<p>Not sure how many responses I'll get to this, but I'll post my question anway.
A lot of people on this forum have clear-cut goals and might be considered successful by a lot of standars.<br>
In my case, I was ambitious when I was younger, but starting with my senior year of high school ran into a few problems. I won't go into it all here.
Basically, I planned on becoming a psychologist or psychiatrist since the 9th grade. I did get my bachelor's degree in psychology with a minor in Spanish and had hoped to go to grad school, but things were uncertain. I realized finally that if I were to go to grad school, it would definitely NOT be for psychology. What I'm really interested in is foreign languages, and I like the idea of studying Spanish and French in grad school (though that would mean taking lots of prerequisite undergrad classes first, which I can't even afford to right now). I'd like to be a foreign language instructor or prof at the university level, if possible.
Since I had a hard time finding a good job with my "not so very marketable" bachelor's degree, I'm now taking prereq. class(es) to get into a nursing program at a technical college or at a comm. college. This was not what I had originally planned at all. I'd never before considered becoming a nurse, but a friend suggested it, and as I thought about it, I realized it might not be such a bad idea. Nursing is very marketable, and pays well too. </p>
<p>I guess I just wonder if anyone else was ever in a similar situation, or also took a huge detour to reach his/her goals? Or made a bad choice for an undergrad major? Any suggestions?</p>
<p>I would strongly suggest that you look into programs which would let you build on your bachelor's degree and get a MSN rather than an associate's degree in nursing. These programs are pretty common as a second career in nursing is a popular thing to do. You will always have a job, but it's important to get the right job, where you feel you are able to provide quality care.</p>
<p>Mmmm. If you have any inclination towards nursing, I'd stick with that. It pays well and you can work all over the world as a nurse. Social work is not as transferrable. Keep working on your french or spanish and start looking on the net for nursing jobs in SAmerica, Spain, Africa etc....</p>
<p>I wouldn't worry so much about how you got to the cross roads. The only thing constant about life is change.</p>
<p>I am not familiar with the training needed for nursing, but I would think that an undergraduate degree in psychology would be helpful if you wanted to go into psychiatric nursing or some related specialty. I would also think that knowing Spanish would be an advantage.
Nursing is in demand, but nursing programs have become very difficult to get into as they are not that plentiful. It is as hard to get into the nursing program at Middlesex Comunity College in MA as it is to get into Harvard!
As for teaching foreign languages at the university level, it may not be professionally or financially so rewarding. Most language instructors are not on a tenure track but on long-term contracts and are paid far less well than profs with tenure. The biggest issue is that tenure depends on publications, and foreign language instruction emphasizes teaching rather than research. My S's Latin teacher taught at a college for a while before joining the high school.</p>
<p>One of the things you'll find is that changing "majors" occurs throughout life, not just in college. I started out in aeronautical engineering (I LOVED aircraft and aircraft design - still do). Then I worked as a co-op student and found out what AE's actually did (they didn't design airplanes!) and changed to a more general option: Physics. I won't go through the whole story (documented elsewhere), but I've made some major changes, gone back to grad school (twice) in majors unrelated to previous degrees, and have followed my interests since. It would be hard NOW (since I'm an old f-rt) to change. Heck, I'm looking forward to retiring and THEN changing again. But when you're young and still finding your passion, go for it.</p>
<p>As a matter of practicality, MomofFour had some very good advice: don't keep going back to square one, but build on what you've already got. When my interests changed from Physics to Computer Science, I didn't go back for a Comp Sci BS. I went straight into grad school.</p>
<p>Marite, I am wondering why it is so hard to get into these nursing programs when all I read about is how we have a shortage of nurses. I almost would have thought that there would be incentives to get more folks to go into nursing but it sounds like few get in who want to? </p>
<p>PS...well, it is good to be educated about these things such as that it is harder to get into a nursing program at a CC than to Harvard....people like me do not realize that (other than what Mini has posted about his wife) and it reminds me of how the general public has no idea that the odds of getting into the programs my daughter is applying to right now are also harder or slimmer (lower acceptance rates) than Harvard too!</p>
<p>The problem right now is that there just aren't enough qualified nursing instructors. It requires a PhD to teach and an MSN to supervise nursing students on clinicals. There just aren't enough qualified people to meet the needs of everyone who wants to study nursing. It is still predominantly a women's profession and a lot of nurses don't want to work full time while they raise their families. One of the side effects of it becoming so lucrative is that nurses work less hours for more pay. There really isn't a lot of motivation to teach because nurses working in hospitals can make more money.</p>
