after you finish the one year of course work you can sit for your exam. The program sets you up to go into a nursing grad program, with 3 graduate classes already finished. As long as you finish with a 3.0 for are automatically admitted into uconns grad school. You do not have to go right away or at uconn if you do not want. You have no obligation to get a MSN after. My advice wait until you get a job who will pay for a big chunk of it! Working while doing the program is very challenging, especially if you have a young family, right now we are all living on our student loan money. Already having a masters gives you a small advantage in that you will not have to take the statistics class, and only have to do a 1 cr independent study for research. With all of that said- I made the absolute right decision in the mein program! I am in my last semester and love it. The work load is intense but well worth it! The instructors are excellent and so encouraging, they really do want to you succeed.