Beating the Odds

While volunteering at St. Francis Hospital in preparation for applying to MUSC, I bumped into some Trident Tech nursing students. I wound up going to lunch with them and when they found out I was getting volunteer hours to apply for nursing school, they were all very interested. My original plan was to attend nursing school at Trident Technical college where I had taken all my prerequisite classes, but by the time I finished all my classes they had a 2 year waiting list for their Associates degree nursing program and I was informed that all my math and science classes would expire before I could start. Which would mean I'd have to take them AGAIN. I was visibly horrified, so the nursing adviser took a look at my file and said that with my grades I should go to MUSC that had no waiting list and gave a Bachelors of Science in nursing, but that instead of going to nursing school for free on my federal pell grant which was the plan, it'd cost me about $25k tuition. Having never needed student loans, I was reluctant to go into debt but that was still a better option than re-taking classes that took me 8 years to accomplish the first time, in addition to waiting another 2 years to even get started with a single nursing class. Which is why I then spent the next 3 weeks in a mad dash to get my application in order, as discussed in my previous post.

Anyway, as I ate lunch with these Trident nursing students I was very excited to be seeing first-hand what hospital clinicals would be like. One girl asked me where I was planning to go to school and when I told her I was applying to MUSC, they literally all snickered. Then she said, "Well, you might want to have a back-up plan because NOBODY gets into MUSC. I was on the Dean's List at Clemson and my boyfriend's mom works in the MUSC admissions department and told me not to even bother applying because I wouldn't get in. So you might want to also plan on going to Trident." Not wanting to go into detail about my (of course) supreme qualifications and all the reasons I'm an inherently more qualified applicant than this high-faluting student nurse to begin with, I just didn't say anything at all. And went home much more worried about my prospects than when I started my shift.

Today I received my letter of acceptance to MUSC and would like nothing more than to waltz in and waive it under that girl's nose. Because I'm apparently petty like that. When I called the admissions office the woman told me that they received 366 applications for 60 openings, which means that only 16% of us got in. I'm really glad I didn't know my odds before or I would have been a nervous wreck. I start nursing school August 17th. I'm thrilled, scared s***less, and overwhelmed at the prospect of juggling 32 hours a week of school, plus a reported 15-20 hours of study time each week, a husband and a kindergartener all at once. Thank goodness the program is only 16 months, so I'll be graduating with a Bachelors Degree next Christmas (2010). The plan is to get my Masters in Midwifery.

Yes, I've gone completely to the dark side and covered my upper back in tattoo ink, dyed my hair an unnatural shade of red, and even got my lip pierced. Blame city livin'! Or finally being old enough to do the things I've always wanted to do and a boss who will let me. (I'm currently working part time as a bookkeeper/assistant to a woman who arranged continuing education for teachers.)