Im Totally New To Everything! Need Help!

tramajunkie · Jul 21, 2008

First thing to do is find out what you have to do to get into the nursing program at your shcool. Some schools have witing list. The school im going to requires you take the NLN enterance exam. If you are going to go full time look at the prereqs for your program. They are your gen eds. So I would reccomend English Comp I, Biology as this is usually a prereq for A&P along with micro, College Alg, and Intro to Psychology.

AB092504 · Jul 21, 2008

Exactly what Trama said, it completely depends on what prereq and coreqs are required for the program that you're looking at. I would suggest sitting down w/ an advisor as soon as you can. They can go over w/ you exactly what classes you'll need and can give you an idea of how long it will take. Plus you'll avoid taking any unnecessary classes that you don't need. If you're going full-time, that's great, you should be able to knock out the prereqs in no time!

Good luck! :yeah:

Tharem · Jul 21, 2008

You really should know the exact requirements of your program and then come up with a strategy to complete them successfully. For example, what are the prerequisite courses? What are the exact criteria for acceptance into the actual nursing program? Do they base acceptance on the GPA of only the prerequisites or on other courses as well? Is there an entrance exam you have to pass in addition to taking prerequisites? At my school there were only 4 prerequisite courses and no test, so the GPA on those 4 courses was critical for getting into the program, so I spread those 4 courses over two semesters to give myself the best chance of getting a high GPA on them. It worked and I got into the program. If I had been in a hurry I might have taken all 4 courses in one semester, but I don't think I would have been able to come out with as high a GPA and probably wouldn't have gotten into the program.

So, learn the criteria of your program and plan your strategy around that to give yourself the best chance of getting into that program.

MassED, BSN, RN · Jul 21, 2008

Hey there!
OK.. so I am going to start in the fall, at Crafton Hills...
I have yet to finish or START one class.....
I am going into nursing... Can ANYONE out there, give me any in-site as to how long I can complete this..
I am going FULL time, and im going to try to take as many classes as possible.....
Any help would be sooooooo GREAT!!
Thanks!:nuke:

ADN program is 2 years - pre-requisites, depending on where you are coming into the game can take just a few semesters, or none at all (if you come into it with an AA or some science background).

Once you put in an application for nursing school, find out what pre-req's you need and sign up for those - plan accordingly, though. If you start your courses in January and expect to start an ADN program in August, make sure you have it all planned out to have it all done so you're not doing other coursework during nursing school. NO time for other courses in nursing school. An advisor will spell it all out for you - what you need, what are the requirements, etc.

Tharem · Jul 21, 2008

I am going FULL time, and im going to try to take as many classes as possible....

This in itself is a strategy, but it's not necessarily the strategy that best fits your program. Like I said above, it was better for me to spread my prereqs over two semesters. Don't be in such a tearing hurry that you jeopardize your chances of either getting into the program or completing it successfully.

Slow down and be sober and deliberate about the steps you take. Neither getting into nor completing nursing school is easy. The shortest path is to pass all your classes, and being in too much of a hurry isn't necessarily the best way to do that.

awhisler · Jul 23, 2008

Congrats on your great choice of career! You are my neighbor as I am a BSN student at Loma Linda!!

I took my prereqs at a community college and always had at least 11+ units/ semester. It took me 2 years (as planned) to finish pre-reqs for community college ADN programs but I decided to go to a BSN school. They required a few more classes that took me another 6 months. There are girls at my school that were smart and took college units during high school and finished their community college prereqs in 1 year.

Tips:

-search for more than one nursing program in the area and check their prereqs and well as their pass rates on the Board of Registered Nursing CA website. Most have roughly the same prereqs buit some require extra classes (like in my case).

-Check which classes require prereqs themselves (ex. college algebra must be taken before Statistics) and take them early on to knock them out.

-Match easy classes, like art, with harder ones, like Chemistry. Putting too many hard classes together will just stress you out and might compromise grades.

-Never skip opportunities to take Winter/Summer classes that take only 5 weeks. This is a great opportunity to get these out of the way!

Good luck.:redbeathe