Soon finishing Highschool

smellyacres, BSN, RN · Nov 17, 2008

I also feel very stupid since a few of my friends laugh at me for planning on going to community college, but I know it would be best for me financially on the road.

You know, you really are doing the smart thing by going to a community college. Its less expensive and it really does make transferring to other schools MUCH easier. Don't listen to your friends, they proabably don't even know what they want to do yet. YOU do and YOU have a plan and its GREAT! Sometimes Comunity colleges provide better education than Universities. So don't worry, you're making a good, smart, realistic choice. It will benefit you! Tell THAT to your friends who laugh.

So, I'm assuming that you know which community college you are going too. Every CSU has certain prerequisites you must complete before you can apply to their nursing school. If you go to www.assist.org it has all of the transfer agreements between the california community colleges and all of the CSUs and UCs.

I don't know how muh you know about college so I'll let you have it.

In college you have to do a certain amount of general education. Meaning, at least one course from English, Speech, Math, Critical Thinking, Physical Science, Biological Science, Humanities, Arts, History, Politics and so on... (you can usually find this on the community college's website)

Many prerequisites for nursing school fall under one of these categories (you'll have to double check, to make sure it counts for your school). For example, all CSUs require English Composition, Oral Communication, Critical Thinking, and Math (usually statistics).

So all of these courses count for the different areas of general education (GE) units.

You will also need to take certain science courses, such as Chemistry, Anatomy, Physiology or Microbiology. (some schools divide anatomy and physio into A&P 1 and A&P 2). Many of those will count for the science GE units.

Start taking your sciences as early as possible, because you want to get them out of the way (their the hardest).

I don't know if you are a senior in HS or if you are going to be a senior next year. If you are GOING to be a senior next year, I would advise you to take AP Biology if you have not already. Because Biology is a prerequisite for Anatomy, Physio and Micro. If you have not taken AP bio, you will have to take it at the community college as well.

This will all be laid out very nicely for you on assist.org. What you do, is you go to the drop down box and choose the community college you are going to. Then, another box will appear that will let you select a University. Next, go under "majors" and select nursing (it may be pre-nursing). If you have a choice, choose Basic BSN or Generic BSN. (Not A-BSN or ASN to BSN, those are for people with previous degrees).

Then it will give you a list, the agreement that your CC has with that University. It will tell you what classes you need to take, that are equivalent to the University's requriements. And you must complete those classes in order to apply to the unviersity

All CSUs have similar prerequistes but there are some slight differences so be careful.

Once you have all of the information about what classes you need to take to be eligible to apply for the colleges you want to go to (many students wantt to be able to apply to many schools because its so competetive, it will give you a better chance of getting into at least one school .. i have a list of like 12) you will be ready to go. (I wish I had all this information when i started).

Be smart about the order in which you take these classes, and the best way to get through them. Be warned, these are hard classes. Do not try to take more classes than you will be able to handle. If you are an A/B student in high school taking honors/AP classes, you will probably be okay taking a heavier course load, but if not, go slow.

Now, depending on how many courses you take and if you go to school over the summer, you will be able to finish in more or less than 2 years. It depends on the person. So don't be discouraged if it looks like it will take you more than two years, it is perfectly normal.

SOME CSUs will NOT require you to have ALL of the general education curriculm completed before you transfer. If you do NOT have them completed, this will mean you'll have to take them along with your classes in nursing school. Many people like to get these done with and out of the way beforehand so they can focus only on nursing school once they get in.

When you start at your community college, go see a counselor or advisor. This way you can set up a plan with them and figure out the best way to take all of these prerequisites and GE classes. Some schools have priority registration, meaning if you have a certain number of units completed you will be able to register for classes earlier. At my school, prenursing classes like anat and physio are HARD to get into because they fill up quickly, leaving people without high priority registration without a spot in the class. At my school, if you see a counselor way ahead of time, you can get your priority bumped up. It may be different for your school, but just some advice.

If you can, see an advisor/counselor that specializes in pre-nursing students because they will have the most knowledge about what classes you need to take and what order would be best to take them in.

