Bachelors to RN or BSN (not too expensive?)

[acamp]

Good morning all!
I know TESU offers a very expensive BA to BSN program for those who are not nurses or have any nursing background but the program is extremely expensive.

Does anyone know of any Bachelors to RN or BSN programs that are less than $10k?

On a side note, this is not for me haha. My friend has been searching and couldn’t find any info so I said I would ask on here and leave it to the pro’s =)

Have a great Monday everyone!

[cookderosa]

Good morning all!
I know TESU offers a very expensive BA to BSN program for those who are not nurses or have any nursing background but the program is extremely expensive.

Does anyone know of any Bachelors to RN or BSN programs that are less than $10k?

On a side note, this is not for me haha. My friend has been searching and couldn’t find any info so I said I would ask on here and leave it to the pro’s =)

Have a great Monday everyone!

when I did this search for myself a few years back, I found that this type of program is the MOST expensive of all BSN options. Having a bachelor's in another field seems to target a certain demographic- and unfortunately, I believe that you're not going to get anywhere near $10k for a BSN that includes the initial RN.

However, there are cheaper paths- not the one she's looking at though. The *cheapest* path is to go to your local community college and to their associates degree in nursing. Existing gen eds should already be done (except for sciences) and this will probably take no less than 2 years - but it will be cheapest. At that point, with an associates + RN + nonnursing bachelor's, she can go to one of the online BSN options and will have no trouble finding a program. The CHEAPEST that point is to work for a hospital that provides tuition assistance (most do) and she can go at the pace that gets her full funding for her BSN while working FT.

Good luck to your friend!

[allvia]

WGU - https://www.wgu.edu/online-nursing-health-degrees.html#

And I'm pretty sure this is a program that Excelsior is known for (I'm not sure of the costs however for this one) - https://www.excelsior.edu/programs/nursi...lor-degree

EDIT: I misread this that the person was already an RN, so I would agree with a CC option for the RN to start if available locally.

[acamp]

I’ll pass that along - thank you as usual!!

Is it true that most jobs are requiring nurses to have a BSN now instead of only a RN? If so, that’s a shame because the RN is not an easy track

---

WGU - https://www.wgu.edu/online-nursing-health-degrees.html#

And I'm pretty sure this is a program that Excelsior is known for (I'm not sure of the costs however for this one) - https://www.excelsior.edu/programs/nursi...lor-degree

EDIT: I misread this that the person was already an RN, so I would agree with a CC option for the RN to start if available locally.

Thanks again. For the CC route, the only problem with that is that she works full-time and many of the nursing courses require observations during the work week. Or do CC now allow the program to be completed mostly online?

[cookderosa]

I’ll pass that along - thank you as usual!!

Is it true that most jobs are requiring nurses to have a BSN now instead of only a RN? If so, that’s a shame because the RN is not an easy track

---

WGU - https://www.wgu.edu/online-nursing-health-degrees.html#

And I'm pretty sure this is a program that Excelsior is known for (I'm not sure of the costs however for this one) - https://www.excelsior.edu/programs/nursi...lor-degree

EDIT: I misread this that the person was already an RN, so I would agree with a CC option for the RN to start if available locally.

Thanks again. For the CC route, the only problem with that is that she works full-time and many of the nursing courses require observations during the work week. Or do CC now allow the program to be completed mostly online?

I hate using the qualifier "most" but new grads have competition to be sure, and the BSN is now considered the standard.
A non-bias source of data comes from the the US Department of Labor. They collect and analyze labor in every industry, including nursing.
USDOL's report on RNs shows BSN as the standard for the industry https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/regis...nurses.htm
BUT
If you look up LPNs (Licensed Practical Nurses) they are lower rank than RNs, these are the diploma and 1 year programs that people like to say are useless or can't result in employment- THEY ARE EXPECTED TO GROW FASTER THAN AVERAGE at an estimated 12%. I point this out, because the popular mantra is always "more education" when in reality, that's just fear. LPNs earn an average of $45k and yes, most have jobs in assisted living or nursing homes, but again, this is an example of how less education is still desirable. For *some* this might be a way into nursing for a fraction of time/cost because there are LPN to RN bridge programs out there. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/licen...nurses.htm

RN is growing faster than LPN's (15% vs 12%) so no matter what your friend does (and I still stand by the associate at the CC) she will have a job - no question in my mind.

[clep3705]

There are thousands of people who post here, only a small percentage of whom are nurses. There are hundreds of thousands of nurses who post at allnurses.com, which is the appropriate place to ask nursing school and nursing career questions.

To initially become an RN, it typically takes 4 semesters as a nursing student at a community college granting an ADN degree or 4 semesters at a university granting the BSN degree. While that appears to make them about equivalent in elapsed time, the BSN has more prerequisites. However, is the end goal is a BSN, which should be the end goal, all of the BSN prerequisites will eventually be required. The number of semester hours in a BSN semester may be more than the number of semester hours in an ADN semester.

