cheesepuffs

Thats one advise I always follow. Don't worry yourself over other people. Unless you have solid proof, your accusation is baseless. I can easily fall into that accusation group. I'm currently in my first semester, reading only half of the required materials, have really bad studying habits but yet currently have high B average. Reason why I'm still doing well with little effort because of experience and familiarity with style of testing. (military, emt-b, ER tech) There is even 3 girls who sit in front of me who texts, gossip, and talk thoughout the entire class but still doing well because they took CNA courses before nursing. (I will improve my studying habits before 2 semester hits.) You just have to look at the perspective of the students. Not everyone is the same level of experience and knowledge wise. But if they are cheating, then they are setting themselves up for failure. Sooner or later they will get caught.

I sort of planned ahead on mine. For me, it took 1 year to finish my pre-reqs. And since it takes 1/2 year for it to put in the application til you find out if you got accepted for nursing, I decided to take a EMT-B course. (3 months) And since I want to specialize in Emergency, I decided to apply for emergency tech at a level 1 trauma center after getting certified. Being in the military helped. Applied and got accepted 1 month later. Few months later, I received a email stating that I got accepted to nursing program. Now I got a huge foot in the door, getting advise from other newer nurses from the same program, non advertised scholarships from the hospital and huge amount of experiences, etc. I had no financial aid and had to pay up 1500 in tuition up front but its paying dividends ten-folds. Remember... these programs usually have the same style of testing as the nursing programs. Such as there is 2 right answers to a question but you have to choose the "most correct one". The best advise I could get you is to take a continuous education course in something to start working in the hospital setting right way. EMT-B, CNA, or Medical Assistant. (a semester or less) Once you get the certification and start working at a hospital...... especially a teaching hospital, they are usually they are really flexible on the hours, since they are open 24/7. Alot of students make a mistake of changing jobs or careers once they get accepted at the nursing students. And usually hospitals get flood of applications before medical programs start and after it ends. Try changing careers or jobs early, like when you are doing prereqs or waiting for the acceptance letter. Without certification, its alittle harder to get in to the hospitals. It just all depend on your priorities. If you just started this spring, you have the summer wide open for classes. I believe you have to complete 2 semesters of nursing before you can work at a hopital as a CNA. Thats 1 year. Or you can knock out a CNA course during the summer and can start working as once within a 1/2 year. It might cost you a arm and a leg but "it just depends on ur priorities and how badly you want it." (my advisor told me that advise). Look to see what your hospital is looking for. If you go that route, then you will have at least 1/2 year more experience than students in your class. Remember once the 2 semester mark hits for everyone in your nursing class and the same with nursing programs in your city...... everyone and their moms will apply for those limited jobs. Because not alot of people will fight for the nursing home jobs. Plus you will be alot more marketable with a certification (for pre-nursing/nursing students) and experience (for new nurses) when you look for a job. I paid 1500 for tuition/books/uniforms. But what I got back in return is information that my hospital offers tuition reinbursements (up to 600 per semester) and scholarships where # of years they pay your school is # of years you have to work for them after school. So it does pay back in a few months

I was one of those students fresh out of high school years ago. Just showed up for class and not putting any effort into school work at all, dropping it few months later. Now Im back to college with 7 years gap in between and alot more direction and maturity. And I do see other students in my classes that was like me when I was younger self. But since nursing school is a very competitive field, I always think of them as a competitor. Spent the night partying and not studying for that exam? I dont mind. Didnt do so well because you dont have good studying habits or just dont want to put in the effort? I feel your pain. I always see the positive side of this. That person will take up a more qualified student's seat in that class which takes them more time to complete the prereqs. Since that person will end up doing bad, it will give you more of a chance of getting accepted if that person applied too. It sounds bad but this is a dog eat dog world. Same thing applies at work too. Stand right next to a incompetent worker and you will shine in front of your boss. So yeah, I kinda root for those types of students. They make my life alot easier. One more thing, once they start dropping courses........ the parking spots gets alot better too. lol

https://allnurses.com/forums/f198/guide-how-save-big-college-textbooks-avoid-bookstores-342399.html It doesnt hurt to find out the exact books needed for the courses at your local college bookstore. Write down the ISBN, book title, author and remember the book cover....... then walk to the school library and search the prices online on the computer. www.gettextbooks.com Thats the one Im going to use when Im going to start shopping around for spring 09. They said the books is going to be around 600 for me but I bet I can knock it down to 300 or less

The past history on increased enrollment during recessions are true but the case doesnt apply here to this current recession. The problem is the credit availability. Credit lending has freezed up and is slowly thawing. In other recessions, we still had easy access to cheap money (loans with low interests), but today is not the case. More and more students have been relying on student loans to pay for their high increasing cost of tuition for years. Grants and scholarships are no longer enough to pay for the high costs. There is no guarrantee on federal grants because if you make too much then they will stop paying you. Scholarships have been dryed up or frozen because of their ties to the stock markets. There has been many articles pointing out the effect of the credit crisis it has on student loans. There has been a 41% drop in student loans alone for 2008. http://studentlendinganalytics.typepad.com/student_lending_analytics/2008/11/securitization-markets-remain-frozen-across-all-asset-classes.html Im pretty much a news nutt and read/watch news 24/7. From what I read this is whats going to happen according to the analysts Enrollment for community colleges and state universities will go up while private/out of state universities will go down. Costs will be a big factor. It will be harder to get scholarships and grants. Remember, banks have basically stopped lending money, or start charging much higher interest rates to colleges or students that qualify. There is one thing that people will agree on. High costs of College Tuition. Its a big bubble that needs to be popped thats long over due.

