Military Spouse-Is it smart to start taking pre-requisites now?

NurseGirl525, ASN, RN · Aug 16, 2015

If it were me, I would wait. You don't want to waste time and money taking prereqs you do not need. I did not start back up until my son was in school full time. I waited until he was 7, second grade. That way I could do my prereqs during the day while he was in school. I was still there to put him on the bus in the morning and pick him up when he got off in the afternoon. But, that was something that was important for me to do. Another reason why I waited until he was a little older is that he understood what I was doing. I could tell him that mommy needed some quiet time to study and for the most part, I didn't have any problems. If I had done it when he was younger, it would not have worked. Plus, I had to divorce my ex-husband, but that is a whole different ball of wax.

The prereqs only took me a year (3 semesters), to knock out. I went fall, spring, and summer. An ABSN program is going to be very fast-paced with a whole lot of work. Will you be able to do that with 2 young children? Will you have support to help you? Does your husband deploy at all? I think if you got to your new base and took a year working on prereqs that would give you some time to meet people and make friends who will be able to help with your kids while in school. Clinical hours can be wonky, so you will need to make sure you have regular people to help when your husband cannot and backups in place for when things don't go just right as planned. And believe me, that will happen often.

Remember, your kids are only this little once. Don't be in a huge rush to get all of it done and miss out on their days now. My son is nine now and he is growing up too quickly. I hate it. But, I scheduled everything before the program so I didn't miss one of his practices or tournaments. I did a lot of studying in hotels and homework last summer. He does martial arts and is pretty good at it. I'm going to miss out on a few things this upcoming semester as I start my final year of my ASN program. At nine though, he's pretty understanding and knows what the end goal is. He is very excited to watch me graduate next year and tells me how proud he is of me. It makes me smile.

Dit250 · Aug 16, 2015

Wow, everything you just said is exactly what I needed to hear. At 31 years old I was afraid of waiting any longer to start a new career. But you're so right. If I'm just patient and wait to get to our next assignment. I'll be able to do my prerequisites at the same school I'm applying to and the kids will be in school full time. So once I start it may only take me 2.5 years with prerequisites included. Not so bad :) thank you so much for the advice. I needed to read something like this.

ajmclean · Aug 16, 2015

Yes, start now. Get as much out of the way as early as possible. That way you can concentrate on on your upcoming PCS move and not have to worry about doing prereqs when you transfer.

_zoubisoubisou_ · Aug 18, 2015

I was in your exact position last year or two, stationed in Japan. It seemed that most colleges wanted similar prereqs so I started taking them online. I would also make a list of possibilities for duty stations and compare the prereqs that those ABSN programs did. I started my ABSN program last year and I just graduated :) ...it's SO stressful doing this with the military life but it can be done!

If you do take classes online, ensure that the program you're applying to will accept online coursework. Many of them will. From what I remember, most in California would not! So be sure to email them.