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Hello everyone. I'm hoping to get some advice from you folks. My situation is this. I am a 35 year old woman who has decided to pursue a career in nursing. My problem is that I am unsure where to go from here. I never went to college so I have not completed any prerequisites for nursing school. I am aware that I would need to be proficient in both math and sciences. Would I be better off talking to/ going to a local university or should I go to a community college? I was told that the waiting list at the community college is extensive. Thank you all for your help.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

Congratulations on making the decision to pursue nursing. It's an interesting, challenging and flexible career!

If I were you, I'd check on the admission requirements for every school in your area, including the tuition costs and projected costs for books, lab fees, etc. It may be that since you have no college at all, you'd be better off just going for a BSN. Or again, it may not. Perhaps the pre-requisites are easier (and cheaper) to take in the community college. Keep in mind that you may have to travel for your clinicals -- I traveled within a 40 mile radius to get to my clinical sites. If the school is an hour away, that might be just fine for your classes, but if the clinical site is an hour FARTHER from your home, that may (or may not) be too far.

Perhaps if you post your question in a state forum (since I don't know where you are and probably know nothing about the schools in your area) you would get more specific advice. Good luck with your journey.

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Thank you for the excellent advice. :)

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I'm 37 and had one semester under my belt (when I was 17), so I was pretty new to all this.

The first thing I did was research schools in my area that offer nursing programs. I had a list for two year degrees (ADN) and four year degrees (BSN). I then went to a few hospital websites and searched for their preferred education - it was overwhelmingly BSN here, so I scratched all the ADN programs off my list.

From there, I looked at costs, NCLEX pass rates, admittance profiles (those that were available anyhow) and pre-requisites. That narrowed my list by quite a few. Down to one actually, because there aren't many options around here. From there, I made a list of the pre-requisites that the school required. Then I went to my local community college's website, and made sure everything I needed was offered. I applied to the community college, and filled out my financial aid stuff (FAFSA).

I made a spread sheet of what classes to take when (making sure that I knew all the required classes for each - like you have to have Chemistry for Nutrition, stuff like that) so I laid out my schedule. I only have a handful of classes left and I'll be applying to nursing school next summer.

I hope this helps some. I was confused by a lot of stuff when I first started, and never had a proper college advisor to help me, so I navigated it all myself (with a few minor setbacks!). If you have any questions, I'm happy to try to answer them.

So I made a list of the classes that the school requires and

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That was a huge help to me. Thank you!

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