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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Dr Loretta-anyone? career college question (nurses come in)
I know that you ladies are usually spot on with any advice that you give so I need to run something by you all since I am struggling with this issue. I am a long time lurker and feel like I know everyone on this board but nobody knows me! Hopefully that will change. My situation is this:
I am 31. Married with 1 DD who is 2 years old. DH and I both work full time. We own a house, live 1k miles from any friends or family so its pretty much just us on our own. We are struggling to pay down cc debt and student loans from my undergrad, struggling to build an E fund and just get on our feet financially. To be honest, we basically live paycheck to paycheck at this point. DH is very fulfilled in his career and has tremendous promotion potential and will eventually make more money. I on the other hand, have a B.S. in Marketing (which was a mistake) and have been struggling with my career path for years. I currently work in a call center which will be the death of me. I long to be RN. I want to go back to school to follow my passion to become a nurse, but am afraid of the student loans. The local colleges that have an RN program have long waiting lists and have a very daunting application process but the tuition is reasonable. Then there are a few private career colleges that offer an RN program that is accelerated so I'd be finished in 15 months versus 24, but the tuition is double what the community college tuition is (43K). There are no waiting lists and since I have most of the pre reqs already the application process would be smoother.
I am in a situation where I NEED to pursue this quickly. I want my degree to be worth its salt and am leery of "for profit" career institutions, but I feel like this is probably my only option since they do not have long waiting lists, have evening/weekend classes (remember I have to work full time to support us), and I will graduate in 15 months allowing me to start my career quickly and have the potential to bring in more money since we are struggling. The only downside is that the tuition is expensive and I am not sure how employers would view my education. The school is accredited and has a good reputation in the local area and I'd imagine that the education has to be quality because we are required to take state boards and go through all of the requirements any other nursing student would have to go through to get licensed, but I just dont know.
How do I find out how employers would view my RN degree from a career college versus a community college or state school? Are there situations where you all would be "for" a career college? I know MM frowns upon them, thats why I am seeking your input since my situation isnt the "norm".
HELP PLEASE?? Does anyone have any thoughts??
Re: Dr Loretta-anyone? career college question (nurses come in)
Please note that this is my opinion. I am in a similar situation from you, minus the family, age, prior degree are all the same. I also need to work full time while I do this. I have been taking pre reqs for years. I suggest you really look into that because if you got your degree when I did - lots of science and even psychology classes expire within a five to ten year time from for nursing.
It is a high demand area right now. I would advise against a for profit school You will have plenty of competition.
Where I live - I could not do a 15 month program unless I quit my job. They are daytime programs. If I were to go full time during the day or at night for a AA in nursing it would be two years. Or I can do a weekend and/or evening program for a BS and that would also be two years.
I am currently paying for this in cash. Being that you are married and have a family you may get some type of aid or scholarship - there are many out there you just have to look and apply.
You may also want to re-evaluation your budget. Also if you have student loans now, you are able to defer them while you are in college. I opted not to do this, however. Since I was able to afford both.
$43k for an RN degree (which is essentially a 2 year degree, correct?) is CRAZY. Absolutely crazy.
And this is coming from someone who did attend a for-profit school, for many of the same reasons that you are contemplating one - I already had a career and worked full time, and there was no school close than 3 hours from me that even offered the degree that I wanted. I was already married and a homeowner, so moving wasn't really feasible. I did what I had to do to get the degree that I wanted. But tuition was comparable to what I would have paid had I gotten a similar degree in-state. And there were no promises to finish a degree that normally takes 2 years in anything less than 2 years.
I would simply not spend that kind of money on a 2 year degree from a career college. I can almost guarantee you that even as an RN, you will find it hard to get a job making $40k per year right off the bat.......you'll need a BSN for that. And I take it that you've never done any type of nursing or had any nursing experience.......that's a helluva lot of money to spend on a career path that you have no prior experience in and might not even like once you do experience it (from experience, RNs are usually the ones emptying bed pans and doing other grunt work in hospitals).
I don't know what other career advice to give you, because I know that you're frustrated. But that price is way too much for the degree that it is.
There is no way you will be able to work FT and completed a RN program in 15 months. Something will have to give (either not working, or doing the nursing school program part time).
Have you spoken with any nurses in the area to see if anyone will hire from this for-profit school? That would be a deal breaker if the local medical field laughs at graduates from the for-profit school.
Why not get a job as a CNA or doing patient registration or such at a hospital/nursing home and see if you like the field first before spending $$$$.
I'm lurking, but I thought I'd answer. I have my ADN, I went to a community college. I'm not really sure about what a career college is (I'm from Canada) but attended school in the US, we live in a border city. I wouldn't pay 43K for an RN degree and if you NEED to work full time, it would be difficult to do a 15 month program.
Although it may be more work up front, I'd go to a community college. And to the person who said you need a BSN to make 40K plus, that's not true...I started at 50K and it only goes up from there.
Good luck to you, it's a hard decision to make...
This is a late post, but I hope it helps.
I live in CO, and just graduated with a BSN two months ago. I went a public university and paid under $30K total for my nursing education (24 months). That included tuition, fees, health insurance, books, a little extra for living expenses. I was able to pay with Stafford loans and grants. I took out one small private loan for $2000 my last semester. Is there any program like that in your area?
What you need to do is call some of the nurse recruiters at near by hospitals and ask them is they prefer BSN over ADN, and which programs seem to produce the best nurses. Also ask if they new graduate residency programs, and how often they hire new graduates each year.
I do not know where you live, but here in CO the job market for new graduates RN (even BSN), is horrible. I am two months out and have not even gotten an interview yet! So check out the job market as well.
Overall, I recommend BSN programs if you can afford it for many different reasons. Hospitals usally prefer BSN.