I know when I used to be a medic, a Tarascon Pocket Pharmacopoeia came in real handy for drugs. Very small pocket sized handbook that categorizes drugs, dosages, generic/trade names, and vital drug information. The doctors and medics I worked for highly recommended it. Faster than a pda and cheaper too. I do believe they are due for 2009 version. Even doctors can't remember the correct dosage for a particular meds too. Thats why there are cheatsheets. http://www.amazon.com/Tarascon-Pocket-Pharmacopoeia-2008-Twenty-Second/dp/0763765988/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227483566&sr=8-2

I just happen to stump upon this forum and so far been very insightful. But what I have noticed alot as I was going to college, lot of students going sometimes weeks through school without the required books because the high costs of science and biology books. When they can finally afford it, they have to do catchup. Just the costs alone is jaw-dropping. Ive learned very quickly that buying books from the college bookstore or even neighborhood bookstores are not the best option. I was looking at $850 on books alone for 1 semester at the college bookstore but ended up spending $400 instead. I found out this is one of many reliable options to get the cheapest books available. Go to your local college bookstore and find out the exact books that will be required for the classes. Ask the workers if you are not sure on the right books. Then get paper and pen and write down the ISBN number thats located on the back of the textbook. Also write down the used/new prices to compare it to. Then go to www.gettextbooks.com (also use google to search everywhere for that book) Write down the ISBN number and it will scan most websites for that particular book...... amazon, ebay, half-ebay, abebooks, etc. I was able to get a $265 A&P book for 60 bucks new (but it was international/softcover). Some books I got so cheap that I turned around and sold it back to the regular college book store once I was done and broke even or even profited alittle. The only drawback is the shipping time. Expect 1-2 weeks. I've been doing this ever since my friend told me about it for about 1 1/2 years now. Ive been saving about 10-50% per book. The only catch is buying a book too early then finding out the professor decided to change the book at the last minute. That only happened to me once and only because I bought the book 2 months before class started. (summer class) One last thing. You will get some hits when you are searching and find international books thats 2 to 3 times less than the new US editions. These corporations like to mark up the textbook to outrageous amounts to US students because they are willing to pay for them. The international ones are the exact same copy. The only difference is that its a softcover (not a hardcover like US version) and maybe cheaper paper (but you dont notice it). But you have to look closely to make sure it says exact copy as US versions. Like I said, I saved myself 200 bucks on a A&P book which I bought at abesbooks I think, (based in singapore) but shipped within 3-4 days. Also its harder to sell back if its international version. If I want a hardcover to keep, then Ill buy one after I get a good paying job. I never rented books but Ive heard www.chegg.com is a good place. I personally believe books are too expensive so I scavenged all over the web to get the best deals. Just wanna post here because high costs are one of the factors of stress these days. Students dont make much these days so the money should stay in your pockets not in the hands of greedy publishers. Here is more sites that search multiple sites to get you the best price. All you need is the ISBN number. VERIFY EVERYTHING BEFORE YOU BUY. The correct version, edition, author, everything. http://www.abebooks.com/ http://www.addall.com/ http://www.affordabook.com/ http://www.allbookstores.com/ http://www.alldiscountbooks.net/ www.amazon.com http://www.bestwebbuys.com/books/ http://www.betterworld.com/index.aspx http://www.biblio.com/ http://www.bigwords.com/ http://www.barnesandnoble.com/index.asp?r=1 http://www.bookbyte.com/ http://www.bookcloseouts.com/default.asp?N=0 http://www.bookfinder.com/ http://www.bookfinder4u.com/ http://www.bookliquidator.com/servlet/StoreFront www.booksamillion.com http://www.buy.com/ http://www.campusbooks.com/ http://www.campusi.com/ http://www.cheapassbooksearch.com/ http://www.cheapesttextbooks.com/ http://www.collegebooks4all.com/ http://www.collegebooksdirect.com/default.jsp http://www.directtextbook.com/ http://www.ecampus.com/ http://www.fetchbook.info/ http://www.findbookprices.com/ http://fes.follett.com/ http://www.gemm.com/c/?ss=BOOKS http://www.gettextbooks.com/ www.half.ebay.com http://www.hamiltonbook.com/hamiltonbook.storefront http://www.isbn.nu/ http://www.monstertrade.com/ http://www.paperbackswap.com/index.php http://powells.com/ http://remainstobeseen.net/ http://www.rereadables.com/ http://www.screwthebookstores.com/ http://studentlistings.com/default.asp?tid=1629513 http://www.tbwarehouse.com/reference.asp http://www.textbookland.com/ http://www.textbooksrus.com/ http://www.textbooksnow.com/ http://www.textbookx.com/ http://www.thebackpack.com/