school dilemma

[wwest333]

I am going into my junior year at UMass Amherst and have known I wanted to become a nurse for about a year now. UMass does not allow transfers into their nursing program so I decided to major in public health and just do a second bachelors program once I graduated, hoping to either attend MGH institute or UMass Amherst's second bachelors program, since they are the only two in my area where I can start immediately after getting my first degree.

Frustrated by this setback though, I applied to the only other 4 year University around me that accepts transfers into their nursing program, URI, and have been accepted, however if I were to attend in the fall I would still only be considered a "pre nursing" second semester freshmen, and admitted into the College of Nursing only after passing an orgo class this fall. My first year there would only consist of a total of 2 nursing classes, since I have completed all my other prerecs and would be filling my time with a minor and gen eds instead.

My dilemma is that if I were to transfer, I would be in school for the same amount of extra time as a second bachelors degree, an extra 3 semesters, and I would only be receiving one degree when I could have gotten 2 in the same amount of time, not to mention a semester abroad experience at UMass, too.

Also, transfering does not save me any money, being an out of state student at URI, it would cost me the same to go there for the extra time as it would MGH's program.

I have very strong prerequisites grades, great relationships with my science professors (so hopefully I have good letters of recommendation to come), and will be working as a CNA next summer going into my senior year, so my chances of getting into one of those two second bachelors programs should be good, but I know its never a guarantee since they are so competitive and everyone seems to be a great candidate.

I am looking for some advice as to whether or not the transfer is worth it. I know there are definitely advantages to going to a traditional BSN program vs an ABSN, such as more time to really grasp each concept and not feel like I'm cramming for 15 months straight. But I also know UMass and MGH have great programs that may be worth the wait.

Thanks so much for ANY feedback!

[Silverdragon102, BSN]

Moved to Nursing Career forum

[Okami_CCRN, BSN, RN]

I will impart some wisdom, since I was in a similar-ish situation.

I was a pre-nursing student who had a change of heart and transferred to a very expensive university to study biology. I had a ton of fun, went abroad, did well and graduated with honors. In the process I racked up close to 30K in student loan debt with a BA degree that could not pay the bills. I decided to go back to my original passion, nursing. Now here is the fun bit, because I already have a BA degree I did not qualify for federal student aide, which meant that I ended up footing the bill for my nursing degree.

My advice is this, if you have some sort of aide and know you want to be a nurse pursue the program that will land you with a BSN instead of a degree in public health that will end up limiting your aide for an ABSN.

[Lulu Belle, RN, EMT-B]

I had the same exact problem earlier this year. I was even looking at schools in your area. I was in such a rush to get to nursing school, and I was pretty miserable in my current program. But when I laid out all the facts, it just didn't make sense to transfer.

You need to do what's best for you, but this is the way I look at it: you are going to have to pay for 5+ years of school no matter what, right? At least if you go the ABSN route, you get 2 degrees out of it. And two degrees that sort of make sense together at that.