Devastated

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

Published

I've been crying all night.

I just started this Spring, after many years of being out of school, at a local CC to apply for their nursing program for this Fall. I had attended several years before and had over 50 hours completed, but did not get my Associate degree in General Studies. I was planning on transferring to a 4-year at the time, but life got in the way.

When I met with the nursing advisor last August about attending this school, she pulled my college transcript, said, "This looks great, your grades are very good," and encouraged me to apply for Fall of 2007. She didn't say anything about high school, at all. I have a 3.4 GPA, I did extremely well on my TEAS.

Well, today I got a letter in the mail regarding my score that they use with my GPA, pre-reqs, etc for admission to the nursing program.

I about collapsed when I saw what they were using for my GPA. They used my HIGH SCHOOL GPA, which was extremely low because I had a horrible home life when I was in school and had an undiagnosed learning disability.

When I called the nursing program, they said that if I had finished my AA degree in General Studies this past Fall, they would have used my overall college GPA instead of my high school GPA. WHY DIDN'T THEY TELL ME THAT?

Guess how far I was away from finishing my AA degree? One history class, that was it! I could have taken that this past Fall if she had told me to!

I have this on appeal right now. On the flip side, a close friend of mine had a 3.75 in high school and has a 2.3 college GPA, after three years of coursework, and didn't do well on the TEAS, but she has a higher score for entrance than I do because they used her high school GPA.

I could fully accept if I didn't get in with the way my grades are now, but this faculty members is getting paid a salary to advise and she told me wrong! It was totally fixable!

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So sorry you are having this trouble. The one thing I learned (the hard way) was to never listen to my advisor or at the very least triple check what they said with multiple other sources. Why these people get paid for a job they don't do very well, I don't know. Too many times I've been told inacurate information, or none at all. Information that would have been helpful. Hope you are able to iron out the problem, and lesson learned. Don't rely on what they have to say. Good Luck.

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Wow I have never even heard of a program taking high school GPA's over any college coursework. I would definately double check with someone on that! I wish a school around here would take high school over college! LOL! High school I had a perfect 4.0 GPA and in college with working full time I've only been able to maintain a 3.4.

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At my college they use your last 12 credits or your high school GPA, whichever is more recent. If they used my high school GPA I'd never get accepted (I think it was 1.9, I also had a rough home life at the time). My college GPA for my last 12 credits is 4.0. I can't believe they would choose to use your high school GPA when you have plenty of college credits to base your academics on.

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If your appeal fails, you could write to the President of the College, or even your legislator.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

What a shame! Our school's general advisors don't have a clue either.

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Specializes in NP / USAFR Flight Nurse.

Im so sorry to hear that. I can tell you from experience that advisors dont always know what they are talking about. I had an advisor at USF talk me out of nursing and into behavioral health ISS degree only to tell me 2 semesters later that a degree in nursing would benefit me more! WHAT?! I wanted to choke him.

After applying to 2 nursing schools and waiting for 4 semesters, I gave up and am now in an LPN program. I love it and am so happy I chose this route. I am getting experience and my GPA is a 4.0. I get smaller classes with closer attention from my instructors. Also, I will not have to wait to get into the bridge program and I even found an LPN to BSN program in Tennessee.

Things happen for a reason sweetie! Dont let this get in your way. Just remember that you have a goal and no one can stop you!

Good luck!!

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is this for a BSN program? What kind of school looks at a HS GPA for admission into a nursing program?

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It sounds crazy that they would use your high school GPA. Are there other programs in your area? I don't think using high school grades is the norm.

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Specializes in ED, Pedi Vasc access, Paramedic serving 6 towns.

When I was applying to nursing school the admissions person gave me the wrong information about how soon I needed to take the NLN exam and I almost had to wait another year to apply because of it. I fought with the head admission about it an dyou can bet she got me into the next test, the last one before the deadline! So fight back and do not give up easy!

Swtooth

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I appreciate everyone's advice. I too, thought it was a mistake on the part of whoever calculated the scores, and then when I called to check, I found out that it was calculated correctly.

I have an e-mail written into the Director of the Nursing Department. She is actually at another school (complicated arrangement of the schools, long story). They called me today and said she would call me on Monday.

I know it probably sounds like special treatment, but I said the same thing the rest of you did: What nursing school on the planet cares about your high-school GPA if you have that many college-level hours completed?

I don't really have another option as far as nursing schools, the next closest one is 1 1/2 hours away and I would have to pay out-of-state tuition.

I've been reading posts for awhile, so when this happened I just needed a second opinion.

Thanks again

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