General education requirements completed before starting nursing courses?

[vampiregirl, BSN, RN]

Greeting fellow Excelsior students & grads... I was just curious if anyone had successfully completed any of the nursing courses before completing all their general education requirements (A&P and microbiology specifically). I'm decided to take my A&P and microbiolology courses at a local community college so I can benefit from the laboratory portion, but I'm considering working on one of the nursing courses too. I checked with my advisor at Execelsior and it's okay with them, but I wanted to see if anyone else had tried this. Thanks for any input.

[Boston-RN, RN]

I just took NC1 and passed and I have yet to take the general ed classes (but I am an LPN so I had to take a 1 credit micro and 3 credit human body for that program)

I think you could tackle NC1 without either of those classes.

There are a few different ways to go about it. To save from having to pay the enrollment fee right away you can take all the general ed classes and NC1 & 2 prior to actually enrolling. On the other hand you can take NC1 & NC2 then enroll and take the rest of the nursing classes and apply for the CPNE and then take the remaining Gen Ed classes (assuming you need less than 10 credit hrs left) while waiting for the CPNE date which from what I hear takes 4-6 mths

If you browse the postings you'll see how different people tackled the program.

Best of luck to you

[Mudwoman]

Something to consider is that there is a yearly enrollment fee with Excelsior. I think it is around $500 every year to stay in the program. So, you want to enroll when you get to the point of being able to complete everything within 2 years. Otherwise, you end up spending more money than you need to. Another thing to consider.........that A&P lab isn't going to help you that much. Try the CLEP exam and get on with the degree.

[mumpet5]

Mudwoman, I see you suggesting the CLEP for A & P, but where do you get the books to study for the exam? Just wondering, Eileen