Will my music degree count toward a second bachelor's degree in nursing?

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Hello everyone! I am currently looking into applying for ABSN programs, and I am working on completing my prerequisites right now. I really only have one possibly big concern about this whole process at this point. Many of the schools I am interested in applying to, including my number one choice school which would guarantee almost all of my tuition to be covered, say that they will accept any bachelor's degree for the program. However, in parentheses it says BA/BS. This concerns me a little bit because my bachelor's degree is in music education and I technically have a Bachelor of Music degree. This makes me worried that those schools will not consider me because I have a BM and not a BA/BS. Has anyone had a problem with this before or does anyone have any insight into this kind of situation? I would hope that my degree would fall close enough under the BA category that schools would overlook the fact that it is a BM rather than a BA, but I really don't know for sure how they would view it. If anyone has any experience or insight about this type of situation, I would greatly appreciate it!! Thanks!!

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A BA degree is a Bachelors of the Arts. Ex: English, History, Music. A BS degree is a Bachelors of the Sciences. Ex: Biology, Business, psychology. It really depends on the school. A school that has a liberal arts background will have more BA degrees because of the school background. You could have a psychology degree; which is a science. But, a liberal arts school will list it as a BA. Also, it may depend on how many liberal arts classes you take. If you have more liberal classes than science classes, then you will have a BA degree.

For your situation, you will be considered as having a BA degree b/c music is a part of the liberal arts category. Therefore, you will be fine.

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A BA degree is a Bachelors of the Arts. Ex: English, History, Music. A BS degree is a Bachelors of the Sciences. Ex: Biology, Business, psychology. It really depends on the school. A school that has a liberal arts background will have more BA degrees because of the school background. You could have a psychology degree; which is a science. But, a liberal arts school will list it as a BA. Also, it may depend on how many liberal arts classes you take. If you have more liberal classes than science classes, then you will have a BA degree.

For your situation, you will be considered as having a BA degree b/c music is a part of the liberal arts category. Therefore, you will be fine.

Thank you!! That is kind of what I figured, but I just wanted to make sure.

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Specializes in Prior military RN/current ICU RN..

CONTACT the school you are interested in and ask them. Do not take information off a message board as truth (from me or anyone else). A simple call to the admissions and you will have your answer. I did a second bachelors in nursing and mine first degree was business admin. Just call them and get the truth. Also different schools have different requirements.

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It's not problem! I was in a similar situation. Glad I could help! Good luck to you in your ABSN program!

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armymusic2013, I have a degree in music performance and I will be starting nursing school this coming summer/fall so I may be able to help you out a bit. Wow, big change, music to nursing!

First, did you go to a conservatory or a music school/department within a university? Sometimes even if it is a music school within a university, it may still be technically a conservatory, such as Peabody of JHU. The reason I am asking is because there is a possibility that you may have to make up your GE credits, especially if you went to a conservatory. Sometimes music schools/depts need to meet university requirements for GEs. I suggest you check with each school individually and have an admissions officer evaluate your transcript if possible. I remember somewhere on UCSF's website for example, that had a paragraph or so about specialized majors... I have a BA in music, so that is a liberal arts. I do not think BM is liberal arts degree.

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Thanks for your response, charming_kitty! My original school was a conservatory but I wasn't a big fan of it so the school I transferred to was a department of music. As far as I know, the only difference between what I had to do and the people with a BA in music had to do was that for the BA they needed a minor and 6 credits of foreign language. I actually ended up having a minor in religion though anyways, and I took a 3 credit Chinese class. So I wasn't far off from their requirements either!

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ok. i highly suggest that you talk to the admissions counselor at every school. I actually had to take more humanities for some schools bc some of my upper divs and GE classes at my university weren't accepted at some nursing schools. however, most likely u'll have to take ALL of the science prerequisites. Be prepared- the science classes will be very extremely intense if you haven't taken a non-GE science class.

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Ok, I will look into contacting them. I've already got my plan laid out in order to take all the science classes. I will be taking my last prerequisites at this time next year and then I will be applying, so I still have a little bit of time in case I need to add anything else.

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