I will already have a BS in different field...

[jahall05]

I am a senior and will graduate in May 2014 with a BSBA in human resource management. My heart is in healthcare though. I do not want to pursue another Bachelor's degree unless necessary.

Anyone else been in the same boat? How does financial aid work with already having earned a bachelors in something else? I was thinking maybe an associates in nursing ( and then becoming an RN) or respiratory therapy, but haven't decided yet.

[PVCCHoo]

What a racket the loans/federal aid are. I already have a Bachelor's that was paid for with no federal aid (thanks mom and dad.) Now, I am in community college and of course I am not eligible for any grants, but I guess I can still get loans since I have not used any of them before. Still trying to do this all out of pocket and with scholarships. I would be better off taking a home equity line of credit for half the interest rates these loans are offering anyways.

As for type of degree, I applied to one Master's Entry program and did not get offered acceptance, so I will be going to community college here in VA where they have a joint program with another state university to get your BSN concurrently while you also get your ADN from the community college. Seems to be the most cost effective way to get the BSN (besides the option of getting your ADN and gaining employment and then getting the employer to pay for the BSN.) With the way the job market appears, I think it is worth the extra money to have that BSN at the start of the post-grad job search.

The crazy thing is that BSN will just be one extra class per semester online only and it is going to cost nearly twice as much as the ADN which of course includes actual classroom and clinical education.