Starting Fresh... (a little long)

[npeters]

Hello everyone,

I have been basically lurking around for about a week and I thought I would throw this out there and see if anyone had good input for me... Any tips/suggestions/etc would be appreciated!

Currently I am working as a recruiter for a staffing agency that provides supplemental nursing staff to hospitals, clinics and the like in and around the metro detroit area. I am in danger of losing my job at the end of this month which has pushed me to look at other options. In doing so I've decided to go on and pursue getting my ADN. I went and spoke with an advisor at Macomb and because already have a Bachelors degree from Central Michigan the only courses I need to take in order to have completed all the pre-reqs and general ed for the program are Human Physiological Anatomy, Fundamentals of Nutrition, Introductory Psychology and General Microbiology or Pathogenic Microbiology. The only problem is that they do not offer the HESI until October or November which means my start date for the program (assuming I'll get in which I am fully determined to do) would not be until August 09 at the EARLIEST. I was really hoping to start this spring...

I guess my question is - does anyone know of a program that at this stage I would be able to get in to or at least APPLY for earlier than that?

I am a married mother of 1, I have a wonderful husband and family who will support me through this but I have to be concerned about finances of course... If I do lose my job I will probably be able to get unemployment for a little while and I know of several financial aid/scholarship options that I will be eligible for so it seems like now is the time to seize the opportunity to do this...

Some other schools I've looked into are HFCC and OU because they have the 2nd degree accelerated program. Anyone have any input on where, if anywhere I could find a potentially quicker start?

Should I, in the meantime, start working on these other pre-reqs through MCC? I should be able to get in to at least one of these courses starting next month...

Sorry this is so long... I feel like I'm flooded with a bunch of confusion!

TIA for any help!

[Forester]

Hi and welcome to allnurses,

I'm currently going to Macomb for pre-reqs and plan on going to Oakland for their second degree program. I lost my job last september and decided to go back to school to get my nursing degree. I would suggest taking some of those pre-reqs because almost all the programs I looked at needed those pre-reqs. I am in the same situation as you are because I didn't decide about this until October. I would think about taking anatomy now because if you apply to Macomb, they look at your last 12 credits to base you gpa. It would be a good idea to get a hard class out of the way now and then you could take some of the easier ones in the fall which would be the ones that would be counted. I decided to do OU's program because if I work on the pre-reqs through the fall, I have a chance to get into their program next winter. It's hard to think of all that time spent waiting to get in, but in the long run it will be worth it.

If you decide to take something like anatomy now, I would suggest to make sure you sign up as soon as enrollment opens because it fills up fast. I would def reccomend doing pre-reqs at a community college to save money.

I'd suggest just going to the different schools web sites and checking out which ones work with what you have.

[mybrowneyedgirl, BSN, RN]

Hi and welcome,

I know that Wayne State has a second degree nursing program for a bachelors. You might want to look into that.

I'm waiting at HFCC, and I've been hearing that the waitlist is shortening for some reason. But to get on the waitlist you have to have a certain amount of prereqs done and take the NET test http://adm.hfcc.edu/~jmorford/NET/ This link gives you a pretest for that NET.

Definitely start prereqs somewhere a.s.a.p., but make sure they are transferable and necessary. For example, many schools require microbiology, but HFCC does not.

I believe all ADN programs have at least a 9 mth wait, but you might get in sooner with the 2nd degree bachelors programs out there.

Good luck.