Taking 20 credit hours?

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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I will be taking 12 credits for my first semester this fall, then tack on 8 more credit hours (becomes a total of 20) for my second semester of college for this spring which will consist of:

Anatomy and Physiology 1

Microbiology

Psych 101

English 102

General Chemistry

World History 1500s

(I've been preregistered for all these classes for the spring already; I just made it official today.)

Now after seeing how my schedule will be looking like for next spring do you guys think it's possible and doable if I dedicate myself to only school and nothing else? I also plan on taking 7 more credit hours next summer + my CNA class which I already put down a payment to save my spot for next year since they go so quickly.

That is a lot to take on. I think you should focus on one of the sciences at a time. Since these are the classes nursing programs generally look at. I took 18 credit hours as a freshman pre- nursing major back in 2011, and only had a 3.0 so maybe I am speaking for myself. It took a 3.5 for me to get in my BSN program. It would have been higher if I focused on certain classes and took fewer at a time. I think you should drop either Chem or Microbio and take the other one the following semester, so you can get A's in both. You want to do well in all classes so don't overwhelm yourself. It is not a race, and also there is nothing wrong with being 100% dedicated to school. I worked throughout my entire program different STNA/side jobs and it was rough, it surely affected my grades. Just stay focused, it will pay off. Good luck !

Specializes in NICU, PICU, PACU.

Take advantage of any tutoring offered also, even if you don't think you need it. Many sessions are lead by grad students and they are a wealth of info!

Specializes in Renal, Diabetic.

Here's my $.02: I would suggest taking a full course load but only take one of the lab sciences at a time. This way, you still get through the credits you need but can focus on the science at hand and get as much out of it as you can. Also, take the time to enjoy being a freshman. Make new friends, take time to join a club or whatever you want to do. This is the only chance you have as a young freshman to get the feel for college. Yes you can still take a full course load and have time for extracurricular activities, otherwise, your sanity will suffer and you'll be miserable.

Are the sciences not prereqs for each other? For example, in my college, we had to take Chemistry before Majors Cellular, Majors Cellular before getting into Anatomy, Anatomy to get into Physiology and Physiology to get into Microbiology. We could not take multiple sciences together.

Specializes in Post Acute, Med/Surg, ED, Nurse Manager.

You need to check with your advisor about this. The science classes shouldn't be taken together not just for the time constraints but because USUALLY chemistry is a prereq for A&P. You need the knowledge from 1 to better understand the other. Also A&P is a 5 credit class, micro is a 5 credit class and chem is s 5 credit class and eng 102 is a 5 credit class, plus psych and world history are generally 5 credit. That gives you 30 credits. I really suggest spacing it out. You need to get amazing grades. If you have to retake classes the nursing programs actually take off factoring points when you apply. I would slow down and thing long haul. What will get you in? Good grades. 1 science class with a lab and a few other classes is still a good load. Try eng 102, psych, world history and a science.... thats still 20 credits.

I took A&P, Micro and sociology (plus yoga, lol) in one semester and it was difficult for me but I still got good grades. If you had tacked on Chemisty and a world hist and English class I probably would have gone crazy. But I am also a returning student (was 37 years old) so I was trying to wrap my brain around how to do school again. I also have 3 kids. So if you are a recent high school graduate without kids, living at home without bills to worry about, then you might be able to pull it off.

Specializes in Inpatient & family practice.

Don't do it! Learn your material well.

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