Looking for good Associates program in nursing in Jax Fl

[Ethelem]

I am 58 years old and plan on totally changing my life. I have been in the design field for the past 30 years, everyone else in my family has been in medicine, even my children! I am looking for a GOOD program that I can get into fairly quickly. I would like to do the associates degree in nursing. The local community college is full and it will take a year or more of prereqs just to try and qualify. There are private schools like Sanford-Brown, Concorde and probably others. What schools are good. I don't want to wast a lot of money and time to end up with nothing. Thanks for your help.

Ethelem

[FLmomof5]

sanford brown:

http://drf.nursingschools.com/sanford-brown-institute-jacksonville-accreditation

in english: we got sufficient accreditation to get title iv funding ability and nothing beyond....your training in our less than optimal accreditation institution could hamper your career goals.....

http://www.matchcollege.com/college/404505/sanford----brown-institute/fl#tuition_and_fees

there is a meaningful possibility that some or all credits earned at sanford-brown will not transfer to or be recognized by other intitutions, and it is the student's responsibility to find out in advance of enrollment whether a receiving institution will recognize a course of study or accept credits earned at sanford-brown.

associate in science - nursing

application fee: $ 50

tuition (1st academic year) $ 13,800

tuition (2nd academic year) $ 13,800

tuition (3nd academic year) $ 7,400

total cost $ 35,050

keiser

http://drf.nursingschools.com/keiser-university/

(bottom paragraph)

concorde:

http://www.matchcollege.com/college/133845/concorde-career-institute/fl#tuition_and_fees

students in our nursing program earn their associate in science (as) degree in 15 months.*

everest:

http://www.everest.edu/campus/jacksonville/home/accreditation

fscj:

http://www.matchcollege.com/college/133702/florida-community-college-at-jacksonville/fl

i only linked the tuition of fscj for comparison. most of the info on these sites are a couple of years old so tuition is actually much higher. what you can see for comparison is that for 1 year, you will pay 10x to 30x the amounth of money for tuition at these for profit schools as you will for attendance at fscj.

if you calculate out repayment for the private school:

loan balance: $35,050.00 adjusted loan balance: $35,226.13 loan interest rate: 6.80%loan fees: 0.50%loan term: 10 yearsminimum payment: $50.00

monthly loan payment:$405.38 number of payments: 120

cumulative payments: $48,646.20 total interest paid: $13,596.20

you will have to pay $405.38 per month for 10 years. if you start out earning $21.50/hr on a 36 hr week, (mult by 52, div by 12, mult by .85 to get rid of taxes), you would have take home of $2850.90/mo.

as long as you have no bills right now and you are ok with that, then go ahead. it took me 1 yr of pre-reqs (at 2 classes per semester) and 4 terms of ns to graduate from fscj. fscj credits are transferrable. most, if not all, of the credits at those private, for-profit schools are not. not a big deal unless you want to go past adn.

[Ethelem]

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer. I have appointments set up with Concorde to talk with them about their program. I did go to FSCJ and the lady in their nursing program was not very optimistic and said it would probably take me three or more years, IF I was able to get into their program. I have some college but unfortunately it has been so long ago I am basically starting at ground zero. My husband is on dissability and I am not working much so I have been told I would qualify for a Pell Grant which makes it more manageable. I will visit the private schools, ask a lot of questions and make sure everything is in writing. Fortunately for me I have a good lawyer in the family. Thanks again. Ethelem