Need a lot of advice, tips

[NancyGua813]

I'm going to start at a community college in california this month, I'm working on my healthcare interpreting certificate and my general ed. Hopefully if all goes well these two years i'll transfer to a uc or state school for a nursing program. I'm doing a CNA program in a year to help me out financially in school and for the experience.. I essentially want to become a nurse RN.. What I'm basicly asking is how do i look into nursing schools, how it all works with pre-nursing classes/when do i take them, whats a undergraduate student. I'm just so confused because i look up UC's and nursing schools buut i'm still confused. If anybody can help that would be lovely thankyou!!

[RunBabyRN]

Look into CSUs, rather than UCs. I haven't seen a UC with an undergrad RN program, only with master's or doctorate-level programs. Plus, CSUs are less expensive.

In your undergrad, do the IGETC, so that if you DO end up pursuing a higher degree, you have everything you need.

For each CSU, check out their nursing program website. You can find it through a Google search, or through the university website. It'll tell you there (click around and read every single page on the site) which courses you need to take as prerequisites, and give you lots of good information.

I'm not sure what a healthcare interpreting certificate is (is this language-related?), but if you plan to go into nursing, and you know this, focus on your nursing courses. GPA is EVERYTHING, particularly in your prerequisite courses (anatomy, physiology, chemistry, etc), so make sure you do what you need to do to keep your grades up, even if it means slowing down and giving it more time.

The CNA license will be fantastic for you (if possible, do it sooner!). It'll give you great experience that you can take with you in nursing school and beyond. Also, more and more nursing programs are actually REQUIRING a CNA license prior to starting the program, so that you have those skills down before you start, so they can focus on the more complex stuff.

An undergraduate student is any student that doesn't yet have a bachelor's degree. If you're working on a master's or above, you're a grad student. :)