BeagleBabe

Congrats! That was my least-favorite pre-req!!! I also go an A, only because my professor spoon-fed us what we needed for the tests, I don't understand the concepts at all!

Well Sweetgeorgia, I sincerely hope teaching will be better for you than it was for me. I'm quitting teaching after 5 years to go into an ABSN program. I also had 12 hours days, only I worked them 5 days a week (parent meetings, planning, creating materials to teach with since the district is too cheap to provide me with textbooks for every subject). I felt my fellow teachers were great. There was no backstabbing, but that's because there's no career ladder to climb. That's a problem, too. With nowhere to go, I felt teaching was a dead-end job. No way to make extra money by picking up extra shifts (tutoring only exists for wealthy schools), no more pay for experience (now teachers are paid by kid's test scores), and my salary was cut for 4 years in a row: so I left in my 5th year. I made $40,000 one year, and upper $30's for the other 4 years, which I felt was NOT enough. Also, the principal will do whatever s/he wants with you. I had to teach 5 different things in 5 years (K, 1st, 5th, special ed and kids who won't speak English). That's almost like expecting a nurse to move from PACU to LTC to Med-Surg to something and then something else. It was constant re-learning and never feeling like I know what I'm doing. Plus, you can't plan any vacations. You can only travel when school is out, at a time when the rest of the world is trying to travel, in the summer when it's hot as heck, or Christmas when it's freezing (this is a big deal to me since I love to travel). That's why the tourism industry gets involved with school calendars, then want toe have peek travel times so teachers and families pay top-dollar to go anywhere. I know nursing won't be perfect, but 3 days a week of BS sounds better then 5 days of it! I also feel like in nursing I will actually help someone. In teaching I felt like I was producing little test-takers.

Why does a bridge cost 30K? That's crazy. SCF in Bradenton will have a weekend bridge starting soon, and I'm sure it won't cost 30K. I can't imagine spenting a total of 55K on an associate's degree. I hope you find a better option.

These posts are depressing to me. I'm a pre-nursing student, and on leave from my teaching job. You guys have all the same complaints about nursing as I do about teaching, and I was hoping nursing was a better profession. We teachers may have a union, but management has found ways around it, with the help of anti-union politicians. They give the older (read: more expensive) teachers the worst kids to make them quit/retire early, or put them in grade levels they don't want to teach and are not good at so they can find things to write them up for to fire them. Our unions aren't powerful enough to protect us from a determined principal. They even passed a law that we can't be moved to another school if we're on an improvement plan, therefore dooming us to be fired. charter schools are another way to break unions: most of them aren't unionized and teachers are fired at will. Then there's paying raises by test scores, which they call "merit pay" so the public will get behind it. (In other words, most teachers will not get good raises anymore, only a small number will have their students get high enough test scores to get the good raise). I don't need anyone to kiss my rear, but I want to be in a line of work where my salary will go up, and I will not be targeted because of it. Do the NP's and CRNA's have these problems?

Our current system is idiotic, penny-wise and pound foolish. I am an unemployed, uninsured pre-nursing student. I could get COBRA from my old job at a cost of $545 a month. Since I am unemployed, I cannot pay that. I have applied for dozens of jobs, and no one is hiring. I don't qualify for medicaid (yet). We do have free healthcare. It's called the ER. I have gone to the ER and not paid for it. Instead, the taxpayers pay for it. It's not what I want to do, but what choice do I have? (I don't feel too bad about it, since I've paid taxes for years.) All our current system does is prevent preventative care. Instead, people like me wait until they are in dire straits, and then the taxpayers get to pay pounds to cure me, instead of pennies to prevent it. We are a dumb country!

I don't have a reply for you, but I'm thinking of applying there. How is the program? Would you mind sharing your stats? Did you take all of the recommended pre-reqs?

Jolie: how can you state that children with lice shouldn't be sent home? Don't you think they will spread lice in the classroom through hugging, sharing hairbrushes, lice getting on the carpet and crawling on other students, etc?