I can tell you right now that these are the main prerequisites for CSUs:

English Comp (English 1, 1A, 101, etc) (they are numbered differently for different schools)

Speech (101, 1A, 1, etc)

Critical Thinking (such as philosophy)

Statistics

Chemistry

Anatomy

Physiology

Microbiology

There are other classes that nursing schools describe as "co-requisites". this simply means that you do not HAVE to have them completed in order to apply to the program, but it will lessen your workload once you enter nursing school if you get them done ahead of time.

These are usually classes such as:

Psychology (101, 1A, 1, etc)

Sociology

Pharmacology (my CC doesn't offer this class)

Nutrition

and maybe others depending on the class.

Remember, these classes will also fill areas of General Ed, so you will be getting those classes done as well.

SOooo... I hope this helps haha. I've been typing for way too long, so if you have any other questions, let me know.

Good Luck

Snowii · Nov 17, 2008

Yeeeah... all that up there. :-)

benegesserit · Nov 17, 2008

ZAR963 pretty much covered everything I was going to say, so I won't repeat it.

Ignore the people who make fun - you sound like you have a more realistic view of the world than they do. I went to a UC straight out of high school. I really wish I'd gone to a community college instead.

The only other thing I'll add... be aware that if you're planning to apply to a competitive school (and the CSU BSN programs are competitive, though some of the CC ADN programs are lottery or waitlist based), your grades will need to be as high as possible. A lot of people don't realize that when they first start, especially straight out of high school, and end up not getting the grades they need.

Mark42g · Nov 18, 2008

Thanks so much for the information!

Dr.Nurse2b · Nov 18, 2008

Hello, I am new here. I am one year away from finishing highschool. I plan on going to community college for 2 years, and transferring to a Cal State. I also feel very stupid since a few of my friends laugh at me for planning on going to community college, but I know it would be best for me financially on the road. I have alot of relatives who work in the medical field, but it is very hard to reach them since we live very far from each other.
I have been a bit worried about how to establish a Nursing career. Planning to become a RN sometime in my future. I Would like to know what are the upcomming roads I would have to take?
I would like to recieve as much information I can recieve thanks!

Zar963 nailed it brother.

Ignore the haters.

Also...consider volunteering at your local hospital. This will give the opportunity to sample healthcare.

I started as a volunteer fire fighter-emt and feeding patients at the hospital...I wanted to work in heathcare but really didn't know where to start. The interaction with patients and staff helped me to realize what I enjoyed doing, what I disliked and what I was good at.

My top recommendation...DON'T STOP - DON'T LOOK BACK!

Once you begin do not stop until you have RN after your name. Whatever route you choose...community college to nursing or whatever...start to finish, no breaks -- no detours, no distractions. Sell internal organs if you run short on cash. Set your graduation date when you register and stick to it.

Finally...when you are stressed out, beat up and ready quit, come back here and I'll personally congratulate you. You will never know how bad you want something, or how hard you've tried until you reach the point of giving up...

When life gets tough regular people whine, cry and give up...

Nurses calm the whiners, get the cryers tissue and drag back the people who gave up kicking and screaming all the way.

Don't make me come for you! :nuke:

Good luck! See you in a few years...

smellyacres, BSN, RN · Nov 18, 2008

Yeah hah, I think that was the longest post I've written

Also, to add.. some CSUs look at supplemental criteria. For example, San Francisco States NP looks at healthcare experience/volunteer work, multicultural experience/volunteer work, and if you're bilingual.

Other schools, such as CSU Long Beach (these are my top two schools which is why I'm using them as examples) do not look at suplementary criteria but they do look at your TEAS scores (Test of Essential Academic Skills), so check to see what else you may need to do before you apply. Its good to think ahead.

Its better to take these entrance exams later, once you have taken some sciences (I don't know about others, but the TEAS has a science portion) because then you won't have to learn totally new information that you will learn eventually.

Start volunteering soon though. Even if you are still in high school. I plan on taking a Nursing Assistant Traning to get experience before nursing school, so you may want to consider that too.

And yes, keep your grades as HIGH as possible. Nursing school is very competetive, and at some point, you will probably be told you won't cut it, but hang in there and stay confident. If you put in the effort, you will be rewarded.

- Zoe