1 down; 2 to go

Good news came this weekend! I have been offered a slot in the Fall 2008 nursing program at Cal State East Bay!

This program is for a second bachelor's degree in Nursing. It's an 8 quarter program that I would complete in 2 years. It's one of the only degree granting programs in the Bay Area that will let you do a second Bachelor's degree. Most of the other programs require you to apply to the fast-track or accelerated Master's program if you already have a Bachelor's degree, regardless of the focus of that degree.

So I now know that I will be going to school somewhere and soon! Yippee!

I'm still waiting to hear back from two other schools. City College San Francisco (CCSF) and San Francisco State (SFSU). I'm supposed to hear from both of them sometime in April. The program at CCSF is an RN program, not a degree program. They do their selection on a complete lottery basis. This year they made two changes in the lottery program. One is that they will now weight the number of times a person has applied to the program. So if this is your fifth time applying, you'll have a better chance than someone who is applying for the first time. Also, they are now only doing one drawing a year for the two program starts (Fall 2008 & Spring 2009). While I don't hold my breath for this option (as it's only my second time applying) it would be more convenient because it's in the city.

The program at SFSU is an accelerated Master's program. They call it the Generic MSN program. Classes for this program would start in the summer, probably June. It is a three year program; the first 15 months focus on all RN skills classes and taking the NCLEX test to get your license. The rest of the course is then direct towards the masters courses. This is the program I would like to do as it is in the city and it takes care of everything in one fell swoop. I wouldn't have to work for a year or two and then go back to get my Masters.

However it shakes out, I'm just happy to find out that I am actually going to achieve my goal! It's been about 3.5 years since I decided that i wanted to go to nursing school. According to the timeline in my head, I should have been in school last year. And I did have that opportunity but turned it down. I was accepted to the accelerated Master's program at University of San Francisco (USF) and could have started classes last June. After MUCH soul searching I turned them down. Ultimately they had more of an administrative & management bent while I would like to focus on patient care and clinical skills. Plus, the costs were outrageous! Over the last few months I've started to doubt whether that was the right decision. When I get frustrated at work I think about the fact that I could have been in school right now and dealing with frustrations that were related to what I want to do with my life, not frustrations about not doing what I want with my life.

It's been hard to trust myself and trust that I made the right decision in turning down USF. I didn't really start doubting until application time rolled around again. Getting all of that information turned in to the schools kicked on my anxiety switch and started the gears turning. I've been trying to keep it in check and think I do well most of the time (Matt may disagree) but have occasionally been know to just blurt out "I want to hear about school! NOW!" So nice to be free of that feeling. Of course it won't go away completely until I hear back from SFSU, which is my first choice. (Actually, UCSF was my first choice but I knew back in December that I didn't get in there. Hell, I knew when I applied that I didn't get in there. Since I haven't cured AIDS or volunteered as a lactation consultant in the Outback I'm not the right material for their program. But I digress.)

So for right now, I am going to revel in the knowledge that the dream for my future is moving along, full speed ahead (finally). And I'm also going to buckle down for this EMT class. It's brutal. Especially since I was down for the count all day Friday so am now behind in my reading - ACK!