BigBangTheory

Thank you for your response and suggestions. Relocation is not possible for many reasons which I won't get into. I was confused about aspects of your response though. Men in nursing don't even comprise 10% of the US nursing workforce and even if we assume that number was higher, it's far from 50%. You are correct that none of the guys in my class have scholarships though many women do. Is there a shortage of women in nursing? It would have made more sense to me if scholarship recipients were rare altogether, but I see the emails all the time and most are directed specifically to women (as per the eligibility criteria). Even if they were non-sex specific, if 80-90% of the US nursing population is female and everyone applies, it stands to reason that women would walk away with most of the scholarships. As far as VA goes, I exhausted my GI Bill benefits for undergrad. Though I have applied for some of those scholarships. I live in CA where there are a lot of ethnic minorities and yet the white vs. minority population is ~70% to 30% maybe 65% to 35%. I'm just curious as to how it is that single, non-veteran, white female that lives with their parents and has a lower GPA seem to be more eligible for scholarships in nursing. I might understand in engineering or mathematics where there are much fewer women, but nursing? As for the MSN, in my area it is increasingly a requirement for entry or to maintain a position. For example, school nursing in this area of California requires a Masters. There are other examples, but you hear about that one the most in this area.

Hello all, My 2.5yr ELMSN program in California is expected to run ~ $100,000+ in tuition & fees alone. My current income is $0 since I just began the FT accelerated program. I'm a single Dad with 3 kids under 12 to support. Before I began the program, just about every RN I met (~20) seemed to believe that I would be "swimming in scholarship money" due to these facts: 1. Male in a "female profession" 2. Military Veteran 3. Bilingual / Minority 4. 3.9 out of 4.0 GPA 5. Single Dad w/ young kids (and no help - other than paid help) 6. No Income I've applied to about a dozen scholarships (all paying $5,000 or more) without success. What I find interesting is that about 2/3rds of my class have scholarships - all recipients have been women. It was fairly easy to ask the 1/2 dozen men in the class if they've applied and received any scholarships. While they've applied, none have received any scholarships. Any suggestions?