What determines "healthy"? A good BMI? I am obese on my bmi, but I am obese due to lean muscle mass (133 pounds of it to be exact!). Being able to run a marathon? There are plenty of skinny people who couldn't keep up with me on a treadmill. I say stop judging people and mind your own business. Someday you may have a thyroid condition, gain weight, and lose your nursing job for being fat. How would you feel then?

Bradenton is crime-infested and gang-infested. Sarasota is much nicer and safer. Check city-data.com for the cities you want to move to. It has great information and message boards about each town. Good luck on your move.

It totally depends on your school. One school I looked at wrote on their website that they would not consider applicants with a "pattern of W's" on their transcript. Two others I'm applying to will not take re-takes, so your first grade stands. Some consider your nursing pre-req GPA to be more important, some put more weight on overall GPA. It's amazing how the standards change from school to school in the same regions! You need to ask an advisor to be sure.

Do you have to take nutrition now? I'm taking it with A&P 2, and it's a breeze since it basically reviews everything (minus body parts) from A&P 1 and some horomone stuff we just did in A&P 2. I don't have to study for it at all, and I'm getting an A. I'm glad I left it for last!

Where do you get that 10,000 number? I'm sure I haven't done my stats or algebra problems 10,000 times, and I learned the formulas.

I passed algebra in high school with a C, but didn't learn a thing. When I got to my CC, I started at the bottom, like the other posters suggested to you. My CC offered pre-algebra (thankfully I didn't need to go that far back) and basic algebra for no credit. Then intermediate algebra for credit, but it would not count as a math class for an AA, AS, or transfer to a university. I took basic and intermediate. I can't tell you how much confidence it gave me to FINALLY understand math! . I'm very auditory and have to hear something multiple times to get it. Finding out what kind of learner you are can help you study. I always record lectures because I need to hear it. Pictures, charts and models are less helpful to me, but might be what you need. Then I took college algebra, and got a b. I wasn't thrilled with a B, but after all I'd been through it was awesome. This semester I took statistics and got an A!!!! I also got free tutoring at my CC. Have you been to rate my profossor.com? I always choose my professors based on their ratings there. They're usually right. You need to have a good teacher, or you will never learn. I also never take new professors, since they don't seem to ever have their act together, and I don't take adjuncts anymore since I had TWO quit in one year! Adjuncts just throw in the towel if they're no longer in the mood to teach or get overwhelmed. Good luck to the posters in college algebra and the one going into statistics! It just required hard work and dedication. You can do anything you set your mind to.

Legacy: I will be applying to USF and FGCU for BSN programs this February. I decided to take the time to do all the BSN pre-req's. Now I just hope it wasn't all for nothing! If I don't get in, I'm applying to rad tech as a back-up, and I'm still thinking about RRT as another back-up. But I REALLY want nursing so let's hope it doesn't come to that! Either way, I have faith the universe will guide me to where I need to be. :) I'm too smart, ambitious, talented and interested in a middle-class lifestyle to stay in my current dead-end, low-paying job (teaching). And I'm not applying to SCF because I can't see wasting $1,000 on a CNA class. That's probably why they couldn't fill all the seats for spring on the Venice campus (they re-opened the application due to vacancies! Have you ever heard of that in nursing? Methinks their standards are too high!)

[COLOR=#003366]Gengelha- I'm still going to apply to USF, I just never expected it to be so hyper-competitive. And I'm not wasting $1,000 on a CNA I'll never use, so I can't apply to SCF now. There's a Kieser nearby, but they charge $35,000 for an ASN, so that's out. USF is my olny hope. I could also apply at FGCU, but that would be 1 and a 1/2 hour commute one way. I need to call Galen and look into that. A lot of my classmates are going there since SCF slammed the door in our faces with their ridiculous requirements. Ugh. Why does it have to be so hard?

