transferstudent

Yes, I applied for this program twice (sadly didn't get in), but they did indeed change the in person days. You now have to go face to face for one whole daytime, and then on a separate day do one whole night time class. You are no longer able to do both in one day, so now its the online portion, then two days face to face. The director did say that the days can change throughout the program, so it may change to different days of the week, different times, or more/less days.

I applied and did not get in sadly: GPA 3.9 Teas Advanced. I had all prerequisites and all gen eds completed before I submitted the application. The director told me to try again, and that its the smallest RN program at CCBC,so its much harder to get into (I think it was because there are only 30 spots that hundreds of people are competing for those 30 spots); she said they had to do lottery system to pick out of the highest marked people because there were too many qualified applicants. I ended up applying a second time the next year, still didn't get in with GPA 3.92 and same Teas (Advanced). I then gave up because there was no way to feasibly raise my GPA or TEAS higher, so I then applied to Spring Daytime and got it on first try!

Does anyone know how long the traditional RN Associates degree day program is at CCBC? Is it a full 2 years of nursing classes (like fall 2015 through June 2017?)

Wow I had no idea it was that bad. I also had two people who are in my Summer A&P 2 class tell me not to do it because its so bad. Howard community college has an evening program that seems less competitive than CCBC's evening program, I think I might apply the both CCBC's evening and Howard's evening. The online program is just bad reviews all the way

I didn't realize the online program was back. Didn't they shut that down for non-compliance or something?

Has anyone else had an experience with the online/hybrid program in 2015? I have a friend who is graduating from the online hybrid program this year and she keeps telling me not to do it because her and her classmates felt like they did not get a solid education, and the teachers were much harder on them, yet were not as involved with helping them as they would the day/evening programs. I also heard that they temporarily shut down the hybrid program because so many people were not passing their NCLEX or they just dropped out. Anyone else have input?

Hello, Can anyone tell me what CCBC's evening/weekend program schedule is like? Do you take the weekend classes during the day or during the evening?

I'm 32 and I am finishing my last prerequisite this fall, and I will be applying to an evening RN program that starts in Fall 2016, so I will be 33 when I start nursing school (if I get in ). I do not have children, but I do have a husband and a full time day job in a hospital laboratory. I will say this, nursing programs offer much more flexibility at a community college. I'm planning to get an Associate's degree through an evening or online & evening hybrid program to earn an RN without missing the mortgage. Then, when I get a job, I'll go for some place that offers tuition reimbursement (most big hospitals), so the job can pay for an online RN to BSN program. I wanted to go directly to a four year school, but I have yet to find a four year program in the Maryland area with an evening option!

I do not think this post is in the right Category, but for the life of me I could not get the Student category to work, so I apologize in advance! I wanted to start a new thread for the 2016 Community College of Baltimore County Nursing Applicants. I also am trying to get some opinions on my current prerequisite situation: I am currently an MLT, and after a few years in the field, I decided that I should have done Registered Nursing instead of MLT. Long story short, the lab field is shrinking rapidly as technology advances rapidly, and full time jobs are becoming scarce. I have all of the prerequisites to apply to the Registered Nursing program except A&P 2 (Bio 221). I am currently signed up for it this fall. My concern is that I have a "C" in A&P 1 (Bio 220). I think I have two choices: 1) I could "technically" repeat Bio 220 this fall, and apply to the registered nursing program after the grade posts in mid-December, because I could be enrolled in Bio 221 for spring 2016 before the deadline cutoff of January 31st. 2) I could just take Bio 221 and use the C for Bio 220 and hope that the advantage of having all of the courses complete at time of application outweighs the lower grade in Bio 220. These two choices have been consuming my life for the past few weeks, and I can not get any advice or replies from the CCBC advisers (I think its because they are all on vacation). Does anyone have any advice on which option to choose? I am honestly not even sure if I can do option 1 because one area of CCBC's website says that bio 221 must be "in progress" or finished at the time of application, but then another area just says you must be "enrolled in Bio 221" or finished at time of application, which means something different. I just don't want to wait another year before applying. Another question: Does anyone know if you get an advantage for applying earlier? Do they compare everyone after the deadline, or do they pick people based on academics, but also put some "unmentioned" weight into whether or not you apply early? Thanks for any opinions or advice!

Thanks everyone for your comments! I am already at the bare essentials on my expenses: I don't have cable or internet, my cell phone is a pre-paid, I buy food from the "off brand" grocery store, and I have not bought new clothes for a few years. I work as a medical laboratory technician at the moment (my associates degree cost me alot in student loans), and my fiance and I even have a friend renting out our extra bedroom. I even go as far as making my own laundry detergent, which is actually really cool (google the recipe, it takes only 20 minutes to make 5 gallons!). All in all, I have done SO much to try to save, but working as an MLT in the lab pays very little, and my fiance makes less than me as a medical assistant, so he is struggling as well. I applied for many grants, but did not get any responses from any. I guess I will have to wrack up more debt and just ride it through with loans once working full time is not an option. The programs in my area have weird schedules which makes working full time hard. For example: Monday day classes, tuesday night classes, thursday one day and one night class! Its an associates to bachelors program, so I guess people have to deal with two schools' schedules all at once!

