Moving back to Minnesota

[kristiesin]

Hello!!! I am currently about to finish up my Pre-reqs for nursing school in WA. My husband wants to move to Minnesota next spring. I have taken the pre reqs not only for my current school but for the BSN requirements HERE. I am coming to visit next month and will be looking at Century College, Anoka Ramsey and Inver Hills for their traditional track. I have a 3.9 GPA in my sciences and an overall Associates degree with Honors classes and am an Honors Student with a GPA of 3.7. What I don't have: My Minnesota CNA, Work experience in the last two years because I was laid off and have been a full time student.

My Question is... out of those three schools, which one would you pick? I know that every school in every state is fairly competitive. Our school gets 140 to 150 applications each quarter and there are 30 to 38 seats.

I used to live in Minnesota and we went back last year and my husband fell in love. My youngest is graduating high school next year so we are staying this next school year so he can finish up his Senior year. I have tons of family and friends in the Cities, so I know it is a good move, but I have been so spoiled with my school here.

I have a WA CNA and am hoping I can get Reciprocity there. Has anyone else done this? Come from another state to MN to attend Nursing school? Has anyone done the reciprocity for CNA?

Thanks in advance!!!

[am207]

Have you looked into North Hennepin Community College? CNA is not a requirement for admission to their nursing program, just a thought.

[kristiesin]

I had not thought of that one. I will definately check it out. I have an appointment at St. Catherine's in June and I will check out NHCC. We will be living in the Oakdale area so I will have to see what the commuting time would be, but I would think that would be doable.

[am207]

I live in Maplewood at the Oakdale border.. The drive is a hassle sometimes (especially with bad weather) but has totally been worth it. Good luck with everything!

[AKFLIGHTRN]

I finished my ADN at NHCC last year. I would look into it. I liked the school and the program.

[kristiesin]

Thanks! I am applying at both NHCC and Century. We are planning to be there in December of this year so I can take my HESI exam. I have sent my transcripts and Century has evaluted them all.. and everything transferred over, thank goodness. Now I just have to focus a little more on NHCC and get my scores done over there as well. Good to hear that they have positive reviews. I really enjoyed both schools when I went to visit, so I am a little torn. Century is super close, but North Hennepin would be a great choice too. The navigation of this has been really eye opening. I just have to trust in the process at this point and hope I have truly done everything I could to prepare. I am finished with all of my pre reqs, I am focused on doing well on the HESI and I guess just keep my fingers crossed. Our move date is the begininning of next June, but my husband will be moving sooner. We come out there every couple of months, and I just came back to Washington after being there for two weeks.

Thanks again for the helpful feedback.

[lukeslichy]

Kristiesin-

It wouldn't hurt to throw your name in at Inver as well. It is so competitive here to get into schools the more you get your name out the better. Also I don't know if this is possible but if you can take a class or two online (do you have any classes you need to take?) at Century or NHCC. I am not positive about NHCC, but I know Century gives you points (toward getting into the program) for "residency status" meaning you have taken classes at that school. I am a 3rd semester nursing student at Inver right now and when I applied I was waitlisted at inver as #10 and Waitlisted at Century as #72. I figure that was because I had taken classes at Inver and not Century.

Just a couple bits of info I thought you may like to know!

Good luck to you!

[kristiesin]

Thank you! I spoke with Inver, but they require a couple of things that would be difficult for me to get for this application process from here. Washington state does not offer a medical dosage class that transfers and unless I can get my CNA transferred to Minnesota prior to deadline, it won't help me there. I don't have high hopes for Century, but I am thinking that a back up plan if I don't get in at NHCC is to take my first year at St Paul, get my LPN and then do mobility through NHCC or one of the other schools that has competitive application for mobility. Century would be my first choice because of location, but I will look at Inver to see if they have that dosage class online. Thanks again though for the info.