Full Time or Part Time Grad School?

[beauty912]

Hi Everyone,

I am planning to enroll in a Psychiatric NP program in summer 2012. Currently, I am struggling with whether or not I should apply for full time or part time status. Right now, I am a med/surg nurse and I have no psych experience at all. Therefore, I would like to work within psych while in school in order to gain experience along with my Masters. I'm not sure if it would be wise to go to school full time and work part time, or if I should just enroll part time. I don't want to be too stressed out. Any suggestions? Thanks for your attention!

[MollNick]

A nurse I worked with went through a psych msn program and he did not have any psych experience before and during the program. But, he went full time and worked in ICU part-time. I am planning on applying for the spring 2012 semester for adult NP. I will be going full-time because I don't want to drag it out any longer than I need to.

[Freedom42]

If money is an issue, apply for full-time status. A lot more financial aid is available if you're a full-time student; plus, you can always drop down to part-time status. But it's much tougher to go "up" to full-time, at least at my university, due to limited enrollment.

I work full-time and go to school part-time, which for me means two courses a semester, year-round. I'll complete an FNP program in three years. For what it's worth, I don't have children at home, my house is a disaster, and I'm perpetually exhausted. If I could work part-time, I would.