Hello, I am trying to ultimately become an RN in CA, and was wondering if the path I was working for seems feasible or common, or if there are any common problems I am overlooking here. First of all, I'm 26, a former college football player, and already have my B.A. in Anthropology, as well as now working on recertifying my EMT-B. I am looking into going back to school to ultimately become an RN, but there are a few factors to get to that route that I have to consider. First and foremost, since I already have my Bachelor's, I don;t qualify for any grants or free money out there, only loans, and other friends of mine are having trouble getting both government and student loans in this economy. This will especially impact me since I was laid off recently from a lucrative job and will not be able to acquire anything near what I was making for the time I am in school, and which will mess with the expected family contribution from my FAFSA qualifying me for loans. Anyone had this kind of problem as well?

Secondly, I know that I qualify for an accelerated-BSN from certain schools in CA, but the nursing pre-reqs, almost none of which I have, have to be completed first in most cases, and given the way the CC system is impacted in CA, I won;t be able to get these classes anytime soon (For anyone that doesn;t know, imagine this: I went to try and crash a basic anatomy class, when I got there, there were the lucky 30 that got in, 20 on the official waitlist, and another 50 that were hoping the 20 on the waitlist weren;t going to make it!). The other consideration is even after I get my pre-reqs done, for most schools with nursing I will be put on a wait-list for the RN program specifically, which is typically 1-2 years of academic limbo. The other option is trying to get the RN done at a private college with no required pre-reqs, of which there are few and which charge you out the nose. I went for a preliminary interview with these people, and the total cost of the program was $136K for 3 years! Not even my Bachelor's was that expensive!

So all those considerations aside, I was planning on taking a part-time, 18 month LVN class in Los Angeles for about $18K while working on the side, preferably as a CNA, which I just got the cert for earlier this month, or even EMT-B, after I finish all the recert paperwork for it. Then after finishing school, while working as an LVN I was planning on trying to go thru the LVN-RN pathway at one of the local colleges. That way after I get my RN (and to some extent even my LVN), I will already have a ton of direct nursing experience that I can use in ultimately acquiring an RN job. Any thoughts, critiques, pitfalls, or otherwise that I may have left out? Please let me know.