What do you suggest I do?

[AndyMandy]

i am currently a sophomore majoring in human development at ucsd, but recently decided that i want to pursue a career in nursing. i have always had an interest in the health field, but was not sure what i wanted to pursue as a career until now. after doing much research and talking to relatives in the nursing field, i am sure that i would love nursing as a career. unfortunately, there is no nursing or pre-nursing program at ucsd, which means that they do not offer the prerequisites needed for nursing. i have already paid for winter quarter classes at ucsd, so i will need to finish winter quarter there, but i could change schools when spring quarter comes along. i know for sure that i would like to achieve at least a bsn, but i am not sure what i should do in order to get to that point.

if i start now, i might be able to finish my prerequisites by the end of what would be my junior year in college so that i could apply to transfer in what would be my senior year in college (assuming that i get accepted to the program). i know that most programs out there won't let you apply if you have over a set amount of credits, but usf, for example, allows an unlimited amount of credits from a 4-year university and a maximum of 70 semester credits or 105 quarter credits from a 2-year or junior college. this is just a possibility.

in addition, correct me if i'm wrong, but if i transfer to a school with a bsn program at what should be my senior year in college (again, assuming i get into the program), it would probably take me an additional 2-3 years to graduate, which would be roughly about the same amount of time it would take me to graduate from ucsd with a ba and then go into an absn program.

should i graduate from ucsd with a ba and go into an absn program? should i go to a cc to finish the prerequisites and then transfer to a school with a bsn program? is there something else that i could do?

[jemmens]

I do not know why UCSD would not offer prerequisites for nursing school. the classes are usually math, english, advanced writing, biology, A&P, chemistry, pysiological chemistry, statistics, microbiology, pychology, child psychology, abnormal psycholgy. these are the classes that my school consider as prerequisites. Its up to you if you want to wait after your first degree to apply or not but if you have a really good GPA, I would try applying anyway before graduating. It seems like you could go either way so it is up to you.

[I♥Scrubs, LPN]

My current school does not have a nursing program, but they do offer the basic pre-requisites for most nursing programs like Chemistry, and A&P. I would check on how many credits would transfer to the school you're looking at, I am finishing up my associates in human services this May and already applied to nursing school. Only 12/64 of my credits transferred. They were math, composition, pyschology and sociology. And for this specific nursing program you need 71.5 credits. (It's an ADN program, not a BSN, so it may be different) I would definitely find out.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

identify some likely nursing schools now. ask them what coursework will be acceptable for transfer. if they're all in the uc or csu systems they'll be known quantities. if you have to take them where you are, fine, then go to the nursing program upper division major, which will be another two years. if you can transfer now and get started on some of the prereqs or even some nursing courses (like maybe nursing research, or some other nonclinical course), do that. forget the adn. (see thread on cna>lpn>adn, on which i just posted my passionate rant about getting more education when you can, for more opportunity later).

good luck! stay in touch! let us know how it all turns out!

[caliotter3]

I think you need to do some more research. Surely, your school provides biology, chemistry, anatomy, physiology, psychology, microbiology, etc. courses. And if there is overlap and the requirement for more classes to meet residency requirements, well, that is the way it would have been anyway, since you are doing a major change in plans. You can not fault yourself for changing your goal at this time. The best you can do is to explore options with potential nursing schools and make those choices from here on out that maximize what you have already accomplished and minimize the time and aggravation involved with this transition. Best wishes.