Missy80

DO NOT GO TO MARIA COLLEGE IN ALBANY! Their nursing program is a complete waste of your time and money. I just finished my senior semester and was supposed to graduate this May. Little did I realize that the extra credit points you earn by going to collaborative after each test, are useless to you unless you already have a grade of 77. In the normal world, a 74 is considered passing and those extra points are usually used to get someone over a hump. Who cares if you have an 80 final grade and then with your points get an 83. I wound up with a 74 final grade and thought that my 3.5 extra credit points would push me up to the 77 needed to graduate, but that was not the case. Going to collaborative is a complete waste of your time, wish they would have told me this during the program. To make things worse, the dean tells us all in March to apply for RN jobs and send in our nursing application, so I do and have a job lined up as a float nurse to start May 24th. I tell my current job I am leaving so they found a replacement for me, and now they fail me over 3 points. Albany Med also lost out and they were mad when I had to call and cancel my start date. Its true that hospitals around here are weary about hiring maria students. You get to the end and then they find some way to screw you over. I feel completely used by this program and wouldnt recomment anyone waste their time there. The teaching is horrible and the communication between all the instructors is awful. Trust me, go someplace else and believe all the bad things you hear about this school - its all true, I witnessed it.

Try www.excelsior.edu They offer alot of online courses.

I have my Bachelors in Psychology too and I decided to go back to school for my RN. Pretty much all of my courses from my bachelors program transferred over to the RN program, except that I need to take Microbiology. So I just have to take the Clinicals courses, which is what I am doing now. This is my first semester and I am enjoying it.. From what I understand, you need to take the clinical courses under the Associate program first, pass everything, then sit for the NCLEX to receive your RN license. Once you receive your license, then you would go on to get your BSN. If I am misunderstood, I hope someone can clarify that for me so I can make sure I am following the right path. Hope that helps.

I am an evening nursing student and this is my first semester. Its almost over, thankfully. I have my clinical on Saturdays from 6:30am till 1:00pm in a Nursing home. Its hard to wake up early every saturday, but when you work full time, you have no choice if you want to become a nurse, which I do very badly. I have class on Tuesday and thursday evenings until 8 or 8:30, so its not too bad. All of my pre-reqs are done, except for Microbiology, I plan on doing that during the spring or summer. not sure yet. I havent found the first semester to be that tough. It is alot of studying, but as long as you keep up on it and enjoy learning the material, you will do fine. Good luck to you in whatever you decide. A word of advice from someone with a Bachelors in Psychology, dont waste your time or money in tuition going to school for something that wont pay off! Make sure you go for something that you will be able to use/get a job in when you graduate!