Choose a college that offers online classes for Associate of Science degrees in nursing. The classroom training and lectures can be completed online, but exams and clinical practice will be scheduled at a participating local hospital.
Register for admission to the school. To be eligible for financial aid, you must be enrolled as a student. In most cases the requirement to qualify is to be a half-time to three-quarter-time student.
Apply for federal financial aid through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid website. The FAFSA is the one-stop application for all federal- and state-funded programs. Nursing school is expensive, so be sure to apply for any available nursing scholarships as well. FastWeb is an excellent source of scholarships and information.
Enroll in classes. Taking classes online is not that different from courses taught in a classroom. The differences are that assignments will be emailed to the instructor and lessons will be posted on a message board in your online student account. Many programs have prerequisites such as biology, chemistry, social sciences, math and advanced algebra. If there is a waiting list to get into the nursing program, take the prerequisites first to get them out of the way.
Prepare for required exams. The NCLEX-RN is one of the required exams for obtaining a nursing license. The exams will be taken in person at a designated location. Clinical rotations will be performed in a hospital under the supervision of a nurse instructor.