Hello,
So I’m in a really sticky situation where I got accepted to MSMU and CSU Fullerton and i’m majoring in nursing and i got accepted at msmu for nursing however for fullerton they placed me as an undeclared major because my sat score was a bit lower than the required for nursing.
I was going to choose msmu until they sent me my financial aid package and it wasnt enough and I’m not planning on doing loans because i dont want to be in debt after graduating.
And for fullerton, they still haven’t given me my financial aid package yet because theyre still processing some forms but they said wait until the end of the week but thats way to close to the deadline.
I looked into fullerton and they said for the students who are already admitted into the school and want to try again to apply for the nursing major, they only accept 5-10 students, so if i were to enroll into the school, maybe i can try to apply for schools also around, such as CSULB, SDSU, and such.
See this is reallyyy hard and i need ur opinion, if you were in my place, what would you do and who would you choose?
Thanks. 
If I were you, I would consider taking the Nursing pre-req’s at my local community college and then try to transfer into the Nursing programs at SDSU/CSULB/CSUF etc… You would be saving money by attending a CC first especially since you have to apply to a Nursing program after Sophomore year.
Would that mean I would go to a CC and then transfer, but what if I have been taking most nursing pre-req’s at a CC as i’m in high school and I only have a semester left to finish it all (but im graduating next month), can that still work?
@tiredstudent101 You can choose to go to a community college first for maybe a year or two, and save some money from tuition in doing so. Get a good GPA and then transfer into a good college potentially.Make sure you take classes that would satisfy the nursing major requirement tho, so you are not buried with nursing class in real college.
As long as you have the Nursing pre-req’s completed and have all the CSU GE requirements completed with 60 semester/90 quarter units, then you apply to SDSU/CSUF/CSULB as a Nursing transfer. Will you have at least the minimum # of CC units to transfer and not just the Nursing Pre-req’s? Here is information about transferring for each of the schools. You will also need the TEAS prior to applying.
https://nursing.sdsu.edu/programs/bs-in-nursing/admissions/transfer-students/
http://nursing.fullerton.edu/programs/lvn/index.php
http://web.csulb.edu/colleges/chhs/departments/nursing/studentinfo/PathwayProgram-RNtoBSN.htm
Here is some helpful information on different pathways to become a Nurse:
How to become a Nurse:
There are four ways to become a registered nurse with a BSN these days.
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The easiest and most direct way is to major in nursing as an undergrad the first time around. You’d need to go to a university that offers a BSN (bachelor’s of science in nursing) program. These usually take four years, and sometimes take five. There are two flavors of these BSN programs. A small number of schools offer direct admission as a freshman (e.g., you’re admitted to the school of nursing when you apply to the college, and you are guaranteed to be a nursing major as long as you keep your grades up). But most make you apply to the nursing school in your sophomore year to start your junior year. In those, you complete pre-nursing prerequisites in your first two years and then start nursing classes in your third year.
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The second way is to complete a regular bachelor’s degree (in anything, although a science major makes this easier), then go back to school and get an accelerated second BSN. ABSN programs usually take 14-18 months after your first bachelor’s degree, which adds time and expense to getting your BSN. This route is usually chosen by people who didn’t realize they wanted to be a nurse until after they were already in college, but I’ve known a couple of college students who chose to go this route because they wanted to go to a liberal arts college to undergrad and yet still wanted to be a nurse. If you do this you have to plan your prerequisites carefully, since colleges without nursing programs tend not to have classes like anatomy and physiology.
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The third way is to complete a regular bachelor’s degree (in anything, although again, a science major makes this easier) and then go into an entry-to-practice MSN program. Entry-to-practice programs are 3-year programs in which you get your RN in the first year and then your MSN in the last two years, which allows you to practice as a nurse practitioner. This is only a good idea if you know you want to be a nurse practitioner (an NP is a nurse who gives primary care).
Really, if you know you want to be a nurse now, the best way is to go to a college/university that has a nursing undergrad major.
- One additional option is to get an Associates degree in nursing from a Community College that has an approved RN program. Those programs are usually competitive for entry, unlike most other community college programs. Often, the community college has a waiting list for nursing and will make you take a number of science classes first to prove that you are capable of handling it, before you are accepted as a nursing major. Your job opportunities will not be as wide as if you have a BSN, but you should still have no problem getting hired. Many of those grads then go onto later get a BSN, while taking classes part-time. Many health care employers will subsidize those classes.
If you’re 100% sure that you want to be a nurse, I would go ahead and go to the school that accepted you into the program. Nurses make decent money, so as long as the loans involved aren’t adding up to a huge amount, you won’t have too much trouble paying them back. Also, loans paid on time build your credit rating. One other option is to go into a related program like health sciences or PT and then do an accelerated post-grad program for your RN. The local state university in my town has a 2-year RN program for people with BSs. If you go to the other school and the don’t get into the nursing program, it may be hard to transfer into one somewhere else and harder to graduate on time. Incoming freshman typically get a better aid package than transfer students, so it may end up costing as much or more than just going to the school that accepted you.
Whatever you do, if you can pick up a CNA on the way, that’d help you finance your education and give you experience. If you got really lucky, you might find an employer who’d subsidize costs for an RN in exchange for an extended contract. One of my daughter’s friends dropped out of college to be a CNA full time after the nursing home he worked at wanted him permanently and was willing to compensate him well.
@Gumbymom @Angelababy30 @GloriaVaughn Oh ok, Thank you guys soo much! This really helped!