jarakr

I can totally relate! I have a 6 and 4 year old and I'm halfway through my program, plus I work 24 hours a week because my employer pays for my tuition. My husband works a really demanding job. All the grandparents have been extremely helpful, along with friends, etc. We can't afford daycare so we've been very blessed to have help from all our loved ones! -Like everyone else has said, get a really good planner! When I get my schedule for the upcoming semesters, I make a little chart on the computer with ALL the dates and times I'm going to be in school, and I fill in the places my kids will be. We call it the "childcare signup sheet." Since you'll have daycare, I'm guessing you might not have to make this chart, but it's really helped us. I give a copy to everyone who helps with babysitting and they fill in what they can work. That way, I know far in advance what I'm doing about childcare and I don't stress. In my first semester, I think worrying about what to do with my kids was my biggest problem. -When I have free time, I work hard to keep school out of my mind. I focus completely on my family! I take the kids somewhere fun, we do activities at home, and I make it a big priority to always be there for bedtime. They haven't seemed to be negatively affected by my schedule at all. Evenings are great times for my husband and I to simply hang out together. If I DO have to study, sometimes he'll help me out by quizzing me or letting me practice skills with him. -Appreciate everyone who has helped you on your journey! Give your husband tons of appreciation for his support. Anyone who has helped with your kids, even daycare staff, deserve lots of gratitude. And of course, appreciate those kids who have given you the drive to get through school :) When I get stressed I remind myself why I'm doing this. I am this for my family. It really keeps me going! -Housework has to be broken up for us. Every day I try to do one full load of laundry. The dishes always go in the dishwasher. The toilet gets scrubbed once a week, and the floors get some sort of attention. Sometimes taking time to do housework actually relaxes me, which it never did before. But you really have to let the minor details go when you have too much other stuff to do. It's not worth wasting precious hours on housework when you could be spending time with your kids. Good luck, and keep reminding yourself why you're doing this! It seems like a long road but the time is flying by for me. You might be surprised to find several other "moms" in your class, too. I've bonded with a lot of the ones in my class and we're able to share our struggles together. :)

Hi all, I know this forum is really slow but I know someone has to be out there! :) I'm hoping to find someone who knows anything about the University of Wyoming's traditional BSN program. I'm looking to transfer from a community college in Colorado, and it would be nice to be able to transfer somewhere so close- my other options are all over the country! Anybody know anything about how competitive the program is? I need to have them evaluate my transcripts, but I'm still trying to find more information first. Thanks!

Thanks so much for responding again. I'm fairly active with a Methodist church which is great. Hopefully this helps a bit. I'm so, so nervous about applying! I figured I might as well apply soon for admission to the school, but I have to decide if I think it's a good idea to wait until after this semester- I want to make sure they get my recent (good) grades and don't just see my giant "F" from a while ago. So maybe at the end of this semester. How quickly do students usually hear back from the admissions office? Do you know what exactly the prereqs really are? I might have all of them done except chemistry! I still want to attend a semester at OKU before beginning nursing classes, just to get a few more general ed requirements out of the way and to bump up that GPA some more! Everything helps. :) Well, it's really late and I have mountains of homework to do, so I'd better end this here. I'm so excited about really getting my education moving forward.

Traci- Thank you so much for your information! I really appreciate it and would love to hear more. I'm so excited about the whole thing. Now I just have to figure out how to finance it. :) I know I qualifiy for a decent amount of financial aid grants. I'm also hoping a scholarship or two from the school will fall into my lap somehow, although I doubt it. I'm also willing to take out a student loan. I have to figure out how to swing daycare. What are the hours for the program typically like? Ann-Marie- Yes, it looks like we'll be visiting the campus soon! I really hope to find a neighborhood close to campus. If you visit, let me know how it goes. I probably wouldn't be able to make it there much before Christmas. I'm hoping to apply to the school around Jan/Feb. Do you know if it's tough to get in? It doesn't seem like it but I'm a little nervous about my past and a few failed courses... ugh!

Hi everyone out there... I currently live in Colorado and am fed up with the 3-4 year wait-lists to get an associate's degree in nursing. BSN programs are very, very competitive. I started researching and I've read a lot of things about Oklahoma City University. I saw that they are taking students without a huge wait-list or impossible competition. Plus, it looks like a really nice school with a great population. Then I started looking at the cost of homes in the area and my mouth dropped open. So, a few questions about the school... is it true that they are accepting everyone into the nursing program, if they have completed the requirements? It looks like they are trying to admit everybody who has above a 3.0 in prerequisites. I have about half of the apparent prereqs done right now. I would probably transfer to OCU and finish them next summer or fall. I had a 2.56 originally when I was younger (ouch!) and now I am enrolled in a community college and hoping to get a 3.5 or higher this semester to really bump up the 2.56. Plus, I am planning on attending here in the spring and working on boosting my GPA, so the 3.0 requirement for the nursing program doesn't frighten me much. If I were to take more classes at OCU before starting the nursing classes, does anyone know how they would calculate my GPA? It looks like they accept ALMOST everybody, but the last people admitted are transfer students, and I will have attended for a semester or two, so I don't know if I qualifiy as a transfer or not. And, one final question, how hard is it to actually get into OCU itself? Is it a fairly easy school? I contacted the department of nursing but haven't heard back yet, so hopefully I get information soon. My husband and I would love to schedule a visit if it looks like a promising school. Luckily, he is able to transfer within his company if we decide to move to the area. Also, what are some areas of Oklahoma City that are good for families? What areas would I want to avoid? I have two little ones right now and am looking for an area that is family-friendly. I don't know anything about the area. What is the city like? I've asked SO many questions and I apologize for it! I guess I'm just excited and hopeful that there is more out there than what is being offered here. Thank you so much in advance. :) Amy

Hi! I'm fairly new to Colorado and just finishing my prereqs at FRCC Larimer. I've decided to go after an ADN instead of a BSN, if possible. I was looking at the community college website, where I will register all my transcripts and pick three schools to be put on the waitlist. Anyone out there had any experience with this system? I have been looking at the schools I could chose from the list, and I know that FRCC and ACC both have terrible wait-lists. At this point, my husband and I have decided we're willing to look almost anywhere, if I can just get into school. I'm trying to contact different schools but it seems like there's a bunch of red tape just to get more information! So I thought I'd ask here. :) I've been looking at the FRCC schools, but since the wait is so long I'm also considering pueblo community college. Anyone know anything about the wait list there? It looks like the track is first an LPN program, then the second year you can bridge to ADN. I'm willing to go to either the Pueblo campus or the Fremont campus. Also, I saw that Trinidad CC seems to have open positions. Anybody know anything about this school? Would there be a huge amount of travel for clinicals? Another thing I have heard from people in northern Colorado is that sometimes students travel up to the community college in Cheyenne, Wyoming. I looked for information on the wyoming board but it doesn't seem to be very active. I'm so desperate to finally get into school- I've done the prereq thing in two states for three years now, and waiting another three just to BEGIN a nursing program is going to make things rough. I also was interested in the University of Northern Colorado, if the community college route doesn't work, but I hear they're very competitive now, too. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks. :)