Wife wants to go to school.... Questions??

[CJ-95GT]

My wife left a 6 figure regulatory job for a lesser paying/demanding job. She is much happier with what she does now. "That being said", let her decide what she wants to do and don't base it on income. Lots of people have degrees that they don't use.

[dblack1]

I know a dental hygienist that applied three times before being accepted. She actually finished a four year degree while waiting to be accepted at the programs recommendation. She has no problem staying busy by working shifts at two different offices and makes good money per hour with no benefits.

There is no way you will be done in a two year time frame. It will take three years.

There is nothing wrong at the moment with a job in the medical field, but I feel they are pumping too many people out of these programs. The school I graduated from has doubled the output of the RN program in the last 6 years, and they are graduating 200% more than they were 10 years ago. On top of that, every CC now has a LPN to RN program, rad. tech, RRT, PTA, OTA, etc. They are steadily churning out new grads every day which will eventually suppress wages/wage growth. I have a friend who has seen wages on contract PTA work go down every year since she graduated in 06.

The education bubble will eventually cause problems we cannot foresee. I think with all the unemployed going back to school that things will not be rosy. Starting wages locally for a RN are the same as when I graduated in 05.

[jluv]

That does suck. Sorry to hear. Often working in the field will help your application. If she has all those classes done, has she thought about nursing? The easiest way for her to do it would be jump a job at a local hospital. Most offer their own group of nursing students that goes through El Centro in Dallas. You can be any employee in the hospital from housekeeping to a patient care tech. They only select from hospital employees. Its almost a guarantee in into nursing. Also, a guaranteed job

She's pretty set on being a teacher now.

[Sean88gt]

No culinary degree?

[Treasure Chest]

I doubt any college is going to freely give out those statistics.

That's not a statistic that they hide.
TCC outlines their selective admissions policy, and states that you can only apply to two selective admission programs a year.

She needs to go and talk to the department heads for the programs she's interested in. If she's leaning toward anything in allied health, there will be small class sizes and a lot of competition. If she has no prior college classes, she'll be below the curve, and she may not be eligible to apply next summer, as her admission would be contingent upon her completing micro after the application date. The earliest she might be able to apply would be Fall 2013, unless they have a fast track program for her A&P next spring. These are things she needs to speak to an advisor about before choosing a major on a timeline. Also, those $50-60k estimates are averages with experience and shift differentials. She'll probably come out closer to $40-45k.

They also don't say much about it , but acceptance and jobs come easier if she can align herself with a hospital (or dental practice, depending on her career choice) while she's in school, working on her pre-reqs.

[talisman]

She's pretty set on being a teacher now.

Jared, how many hours is she sitting at now? What's y'alls plan for the college when you move to Co? Kind of personal, you can PM me if you want. Just curious.

[A+]

<solid barg>Wife just completed her bachelors graduating Summa Cum Laude while working full time. I think I'll keep her.</solid barg>

1up.
Wife just completed masters at SMU and just got accepted to PhD program. Ill be retiring soon.....

[gip99gt]

Wifey goes to DBU she is almost done, I'm pusher her all the way. Keeps her busy when I'm working in the garage. lol

[Ruffdaddy]

You'll have better luck winning the lotto than finishing any of those degrees in 1-2 years an making what she wants.

I suggest not looking for the easy way out an mentally preparing for 3 years of schooling minimum. Trust me...you have the time. In 10 years you will either be glad or disappointed you didn't just committ and follow through.

[slow99]

I gotta run - gotta pick up my baby's mother. She's down at the community college, yo she's gonna be a doctor.

[jluv]

Jared, how many hours is she sitting at now? What's y'alls plan for the college when you move to Co? Kind of personal, you can PM me if you want. Just curious.

I'm not sure about the number of hours. I think she is just 3 or 4 more classes from being done with her associates. We're hoping that once that's done, she can get the rest done in CO, maybe at Western Colorado State if we end up in Gunnison.

[talisman]

I'm not sure about the number of hours. I think she is just 3 or 4 more classes from being done with her associates. We're hoping that once that's done, she can get the rest done in CO, maybe at Western Colorado State if we end up in Gunnison.

Sounds like a good plan. Might want to check and see how many hours they will allow to be transferred. UTA is pretty TCC friendly and will transfer 72 hours, but most Universities I've looked at are 60. A TCC AA is 64 hours, so she is getting in that range.

[TENGRAM]

If it was easy to make $50-60k with two years of school everyone would do it. My suggestion would be to get a 4 year degree in something loosely related to what she has experience in.

[bigredtruck]

She made A's in all of her courses including those, chemistry, microbiology, etc, and still didn't make the cut. It ended up being a waste of a lot of hard work, money, time, etc. No doubt it's insanely competitive, and she had to learn that the hard way.

Your wife must be white and you must make more than 30k, my wife went through the same thing for 18 months trying to get into an RN program, and everyone they were taking was a male or a minority, she decided to settle for a spot respitory care, she finished on may 18 started working on the 20th of may and is really happy works 3 days a week, has picked up a couple of xtra shifts, and makes about the same as and RN, but she doesn't have to mess with bed pans, or a lot of that type of crap

[Treasure Chest]

There is no secret into getting into these programs. They are GPA/test based or points based. You get ranked on an excel spreadsheet you they pick from the top of the applicants. To be competitive for most programs you need a 4.0 in ALL your prereqs. On the TCC side, people often retake Anatomy and Physiology I and II multiple times to receive an A.

A lot of places do bonus points. Depending on your prior college credits or degrees, you can get up to a full point over the other applicants. So basically, of you have a 4.0 on your pre-reqs and have a bachelor's degree, you start out with 5 points. I have all of my pre reqs, but got a job in the medical software field making as much as nurses around here.