LPN can I get credit for it?

[morethancjsmom]

Hi, all 
I am new here.  Currently a homeschooling mom trying to figure out penny pinching ways to get 2 kids into and out of higher education as best as possible.

Which, of course has lead me down a rabbit hole! Got to thinking while setting up ACE accounts for my oldest two that there has to be a way to get some credits for of AOS nursing degree (earned in 2007), I am an LPN in the state of Pennsylvania. Passed my NCLEX-PN exam in Feb 2008.

Has anyone been there done that? And willing to point me in the right direction to start?

As for the kids, I will be over the moon if they can leave high school with an AA or AS in Business.  I think we are going to chart the course planning on BSBA and try to get them as close to possible!  both are in 8th grade level currently.  Our son will likely go into construction,  our daughter is tossing lawyer or nurse back and forth daily.

Thanks for any help along the way!

[cookderosa]

Hi, all 
I am new here.  Currently a homeschooling mom trying to figure out penny pinching ways to get 2 kids into and out of higher education as best as possible.

Which, of course has lead me down a rabbit hole! Got to thinking while setting up ACE accounts for my oldest two that there has to be a way to get some credits for of AOS nursing degree (earned in 2007), I am an LPN in the state of Pennsylvania. Passed my NCLEX-PN exam in Feb 2008.

Has anyone been there done that? And willing to point me in the right direction to start?

As for the kids, I will be over the moon if they can leave high school with an AA or AS in Business.  I think we are going to chart the course planning on BSBA and try to get them as close to possible!  both are in 8th grade level currently.  Our son will likely go into construction,  our daughter is tossing lawyer or nurse back and forth daily.

Thanks for any help along the way!

Are you interested in using your LPN to gain admissions into an RN program? That's going to give you a few options, even via distance learning. Or, even if you don't use it for an RN program, there is likely a lot of credit in your AOS that can be used (probably all your gen eds + nursing to fill your free electives) toward something else health-related like health IT or healthcare management, etc.

Or, of course you can go in an entirely different direction - there are a lot of choices and options for you!

[sanantone]

Charter Oak will award 16 credits.

https://www.charteroak.edu/prior-learnin...n-cred.php

Excelsior will award 20-26 credits depending on the degree program. 

https://www.excelsior.edu/credit-for-hea...s-licenses

[dfrecore]

For your kids, especially the one who wants to possibly be a nurse, you really need to think about prereq science courses from your local CC, rather than just trying to get an AA in business. Getting a head start on the science will be extremely helpful if she does decide to go into nursing, and will even help if she doesn't. Since she doesn't seem interested in business, I'm not sure why you wouldn't just get her a general AA rather than an AA in business?

Since TESU won't give them a degree in high school (or even let them start), I would focus on COSC and just get a general AA. If one of your children wants to focus on a business degree, you can add in any of the core business courses as their electives. You definitely don't need an ASBA to move easily to a BSBA. A general AA will work just fine, and leave them with lots of options to transitions to whatever BA/BS they want in the future.

Also, TESU's AA is more expensive than it needs to be - with a $1098 cornerstone (beginning in July) and a $2200 residency waiver, it's $3300 right off the bat without paying for any other courses (which could be another $2000 using alternative means). You can find a much less expensive AA than that almost anywhere. Here in CA, at $46/cr, you could get an entire AA for less than $3000.

Also, keep in mind that having an AA at HS graduation will keep your kids from qualifying for many scholarships, if that was something they might be interested in. A lot of scholarships are for incoming freshman. Totally up to you how you want to do things, but just wanted to let you know. I have a child who is working towards an AA in high school via alternative methods, and one that won't be doing this because his future plans include a 4-yr school directly after HS.

[morethancjsmom]

Are you interested in using your LPN to gain admissions into an RN program?  That's going to give you a few options, even via distance learning. Or, even if you don't use it for an RN program, there is likely a lot of credit in your AOS that can be used (probably all your gen eds + nursing to fill your free electives) toward something else health-related like health IT or healthcare management, etc.  