What really differentiates one nursing program from another are the clinical experiences. If you have a university nursing school and a community college nursing school in the same area, the university students are going to get the best clinical experiences. The biggest and best hospitals don't hire ADNs, so they aren't keen on using their staff resources training them. There are plenty of large hospitals without a single ADN student to be found anywhere. It's very important to find out about the clinical experiences before starting a nursing program. You want the best clinical experiences possible where you can see the most and do the most under the guidance of the best. Getting a BSN after becoming an ADN RN does not provide additional clinical experiences. You want the best clinical experiences from the beginning because one shot is all you get.

Every large hospital has ADNs on staff, even if they don't hire ADNs. ADNs hired decades ago generally aren't required to upgrade to a BSN, although sometimes that does occur.

Working full-time and becoming an RN are incompatible. There's always the one exception found frolicking with the unicorns, but realistically, nursing school is a full-time job taking 16-18 hours per semester and spending 24 hours per week at the hospital. Go to allnurses.com and get a reality check on working while in nursing school.

If the only two options are an expensive, private university for a BSN and a local community college for the ADN, get the ADN and later a BSN. Minimize your debt but look at the bigger picture. If you can chose between a local ADN program and a somewhat more expensive state university for the BSN, get the BSN.

Use this forum for help in completing some of the prerequisites for nursing school. Use allnurses.com for nursing school questions. Get the wisdom of the informed crowd, not the scattered opinions of the small few who may not have even attended nursing school.

[acamp]

There are thousands of people who post here, only a small percentage of whom are nurses. There are hundreds of thousands of nurses who post at allnurses.com, which is the appropriate place to ask nursing school and nursing career questions.

To initially become an RN, it typically takes 4 semesters as a nursing student at a community college granting an ADN degree or 4 semesters at a university granting the BSN degree. While that appears to make them about equivalent in elapsed time, the BSN has more prerequisites. However, is the end goal is a BSN, which should be the end goal, all of the BSN prerequisites will eventually be required. The number of semester hours in a BSN semester may be more than the number of semester hours in an ADN semester.

What really differentiates one nursing program from another are the clinical experiences. If you have a university nursing school and a community college nursing school in the same area, the university students are going to get the best clinical experiences. The biggest and best hospitals don't hire ADNs, so they aren't keen on using their staff resources training them. There are plenty of large hospitals without a single ADN student to be found anywhere. It's very important to find out about the clinical experiences before starting a nursing program. You want the best clinical experiences possible where you can see the most and do the most under the guidance of the best. Getting a BSN after becoming an ADN RN does not provide additional clinical experiences. You want the best clinical experiences from the beginning because one shot is all you get.

Every large hospital has ADNs on staff, even if they don't hire ADNs. ADNs hired decades ago generally aren't required to upgrade to a BSN, although sometimes that does occur.

Working full-time and becoming an RN are incompatible. There's always the one exception found frolicking with the unicorns, but realistically, nursing school is a full-time job taking 16-18 hours per semester and spending 24 hours per week at the hospital. Go to allnurses.com and get a reality check on working while in nursing school.

If the only two options are an expensive, private university for a BSN and a local community college for the ADN, get the ADN and later a BSN. Minimize your debt but look at the bigger picture. If you can chose between a local ADN program and a somewhat more expensive state university for the BSN, get the BSN.

Use this forum for help in completing some of the prerequisites for nursing school. Use allnurses.com for nursing school questions. Get the wisdom of the informed crowd, not the scattered opinions of the small few who may not have even attended nursing school.

Thank you for your lengthy response but as I mentioned in my post, people may know of PATHS to get the RN or BSN that is COST-EFFECTIVE. That’s why I asked. And also, should all potential education degrees-seekers just stick to the teacher forum for Masters programs instead of checking here to see if anyone knows of a inexpensive path?

[dfrecore]

WGU has a program that may work in your area, and many of the prereqs will be met by the BA. BUT, getting an RN while working full time is going to be damn near impossible. I haven't seen an RN program that didn't need you available at least 30-ish hours during the week, and actively discouraged you to work at all, let alone full-time 8-5. It may be that none will even let her in the program with that standing in front of her. She'll have to decide whether she wants to be an RN, or work at her current job, as she probably can't do both.

[acamp]

WGU has a program that may work in your area, and many of the prereqs will be met by the BA. BUT, getting an RN while working full time is going to be damn near impossible. I haven't seen an RN program that didn't need you available at least 30-ish hours during the week, and actively discouraged you to work at all, let alone full-time 8-5. It may be that none will even let her in the program with that standing in front of her. She'll have to decide whether she wants to be an RN, or work at her current job, as she probably can't do both.

Perfect - I’ll pass it all along. I appreciate the help as always from all of you!

[dfrecore]

WGU has a program that may work in your area, and many of the prereqs will be met by the BA.  BUT, getting an RN while working full time is going to be damn near impossible.  I haven't seen an RN program that didn't need you available at least 30-ish hours during the week, and actively discouraged you to work at all, let alone full-time 8-5. It may be that none will even let her in the program with that standing in front of her.  She'll have to decide whether she wants to be an RN, or work at her current job, as she probably can't do both.

Perfect - I’ll pass it all along.  I appreciate the help as always from all of you!

I just looked, and the WGU Prelicensure program is only offered in CA, FL, IN, TX, & UT.  You have to have prereqs completed before applying as well.  It's also more expensive than their other programs - $5395 per 6-mo term x 5 terms.