<p>Soozie:
MomOfFour is exactly right. That's why we import nurses from the Philippines (and guess what? There is a shortage of nurses in the Philippines!). The reverse of outsourcing.</p>
<p>Shortly after I got out of college, I met a man who told me the key to a successful life was to be a "vector quantity - have a magnitude and a direction!"</p>
<p>Maybe some people's lives are like that. There have been periods, I suppose, when my life was like that, but those periods have been rare. The path to my present has involved many a detour. If I hadn't taken the detours, the remaining balance on my mortgage might have been smaller, but I feel far richer for having had the experiences.</p>
<p>The cc programs are much harder to get into than the four-year nursing programs. (In fact, some of the rejects of the cc around here end up at Pacific Lutheran or the University of Washington's nursing program.) First of all, almost all of them are public, and receive public subsidies, and legislatures have not been very generous with funds in the last two decades. Secondly, nurses-in-training need almost two years of community placements, and in many communities these are hard to come by, with the proper clinical supervision. Thirdly, they are very competitive because after 1 year (actually almost two, when you count in the pre-reqs.) you can get become an LPN, and work at a relatively high salary ($30k-40k) even as you finish your RN course work. Finally, the extension of health care into larger numbers of nursing homes, hospices, assisted living centers, boarding homes and the like means the demand for nurses (who can surpervise LPNs and nursing assistants) is growing almost exponentially, and will continue to do so as the population (you and me) ages. Hospitals are just the tip of the iceberg. Lastly, the cc's are in communities'; they are not residential, and folks generally try to attend the ones closest to home. (Though the rejects travel!) </p>
<p>The competition is HUGE. My wife had 7 As and an A minus in her pre-reqs, and was one of the last accepted to the program. She almost didn't get in, as she took a distance-learning course from Seattle Community College, and they gave grades as percentages, and when reporting them to the progarm, translated them into a range. Her 99% average (or something like that) was sent down to her program as "A-A minus" (the highest possible grade.). Had they regarded it as an A-minus, she would have been rejected. (And you think the B+ in an AP course is an issue!)</p>
<p>I considered going to grad school for nursing, but found out I wouldn't be able to do a MSN unless I were already an RN.
One option is to enter a master's entry-level nursing program for people with a bachelor's degree in another field. Those programs last about 3 years but are typically very competitive. There's a university not too far from where I live that offers such a program, and they accept only 20 students at a time (out of all of the hundreds of applicants). I don't think I'd stand a chance. A couple of other universities in my state also have those programs but they're very expensive private universities, and I wouldn't be able to pay for that.
I found out that another option for someone who already has a degree is to do an accelerated BSN which usually takes just a little over a year. That was the option that seemed best for me. But I found out that no public universities in the state I live in offer accelerated BSN degrees.</p>
<p>With my lack of options, I probably will have to go into nursing at a community college or at a technical school, which I'm not enthusiastic about. I wish there were a better, feasible option, but there doesn't seem to be.</p>
<p>I think we need to think outside the box here.</p>
<p>First, I would seriously consider the Peace Corps. See if you can qualify to teach English as a second language in a Spanish speaking country, and combo to a basic clinic to get on-site experience in nursing. You would use the opportunity to work on your Spanish and really find out if nursing is for you. I would bet anything that after a couple years of that you would be a shoe-in for either track, if you are still interested.</p>
<p>Another possibility, if you are certain about the nursing, is to move. Don't try a community college-- try a state land grant university which has a nursing school as part of their public mission. I know the University of Wyoming used to have an exceptional nursing school (wyogal, get it?), I even knew the Dean of the School there for many many years. These types of programs are usually well funded because it is a critical issue in places like this. I'd guess you could also find this sort of thing in Alaska, North & South Dakota, maybe Montana, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, West Virginia, possibly New Mexico.</p>
<p>A very low cost option (but very competitive! and applications were due February 15th) is the BYU-Idaho Associate Degree Nursing Program. Basically, tuition works out to around $3,000 a year, and cost of living is very low. You have to move of course (and get in!), but you likely have all the prereqs covered, and so could finish in two years plus a summer. But as you noted, there are hundreds of applicants for very few places.</p>