Or, of course you can go in an entirely different direction - there are a lot of choices and options for you!

Definitely more in a different direction for me.  Being and LPN served a purpose of being a decent wage while not a huge commitment of time for schooling, nights for 18 months.  I don't love or hate the medical field.  On the other hand since starting to home school we started a small business, screen printing shop.  I much prefer owning my own business.  My husband has been a residential contractor all of our marriage so that's another small business.   

Which probably explains why I would gear my kids towards business degree rather then a general degree.  Also that's more about our son then our daughter.  Son doesn't care much what he does and comes from a blue collar family on both sides.  He sees that all the males have done well and provided for themselves and their family by working with their hands but his cousins that got 2 or 4 years degrees have debt and mostly earn less then the cousins that didn't do college or chose a direct tech training.  So I am happy if he applies himself and earns enough credits for a AA or AS but would definitely steer his degree towards business because I am highly doubtful that he will continue a degree or beyond.  He does plan on opening a Christmas tree farm for his side business.  This spring will be his 1st planting season and 5 years before he can sell any trees.

We are in Pennsylvania and don't have a good CC system here at all.  Sounds like for the kids I need to be focusing on COSC for sure!

---

Also, keep in mind that having an AA at HS graduation will keep your kids from qualifying for many scholarships, if that was something they might be interested in.  A lot of scholarships are for incoming freshman.  Totally up to you how you want to do things, but just wanted to let you know.  I have a child who is working towards an AA in high school via alternative methods, and one that won't be doing this because his future plans include a 4-yr school directly after HS.

Umm this is not exactly true.  The credits that the kids earn while in high school do not count against them applying as Freshmen.  And the scholarships they may lose out on compared to the savings of costs and TIME by having the credits banked is a comparison for each situation to look at individually. 

Dual enrollment is very limited and no community college here.  We have the VoTech school system but it is only open to public school students, not homeschool.

Our planning for our kids is to give them the biggest head start possible before they graduate high school. Banking credit by credit, a CLEP here and an ACE there is the most we can handle financially as a family.  With both "heading to college" at the same time,  we won't be able to cover 2 kids in B&M at once. And if by some miracle we did manage to pull that rabbit out of a hat a short 5 years later our youngest would be entering college.  Keeping in mind that most are taking 5-6 years to earn their BA or BS in B&M we could end up with 3 in college at the same time.  Can I say this here, Oh he'lls no!  So, our kids have been talked to and know that while we will move heaven and earth to help them achieve their dreams, Education costs beyond the high school years is their responsibility.  We will help if we can but not to plan on it.

I don't mean to sound harsh or uncaring.  I am building a plan to provide for the best education possible for all of the kids and trying to steer what they can take to help cover their possible future needs.  Example the mention of if our daughter goes medical/nursing she will need higher science levels.  I already had that in mind and in the 8th grade level we are making sure we are covering a college level biology so they can attempt that CLEP.  Most of our high school classes will be on college level so that the CLEP can be attempted or AP or ACE.  Just because they might not need it for a degree isn't a reason to skip the learning a that level.  
honestly both kids could proably have a minor in History by the time my father is done.  He is a History buff, lives in an attached house and recent'y discovered that we were earning credits by exam.  Guess who is stock piling credits at the age of 69 and might just end up with his 1st degree ever!

[cookderosa]

Also, keep in mind that having an AA at HS graduation will keep your kids from qualifying for many scholarships, if that was something they might be interested in. A lot of scholarships are for incoming freshman. Totally up to you how you want to do things, but just wanted to let you know. I have a child who is working towards an AA in high school via alternative methods, and one that won't be doing this because his future plans include a 4-yr school directly after HS.

