Need some advice for my cousin

[kingk0ng]

Well as some of you may know I have my BSN and work as an RN. I have a little cousin around the age of 23-24 years old. When he was in high school, he didn't do too well. He graduated with like a 1.7 or something. He went straight to college and didn't do well either, only obtaining a 1.0 GPA. He took a break for 4 years and have been working in the gas industry and he hates his job and continually talks about how he wishes he would have done better. After I sat down with him this evening and talked to him, he agrees that it's not too late to turn his life around. He is married now and they have a baby and he wants to give them a better life. He's always been a good kid, never been in any trouble, never missed class or got suspended. He just didn't take studies seriously before. I've been working with him and he's gotten good with his anatomy and he has a lot of potential to be a great nurse himself. He wants to be an RN too and I believe with his GPA scores universities are probably out of the question, but he still has community colleges.

What do you think he should do personally? Turn his life around, go back to school and bring his GPA up, try to get into an LPN program and go from there, go for EMT and go from there, etc.? I recommended him take a year of pre-req's and then apply for an LPN program, then work a year or two as an LPN and then do another year of pre-req's and finally apply for the RN program demonstrating he has turned his life around. Do you feel like this would be a good option as well? It's been a while since I was in college and I don't know how community colleges work. Do any of you have any opinions on this or experience with the subject? I am proud to see he is attempting to turn around his life.

 

[benmayro]

i say have him take the sat/act because alot of the time people with the best gpa arnt the brightest... there are seven people ranked higher than me but only one with higher sat... buy the book, have him study... anything 1600+ most colleges will be fine.. my 1890.. i got into penn state, ohio state, pitt, unc and tryinh john hopkibs

 

[methusaleh]

One word: military. Period. End of story.

 

[monkeygym]

Never stop motivating him to pursue his dreams. Anything is possible

 

[mich29]

One word: military. Period. End of story.

this^^ or the community college thing could work 2.take something where he can make money and go to school and then grad in 2 years and get a decent job making decent money

 

[kingk0ng]

Military is out of question, he tried joining the Army before and was disqualified because he has ADD and high blood pressure. He can never join the military without getting a discharge prior to joining. He made it to the swear in and the Physician at MEPS told him he had absolutely no chance.

I've told him this personally. I said I would take 1 year of pre-req's and work in a nursing home as an aid or something and next year get his LPN license. I told him this summer, get his phlebotomy license. Phlebotomy is 5 points, CNA is 5 points, and LPN is 15 points on an RN entrance application. I told him if he gets all of those (which he can easily do) then he could work as an LPN and keep taking classes in college to gradually raise his GPA, then apply for the RN program. I think that's about the best solution for him. If he can't find a job in a hospital, he could always get his EMT license.

Thank you guys for your responses though. Military is the ticket I took in the Marines. My honorable discharge actually got me huge points for my BSN. I agree for anyone able that the military is the answer.

He's going to go for his RN like I did. In terms of job placement, money, years spent, rewards, advancement I don't believe you can beat nursing.