simonsez

Double Fees Buy Spot on College's Fast Track Bristol Community College is teaming up with a for-profit education company to offer classes in popular allied health programs, a first-of-its-kind partnership that will allow students to bypass waiting lists-provided they pay double the tuition... "It's just unfair,'' said Joe LeBlanc, president of the Massachusetts Community College Council. "I would be quite upset if a student who could pay two times as much jumped to the head of the line to take Bristol Community College classes. Public education, in my mind, means you're keeping your costs as low as you possibly can. We serve everyone, and in particular, the have-nots....'' A full-time student studying nursing, for example, now pays half that amount-if he or she can get in. The college currently accepts only 72 nursing students a year out of a pool of about 1,000 applicants because of limited instructors and space. The rest land on a wait list. Now those students may choose to pay the additional money for a spot in the new program.

$35K for the entire 16 month program including books and fees.

Dunno what to say! Who exactly did you get the information from, the person answering the phone? There were 150+ in the informations session when I asked the question. I think it was the April 09 session. The Director--forget her name--gave a fairly lengthy introduction on who she was, what National boards she was a member of, what books she had authored, where she summered, some sort of Yale connection, etc (yeah, yeah, it kinda turned me off). If the acceptance rate is really important to you, I'd PM some of the folks that have ID'd themselves as current Simmons students. They could probably get you an accurate number. Betcha I've got the real 411, though. (Good luck)

Wow, that's much higher than last year. I was told by the Director during the information session last year that they received about 160 applications for 50 spots for the class commencing Sept 2009. My informal survey last year left me with the impression that Simmon's Direct Entry MSN program was easier to get in to than the other Boston Direct Entries. You don't want to call a program that accepts 1 out of 3 applications a "safe school," but comparatively it was. If applications are truly up to 288, much less 400, then this is certainly no longer true.

Okay, to address your outstanding concerns: Volunteering in an Emergency Room seems to be an excellent way to get a feel for whether it's something you want to do or not. At least that's what I did. Push the boundaries to interact with the doctors and nurses (be aggressive if you're a voluteer, or you'll be ignored). Working as a CNA was mentioned too. It's not glamorous, but you'd get a better feel for what day-in-the-life as a nurse actually entails. Enroll in some prerequisites NOW. Community College courses are inexpensive. Start with Bio (if your science background is as limited as you say), then launch into A&P and Microbio. You'll know within a few months whether you can handle the workload. If you can handle the pre-reqs with a reasonably demanding instructor, you can handle nursing school. Ask around for really good A&P and Micro professors. Others can pipe in, but there's a minimal salary difference (at least in my state) between RN's, BSN's and MSN's. Given that fact, and your concern about a zillion more years of schooling, baby steps might work for you (i.e. an accelerated program). Most any workplace will pay tuition towards APN degree of some flavor. Good luck.

I would think that with your background, you'd either want to apply to an accelerated BSN program (+/- 16 months), or a direct entry Masters program (+/- 36 months). Your undergraduate GPA is fine, but you'd really want to get mostly A's in your prerequesites (especially the sciences) given the current competition. Prerequesites vary slightly, but usually include A&P I and II, Chemistry I and II (usually with an organic semester), Microbiology, Statistics, and some sort of Psych/Human Growth and Development course. Good luck.

Seriously consider talking a two-semester chemistry sequence, with the second semester concentration in organic. I know Curry doesn't require the second semester, but virtually any chemistry you'll deal with as a nurse will be organic chemistry. There's a reason why most schools require the second semester. I don't want to hijack this thread, but I'll give you the rundown on this year's Curry ACCEL class: 186 applicants (as I recall from another thread) for a class of 33. This was a higher than normal acceptance rate that can reasonably explained by a one year doomed experiment with a $200 application fee. The application fee has since been returned to $95. Most are from the Boston area, but there are also students from the west coast, and southeast. A third of the class is male. About a quarter own Macs. Roughly guessed age distribution: 20-24, 4; 25-34, 20; 35-44, 5; 45+, 4. Tuition's a relative bargain. It's the oldest accelerated program in the Boston area, and so far seems well organized with excellent professors.

Massachusetts nurses have enjoyed some of the highest salaries in the United States, which is typical of states with strong nurses unions. The average salary for a nurse in Massachusetts was $79,000 in 2008, up from $57,000 in 2003, and second only to California, said Judith Shindul-Rothschild, a nurse and professor at Boston College. Massachusetts nurses also enjoy some of the best working conditions in the country and are among the most highly educated, she said. Boston Globe 2/12/10

The accelerated program at Curry College is often overlooked by those trying to get good bang for their buck. It runs about $10K/semester ($35K for the entire program), which is about half of what the other private schools charge. I don't know what UMass/Boston charges in tuition and fees, but it has to be in the same ballpark as Curry. As with most of the accelerated programs, they have 5-10X more applications than seats.