Good news, bad news and some other news...

"We only accept transfer credit on math and science classes if they are less than 10 years old." My heart sank but I tried to keep a pleasant face for Mrs. Dye. The chair of the nursing department at Ivy Tech had agreed to meet with me Thursday to help me make a long term plan. Before I can be assigned to an advisor I need to attend a nursing overview meeting. There is one scheduled each month. However, I waited too long to sign up. They are full until February. But I had questions now and needed some advice...from an advisor. So I went to the top. (It actually wasn't my doing. An assistant in the school took care of it for me.)



Mrs. Dye was incredibly helpful, even if some of her guidance was bad news for me. If you remember correctly, I was a math teacher. I have lots of math courses under my belt at USI...10 years ago. None of them mattered now. I would need to take a 3 hour math class. That is, unless I get a really good score on either the Algebra compass test or pass the CLEP math test. The compass test is free and administered by Ivy Tech. I would need a 66 to get out of math classes. I'm not sure yet what that means. I'm going to look into it. The CLEP test costs close to $70 but I only need to pass that. I skimmed through a CLEP prep book. I can definitely do that. (They recommend "plugging in" as opposed to actually solving the equation.) I'll need to do some more research there before I make up my mind. I'll keep you posted on this exciting debate.

As for the science, I have plenty of that at USI as well since I was pre-med. That was well over 10 years ago. I have no hope here. It appears I will be taking a 3 hour microbiology class and a 4 hour physics class. There is an option of a 3 hour chemisty class but I'll take the extra hour hit to avoid chemisty. (For more background on my USI math and science check out the August 8th post.) This will add at least one more semester to my plan. I'll talk more about "the plan" later...when I have one.

Some of Mrs. Dye's news was good. Ivy Tech requires all students to take a one hour life skills class. I could use some of those, but fortunately I can skip it because of the career planning class I took at USI. I found this little twist funny and ironic. All this time I thought it was a waste of a class. (Again, see August 8th for career planning reference.)

More good news - I would be required to take a sociology, multicultural studies or psychology class. That would be the case if I hadn't done some legwork. As an education major at USI, I took a Multicultural Education course. It appears as EDUC 302 on my transcripts. It was easy to skip over. I felt it should count but I didn't have a shred of proof. I had purged myself of all my education books and papers. I looked for my 302 teacher at USI only to find no evidence that he existed. I did manage to find a copy of a syllabus from another teacher's 302 class. I took a copy of it with me to show Mrs. Dye and she seemed to be impressed that I was proactive in the matter. She accepted it. It almost makes the science and math insult hurt less.

And more good news - We discussed at length each semester in the school of nursing. I was having a difficult time wrapping my head around what my life would look like when I got to that point. I knew it was very structured so I was nervous about abandoning my family for two years. I found that I would have a lot more flexibility and say in my time than I realized. Each semester, the staff reevaluates the situation based on changes in student numbers, staff availability, lab availability, and hospital and clinic schedules. They then build several structured plans from which the students can choose. Mrs. Dye was very pleased with the way this semester looks right now because there are 6 different plans and none of them have classes, labs or clinic on Fridays. She said they would love to keep Fridays open when possible from now on, though it might change if they had no choice. She printed off all six plans for first semester nursing students so I could look them over on my own, and I will.

I also signed up for the nursing overview meeting in March. Better late than never. Better late than never.



(Sorry for the dramatic repeated last line. Something about it struck a cord with me and I realized it meant a lot more than my original purpose for it.)