F's from several years ago, I have a 3.8 now.

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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Hello everyone!

I am am extremely stressed out. I graduated high school in 2011 and I immediately went to college that Fall of 2011. I was excited and ready for school but then I became homeless and I didn't know about withdrawing and all that so I just stopped going and failed. I went back in Fall of 2012 after petitioning to get in and it was going good again except I was in an abusive relationship and the guy beat me and made me too scared to leave the house so I couldn't withdraw and failed again. I stopped going until I broke up with him and then at this point I have several Fs again since I automatically failed. I started again in Fall of 2013 and the semester was going perfectly. I was holding all A's in my classes and it was only 3 weeks until finals when my mom called me and said my stepdad had suddenly passed. He died from a drug overdose. It was beyond the withdraw date and each of my professors refused to sign the withdraw sheet because we couldn't withdraw beyond the date without Professor permission so I stopped going and helped my family since my mom was now alone raising 3 kids. I failed again and gave up completely. However, flash forward to now. It is July of 2017. I am married to a great guy and I go to a new school which I am mainting

a 3.8 in and I am looking to apply to their program this September. My issue is that they require any and ALL previous transcripts and I've pleaded with the other school and they told me they don't do academic forgiveness after a certain time period and that I would need to go back there and take 12 credits out of pocket to wipe my record. I am terrified that this record will haunt me because of my insane past. I apologize for the incredibly long read but I am hoping that someone, who was not in my exact situation personally but academically can shed some light on what I can do.

Thank you.

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Schools don't care to hear about a student's personal problems. If the school says that you can take care of the previous record by taking 12 credits, I certainly would consider this route instead of trying to give any and all future institutions the run-down that you present in this post.

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

Agree with caliotter3. Three times you 'just stopped going' looks really bad. And there is no way for a school to verify your story of why this happened.

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Well I mean I have documentation from the homeless shelter, hospital documentation from the abuse, and my stepfather death certificate so I actually do have proof. I can't afford to pay for 12 credits out of pocket so that option is a no go. I guess I will just need to apply and see what happens.

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I really think you should focus your energy on moving forward and applying to schools, rather than becoming discouraged about your past grades. If I were you I would NOT pay out of pocket to wipe your record. When I first started college I had no idea what I wanted to do and did not take some of my classes seriously. I still earned mostly As and Bs, but one term I was so burned out, and dealing with some situations similar to yours, that I just quit attending and received 2 Fs on my transcript.My nursing program also required that I submit all transcripts, even my high school transcripts (which aren't very pretty). Being the student that I am now and leading a completely different life, I was mortified and ashamed for schools to see some of my past academic history. The nursing school application I had to fill out asked if I'd ever been placed on academic probation. Because of the 2 Fs I received I was placed on academic probation for a short time, but was given the opportunity on the application to explain the circumstances. My pre-req GPA was 4.0, my overall GPA was probably about 3.5, and I also had quite a bit of work experience. My first time applying to nursing programs I was accepted to my #1 choice (out of about 400 applicants) and arguably the most reputable school in my area. Now, I'm at the top of my class and am looking forward to spending my entire last year in the ICU. My point is, despite your past you can still be very successful. The fact that you've improved from the past and have now consistently held a higher GPA shows growth and determination. Apply to as many programs as you can, explain your past when necessary (without making excuses & explain how you've remedied it), and volunteer or find a job in the healthcare field, if you haven't already. You can do it! Good luck!

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I am so sorry for all the life problems you had to deal with. However, I believe there was still something you could have done to prevent from failing. I know everybody's life is different so I am not trying to judge but I have seen many people having gone through much worse problems than yours and still managed to come on top. Like PP said, schools do not care about your problems. To schools, all applicants are measured against same selection criteria and standards. The only thing I can think of, wait out a few more years, once your credit expire (especially in science), then, maybe, you can retake them.

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What are you going to do when life happens again, stop going? That's what you did three semesters.

This is what your school will be thinking about. They want students to finish the program and pass NCLEX, because this makes the school look good, which is good for business. You are a risk because of your track record.

It would be a major benefit to take the 12 credits and clean your record.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, LTACH, LTC, Home Health.

If you're having to retake the classes over anyway, why even bother mentioning those past institutions? The current institution will only evaluate transcripts that YOU will send to them. They cannot evaluate what they have no knowledge of. Now, if there are some credits from those previous institutions that you need because you did manage to pass a few of them, then your best bet, in my opinion, is to retake those courses (depending on the # of credits) with the current institution so that the failures will not be reflected from those past transcripts.

Congratulations on such a wonderful new beginning!

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.
If you're having to retake the classes over anyway, why even bother mentioning those past institutions? The current institution will only evaluate transcripts that YOU will send to them. They cannot evaluate what they have no knowledge of. Now, if there are some credits from those previous institutions that you need because you did manage to pass a few of them, then your best bet, in my opinion, is to retake those courses (depending on the # of credits) with the current institution so that the failures will not be reflected from those past transcripts.

Congratulations on such a wonderful new beginning!

The HUGE risk here is that if the school asks for all previous transcripts and OP leaves poor ones off- he/she has committed academic fraud.

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I would have killed to be given the chance to retake my old classes to get my bad grades from 20 years ago replaced. I wasn't, so I took extra classes and got an Associate's Degree to make myself competitive, raising my GPA to a 3.3.

Good luck to you.

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When I was going for my bachelor's degree, I had to work full time while going to school full time. As time went on, my grades got worse and worse, because I got tired. When I applied to my Master's program, they did not want to let me in because my grades dropped every year and "my GRE scores did not correlate with my previous GPA." But I persisted and they let me in "conditionally." I graduated still on "conditional" status with a 3.8 GPA. You also may be able to get them to let you in "conditionally" and show them what you can do! Good luck!!!

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Our nursing program automatically knew which prior schools we attended. Right on the application my precious colleges showed up and each received a complete one the transcript from that institution was received. There is definitely a way they can tell.

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