Since she is a homeschooled student, it is important to delay high school graduation until the day after getting the associates. Though not 100% guaranteed, at the majority of colleges, in that scenario, you're still an incoming freshman applicant- there are some exceptions, but I look that kind of stuff up all day long, and only 1-2 times have I found a college that requires admissions application as a transfer student vs freshman when the degree was earned in high school. Some schools let you choose as well. But if it makes you nervous, you can look up various potential target schools and ask the registrar. Admissions should know the answer but they won't. They'll get it mixed up with those who earned a degree AFTER high school, and that's a huge difference.

(public school/private school students won't get to choose their hs graduation date)

[HappyNurse35]

Excelsior has a distance LPN-RN program. They will award credit for one of the nursing courses if you graduated within five years. They also have a time limit on science courses. I am working towards the ASN and a BA degree in Healthcare Management.

[dfrecore]

Also, keep in mind that having an AA at HS graduation will keep your kids from qualifying for many scholarships, if that was something they might be interested in.  A lot of scholarships are for incoming freshman.  Totally up to you how you want to do things, but just wanted to let you know.  I have a child who is working towards an AA in high school via alternative methods, and one that won't be doing this because his future plans include a 4-yr school directly after HS.

Since she is a homeschooled student, it is important to delay high school graduation until the day after getting the associates.  Though not 100% guaranteed, at the majority of colleges, in that scenario, you're still an incoming freshman applicant- there are some exceptions, but I look that kind of stuff up all day long, and only 1-2 times have I found a college that requires admissions application as a transfer student vs freshman when the degree was earned in high school.  Some schools let you choose as well.  But if it makes you nervous, you can look up various potential target schools and ask the registrar. Admissions should know the answer but they won't.  They'll get it mixed up with those who earned a degree AFTER high school, and that's a huge difference.  

(public school/private school students won't get to choose their hs graduation date)

I've seen many schools that say if you've earned more than 30cr or 60cr except for AP exams, then you're a transfer student; so you're saying there's an exception they don't mention, and that's "if you earned the credit while in high school, all of this is moot"?  That doesn't sound right.  Why wouldn't they say that as well?

[morethancjsmom]

Excelsior has a distance LPN-RN program. They will award credit for one of the nursing courses if you graduated within five years. They also have a time limit on science courses. I am working towards the ASN and a BA degree in Healthcare Management.

good to know but I earned my degree in 2007 so that wouldn't work.  Seriously doubt I would return to medical field.  I hated all the cattiness and "politics" of it.  Loved my patients and caring for them but dealing with other nurses and admins was like nails on a chalk board!  Thank heavens I worked 3rd shift 90% of the time.

[cookderosa]

Also, keep in mind that having an AA at HS graduation will keep your kids from qualifying for many scholarships, if that was something they might be interested in.  A lot of scholarships are for incoming freshman.  Totally up to you how you want to do things, but just wanted to let you know.  I have a child who is working towards an AA in high school via alternative methods, and one that won't be doing this because his future plans include a 4-yr school directly after HS.

Since she is a homeschooled student, it is important to delay high school graduation until the day after getting the associates.  Though not 100% guaranteed, at the majority of colleges, in that scenario, you're still an incoming freshman applicant- there are some exceptions, but I look that kind of stuff up all day long, and only 1-2 times have I found a college that requires admissions application as a transfer student vs freshman when the degree was earned in high school.  Some schools let you choose as well.  But if it makes you nervous, you can look up various potential target schools and ask the registrar. Admissions should know the answer but they won't.  They'll get it mixed up with those who earned a degree AFTER high school, and that's a huge difference.  

(public school/private school students won't get to choose their hs graduation date)

I've seen many schools that say if you've earned more than 30cr or 60cr except for AP exams, then you're a transfer student; so you're saying there's an exception they don't mention, and that's "if you earned the credit while in high school, all of this is moot"?  That doesn't sound right.  Why wouldn't they say that as well?

It's true. Pre-high school diploma credit does not count as transfer credit, only post-high school diploma college credit counts in the "transfer" category. Credit by exam doesn't count before or after. I've never seen a single exception - though one could exist of course.