I have been wracking my brain on how to pay my mortgage, bills and eat while in nursing school. I will be taking my last Pre-req class this spring, and it is the time to apply to a nursing school, but I am at my wits end with worry. I already have an Associates in Medical Lab technology, and work full time, but the pay is low, so saving is extremely difficult. I have a mortgage and bills, so I can not just up and leave my house and live off my parents, who are also strapped for money anyway. Long story short, I have bills, previous student loans, and no one to help me out. Are there any nurses or students with similar stories who have made it through while working full time?

After all of that indecisiveness, I made the decision to do the MLT Associate Program. I work as an MLT in a Microbiology lab, and I wish I had done nursing lol! I like my job, but as a lab worker, I feel like I am at the bottom of the hospital ladder. I get paid almost half as much as a nurse (which I feel I was not told how little I would be making, the school said I'd be making as much as a nurse...WRONG!!!). I will say that I am glad I did not do Bachelor's in Medical Laboratory Science... in Maryland, alot of hospitals treat Associates (MLT) and Bachelors (MT) the same; same pay, same responsibility, same title. I am an MLT, but I get paid the same as an MT, and my work title is MT. This varies per hospital, but my point is that the pay is very low for MLTs, and ridiculously low for MT who have HUGE loan debts, but get paid only $20 to $25 an hour. I decided to come back and comment here if anyone else reads this who is trying to decide. Your state may be different (I know CA pays higher), but in general it seems like a dead end job. Hospitals treat you like a factory worker (especially if you end up working in chemistry, its just putting samples in and out of an instrument all day). For the most part, my main issues are the low pay though, because the phlebotomists here get paid $15 an hour, and I get paid $20 an hour! Thats a $5 difference between someone with a high school diploma or GED vs people in the lab with mostly Bachelor's Degrees (only 2 people here are MLTs)! My biggest advice is don't believe the hype that schools tell you. Yes, you will get a job easily, but thats because most younger MLTs or MTs choose to move on to another field such as PA, nursing, ect because the pay is so much lower than what they expected, and also (and this is key), people in the lab are not in the public eye, so we tend not to get raises as much, or get good hours/ vacation/ ect because we don't have the support of the public, or unions, ect. In the end, yes I did graduate sooner, but I paid the price with a dead end career, VERY low pay, and the cost of getting the degree really does not pay off at all. I had to defer my loans because my pay is too low to cover them!

@amkrafka: I wish you luck in the future! Perhaps things will change:) @HouTx: Thank you for your support! I will try the lab for a bit and see how that goes; I do not mind blood or samples at all. I have looked into Physical Therapy Assistant programs, but for some reason they never caught my attention. As for COTAs, I will definitely have to look into that career some more. Thanks for the tips:idea:

I have been doing ALOT of researching lately, and I have decided to go for the medical laboratory route. In addition to many sleepless hours of internet browsing for statistics and articles, I have also called 6 hospitals in my area for information on job prospects for the two fields, and 4 of the hospitals agreed that they are not taking new nursing grads in the foreseeable future, 1 hospital said they would take new grads as "new nursing student assistants" who only make $12.57 an hour, and 1 hospital said they could not discuss the matter after transferring my call three times (lol). I hate to give up on nursing, but I have to ensure that my student loans are being paid once I graduate. According to most of the online research, the opinions that the hospitals gave me are consistent with the general job market...there are nursing shortages, but the economy has brought about creative ways for hospitals to "mask" those shortages by piling on more work to current nurses, and by taking on part timers. The hospitals also have their choice of seasoned nurses who have crawled out of retirement that require little to no training, or new grads who need alot of time, money, and carry alot of liability that the hospitals don't want to deal with. Sorry for the pessimism, but I am disheartened that my dream job of almost 15 years is not looking like the "smart" thing to do (at least for me). I hope things will change, but I keep thinking that when the economy does turn around, all of those new grads will still be out there to compete with for jobs IN ADDITION to the ones who refuse to retire. Please note, this is just my opinion on whats best for me considering my loans and the current job market, and in reference to New grads, if you are not a new grad, kudos, because many hospitals are begging for those people with at least 2-5 years of experience...my question is, how do you get that "required registered nursing experience" that hospitals all require you to have, if no one will hire you? Here are some articles that I have found on the matter, for anyone else considering this matter (the last one is troubling for me because its right in my local area): http://postbulletin.typepad.com/pulse_on_health/2011/01/nursing-shortage-or-nursing-glut.html http://www.strategiesfornursemanagers.com/ce_detail/234741.cfm http://nursing.advanceweb.com/article/nursing-job-shortage.aspx http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/16/nurse-shortage-replaced-b_n_424804.html http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-07-09-1Anurses09_ST_N.htm

Thank you for your reply! Has anyone seen any real data as far as what to expect in to coming years for the nursing job outlook? I know that everyone says there will be a huge shortage by 2020, but I believe that statistic was compiled before anyone took the recession into account.