Big 3 grads, how much did you pay to complete your Bachelors...start to finish?

[burbuja0512]

I'm not really a firm supporter in the field of nursing, right now. I love the job of nursing...don't mind the nitty gritty or sick patients. But the field is HORRIBLE. Corrupt, politics, crappy pay, hardly any jobs. Nursing is in the back of my mind for now. I was hoping for it to be a career, but I am TOTALLY ok with it NOT being a career for now. I'm back in the workforce working at a Recruiting agency and I like it so far. I figured maybe I will get my Bachelors in something like Business ADmin/Hospital and Health Care Management concentration. So if I want, I can just put Bachelors of Science, Business Administration on my resume, but depending on what job I want to apply to, I can also add my concentration in Hospital and Health Care Management. I thought that would be the most beneficial to me. Perhaps even help me stay in Recruiting or one day land position as Human Resource manager..in business world or health care world, since I have nursing license as well.

Part of my wanted to major in Natural Sciences/Mathematics instead, but I think I should go for Business Admin (concentration of Hospital Management) to be on the safe side. Not sure.........I'm almost positive, now, that I am going with TESC. Came on here last week debating, but I am leaning toward them now more than ever.

Another career path to consider... Your LPN may not feel like much in the nursing world, but in the medical/business world, it is HUGE! If you got a business degree + your clinical experience, you could be making big bucks in companies that cater to the healthcare industry. Big names that come to mind are McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and Cardinal - they need product managers with an eye for business that understand clinical needs. Or, you could consider sales. I was in medical software sales for years (just barely switched industries), and while being a vendor isn't glamorous, the salaries are very good. I hired people and could never find the mix of business sense + someone that could speak intelligently to a pharmacist or physician. People often think of pharmaceutical reps as the only sales job within healthcare, but their numbers are declining, however pharma rep jobs still exist and also pay well.

There are also TONS of jobs within Health Plans and PBM's, United Health Group and Medco to name a few more.

Anyhow.. I know you had other ideas, but I can tell you from what I've seen you could make a good living with business + the LPN if you wanted to consider different career options.

[CollegeStudent7]

Another career path to consider... Your LPN may not feel like much in the nursing world, but in the medical/business world, it is HUGE! If you got a business degree + your clinical experience, you could be making big bucks in companies that cater to the healthcare industry. Big names that come to mind are McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and Cardinal - they need product managers with an eye for business that understand clinical needs. Or, you could consider sales. I was in medical software sales for years (just barely switched industries), and while being a vendor isn't glamorous, the salaries are very good. I hired people and could never find the mix of business sense + someone that could speak intelligently to a pharmacist or physician. People often think of pharmaceutical reps as the only sales job within healthcare, but their numbers are declining, however pharma rep jobs still exist and also pay well.

There are also TONS of jobs within Health Plans and PBM's, United Health Group and Medco to name a few more.

Anyhow.. I know you had other ideas, but I can tell you from what I've seen you could make a good living with business + the LPN if you wanted to consider different career options.

Hey burbuja! Those are AWESOME ideas and I have had a few people tell me the same thing. Some mentioned doing pharmacy sales I think. Only thing is, I am a brand new nurse (LPN) with no clinical experience outside of rotations. Why? Because no one is hiring! I know nurses with their Bachelors that have been unemployed going on 2 years now. If you google "No nursing shortage" or "No nursing jobs" you can read the stories..it's a nightmare.

I just took it as a sign and I am happy that I rejected my acceptance into the RN program. I don't regret it one bit and know that if things ever get much better, I can go back one day. I look at it like a learning experience. But truth be told, nurses are treated like absolute DIRT and that's the biggest turn off of the job. Being that it's female dominated, you wouldn't even believe the amount of fighting, drama and backstabbing that goes on. I thought to myself, I seriously don't need to deal with that crap everyday at work while I'm stressed about killing a load of patients or messing up on their meds. It happens all the time.

I was kind of thinking of, when things get better, trying to get a weekend (super part-time) position, just so that my skills don't get rusty or go to waste and I can put it on my resume. I would TOTALLY be interested in all the stuff you mentioned. The sales part, I am not sure if I am confident enough to do. If it's a cold sales thing, like I am bothering people out of the blue, no. But if it's a sales gig where they send me to scheduled/interested prospects, I can totally see myself doing that. I'm good at public speaking and presenting.

As of now, my job isn't glamorous at all and most of the positions within business, that I am interested in/qualified for are not glamorous. I'm not complaining. I just look at a job as a way to pay the bills, because truth be told, in the next 10-15 years, I want to be working for myself. I'm saving as much as I can right now even though economy/pay is not at its best. My ultimate lifetime goal is to work for myself and/or own my own small business. That has always been my goal. So I look at a job as the vehicle to get me there. I wanted a "career" as a nurse, but I have too much self confidence to lie to myself about the abusive conditions in the nursing field. People think nurses are paid a lot, but for the hell they go through, it's nothing. Not even I knew this until I got into the nursing arena and experienced/saw it with my own eyes.

