Taking Micro alongside nursing courses..

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The nursing program that I am applying to requires only A+PI as a pre-req. The sample schedules they have include Microbiology and Psychology classes alongside full nursing course loads each semester. Ideally I would like to knock out all of these non-nursing courses first but without them the nursing courses all fall shy (by like 1 credit hour) of making me a "full time" student in the eyes of financial aid, thus I have to take something alongside them.

My questions is this: Is it going to kill me to take a first semester nursing course load along side Microbiology? The only course that would fit with the nursing schedule is a Friday only class and it looks to be like 6 hours long or close to it. My other option is to take it during the summer and tack on two "easy A" online courses to the semester or something to keep my credit hours up.

Anyone have this issue with credit hours / financial aid? What to dooo?

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Micro isnt too tough. If thats what you have to do then thats what you have to do.

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I would go with plan "b"....take micro during summer and two easy "a"courses with the nursing courses....there is no rounding in nursing courses even if you have 89.99....you will get a "b" for course grade not an "a"..... At least in my program...so if you come in with a 4.0 and you get a "b" or The unthinkable "c" there goes that Gpa which only makes a difference if you are trying to get in a grad program on scholarship....I tell my fellow student nurse cohorts...... "C" means continue...hehehe

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Specializes in Medical-ICU.

I took all of my non nursing courses before I started the program and it seems to be the way to go if you can I have a few classmates that still have to take micro during the program and its been a real time constraint because of scheduling a class with a lab attached to it.

It has also been helpful because you can just focus on nursing instead of thinking about another science class. Not that micro is hard, it is just time consuming when you could be studying for your nursing courses.

I didn't run into any credit issues but I don't know about the financial aid. I pay out of pocket.

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I would take micro first. That way all your efforts can go into studying your nursing courses. Micro takes a lot of study time.

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I took Micro with my first semester courses, and made it alive, it was a lot of work, but not so bad.

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I could also take it the semester before nursing starts but I'd be taking it alongside A+PII and Psych and nutrition...

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I took patho, micro, APII and Fundamentals all together while working full time. I did it and passed everything, but had a couple of Cs in there, so definitely do not overwhelm yourself if possible. At least once a week, I had to pull an all-nighter (no naps, 48 hours straight) just to barely keep up.

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MathHatingNurse - that. sounds. insane. Kudos to you for passing.

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

Knowing I risk sounding like I'm older than dirt- back in the day, one did not complete pre-requisite courses. One entered the program and took nursing and non-nursing courses at the same time. For example, I just dug out my AAS transcript.

Semester 1: English (3), Intro Psych(3), Fundamentals(7), A&P1(4) Speech (3)

Semester 2: Sociology (3), A&P 2(4), Med-surg 1 (10!!!)

Semester 3: Micro (4), Chem (3), Med-surg 2 (another 10!!)

Semester 4: Nutrition (3), Pharmacology (3), OB/Peds (7), Psych (7)

I did this while working three days a week, caring for two foster children and (last semester) being pregnant with my oldest daughter. In fact, I missed graduation because I was in the hospital giving birth. This was 1980.

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Every school is different. Every micro and nursing course is different. Go with your program's recommended schedule if possible, it's the recommended schedule for a reason!

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Knowing I risk sounding like I'm older than dirt- back in the day, one did not complete pre-requisite courses. One entered the program and took nursing and non-nursing courses at the same time. For example, I just dug out my AAS transcript.

Semester 1: English (3), Intro Psych(3), Fundamentals(7), A&P1(4) Speech (3)

Semester 2: Sociology (3), A&P 2(4), Med-surg 1 (10!!!)

Semester 3: Micro (4), Chem (3), Med-surg 2 (another 10!!)

Semester 4: Nutrition (3), Pharmacology (3), OB/Peds (7), Psych (7)

I did this while working three days a week, caring for two foster children and (last semester) being pregnant with my oldest daughter. In fact, I missed graduation because I was in the hospital giving birth. This was 1980.

So you were averaging 17-20 credits/semester. You are amazing. I have to take 18 credits for my first semester of nursing school, the other semesters can be 15 credits.. I was getting scared but reading that gave me courage!

To the OP, I had many friends take microbiology with A & P I, or II. I found microbiology very doable & took it with nutrition.

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