Nursing PreReqs

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I am currently a psychology major at a four year university and am going to graduate in the fall or spring depending on what my advisor suggests for me to do. I only need to take five more classes for my degree. I have decided my best option would be to get my bachelor's degree in psychology and then pursue an accelerated BSN. The only problem is that I have yet to finish all of my nursing pre-reqs. I still need to take A&P 1 and 2, microbiology, and a nutrition course. My question is would it be better for me to take longer to graduate and try and fit in all of my pre-reqs before I graduate or take the spring/summer after graduation to take my pre-reqs at a community college. I can't take a nutrition course at my current university because it is only offered for students admitted into the nursing program. And the BSN programs I am interested in are fall start only so regardless I will not be able to start next spring.

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Well a few questions to help answer this would be:

1. How important is getting your nursing degree done the fastest to you?

2. Do you have any financial concerns because it would be cheaper to take the nursing prereqs while you are an undergrad still

3. How well of a student are you - can you take sciences with your advanced psych classes and get B's and A's?

4. How hard is it to get into the ABSN program you are applying to? (that will help for question 3 too)

Unfortunately your psych degree will not help you get a nursing job...I'm not sure I'd recommend finishing that degree but I don't know. I certainly understand you wanting to finish but I wonder if you stopped pursuing it, if you could get into another nursing program sooner or with better chances if you get A's on your prereqs..

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It kind of depends on if you currently get financial aid or not. You generally no longer qualify for grants for undergraduate courses once you graduate with your first bachelor's degree. So if you are using financial aid that's not federal loans right now, you will not be able to use them for the nursing prereqs if you take it after graduation.

However, I imagine that the cost will be the same if you are currently using loans or are paying out of pocket.

I will say that I'm not sure it's useful to graduate with a degree in psychology if you aren't going to use it and just go into nursing. Maybe if you only had like a class or two left, but it sounds like it might be more than that?

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I have one full semester left. I would still need to take 15 credits. Would it be worth looking into transferring to try and get into a BSN program? If so, should I just take the rest of my prereqs next semester? Or transfer regardless. I know no matter what I cannot attend nursing school at the college I currently go to. They have a nursing program but it's only for already registered RNs looking to get their BSN.

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I now see you said that in your post. I must have skipped over that. :facepalm:

I'd say just take your prereqs at that point. Five classes at a university is a good chunk of change still, which can be used toward nursing school instead. If you go that route, I'd take the classes at a community college to reduce cost since there'd be no benefit getting the classes done at your university.

Just research your options for nursing programs now. Some require you to have all prereq some before you even apply with others just needing to have a certain number that have to be completed. You can then figure out if you'll be able to try to apply for a fall semester start or if any of the programs start in the spring semester if needed.

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Hi there, it really depends on your schedule and how much work-load you can handle.

I also decided to switch into nursing when I was about to graduate from college. With the time constrain, I took a year off after graduation to work and take the rest of my pre-reqs at a community college (it was much cheaper) then I was able to apply and got accepted to my most wanted accelerated nursing program.

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Can you work with the psychology degree once you graduate? If that's the case then go ahead and obtain it, work part time with it while going to NS at a community college. I have to say if the psychology degree is worthless then it's probably better to just drop everything now and pursue an associate degree in nursing....it is much cheaper.

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I'd take remaining pre-reqs at a community college for sure. Way cheaper.

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Am I able to do that though? For all technical purposes I am a senior level for a 4 year program. Will an associates program take me still despite that?

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Am I able to do that though? For all technical purposes I am a senior level for a 4 year program. Will an associates program take me still despite that?

Absolutely, as long as they have the space. They give priority to their students first in terms for registering for classes, and let other individuals register after. I took my college classes along with classes at a community college.

You have a better chance taking the classes you need in the summer since students from the associate program are on break.

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So I should apply to some ADN programs now and take my anatomy courses and maybe micro over the summer?

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So I should apply to some ADN programs now and take my anatomy courses and maybe micro over the summer?

I took AP and micro together. Summer courses cram the material in and skip a lot. I missed out on some concepts such as fetal circulation.

But why would you cram these in for the summer, unless you were starting the nursing program in the fall? Oh because you want to take 15 more credits in the fall for the psych degree?

Well. If your life and brain allow it, it's your best option to get into a nursing program by spring I guess but if you get below a B, some ADN programs might not accept you, so you should ask the ADN school you contact about their GPA requirements.

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