You are looking for a direct admission program and want to keep it around $20,000/year but have nearly a years worth of college credits already. DA programs are 4 years programs with a set sequence of classes and rarely allow you to finish early even if you have the general studies done. It’d be minimum $80,000 but very likely more, you could do another year of community college and get all the prerequisites out of the way for a 24 month BSN program and likely save some money or apply to colleges with non direct admit who will accept your credits in full but run the risk of paying university rates for the classes you don’t already have. The reason that one program wouldn’t accept you is because you’re already a sophomore. All nursing programs are pretty competitive but you’re a very good candidate. Good luck, I know it’s tough out there for nursing.
@MistySteel27 After looking at many programs, I would like to attend for 4 years. I will be a young graduate (17) I heard back from UNLV today as I reached out to them. (due to WUE) The more I hear back from non direct schools, I really want to go the direct admit route. 1400 current pre-nursing students at UNLV per the admissions person. 
If I do a 4 year direct program, I was thinking that I could work as a CNA while attending school due to having some of my pre-nursing done already. I would also love to take advantage of a study abroad program and with a lighter load that may be possible. I don’t even know how to find schools that have study abroad. It feels like I change my mind every day. What I know for sure is that I want to be a BSN nurse. I could make it work for 25k per year.
I have heard from a few nursing admission departments and although I didn’t want to hear it initially, they said, don’t rush it. My hope is to apply to lots of schools and see what merit they offer. Because I will have the hard prerequisites met already, I am hoping I won’t feel the stress of weed out GPA. I wish I knew the perfect program for me. I want a program that will prepare me well and also make friends that I will have for the rest of my life.
Is my thinking off? I would only need to take 12 units to be full-time to keep the merit aid, can work as a CNA a few shifts a week for the first 2 years.
I looked on indeed at CNA jobs in Omaha Nebraska, where Creighton is and they pay $13-$18 per hour. If I worked 2- 8 hour shift per week I could make $7-10K and then work over the summer 4- 8 hour shifts another $5k. If I did that I could probably even pay $30K for the school yr tuition. My parents can probably pay $15K/yr without them having to take out loans.
I would likely be living off campus the last 2 years and could save some money that way. I know it will be difficult to work during the last 2 years in clinicals.
I think it may be hard to work that many hours during the school year. My daughter is finishing up her junior year as a nursing student at Creighton. She found it difficult to work that much during the school year, but will be working as the CNA version of nursing student, about two 8 hour shifts per week plus a nanny job three times a week (making more per hour). FWIW, she loves Creighton, Omaha, her friends and her nursing classes. Now that she is living off campus, room and board costs are down to about 6k per year including summers. Omaha is very inexpensive!
@mama2004 That is great to hear that she likes the program. I know it’s a Jesuit school. It looks like there are some required theology classes. How is the diversity there? Is it very conservative? Do they have any study abroad programs? and if they do, are they religious?
Creighton and U of Portland were the specific nursing programs my daughter found that allowed study abroad (without pushing the program to over 4years). She did that Sophomore fall semester and loved it. In order to make the sequences of courses work, she did have to take two classes online over the summers (one after freshman year and one after sophomore year). They allowed both online. The theology courses were pretty general and she enjoyed them. Although she’s catholic, many of her Creighton friends are not. With any nursing program, there is a specific list of courses each semester that are required. We found that there really is not much to decide in terms of taking other alternative classes. My daughter is a very liberal PNW kid and she found a liberal crowd of friends. Like many colleges, Creighton is relatively liberal, although the state is not.
@mama2004 Why did you daughter choose Creighton over U of P?
Can you tell me a little more about the study abroad? Where was it and how long?
It’s not direct admit, but University of North Alabama should come in at your price range, especially if you take the ACT/SAT and do even decently. Out of state students receiving an institutional scholarship receive in-state tuition, unless they change it. My son is finishing up his 2nd year there and was just admitted to the nursing program. He is in the honors college and it is rare for honors college students not to gain admission, you just need to keep up your grades and do decent on the HESI.
I was a bit hesitant about the non-direct admission and unsure of the quality of their programs but I am hearing good things and they just completed a new nursing building a few months ago as well as received a large donation for nursing scholarships. They seem to be investing a lot in the program and they have a new hospital in the town built within the last 3-4 years.
Actually there is a direct admit option, we just didn’t come across that information until the deadline had passed.
She chose Creighton because U of Portland is not Jesuit, but Order of Holy Cross. She didn’t want that religious a school. She also wanted a Greek system. Creighton is also a bit bigger. She had her choice of many study abroad programs, but they had to be done Fall semester of Sophomore year. She chose the Creighton Dominican Republic program. She travelled with 20 or so other Creighton students. She made great friends and they were able to provide a great deal of community assistance. There was a lot of nursing program support as the department was enthusiastic about all nursing students have the opportunity to study abroad. She had friends who went to Scotland and Rome.
@mama2004 Thanks for the detailed info. 