Quote Originally Posted by Anonymous View Post
College itself has been fairly rough in terms of time management and the basics required to the point where I just want to finish the degree quickly. I was considering taking an online accelerated degree program that's accredited such as the University of Phoenix, Kaplan University, or Bellevue University. I realize that it's just for the sake of creating a piece of paper that says I'm qualified to grind down four years of a slightly higher level education, but would it be worth it in the short term as I am looking to get into a second degree bachelors of nursing just to get through the massive hoops that are made for those that do not have a bachelors degree.
Okay, so you are trying to get a Bachelor's degree from U. of Phoenix, and then go to a traditional 4-year institution for a Bachelor's of Nursing? Are you expecting the Phoenix degree to help you get accepted to a traditional program?

If I'm understand you correctly, then you need to call the school that you'll end up applying at. Ask them how grades transfer from programs like Phoenix and how admissions regards students with that type of experience. No one here is going to know how a school views Phoenix as well as the school itself.

As far as potential employers: if you have a traditional degree in an unrelated field and a Phoenix degree in a related field (for example, I studied Biology (BS) and Management (BBA) and I'm going into technology consulting), employers are still going to focus on your overall academic achievement less, and look into your prior experience more than anything. I realize this doesn't apply to you directly, because nursing is a different job market, but in general an internship/work experience is more valuable than a degree, provided you have a degree in something.

One important thing to note, though... if the traditional school you're looking at attending accepts transfers from Phoenix or similar programs, then you can probably take a number of core courses at Phoenix and transfer them without an employer ever having any idea. A number of Bio/Pre-med kids do this over the summer to pass Organic Chemistry, then transfer the credit (and a lot of schools do similar things outside of the top 20.)

tl;dr call the school. They'll know more than us.