New Mom! Fall 2016 Accelerated (Quinnipiac/st joseph...etc) vs traditional Southern

[julieberg]

Hey

5/23/15

Looking for people who have attending these programs recently. (Accelerated QU/ ACE Southern/ ACE St josephs) and Traditional Southern (2 year program)

So i have a one month old and been trying to go to nursing school. I have a BSN in Early childhood education and sociology 3.7 gpa--no healthcare experience. The earliest i can apply to get in for anything would start fall 2016 so i need to decided now what i should do.

I like QU accelerated program since i would only have to take the 3 labs required and from what i ve heard i can take them online through university of phoenix; which means i can maybe work one more year. BUT no one else accepts these course online with labs from what i know. the community colleges will make me take an intro to biology course just to start taking the ones i need and that takes up to much time.

The QU would only be one year and i could -if accepted start in the fall 2016. Has anyone taken the online courses and got accepted?

How is this program? Scheduling for classes/clinicals. I am afraid its too much with a kid who would be 2 when I would end the program in 2017. I Dont want to miss to much of their life and would like to have one more child because i want them close in age. so this program would work well and i would only have to take out a living loan to pay some basics like daycare (my husband is able to afford the rest).

How is the financial aid? I have no parents so my EFC on the fasfa is '0.' Are there grants and scholarships etc?

Has any one attended St. josephs or Southerns program accelerated? How is that schedule and prep? They have a lot of pre-reqs.

If i attended one of these i couldnt take the courses online like QU so i couldnt work this fall as a teacher. (dreading that anyways if i work)

My other option is to apply as an undergraduate for southerns program and complete the program in 4 semesters. but would need to start pre-reqs this fall/spring at southern or community college. It would be 9 months more than doing QU's program.

I dont mind taking out 70,000 for QU because i need a career i enjoy and one that accepts family (as teaching and work at home 80+ a week is not for me).

Are loans easy to get ?

Any one who has experience in any of this please provide some input.

[WCSU1987]

Hi, not sure how much of help I will be. I work at a Yale Hospital affiliate. I been looking into a few of the accelerated and BSN program's as that is the trend lately. I like that Goodwin and UCONN have rolling admissions not a fall start date like a lot of program's.

I work in a psych unit with Yale. They recently were refilling their ranks of psych had a huge push looking for people with Child Development degrees. They have great reimbursement of tuition about $5K and a few other perks. I think can defer a few payments at certain school's.

For me taking the pre requisites be a year and then wait to get accepted to a program, since most start in the fall. Anyways I know UCONN and SCSU have rolling start dates. Also Southern state school that has a part time nursing program.

Also if child development look into a state gig, your education income everything is golden set for your career ha. That's why going back to school to be a CNA to work with UCONN per diem.

Best of luck and congrats on the newborn.

[WCSU1987]

Curious about loans I have bad credit.

[Ariellmae]

I'm in the same boat as you! I have an 8 month old son and have been wanting to go to start an RN program since before he was born. I work full time and can't see how people do it!

I finally started by taking life span psyc and principles of Soc online at cc since most programs require these. Next semester I'm taking A&P at a Naugatuck Valley at night so my husband can watch my son. I'm planning on getting my AS at Gateway because they offer a night program.

Where are you located? are you taking any prereqs now?

[Snafu13]

I attended Southern CT State University's tradition BSN program, which is actually more like 4 years vice 2 as you thought OP. There are many pre-requisite courses that are specific to SCSU that are not offered anywhere else and there are no comparable courses that would transfer to meet this requirement. Have you looked at the pre-req list for the traditional and ACE program?

Secondly, our ACE students are in full-time nursing mode and attend back to back labs and clinicals during the entire July-July year. Can it be done? absolutely. Is it conducive to planning a family while still in school in an accelerate program? highly unlikely. I have an 11 year old son and I my traditional schedule alone had me missing plenty of concerts, activities and baseball games due to the overwhelming amount of reading/homework/clinical rotation/test preparation/etc. I know the accelerated students had that compounded x2 at least.

My first suggestion is that you wait until you're really ready to pursue a nursing degree, as there is no easy method to get it done. Online labs aren't accepted by any accredited agency, nor should they ever be. It sounds to me that it may be in your best interest to wait until you've truly got the time to dedicate to a new degree.

Another point is that many of the sciences require pre-req biology, anatomy & physiology I & II and general chemistry to advance to the other required microbiology and organic chemistry/biochemistry courses that are required to apply to the nursing program at SCSU. There is an additional math 108 requirement that is exclusive to SCSU as well as the CHE 120 course. Most of these are offered only in the spring or only in the fall.

As far as financial aid, I've received several scholarships, grants and student loans with no problem. I kept my GPA high and since I'm also a mom with a 0 EFC, I qualified for the highest grant amount that I could get each semester and took out minimal student loans to help with living expenses while I went to school full time.

I'm not trying to say that it's not possible, but I would highly advise against trying to cut corners or find a primarily online program. Not having the hands-on lab experience and getting around taking the required pre-req classes will leave you struggling come clinical practice time. The programs are structured the way that they are because they build up in content and skill, making you prepared to take the NCLEX exam and have the skill set to be a safe and competent nurse. I think you'd be selling yourself short by trying to take the fastest path.

That's just my two cents

P.S. I LOVED Southern's traditional program!