magoldien

Argh, sorry if this is a double post. First, I was told by financial aid to apply for loans as an undergraduate student, even though we're called graduate students and will be paying grad student tuition rates. FAFSA lets you select that you're trying for your second bachelor degree. Also - can someone please pm me a link to the summer cohort facebook page?

Via phone.

Hi there - fellow summer cohort member here :) I'm also new to CSUN and I have never received financial aid before. I spent hours today and yesterday figuring student loan stuff out. Yet somehow I had not heard that FAFSA will not cover summer session! That sucks. Either way, what I did is apply for FAFSA and a private loan. The CSUN Financial Aid Dept told me they will be able to get back to me about how much FAFSA will loan me in 2 weeks or so, and that whatever FAFSA doesn't cover, they can request from the private loan. If FAFSA really does not cover summer session, the private loan should be able to pay for it, and then FAFSA will kick in in the fall. Also: I was also told to contact the program coordinator to request "Enrollment Protection" if I'm worried that my financial aid won't be sorted out before payment is due. Apparently this means they will not disenroll you from the program/drop your classes if you don't pay on time, as long as you prove your financial aid/loan is pending.

I am in Summer 16 cohort, too. I called the nursing dept a week or so ago to find out when classes begin, but they couldn't tell me yet and said to wait for the April 14 info session.

Hey current ABSN students and past grads: do you have any recommendations for pre-nursing school reading? I recently found a blog called straightAnursingstudent with a lot of good info. Turns out that blogger wrote an ebook (short, $6 on Amazon). I just finished it and it really gave me a much better idea of what I'm in for, as well as some good information/tips on organization and scheduling. It's called Nursing School Thrive Guide - I recommend it. Anything else worth looking into?

I got a letter from CSUN offering me admission for Fall 2015, but on the web portal it says I have been provisionally accepted. Either because I still have classes in progress at a community college (not a prerequisite, unrelated to nursing) and they want the final transcript when I'm done, or because you have to get accepted into the nursing program before it becomes official. I don't know. You are talking about provisional acceptance to the university, not the ABSN program, right?

Has anyone heard back after sending in the signed statement of acceptance? I emailed mine as a signed attachment in response to the email from them. My deadline to reply is tomorrow - I just want to make sure they got it!!

Hi all, I got accepted for the Summer 2015 cohort yesterday. Very excited!!! I was just wondering if other CSUN ABSN students here can give me a heads up as to when the summer semester will start. I am invited to a wedding at the end of May back in the home country that I need to RSVP yay or nay. I tried calling the Nursing Dept to ask them, but was told to wait for more information - they couldn't give me a start date or general idea. What day did previous summer semesters start?

Thank you, I DO think I would regret not pursuing my goal to become a nurse, and I have decided to make getting my associate's degree into my Plan B. So I will apply to 2 BSN programs and 2 ASN programs. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!

Hello, This is my first post. I'm seeking advice from current nurses/nursing students regarding a career path dilemma I'm having. Thank you in advance for reading (I know this will be long - I always want to tell the WHOLE story), and I look forward to hearing your perspectives! Here is my situation: I am 32 years old, recently married. I currently work with disabled people. I have experience as a teacher, HR Manager, and EMT, and I have a CPT-I certificate and AHA for the Healthcare Provider. I just finished my nursing school prereqs at community college. I have been working on preparing myself for nursing school for the past year and a half, and have been really excited and motivated. I decided to become a nurse because I wasn't interested in the career trajectories of being a teacher or an HR Manager, and I have always been interested in healthcare and medicine. I want a lifetime career that will grow and develop with me, that I can feel proud of, and that I can advance and grow in. Originally, I wanted to become a Physician's Assistant or Occupational Therapist, but in my state (CA) that schooling costs between $80,000-$120,000. I am unwilling to go into that much debt at this stage in my life. So I decided to go for a BSN at a state university for a more reasonable $20k. I am in the process of applying for an Accelerated BSN program. This is a very competitive program with a long application process - I apply this month, go through interviews and testing until spring of 2015, and the earliest I could possibly start class is Summer 2015. That's if I get in on my first application attempt. If I do get in and start right away, I would finish in Fall 2016. So, reasonably, I could probably start working around January 2017. That's more than two years from now. Like I said, I'm recently married. My husband and I have been talking about starting a family. We decided to start with at least one child, maybe two. My husband makes good money, but he has a ton of student debt himself and we live in an expensive city. We are not in a position to have a child right now. We talked about starting to try to conceive right after nursing school, so I could perhaps work 7 months to a year (depending on how long it takes me to get pregnant) full-time as a nurse before taking maternity leave. Then, after maternity leave, I could return to work part-time. Here is the dilemma. My husband is worried that by going into nursing as a career, I am signing myself up for a life of stress, health risks, long days of overtime, never being at home, and always working holidays. He is also worried that I may be so busy with advancing my education and career that a good time to have a baby never comes up until it is too late. I confess, I have seen plenty of burnt-out nurses and I am also afraid of becoming trapped into a crushing, joy-draining schedule of nights and weekends. I have been telling my husband (and myself) that, as an EMT, I worked three 12-hour shifts per week (36 hours = full-time) and LOVED that schedule, because it meant I had four days off per week. I also tell him (and myself) that there are plenty of opportunities a BSN will open to me that wouldn't involve working holidays and 12-hour shifts. For example, because of my experience with disabled people, couldn't I become a Case Management Nurse with a Regional Center? Or a Public Health Nurse working for the county? I have always preferred to NOT work under powerful stress and pressure; I am an over-achiever, so having a lot of pressure put on me just makes me force myself to perform to standard no matter what the cost on my health, happiness, and personal life. Am I crazy for even thinking that I could find a job as a nurse without facing a crushing workload and tons of overtime? Also - am I crazy to be going into nursing school in my last 4-5 years of fertility? Since we know we want to have children sometime soon, would it be smarter for me to keep working with disabled people for now (making very little money) until my husband's salary has increased to the point where we can have a child, then have a child, and THEN go to nursing school? That could be some 6-7 years down the road... Have you ever been in my situation, wondering whether nursing school is right for you, and whether now is the right time for nursing school? What did you decide to do, and how did you make your decision? Do you have any advice for me? Do you think my plans and goals are realistic? Do you think the reality of working as a nurse will be a living hell for a person like me? Please tell me your thoughts! -Mag