Last year I was still a full-time college undergraduate working on my BS in Information Technology. I realized I wanted to be a nurse during my senior year and started taking pre-reqs then. I fit in intro to sociology, intro to psychology, anatomy & physiology I + II, nutrition, developmental psych, and statistics (which I had to take for my major anyway) into my senior schedule taking a few classes at a local community college to save some money.

The one class that I couldn’t find was microbiology. Oh, micro, how I hate you. My undergraduate college only offered it one quarter, fall, and it clashed with another required class for my major. I figured I’d take it at the CC with nutrition/dev psych. It was full and prioritized to nursing students who were full-time (I was part time and wasn’t a nursing major at the CC). So, spring 2010 was not an option.

This summer I moved to Pennslyvania to start working full time in IT. I figured I’d try to take micro at fall here in PA. Of course the classes were full, yet again. I waitlisted and finally got in two days ago! I’m so glad I did because if I didn’t for fall semester I’d be realllllyyy screwed.

So yup! Starting first week of September I’ll be taking microbiology after work on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7-10pm.

Nursing school here I come (hopefully)!

Anyway the PAX looks like it’s going to be a SAT duplicate with some extra sections in science. I’ve found that bringing my study book with me to the gym while I’m cycling away at the elliptical is a great way to make gym time fly by and make me feel super productive. I’m going to be pretty thorough and go through the book from cover to cover since I want to try to score as high as possible. I’ve finished the review of the verbal section and yes, it’s exactly like the SAT verbal minus the section with the “Cat is to carniovore as rabbit is to _______” bit. It’s purely vocabulary and reading comprehension. I’ll be starting on the math section next since I think this is the section I’ll need the most review in.

I’m not scheduled to take the NLN till December 3rd. Unfortunately it’s not offered anywhere near me before then since a lot of test dates were in early August. It’s quite a ways away and I’ve already scheduled to take off work that day to get it done since it’s 2 hours away. Why are NLN locations so hard to find? (>_<;;;)

As of today I have three applications completed in BSN programs around the Philadelphia area. I won’t name particular school names to protect my anonymity, but one program is a night program for full-time working adults, the next is a traditional two-year day program for people with degrees in other fields, and the third is an accelerated 11 month BSN program.

Currently I have been accepted provisionally at the night program nursing school. I still have to provide them grades for my last pre-requesite course, Microbiology, as well as take their nursing school entrance exam, the NLN PAX. Once these two are in they will evaluate me again for full admission. From what I’ve heard as long as I don’t royally screw up my entrance exam and my grade for Microbio is pretty good I’m pretty much guaranteed a spot for fall 2011!

I’m awaiting responses from the other two colleges I applied to. One’s a public college that apparently is very, very difficult to get into not necessarily because it’s a stellar school for nursing, but because of the sheer volume of applicants since tution is so cheap. The other college is a private university that has an 11 month accellerated BSN program. It’s a very awesome thought to think that I could have a BSN in under a year, but the college is incredibly expensive. Hopefully I’ll have responses from these two colleges soon.

It’s quite the waiting game at this point.