Got some bad news about my program

[ShelbyaStar]

For background, I'm 26 and I previously got a BS in Animal Science from another school, so I've taken lib ed credits, lots of bio and chem, etc.

I decided I wanted to go into nursing and after looking at a few options, I applied to a small public university in the town I'm living in. I thought that surely with my background I'd be able to finish another undergrad in a fairly short amount of time.

The way that my program works is that school starts in the fall and you take some prereq courses. I'm excused from taking chemistry and writing, but do need classes like intro psych and human anatomy. In fall of sophomore year, you take the last two prereq classes while simultaneously applying for the nursing program, which starts in the spring. If accepted, you get in and take mostly nursing classes though there are still some suggested lib ed requirements sprinkled throughout, all of which I've taken.

I was really hoping they would let me take some classes early, but after talking with some people it seems that I can't. I thought maybe I'd be kind of screwed out of not being able to get into the program early since they are stringent about the spring of 2nd year thing, but it seems that even in the nursing program I will not be able to fill in blank spots from my previous education with other classes.

This was a huge blow for me. It means I will only be a part time student for pretty much the next two years. I could do the RN AD program at the community college, but they have already started and I would have to wait until next fall to get in at all, so in the end it wouldn't save me any time for my end goal of having a BSN. My school has a 4 year program for non-nurses and a 2 year program for RN ADs and nothing in between.

I previously looked into an accelerated BS to BSN program. The nearest one is in OshKosh (not close!) and is predominately online. They strongly prefer people that are already CNAs (which I'm not but will be soon, also have to be for current program) and have good grades. My current GPA from my previous school was a 2.99. I have no doubt I will get excellent grades this time around, but that's where it stands right now and it's not good enough. It's also a very expensive program- $50k for the year. But of course there is an opportunity cost for waiting four years to be a nurse too.

I am getting married and jetting off to a different school in a bigger city isn't an option right now. We were hoping to move elsewhere in a couple years however.

I don't know what my best option is. Stick it out for four years, light load, get really good grades and work a lot? Drop and either become an RN first or wait til we move elsewhere or both? Try to get into the accelerated program, during which I can't work? Drop it entirely, maybe do the CNA-PN-RN-BSN path gradually?

My thought is maybe I should stick it out for this year and then simultaneously apply for both my program and the accelerated and see what happens. By that time my GPA will have improved and I'll have been a CNA.

I hope that makes sense and I'd really appreciate input. If it helps, here's the suggested schedule put out by my school:

[ShelbyaStar]

Bumping up

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

The Accelerated (and Traditional at the same school) program that I am in requires all pre-req and general ed. courses done before starting nursing classes. I don't understand why they won't let you finish up your gen ed classes before starting nursing classes. It would seem that you would have less difficulty in nursing school if you didn't have to take those classes simultaneously with nursing classes. I understand that the program may have a set order to the nursing classes (4 or 5 semesters), so you would not be full-time or be able to finish early, but to say that you have to take gen. ed. classes with nursing classes is stupid.

I am in an accelerated program and there are several people that have B/F or husbands that are not local (one got married over July 4th holiday) and only see them on breaks. An ABSN program may be difficult financially and emotionally, but it is done quickly.

[NICUmiiki, DNP, NP]

I understand how you feel, but nursing classes build directly upon the classes preceding it. You can't expect to be successful in a more advanced class if you haven't completed the class that it builds upon yet because you're taking it at the same time.

For example, the first semester, nursing students take Fundamentals, Pharmacology, and a humanities. But since you already have the humanities, you want to take MedSurg I from the second semester to be full time. The school requires you to check off on things in Fundamentals before beginning MedSurg, so there's no way you could take them at the same time.

At least you have an opportunity to make it through nursing school pretty debt-free if you decide to go to the local college.