I'm so ready to give up. I have been working on pre-req classes for over a year now. Now that I will be finishing ALL of them (including the BSN pre-reqs!) with a good GPA (only 1 B/all A's in nursing pre-reqs, I think I will finish up with an overall of 3.7 or possibly 3.8) I was feeling really good about applying in February. Then I read about SCF requiring not only a CNA license, but it has to be from a 120 hour program. Well, they are all at least $1,000 in my area, plus the costs of getting TB test/flu shot/titers for chicken pox/physical/background check. So, more like $1200. Okay, I thought no biggie, if I get in, I'll do the CNA program. Well, now I hear that they want it BEFORE YOU APPLY!! This gives me very little time to get it done in time to apply for fall. Not to mention, what if I don't get in the nursing program? I just paid a thousand dollar application fee. A lot of people at SCF are talking about how they started out pre-nursing, but changed their major because of all these hoops we have to jump through, or going to Galen College of Nursing in St. Pete. (Is that a good school? Should I consider it?) So I thought whatever, I want a BSN from USF anyway (I already have a bachelor's from USF, so I'd go the ABSN route). Since I already graduated from there, and have great grades I thought I'd be a shoe-in. So I googled USF on this board and found a thread saying applicants have a 10% chance of getting in. I am depressed and discouraged. I guess I have to apply to RRT and radiography tech for a back-up plan, but I read there isn't much demand in those fields. Not that there's a great demand for nurses, but they are getting jobs in my area. Please tell me everything will be okay, and I haven't wasted the last year of my life busting my butt on these classes for nothing. Thanks for reading.

Merlee: no white please! Please remember those of us who suffer from heavy flow! I'm crossing my fingers to get into the nursing school that has navy blue scrubs: it's that big of a deal to me. Personally, I like being coordinated. It makes me feel professional. As long as they require the same color (and it's DARK!) and they don't get too picky, such as issues with drawstrings vs elastics. At some point, it gets a little to militant. I could see letting pediatrics wear the silly, kid-frendly scrubs, though.

Hello, I just read on another thread that if you get your BSN, you are paid a salary instead of hourly pay. Is this accurate? I have to choose between an ASN and a BSN, and this could make the choice for me. I'm currently paid a salary, and I hate it because I get paid the same money whether I work 40 hours or 70 hours. They like to make me work nights occasionally, and I can't say no! I want to be paid hourly so I can pick up overtime and choose when and if I work. Please tell me I can be paid hourly with a BSN!!! I'm interested in working in Sarasota FL, and upstate NY.

I'm sorry I can't help you, but I'm also considering OT. Hopefully bumping this post up will get some responses???

Thanks for the info. Since I already have a BA, I'm also thinking about applying to FGCU's occupational thearpy program. I'm not sure what direction I'm going in. I'll just apply everywhere and see who want me!

Thanks, corsair. I've heard about the 4.0 too. Glad to hear it doesn't have to be that high, especially since they don't let you retake a course for a higher grade!!!

When you guys are talking about GPA, do you mean science/nursing pre-req GPA, or overall in every course?

I've heard Edison is not accredited. Ask them tough questions before you enroll. I also want to get into SCF. If I don't make the cut, I'm planning to BSN at USF or LPN from SCTI and then do SCF for RN. I love SCF.

Hi, I'm trying to decide which path to nursing is the best for me. I have a BS in teaching. I can take a bunch of classes and apply for an acclerated BSN at USF (this would be the shortest way to a BSN, but I'd need so many pre-reqs it'll probably take just as long as an ASN, plus I live an hour away from USF Tampa ), take 4 classes and apply to an ASN at SCF (obviously this is a longer route to a bsn, I've need the ASN first), or the LPN-RN route. My question is why does SCF require you to have a license as a CNA before applying to the ASN? In my reseach, it doesn't seem standard. It would add time and expense to my route to nursing. Because of this, I'm thinking the LPN-RN is the best way to go since the CNA is already built-in to the LPN, which woun't add any time or expense to getting my nursing degree. The LPN program transfers to SCF as the first year of nursing school. Also, what's the wait list like at SCF/USF? How do you like the program? I'm taking a pre-req there and am loving it. :yeah:I wish SCF had an accelerated BSN, that would be my perfect solution!!!! Is there any program that does LPN-BSN besides Barry? I don't speak Spanish so Miami and south FL is out for me. Also, I'm only looking at state programs because I'm not spending a fortune at one of those "career colleges". Thanks for any insight you can offer! As you can see, I'm all over the map and don't really know which path to take.

We need to learn Spanish because they moved to our country? What a joke.