JulesQ

hopeful_army_NP, sounds great! I will be in the area until JAN 2011 or so. I have been in Savannah since JUL 2004, although I have been on two Iraq deployments and numerous training programs in other locations so even though I've been calling Savannah my home since 2004, I have actually only been home about 2 years altogether! My graduation date from AASU's BSN program is slated for DEC 2010. I like AASU. I graduated from University of Cincinnati, a MUCH bigger school, so it's like comparing apples to oranges since AASU is only about 7,000 students (UC is about 36,000 students and rising every year), but AASU has a small, beautiful campus, a good weight and aerobics gym, the standard things you would expect of a small school, and Savannah itself is a quaint, picturesque city. To be honest, AASU is the only real school in Savannah in terms of being a multi-racial, multi-discipline, graduate degree conferring school. Savannah State University is a historical black college. SCAD is a private art school. Georgia South is a private, (and very expensive) small university with no campus to speak of. (Although Georgia South does offer the only PA program in Savannah, and even an Anesthesiologist Assistant program, only 1 of 5 in the entire country). Your only other option would be Georgia Southern, in Statesboro, which is about an hour's drive away from Savannah, or Ft Stewart. Georgia Southern (with about 20,000 students) is a MUCH bigger school than Savannah and offers more degrees and has more research grants, but you'll have an extra 40 min of drive time. You didn't say whether your husband is pursuing his bachelors or master's in engineering. With a bachelor's, he should be fine at AASU (it's affiliated with Georgia Tech, a top 10 engineering school.) If he is pursuing a master's in engineering he will have to go to Georgia Southern (which is a mediocre engineering school), since AASU does not offer a graduate engineering degree program.

I am currently in FNEP at AASU in Savannah. I would first become a nurse, THEN join the army as an officer. I was able to transfer from another branch within the army, but I have always had the full support of all my bosses in whatever I wanted to do. That is not necessarily a given. I know of some officers who did not get along with their chain of command as well myself and have run into trouble getting what they want (like switching branches and getting the assignments they wanted, etc.) FNEP is not automatic, nor is IPAP. The losing branch must sign off on the deal, and for FNEP, you must get accepted into a BSN program starting in the Junior year so that you can graduate within 24 months. That will probably mean taking pre-req courses on your own time. This is harder than you might think because if you are in a FORSCOM unit like myself, you will be deployed every other year and have to go to NTC and JRTC during the year you are at home. Also, semester long microbiology, chemistry and A&P courses may be difficult to schedule outside of your active duty obligations. I would get your education out of the way where you know you can concentrate on it on your time with no distractions or broken promises in the way. Also, it is harder to become a PA after nursing school than many people think. PA school pre-reqs are basically pre-med pre-reqs. The pre-reqs for a BSN have some of the pre-med requirements (usually a yr in chemistry w/lab, yr of biology w/lab, microbiology w/lab, and stats), however, very few BSN programs require a year of physics, a yr of organic chemisry and a yr of calculus. That being said, if you do happen to have those under your belt, PLUS a BSN, PA school should be a breeze since more than half of the courses in PA school will have been taught to you already in a typical BSN program.

Merryfont, how is your rank recalculated after graduating FNEP? I'm talking year group placement. I am a captain and will have about 7 years of commissioned service in my current branch after graduating a 2-yr BSN program and going to Nurse Corps. (Btw, I was formerly in the Signal branch and took my OBC and S-6 course at Gordon. It's nice. I like Savannah better (that's where I am now), but I can't complain. I'm a big city guy and hope to nab DC or San Antonio on my next PCS, but Augusta was okay. You could do MUCH worse. Ever heard of Fort Lost in the Woods?)

I''m currently in FNEP at AASU in Savannah. FNEP is for active duty, commissioned officers that want to switch branches and become a nurse. I won't bore you with the paperwork details, but one crucial thing is that before being accepted into FNEP, your losing branch must accept the transfer, and you must do whatever it takes to get accepted into the BSN program of the school that you want to attend, including taking any pre-req courses, on your own time. In my case, with a computer science degree in which I took a year of chemistry, and nearly had a minor in math, I still had to complete A&P 1&2, 1 semester of Microbiology w/lab, and Life Span Development. However, what those pre-reqs are will be entirely dependent upon the nursing school you are trying to get accepted in. You must be able to graduate within 24 months or you will have to keep on taking courses on your own until you can do this. You cannot have more than 7 years of total commissioned service and cannot be a major or above. And, of course, you must do whatever it takes to get accepted into the BSN program on your own. In my case, I also had to take a political science course on the US Constitution and Georgia history in addition to the normal nursing curriculum. (Thank you for that one AASU!)

Trin, I am currently in FNEP in Savannah attending AASU's nursing program in my senior year. I wish I could answer your questions but I actually have a question of my own. (Sorry) I am trying to get a response as to how much time will be taken off from my prior commissioned service since I would normally be a major in a couple of years from now. So far, I haven't gotten a straight answer (or any answer) yet after e-mailing [email protected]. However, before beginning FNEP, I was told that I could expect half of my time to be taken away, which would still leave me as a captain, but I cannot find any regs that detail this. The directive cited as a source detailing this in the FNEP booklet (found on AKO's Nurse Corps site) is DoD Directive 1312.3. However, after reading through this directive carefully, I found that it states repeatedly that when it comes to health professionals, which includes nurses, it is may not be applicable, leaving me confused as to what to look at for a definite answer. If anyone has been through FNEP and knows what happens to your rank and year group recalculation after you graduate, I would appreciate it!