laynem

alright, i'll start this off by saying that i didn't start school until i was 21. i never wanted to go to school, and as soon as i turned 18 i left florida and went to live in a tent in skagway, ak. i came back to tallahassee, fl and started school only because my family did not approve of the "transient" lifestyle i was living. i worked at a gym making $14.20 an hour i personally loved it and haven't really been happy since. i came here to make minimum wage and i started going to school working towards an aa in anthropology - i love cultures, i love being outdoors, and if i could move to some remote island to study some remote tribe i would. after completing about 50% of the requirements towards my aa i decided that my dream job would not be feasible unless i got a masters degree. it made more sense to me at the time that i would be able to find a "real" job in the "real" world if i entered a specialized program, which brought me to nursing. i do not want to be a nurse at all. i am not a people person, i do not want to take care of people, and i prefer to stay detached from society as much as possible, but the want to please my family overtook my own wants, as it seems to for a lot of people. last semester i did fine with three classes and ended my term with a 3.0 gpa. this semester i am taking anthropology & physiology, science of nutrition, psychology, and mathematics for liberal arts. i am doing fine in the math class, but everything else seems to steadily just flow downhill. i have not missed a single psychology class nor missed any assignments and haven't recieved anything less than a 75 on any assignments and somehow my grade only factors out to a 66%. in nutrition i have no idea what the eff is going on, i cannot seem to grasp anything no matter how much i study, how many practice quizzes i do, or how many stupid little flashcards i make myself - everything is to no avail and i have a 55% in that class. i don't even want to express what's going on in the anthropology class. it's embarrassing. i know i'm smart, but i am incredibly discouraged. almost everyday i have to go have myself a good cry in the bathroom. i'm pretty sure my teachers all think i'm some depressive underachiever that doesn't deserve a second glance, i almost thoroughly believe this because none of them seem to want to spend time speaking with me after class and they rarely answer my emails. it has also been made clear that if one does not make a c or higher in a class that they will not even be considered for the program if they apply. i can't cancel out a grade unless it's an f... so a d pretty much ensures that i'm working towards nothing. so i guess my questions are should i quit now? does everyone who is a nurse want to be a nurse? does it get easier? and how do you tell your parents you're quitting their dream?! that last one is just wishing for an easy button... thank you!

See, it's kind of a double whammy. If I take the full 12 credit hours and recieve my full grant for the semester it pays for my tuition AND I get the difference deposited to my account. If I didn't get the extra money then I would be forced to work a lot more than I do. I only make minimum wage, so the fact that I can get some free money for working a little harder totally saves me when it comes to living expenses. I think after this semester I will probably start taking out loans instead of just receiving the pell grant. Too much work for too little time...

Yes, if you fail a class and retake it it will cancel out your previou grade, regardless of whatever the grade was before. I'm about 80% sure I'll end both the A&P and Nutrition classes with a C... I just can't bring myself to just stop going. I have to at least see it through. Also, with the financial aid money your attendence is a big factor. If you do not attend enough classes or stop going altogether then you wind up owing back the money you got for the semester. I rather make average grades in the two classes with perfect attendance than just fail outright because I didn't even try. I'm thinking that maybe if I make As in my Psychology and Mathematics class that that will help keep my GPA at an okay point even if I don't do great in the others? I'm not entirely sure about how to figure a GPA. For the nursing program at this school, though, you must maintain a 2.5 GPA.

To flysbyemerald08: It's so funny that you replied with that, we were actually talking about it in the Anatomy and Physiology class this morning about how ridiculous it is that chemistry and biology are NOT prereqs for that class. It definitely should be because obviously anyone will have trouble with Physiology having no background knowledge about chemistry. To Saysfaa: I'm not sure how it works in other states, but in Florida if you want to be considered a "full time student" you must take 12 credit hours for the whole semester. I have four classes that are 3 credit hours each. It's not necessary to attend summer classes to keep financial aid, I was just excited to start the program and get some classes knocked out of the way. I feel much better than I did about this whole thing since I've been getting feedback on this website, though. Thanks!

Unfortunately I am not supported by my parents while in school so I have to work, 25 is the least amount I can work to still afford living expenses. At the school I go to you have to be a full time attendee, which means 12 credit hours, to get the full amount of the Pell Grant, which is what I need to have the prices of my classes covered. I'm pretty much forced to try my hardest since the drop and withdrawal dates have already passed since the class semesters are so short... I guess I'll just have to do my best for the next four weeks. The Mathematics and Psychology class are great, I have no problem in those areas, but the Science of Nutrition and Anatomy and Physiology classes are teaching the EXACT same material... and given that I don't understand it at all I'm not doing well in either. In fact I'm pretty sure I'll fail both. Does anyone have any advice for studying and understanding all the chemical mumbojumbo? Thanks again to everyone that replied! Seems like there's no real secret to the nursing program- just don't overload oneself.

I just started my first semester of prereqs for the nursing program. I'm taking Science of Nutrition, Anatomy and Physiology, Psychology and Liberal Arts Mathematics. Three of the four classes are express session classes (which means a regular semesters' worth of work in just six weeks). I'm only in my second week of school and I pretty much cry nearly every day. I feel so far in over my head. I'm not stupid, but I definitely feel like it when I sit next to people in class who are already coming to school in their scrubs but can't even pronounce "mammogram" correctly. I switched from being halfway done with an AA in Anthropology to the RN program because the economy is so bad that I'm scared I wouldn't be able to ever find a job with just an AA in something as broad as Anthropology. Before these classes I never cried because I didn't understand the material. I live with my boyfriend and he just tells me everyday how worried he is about me- I've only been doing this for two weeks! I also forgot to mention that I go to school from 9 am to 3 pm and then work from 5 pm to 10 pm... so there's no time for tutoring and hardly enough time to get homework done or study. Am I just taking too many classes at once? Should I slow down? What amount of classes did everyone else take at one time? Please no "advice" on eating healthy and meditating, I do that stuff anyway, I'm asking strictly about courseload. Thanks!