I want to be a psychiatric nurse. I already have a BA in a humanities field, with no science background at all. I came to believe that the best plan for me is to attend an accelerated bachelors program. So, I researched schools, and found four. They all have different prereqs, and filling all of them will take me about 3 years. Then, another year and a half of nursing school, provided I even get in.
My question is: wouldn't it be easier just to enroll in a straight-from-the-beginning BSN program at a 4 year college, just like the 18 year olds do?
Are you going to pay for all of this program out of your own pocket? If you already have a BA/BS degree, you may not qualify for any additional federal financial aid (Pell grant, Stafford loan). Schools often limit their own merit-based scholarships to those who are studying for the first undergradaute degree (and not a second bachelors).
If you have unlimited financial resources (deep pockets) then it may not matter what you do. However, most folks in ABSN programs do not have deep pockets, and thus want to limit the amount of private loans that they are taking out.
I hold a BS in biology. I am now in college yet again, pursuing a BSN this time. I have already gotten accepted into the program and have completed my first semester of the nursing program. I am not in an Accelerated BSN program. I am in a Traditional BSN program. I did not have to retake classes like English, Govt, History, etc. (the basics required for any Bachelors). They carried these classes over to count for this degree as well. I obviously had a lot of science courses completed bc of my BS in biology (ie. Anatomy, Physiology, Micro, Chem, etc.) , but I did have to take a couple of classes that are required for nursing that aren't for a biology degree (ie developmental psych, nursing stats, sociology,etc.) It took me one semester to complete the rest of the prereqs I needed to apply to the BSN program. I then applied to the program and got in. It will take me a total of 3 years (1 semester of completing prereqs and 5 of actual nursing classes) to complete my traditional BSN program. One year down, 2 to go and I will be an RN.
UVA Grad Nursing
1,068 Posts
Are you going to pay for all of this program out of your own pocket? If you already have a BA/BS degree, you may not qualify for any additional federal financial aid (Pell grant, Stafford loan). Schools often limit their own merit-based scholarships to those who are studying for the first undergradaute degree (and not a second bachelors).
If you have unlimited financial resources (deep pockets) then it may not matter what you do. However, most folks in ABSN programs do not have deep pockets, and thus want to limit the amount of private loans that they are taking out.