I've been out of high school 3 years now, and I'm currently working as a medical secretary. I really, really want to be a nurse. In highschool (and for a few years after) I wasn't focused on getting good marks. Now I am, and I just feel so guilty and dumb for not trying sooner!! (). I feel like I wasted 3 years, and that I'll never be a nurse (getting accepted, passing the courses, financially, etc.). I'm obsessively researching schools and their requirements, and planning what courses I'm going to take in September, but I'm really worried that I'll do all this work and still not get into the program.

/phew. I just had to let that out.

I am in nursing school. It took me 10 years and a bachelors degree in psychology to get to this poiny. I was torn between grad school and nursing. I have good grades amd still got rejected but eventually was waitlisted then accepted all on my first try. Make sure to get great grades in your Anatomy&physiology and microbiology especially (other grades are important too). Do well on the entrance exam and you will be fine. They certainly make you jump thru an enormous amount of hoops and school is very rough. If you want to do it bad enough it will happen for you if you are persistent and hardworking. Good luck, take it one step at a time.

Three years is nothing in the big picture. You may even be MORE prepared now after working. Some people leave high school and are not prepared to do what is necessary to complete college. They're not ready to make that commitment to succeed.

You should have a plan for an alternative if you don't get into the nursing program though. Are there similar things you would also like that would use many of the same classes such as radiology or physical therapy?

Just some thoughts...

It's never to late to go back to school! My DIL just finished nursing and actually got a job in a hospital in labor and delivery her first job out of nursing. She had gone to school for other things but for some reason or another she was not focused on school. Started working at a old folks home as a cook, moved up to a CNA and decided now was the time! she got her Associates, passed her state test and is now officially a nurse. And will be working on attaining her Bachelors this fall, she just turned 30 so...

My daughter will have her Bachelors in Womens Studies this next school year, she didn't go to college right out of High School which is a good thing because I don't think she was ready. And...I am going to school in the fall, yay me! I look forward to the next two years!

You CAN'T worry about what if's...just go for it!