Spring 2013...Advice Needed!

[SakuraChan]

Hello everyone! (:

I hope everyone is having a good start to the week!

Tomorrow is my registration date! (Ek, I have priority registration because I'm in my college's honors program).

Anyways...I was wondering if you'd like to give me some advice on my upcoming schedule.

Any advice/comments would greatly be appreciated.

Some background about me:

I attend a small community college in California. I used to attend UCLA but due to financial aid (long story), I had to leave before I got my B.S. and came back home.

I became interested in nursing since I was at UCLA. I was a Pre-Med major, hoping to go onto Medical School, but like I said, due to financial matters, I couldn't complete my education there. While at UCLA, I used to work at UCLA HealthCare System and really got close to a bunch of nurses around the hospital. I truly enjoyed seeing them help patients and such...(I could ramble on for days!)

When I came back home, I decided that I would purse a nursing career, and hopefully head back to UCLA for a nursing job (thankfully I have friends inside the system!) later on when I (hopefully!) become an RN. My community college offers an RN program, but now they implemented a once a year application...which really defers me even further!

Regardless, I wish to complete my pre-reqs as efficiently and quickly as possible.

This is my proposed schedule for Spring 2013:

-A&P II

-Intro to Chem (since it is a requirement for Microbiology)

-Pre-Calculus

-Nutrition (I need this class to graduate in June and get my A.S.-which gives me further points on my Nursing application)

-English 101

I would be taking the first three courses TTH and the latter are online classes.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that essentially, I have Spring 2013-->Fall 2013-->Spring 2014 to complete my nursing pre-reqs which are:

-A&P I (IP--Fall 2012)

-A&P II

-English 101

-MATH 96 (Algebra) or higher (I placed into Pre-Calc w/my assessment test!)

-Microbiology (pre req for this class is Introduction to Chem 100 OR Chem of Life 107)

*My college typically goes for 4.0 applicants only, and there's no waitlist. To apply you also have to have your pre-req classes already completed and on your transcript (no IP grades) so I have to wait until Fall 2014 to apply.

Other classes I have to take:

-Psychology 101 (already completed)

-Political Science 101 (AP credit)

-Humanities Course/Multi-Cultural Course (already completed)

A lot of people would consider this schedule super hectic and such...but I'm single, I have no job (unfortunately! I'm still looking!), and have no financial responsibilities or kids. Also, I'm the type of person that if I have a "too easy" schedule, I will procrastinate like no other. Currently, I am taking A&P I and a Business English course...(I had a late registration date because I had to re-enroll into the college...) and it's horrible, I have to push myself so much to stay on top of my homework and studying. At UCLA it was so much different, every day, come back from lecture/lab and straight to studying...it's such a different environment.

Some of you wonderful posters are going or have gone through Nursing School...and I was wondering if you could perhaps share some insight? I'm sure the courses/clinicals are much tougher than this schedule, so I want to see if I'm going the right route in preparing myself. I don't want to be TOO surprised when I finally get to NS and struggle to get my time management together...haha.

Also, are there any tips/recommendations you would give to me in preparing myself for NS/nursing career in general? Perhaps some study books?

Thanks so much for reading all of this! Ever since I started lurking on AN, I've really been hooked! I appreciate everyone for trying to help us as best as they can!

Have a great day! (:

-SakuraChan.

[SopranoKris, MSN, RN, NP]

Hi Sakura,

If you have no job & no family responsibilities, then take as many classes and you can handle! I just completed 4 courses in the summer (Anatomy, Psych, Healthy Lifestyles & Phlebotomy) and I'm taking 6 classes this semester (Physiology, Microbiology, Microbiology Lab, Pharmacology, Human Growth & Development and Intro to Health Careers). I've got a 4.0 so far. So by all means, if you can handle the course load, then go for it!

As far as pre-calc goes...unless you're planning to pursue an advanced degree later, why not just take algebra instead? It's a lot easier than pre-calc and you need all the "easy A's" you can get. Or, if you're planning on getting your BSN, take Statistics instead of pre-calc. That would not only fulfill your math requirement for your program, but also most BSN programs require Stats at some point. You can kill 2 birds with one stone

Best of luck to you