This is just one person's story but I think it may apply to others. A very good friend of mine just left for CRNA school in MN. He was a cheese factory worker who lost his job. He did extensive research as to what field would best to go into and discovered nursing, and through it CRNA. The state of Wisconsin had a program to re-train factory worker who lost their jobs, but the training had to be at one of Wisconsin's 16 Technical Colleges. He chose ADN RN and finished in two years with no previous college (Wisconsin's ADN programs are desinged to be finished in two years). He then went to work in the same SICU where I work and enrolled in an online RN to BSN program and used the hospital's education assistance program to pay for it. It took him two years to complete the BSN while working more than full time in the SICU. He applied to several CRNA schools and was accepted to four, La Crosse WI, St. Mary's in MN, University of MN, and Rush in IL. He graduated in May with his BSN and left for CRNA school this month (June). His ADN RN took two years and cost about $6,000, paid for by the state, his BSN took two years and was paid for by the hospital, while earning the BSN he made around $120,000 over two years as an ICU nurse and got two years of very solid ICU experience at the same time.
Had he chosen to go directly to a university and do a BSN program it would have taken him 4 years and he would just now be a new grad RN with a lot of education debt to pay back. Even had there not been a state program to pay for his ADN the $6,000 community college RN program would have been much more managable for a laid off factory worker with a family than the $40,000 four years at the UW would have cost him (probaly should also take into account the $120,000 in pay he would not have made over two years).
It would seem to me that for those who can actually complete an ADN in 2 years, the ability to gain two years of real world nursing experience (plus RN pay & benifits) in one of the many hospitals that have programs to pay for or help pay for nursing degrees, while at the same time doing one of the many BSN program desinged for working nurses, would put one at a significant advantage for CRNA school over a traditional univeristy BSN.
