Question about schooling in active duty

Gennaver, MSN · Oct 20, 2006

I enlisted into the Army recently with 68WM6 on my contract. After the roughly 1.5 years of training, I hope to take classes to get my BSN and apply into IPAP. How feasible is this? I was told there were colleges on base where I can take classes for free, and the more I read about military life, the harder it is for me to think I can achieve my goals.

Hello,

I do not know if this link will be helpful but there is a left side menu on the screen.

Good luck,

Gen

swartzrn · Oct 21, 2006

My husband is active duty army with 15 years in the Infantry and was just selected into AECP. You can get a conditional letter of acceptance from an RN program (you have to have either a conditional or unconditional letter) and you will have a year to take your pre-req's before that next FY school year starts. My husband still has a few classes to take since he changed majors. He didn't have alot of his sciences. With that said--you need to look into earmyu.com. You can take alot (if not all) of your classes online. They are geared specifically for active duty soldiers. My husband has taken 90 percent of all of his classes this way and it's great. Most of this was when in Italy in an airborne unit that was gone quite a bit and here at Benning as a drill sgt and working all the time. You should pursue any goal you have and the Army's RN program is excellent. You have to be within 24 calendar months of completing your BSN. Then if you decide to look into IPAP do so. This past selection, I heard from a couple of PA's I work with that they had about 600 packets and a few people they knew who were more than qualified didn't get selected. Start out with nursing and go from there. You'll get your commission once graduating RN school. I've been trying to round up all of my notebooks I loaned out to friends after I graduated to have ready for my husband. They just put out a selection list in September and the next AECP board meets next August. I think the deadline is usually 01 July! Good luck! Julie

kaige · Oct 23, 2006

Thanks for the response, that was helpful. One thing I'm not sure about is, will becoming an RN *** commissioning with the army nurse corps interfere with IPAP/becoming a PA? Because that would be my ultimate goal. I was planning on taking school on the side until I received the BSN, not go through the army *** get commissioned that way, I hope that makes sense. Somehow I don't think the Army will pay for 2 years of college for me to get my BSN/RN, then pay another 2 years for IPAP, although of course I may be wrong.

Jarnaes · Oct 23, 2006

If you got selected for both programs the Army would pay for them, however, I think you need to choose wether you want to be in the Army Nurse Corps or become a PA.

If you take the nursing route first, by the time you can apply to the IPAP you may have to much rank to start school. The PA program will require you to be no more than a 1LT/O-2. So if you've made CPT you will have to go back to 1LT.

Another issue with being a nurse in the PA program is that they will ride you pretty hard. Just be prepared to bend over and smile... For some reason they don't really like nurses- the school house will deny this of course, but ask any student in the program...

Good luck to you.