Austin Community College Fall 2012 hopefuls

Austin 404, I was not trying to discourage anyone, I was just answering ruddergrl. I am aware of all that you mentioned above. I don't know if you are in our age bracket, but you have to think twice about things when you are older and have kids. Like I said in my previous post, I plan on getting my BSN and am only 2 courses shy before I apply to Texas Tech and have already talked with an advisor. I was just hoping to get a job as a nurse and work while continuing on the tract to my BSN.

The reason for the discussion was to let ruddergrl know that Seton & St. David's were not hiring ADNs. No one said that getting our ADN was as far as we were going to go.

Austin 404, I was not trying to discourage anyone, I was just answering ruddergrl. I am aware of all that you mentioned above. I don't know if you are in our age bracket, but you have to think twice about things when you are older and have kids. Like I said in my previous post, I plan on getting my BSN and am only 2 courses shy before I apply to Texas Tech and have already talked with an advisor. I was just hoping to get a job as a nurse and work while continuing on the tract to my BSN.

The reason for the discussion was to let ruddergrl know that Seton & St. David's were not hiring ADNs. No one said that getting our ADN was as far as we were going to go.

Amen. Moving all over the place is not an option when you're married and have children. Thank you for explaining both of our positions, Madterrier, you and I are on the same wavelength.

I understand both of your situations, because I'm in my late thirties. Going back to college has been an enormous financial struggle for me and my family as well. I could kick myself for not doing this after high school.

On a positive note, ACC has saved me about $27,000 (using UT as an example) in tuition on the first three years of this degree. And for that, I'm thankful. The adviser at UT told me that the nursing degree is the only degree that will allow transfer of 3/4 of the degree from a community college. Other programs only allow 60 hours max of transfer credit.

I'm very thankful for ACC for giving us great classroom experiences, cheap tuition, and the ability to smoothly transfer to other universities. As far as employement opportunities, they will follow, eventually.

Austin 404, I am not sure how you came to the conclusion that anyone thought ADN was a stopping point for education. Thank you for the encouragement, but of course this information is discouraging because it changes the path in which we get to the final endpoint. It will take a lot more time and money out of our pockets.

I had intended on following the same path as ruddergrl and madterriers: ADN to working nurse/bridge student to bachelors.

I planned on taking a lower paying, part-time job while going through the nursing program for 2 years. I cannot support my family on a lower paying job for 4 years, especially when the last 2 years are going to be significantly higher tuition rates.

The solution is a little more complicated then just getting into a bachelors program.

It is better to be informed on this and somewhat discouraged then it is to be ignorant about your career strategy and your future.

It's also important to get the word out because that will drive the demand for a solution or alternative path for others who are in our same situation.

I am a current level 3 hybrid student and our instructors all told us about this during one of our pedi post conferences at Dell a few weeks ago. It can be very discouraging. They informed us that nursing has been moving towards BSN only for years and that this helps with the profesionalism of nursing. I've been working on my general pre-req courses for transfer to UT Arlington for a year now. I am super blessed in that I signed a contract with my current employer for a job after I graduate although I don't work for a hospital system but a private oncology group. I work with a nurse who is in her 60s and she was in the first RN graduating class at ACC and she just recently went through UT Arlington's RN-BSN program and loved it. She said it was really convenient to have all the classes online.

On a side note, I just met a recent ACC hybrid graduate who was doing the versant program and she graduated in December and a few of my current level four friends have great job leads at Seton. Like someone said above, while in clinical, make an impression. One of my pedi instructors who does work at Dell told me Seton may hire ADN's and give them a timeframe to start a BSN program and until then they are capped at an RN II status and can't advance further up the ladder until they get the BSN.

I finally finished my last pre-req last semester and have applied for the fall semester. Am I the only one who has been almost continuously checking their e-mail for the nursing skills petition?

Hi Savvy-

The ACC site says that nursing skills petitions will be sent at the end of April and they will update the website when all are sent. The site has not been updated since 4/18...

Has anyone recieved a petition yet?

So today should definitively be when they send out the petitions, so excited and haunting my e-mail!:) why do they wait until the deadline to keep us eagerly anticipating this?

I've already taken nursing skills, but was curious if anyone has heard when they are sending out final rankings and/or invitations for nursing school. This has to be the longest 4-8 weeks of my life. I'm draining my phone by compulsively checking gmail.

haha yeah me too.. I believe the beginning of June is when they plan on sending them out, and I would think they would because the next application period starts June 4. this is gonna be a loonnng last month of waiting, especially since a lot of people i asked said its next to impossible to get in your first try, even with a 56?

Okay, they've sent out petitions now :) hurray!!

During my first round of application for Fall 2010 they let us know on May 19th. For Spring 2011 they sent out letters September 30th. I know the wait is killer!! It is pretty much one of the most painful experiences in nursing school!