Thanks SO much for the suggestions and keep them coming. I am going to write these companies down and do research. I'm surprised there aren't business savvy/medical people out there. Maybe I can break into that industry? cheersmate

[burbuja0512]

Hey burbuja! Those are AWESOME ideas and I have had a few people tell me the same thing. Some mentioned doing pharmacy sales I think. Only thing is, I am a brand new nurse (LPN) with no clinical experience outside of rotations. Why? Because no one is hiring! I know nurses with their Bachelors that have been unemployed going on 2 years now. If you google "No nursing shortage" or "No nursing jobs" you can read the stories..it's a nightmare.

I just took it as a sign and I am happy that I rejected my acceptance into the RN program. I don't regret it one bit and know that if things ever get much better, I can go back one day. I look at it like a learning experience. But truth be told, nurses are treated like absolute DIRT and that's the biggest turn off of the job. Being that it's female dominated, you wouldn't even believe the amount of fighting, drama and backstabbing that goes on. I thought to myself, I seriously don't need to deal with that crap everyday at work while I'm stressed about killing a load of patients or messing up on their meds. It happens all the time.

I was kind of thinking of, when things get better, trying to get a weekend (super part-time) position, just so that my skills don't get rusty or go to waste and I can put it on my resume. I would TOTALLY be interested in all the stuff you mentioned. The sales part, I am not sure if I am confident enough to do. If it's a cold sales thing, like I am bothering people out of the blue, no. But if it's a sales gig where they send me to scheduled/interested prospects, I can totally see myself doing that. I'm good at public speaking and presenting.

As of now, my job isn't glamorous at all and most of the positions within business, that I am interested in/qualified for are not glamorous. I'm not complaining. I just look at a job as a way to pay the bills, because truth be told, in the next 10-15 years, I want to be working for myself. I'm saving as much as I can right now even though economy/pay is not at its best. My ultimate lifetime goal is to work for myself and/or own my own small business. That has always been my goal. So I look at a job as the vehicle to get me there. I wanted a "career" as a nurse, but I have too much self confidence to lie to myself about the abusive conditions in the nursing field. People think nurses are paid a lot, but for the hell they go through, it's nothing. Not even I knew this until I got into the nursing arena and experienced/saw it with my own eyes.

Thanks SO much for the suggestions and keep them coming. I am going to write these companies down and do research. I'm surprised there aren't business savvy/medical people out there. Maybe I can break into that industry? cheersmate

Don't think that your lack of clinical experience will hurt you. Back when I was in medical software sales, I just had a hard time hiring people that I thought could give a half-way intelligent presentation to pharmacists. What I'm saying is can you pronounce a drug name?, if a pharmacist asks a simple question, do you freeze up because you don't know that cardio means that they're talking about the heart or pulmonary means they're talking about the lung, etc? You would be so surprised how difficult it was to find people that wanted to sell medical software that actually had both business savvy and a touch of clinical experience, or even mastery of basic medical terminology. I took a pharmacy tech course and volunteered in a local hospital pharmacy every Friday night for almost a year and I was head and shoulders above my staff. LOL.. everyone at work thought of me as having all this clinical knowledge, but at the hospital I was doing the most menial tasks... Stuff that the pharmacy techs didn't want to do like re-packaging and stocking medication carts throughout the hospital, but this was enough to make me an "expert" with the people I worked with.

Regarding pharmaceutical sales... be careful. All of the major pharma companies have laid off thousands of their reps. This is due to increased limitations on what the rep can say and give to the doc. Seriously, they can't even hand out pens any more. It's still a good job that pays well, but with all of the laid off reps, much more competitive than it used to be. Most of the other medical sales jobs actually pay better anyhow, but if you can get into pharma, it's a great starting point.

If any of this even remotely interests you, it's what I did for years and loved it, so don't hesitate to PM me for suggestions. I just barely only switched to chemical/regulatory software because a former boss recruited me and made a great offer. But I still really love medical sales.

[kevinmanemane]

For my BA in Liberal Studies I spent about 4K in a period of 3 years.

I spent about $2500 on my community college including books (and buybacks) for 83 credits to get 3 associate degrees and one certificate.
Then I spent about $1500 to enroll at TESC.

Because Im in the Air Force, DSSTs and CLEPs are free for me so I finished the requirements for the Bachelor's all for free - transferred in 72 of my 83 CC credits - killed off the last 48 credits with DSSTs/CLEPs.

Plus graduation fee of 250$ - we're talking about 4,250$ - not too bad dont ya think?