New, and with questions!

welcome to allnurses.com! you will find tons of helpful information on this site!

hi everyone

i'm new to allnurses.com and new to "nursing" itself. i signed up and did the compass test, next step is attending a college planning session and signing up for the classes.

i plan on attending ivy tech, indianapolis or lawrence campus, but i have a couple of questions:

1. which is harder to get into, lpn or rn program? the rn program is typically harder to get into. the rn program also has a lot more classes required to complete to receive your degree. the lpn program requires: a&p 1, a&p 2, psychology, english comp, (all before acceptance into program), & also a ivy life skills class. do i have to know which program i have to get into when i sign up for the pre reqs or can i still change my mind while doing the pre reqs? no, you don't have to know which program when you sign up for pre-reqs.

2. why do we have to take the compass test? i took the test today and i passed, don't have to redo any of them. but i thought math is not a pre-req? so why do they want to see our level of knowledge of math? i believe it's to make sure everyone is at college-level.

3. so, of all the students that apply, what percentage will actually get into the program? i'm not sure....

4. what does a schedule of the pre-reqs look like? how many hours a week will i be at school for the 1st semester and for the 2nd semester? can you combine this with a pt job? i've typically taken 1 class at a time and have always worked ft. i had one semester i took 3 classes & worked...it is possible....most of my classes have been online.

5. can i take the pre reqs online? yes & i love them!!

6. how would a schedule of a nursing student (lpn or rn) look like? how many hours a week? i'm not sure...not quite there yet.

7. do we really have to dissect a pig for anatomy (or other classes)? and do we have to dissect dead people? (i once attended an information session for med school and they brought us to a dead person (died a veryyyyy long time ago) and she started pulling of body parts of the person to show us the different muscles and bones etc, will we do the same in nursing school? we had to dissect a cat (we used it throughout the semester), sheeps brain, cow's eye...we did not have any people, but our prof. did mention he would like to get that incorporated sometime.

that's it for now. thanks for your answers!

each campus has information sessions about the nursing/paramedic/dental programs. i encourage you to go to one early on if possible. the information they provide may help you decide what route you want to take.

good luck!

RN definitely much harder to get into--so competetive, so few seats. Compass is just general admission placement test to see at what level you are performing, to determine the lowest level that you will need to take. Also, on most campuses of Ivy Tech there is a math requirement for RN program.