John_T

I can understand not studying for the ATI predictor. I did the same thing. My school gives it at the beginning of the last semester and we have to pass the HESI exit with a 850 at the end of that semester. I wanted to see what areas I needed to focus on for the HESI. Remember these are just school exams that are supposed to help you determine if you are ready for the NCLEX. Look over your detailed results and build a study plan from there. 82% chance of passing NCLEX is pretty good for not studying. Study hard for the NCLEX and I'm sure you'll do fine!

If the schools are about equal in price & quality, I'd probably go with the 3 year option. good luck deciding!

I'd encourage you to appeal. I once appealed a grade for the exact same reason - the instructor changed the grading criteria midway through the course. Her reasoning was that it benefitted the majority of the students in the class. My argument was that it hurt me. I told them I didn't care what they did about other students grades that I was only concerned about mine and state I wanted to be evaluated based on the criteria distributed at the beginning of the course. I won my appeal and was awarded the higher grade. No other students grades were impacted (that I know of) based on my appeal.

Do they both offer a BSN? If not, I'd go with the one that does. Otherwise, I'd probably look at price and NCLEX pass rates to decide.

Wow - that's crazy - Have you tried the PV 'trick' that everyone has posted about? At this point I think I'd go out and buy a prepaid visa to try it.

The requirements for a 'student nurse' job probably depends on the hospital (at least where I'm from it does). Look through the open positions at your local hospitals to see if any positions are available. You may be a little late for this summer. A CNA position would require a license from your state. Depending on your state, you may be able to sit for the exam as a nursing student without taking a class. If you have the CNA certification, you'd probably have more available positions to choose from, but most hospitals won't hire a CNA without experience (again, in my area of the country).

Sorry I didn't see this earlier...hopefully you can happily report that you passed the second time? I have to eventually take this one too. Any tips?

I would check the box that you have been in the military and if asked that you were honorably discharged. I highly doubt they will ever ask to see your paperwork. If they do, then that is when you should provide an explanation. As far as I know no employer has ever verified anything on my resume except professional certifications.

Maybe you might want to call each program you are interested in and ask them? I would think the answer would very from school to school. Also it couldn't hurt for the admissions department to know you are very interested in their program!

Thanks, but I think those are older numbers. They don't match up with the tests that I have already taken. The version I am taking is the 2013 version. I've also seen results for a 2010 version on the web. I'm not sure if they update it every three years and I should look for results from a 2016 version or if the 2013 will still be used. Does anyone know the national means for the 2013 RN version?

Does anyone know the national means for the ATI RN content tests? I can't seem to find them anywhere. My school requires that we exceed the national mean and all I can find about results are the tables for the various levels. I am particularly interested in Maternal/Newborn, Mental Health and Children. thanks

You can cut out 1 year if you do take all the 5 beginning courses at once, and also take 2 clinical courses over the summer. Most people I talk to recommend not taking clinicals over the summer because there is just too much information to learn at once...although I noticed that the summer course do seem to fill up right away! What I meant by being behind is that NURS 223 and 224 build on Nurs 220 & 222. After I registered for 223, I received a lot of pre-work for the course (5 chapters each in 3 different text books and online courses). Both courses "hit the ground running". 3 weeks into the semester I have already taken 3 quizzes and 2 skills demos in 223 and had a cultural diversity activity and a practical in 224. The timeline to sign up for classes is really tight for January students. I found out I was accepted on Monday 2 weeks before classes started, had to have course selections in the following Tuesday and received my schedule on Thursday - classes started the following Tuesday. You will also need to be CPR certified and have your Health records approved for the first day of classes (only if doing all 5 classes at once). I'm not sure if second degree students qualify for financial aid. I was only offered a federal loan.

I'm one year ahead of you and thought the whole application process was very confusing. You will need to first need to be accepted as a second degree student to the college and then need to apply and be accepted to the nursing school. If you just submitted your application to the college in August, call admissions now to move the process along because you need to have your RIC 'plan of study' completed in order to apply to the nursing program by October 15(for January start). You will also need to have the 3 pre-req courses (anatomy, human development, chem 106) completed by the end of this semester to apply for January. You can petition to take all 5 beginning courses at once) when you apply to the nursing program. I decided not to petition as I am working and I thought the course load would be too much. If you do decide to take all the courses at once, you should plan not to work because you'll be very busy (and you'll already be behind in NURS223 & 224). I was told that second degree students need a GPA of 3.3-3.4 to be competitive. I had a 3.6 and was accepted the first time I applied. We received our acceptance emails 2 weeks before classes started along with a fairly long 'to do' list. Let me know if you have any questions I have not answered. Good luck!