doing AP courses, since with AP you have to get at least a 3 or better (more like 4 or 5) for the credits to transfer to a four-year College. While, getting a C at a Local Community College will earn you college credits.

Also, in Florida, as part of the Dual Enrollment process, you get go to specialize High Schools for your Junior and Senior Year and graduate with an Associate Degree, which would allow you to complete your BSN in two years after graduating from High School. I'm amazed more high school students who meet the requirement (unweighted 3.0 GPA, etc.) do not pursue Dual Enrollment. Dual Enrollment is available in many States, although it might be called a different name. Who would pass up a chance to have their first two years of College paid for by the School District. BTW, in Florida, you can take your Dual Enrollment Classes at 4-year Universities also.

THELIVINGWORST, ASN, RN · Mar 9, 2014

Are you located in Florida? You can pretty much complete ALL your Nursing School prerequisites through your High School Dual Enrollment Program which can be completed while you are in High School at one of the Local Community College. The courses are free to High School Students and Books are also free. You could get your Associates Degree by the time you finish High School and it would cost you nothing. Frankly, I think Dual Enrollment is "better" than doing AP courses, since with AP you have to get at least a 3 or better (more like 4 or 5) for the credits to transfer to a four-year College. While, getting a C at a Local Community College will earn you college credits. Also, in Florida, as part of the Dual Enrollment process, you get go to specialize High Schools for your Junior and Senior Year and graduate with an Associate Degree, which would allow you to complete your BSN in two years after graduating from High School. I'm amazed more high school students who meet the requirement (unweighted 3.0 GPA, etc.) do not pursue Dual Enrollment. Dual Enrollment is available in many States, although it might be called a different name. Who would pass up a chance to have their first two years of College paid for by the School District. BTW, in Florida, you can take your Dual Enrollment Classes at 4-year Universities also.[/quote']
Ugh I SOOOOOOO regret not doing dual enrollment.

Jack C · Mar 10, 2014

My scholarship pays for tuition of two years at my community college and two years at any other FL public university. So to best utilize this, i will knock out all of my nursing prerequisites and any classes i can take that will help with my CRNA studies in the future, get my rn at my community college, and then transfer to another college (currently strongly leaning towards USF, any grads of their program have any thoughts on it?) to get my bsn (I understand these programs are optimized for actively working RNs, which would be perfect for me since I will definitely need the money.)

Jack C · Mar 10, 2014

Thanks very much for your input applesxoranges, I would just like to clarify what I meant by pre-nursing. My high school has a HOSA program that in my senior year, will be a CNA course. This will get me very well prepared to go to nursing school because we will spend lots of time in local nursing homes getting hands on clinical experience, which is invaluable for my education.

norlns24 · Mar 10, 2014

I'm not good at math and was terrible at math in high school. At community college, I was required to take developmental math (pre-algrebra) and then a non-transferable college algebra class. I attend a major state university, and they did not require that I take any more math. The college algebra was a prerequisite for stats, which I did need to take for the RN program I am in (and which most programs require).

As far as I am aware, most RN programs do not require math above college algebra/ statistics.... certainly not calculus....at least in my area. I looked into several programs, including one that was way too expensive for me (but ranked in the top ten in the nation) and it did not require calculus, though it did require more chemistry than I ended up needing for the program I chose.

I am proof that you can do very well in nursing school (I'm half way through) and be not so great at math. The med math we are required to do is very basic imo and requires a good understanding of dimensional analysis. Once you get DA down, you can apply it to any med calculation problem they try to throw at you.

So, long story short....don't sweat not doing well in pre-calculus. Do well in your other classes and like someone else said, try to stay more focused on the short-term (the present and next step in your goal) without worrying too far ahead.

Good luck!

THELIVINGWORST, ASN, RN · Mar 10, 2014

To clarify, if you get your ADN first, the next step is a bridge to BSN. That can be done online.

SoniaReb · Mar 10, 2014

I take it that by Scholarship you mean "2 + 2 Florida Plan" (Prepaid Tuition)? Why do you call it a Scholarship? My advice concerning the Dual Enrollment was just that, an advice so take it for what it is worth!