Pre-nursing student seeking options

Mandy0728 · Mar 19, 2013

My advice is to go for your BSN, because eventually they'll do away with ADNs...ultimately it's your choice! RNs and LPNs are much different, but there's room for growth being an RN. Also, taking micro & AP2 in the summer is super rough, however anything is possible so good luck! I'm taking micro now & it's tough material

lauraline · Mar 19, 2013

It depends. My plan is to get my ADN first, and then go for an RN-MSN bridge program. But that's because I live in California, and I don't want to wait years to get accepted into a BSN or MSN school, when I can start with the ADN almost right away and be an RN in 2 years. While I'm working as an RN I am going to pursue the bridge program. But, in my situation, I need to start working ASAP for financial and family reasons.

But, if you have the time, go for the BSN, you will have a leg-up as a new grad in the work force.

akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P · Mar 19, 2013

Being that it sounds like you don't have a Bachelor's Degree already, you're in a pretty good spot, actually. You have the chance to go into a BSN program or into an Associate's Degree RN program. Either way you'll end up an RN, but the BSN gets some additional units/courses that the ADN doesn't. Here's the catch though: you must be essentially 100% done with all your General Ed before you get into BSN school because you won't likely have time to get through the rest of your coursework while doing the program work.

Either way, you'll end up doing about 4 years of studying... but the last 2 of that will be the nursing program.

My advice is simple: if you have the opportunity and the means to get the BSN, do it. In my case, the University was closed to 2nd Bachelors students because they had to focus on getting people their 1st Bachelor's degrees, unless the 2nd Bachelor's student was already a student in the University. That meant that I couldn't apply there until very recently. I had to go do an ADN program and find some other way to earn a BSN. That meant possibly becoming a post-bacc student to finish out the prerequisites for an MSN program of some sort, apply to that program and then, while waiting for that program to start, find a way to get into whatever other courses I needed to "complete" the BSN.

You won't have to do anything of that sort as a 1st time Bachelor's student. Heck, even as an ADN your path to BSN would be fairly easy compared to going to RN school... it would just take an additional 2-3 semesters.

Think long and hard about your options of doing BSN or ADN, and specifically what it'll do to your timeline as far as getting done and potentially working. You may find that both options are about equal in overall length, or you may find some other pathway is faster overall.

I wish you the best of luck!

phoenixnim · Mar 19, 2013

It really depends on the programs offered at the schools you are looking at. You really need to do your research of the schools programs, what transfers, etc. It really is worth it talking to advisors at the schools.

I thought I was going to have to get my ADN first before I could pursue a BSN, and once I talked to my transfer school (from community college) I found that I would lose a lot of time completing the ADN first. So now I'm just finishing up my pre-reqs and gen eds, not completing the ADN, and just getting the BSN.

It's good to have an end goal in mind and know what schools you hope to transfer to and what each of their specific requirements are, because it can vary a lot.

Good luck!!