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I'm very anxious about starting the program- but when I start to feel overwhelmed I tell myself that I was one of only thirty people selected for this semester. I can do it. I've got a 2 year old that I had to work out "daycare" for as well (meaning I had to find family that could keep her while I'm in school) and I'm really worried that I'll be missing out on time with her because I'll have to study so much. I'm starting at a community college in South Carolina- we have our orientation on Wednesday and I know they'll say something about not being able to work and do nursing school. I've dropped my hours to part time at my job but I really don't want to feel discouraged by the ones who should be encouraging me!

It's definitely doable! My Microbiology and my Anatomy and Physiology II both had lab and lecture components, so they were both 2 hour classes, four days a week. Sixteen hours a week of bio class time is a lot (my other two courses were online), but the time you have to spend working on it at home is way more than that. Don't listen to those people who tell you that you can't do it- just take down their names and be sure to let them know that you DID do it when it's over! Good luck with the Fall semester, you can handle it!

TexasNurse2B: Well, I spent ALL of my time at school studying. Literally 12 -13 hours a day. From 8 in the morning until 9 at night most days. I can't tell you when I last got to sit down and watch an entire episode of TV or just relax, and I think my 1 year old daughter thought I just came over to visit at my own house sometimes =\ I can say that it was worth it though. If I had taken the courses by the schedule that the school recommends then I wouldn't be able start the nursing program until Fall 2012, whereas now I'll be able to start in Spring of 2012 (two semesters makes a big difference to me, that's almost a whole year!) I had to take away ALL distractions. I started putting in noise-canceling headphones and listening to classical music to help me really focus. I made notecards- for every class- this REALLY helped me for Med Term. I made a template for myself for all of my classes in a word processing program (Microsoft Word, etc) and instead of writing them out I typed and printed them and cut them out. Yeah, I probably would have gotten that little extra "oomph" from writing them out, but I type much faster than I write and I needed that little bit of extra time to actually study the material. For the harder classes like A&P and Micro, I made my notecards in a question format. For example, one card might say "What is the mode of transmission for the organism that causes African Sleeping Sickness?" and on the back I'd put "Tsetse Fly". It helped me understand the material WHILE memorizing it, because we all know you can't (and wouldn't want to) get through those two classes with just rote memorization. Also, it helps if you just set aside a small amount of time to study HARD. Sometimes I had to tell myself "If I can study this material NONSTOP, and try to actually UNDERSTAND it for thirty minutes, then I'll take a ten minute break for facebook" And if a study method isn't working for you (like if you've just been reading the book or studying in one specific way), then by all means try another way. I have to google a lot of stuff from A & P and see how other people word their view on that topic and sometimes someone else just explains it so that I understand it PERFECTLY. You'll get it, just don't let it worry you too much. My favorite professor told me recently, when I asked how one person in our class did so well on his lecture tests, "She uses common sense. If she can't reason a question out using what she's learned, she just uses plain old common sense." And do you know what? I made a 92 on the next test I took for him by doing that! It seems so simple lol but I had never thought of it like that... Good luck, you can do this!!

After everyone at my school saying that it was impossible, that I couldn't pass, or telling me "goood luck with that" with an eyeroll... I did it:D! I took A&P II, Microbiology, Statistics, and Medical Terminology all in a 10 week summer semester...and I made 3 A's and 1 B (the B in Medical terminology...how dumb, the only B I've ever gotten...)!!!! So my prereqs are done and I just have to apply to get into the nursing program at my school in October. Hopefully I'll be accepted and start in January. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for all of you going through the same thing! We can do this!

I'm finishing out my prereqs at SCC and hope to be accepted into the nursing program in the spring. I have to say: if you're taking A&P, take Dr. Todd. He is amazing and will make sure that you really understand the material. Anyone else looking to get in Spring of 2012?

I'm a little late hopping on the bandwagon here, but I'm SWAMPED this summer... I'm trying to get into the local community college in January. They only accept 60 people per year- 30 in the fall semester and 30 in the spring semester. We have a weighted admissions system that pretty much forces you to ace all three of the biology courses to even think about being a competitive applicant. That being said, I'm taking this summer (10 week courses, normal semesters are 14 weeks): Anatomy and Physiology II Microbiology Medical Terminology Statistics and I feel like I have NO life whatsoever. So far my lowest grade has been a low B though, so I'm trying to push on through! Is anyone else doing a crazy semester like this (summer, fall, whenever)? Oh, forgot to mention that I have a 1 year old daughter and my husband works full time. That complicates things

I think that if you're banking your future on "well, I can just settle for bankruptcy" then why even get started in a field or go to school? My parents went through bankruptcy and it takes TEN YEARS to recover from that. I wouldn't take it lightly. Is it an option to commute to another community college? If not, why not work full-time (maybe going to school part time so that the loans don't kick in) until a spot opens up in one of your first choice colleges? If you've already got debt it wouldn't hurt to save money while you wait to get in. I'm planning on getting my ADN and working (IF I can even find a job) for a while so that my employer will pay a bit on my tuition for RN-BSN. It only takes a year that way and I can get my prereqs out of the way in the summers when I'm out of regular nursing classes. It costs about $1500/semester at the community college, and it's $8,000 a semester at the local university. I'd much rather spend 1 year at university than the 2 it would take me to transfer straight to BSN. Whatever you decide, good luck!

I ordered the High Sierra Powerglide- it's a rolling backpack that has a laptop slot and is supposed to be pretty large. I read all kinds of reviews and several nursing students gave it rave reviews on ebags.com. I ended up buying mine repackaged from Amazon for 48 bucks and am now waiting on it to arrive.

Congrats This is so good to hear!!! I'm taking A&P II and Microbiology in the same semester...the SUMMER semester. So it will be four weeks shorter than a regular semester, and I've got to take two more classes along with them. Everyone has been telling me that I won't be able to do it, it will be too hard, etc. It's great to hear that someone else has been through this!