Success Stories?

Ariana214 · Nov 27, 2013

Did you retake some of the courses you did poorly in? At my school the new grade replaces the old grade and the old grade is not factored into the GPA. You can take as many classes as you want to raise your GPA but as long as those old grades are still being factored in, you may have a problem getting ahead. I am still in the middle of pre-reqs but retaking courses has raised my GPA considerably. Good Luck.

PNW0212 · Nov 27, 2013

I'm in the same boat as you. Don't be discouraged! My first two years I did terrible and ended up with a 2.9. I had to retake classes at a community college this last year, raised it to a 3.1, and did not get into nursing school. What I'm doing is taking more health/science-related classes to increase my GPA because my cumulative is so low because of some bad grades in classes (which I ended up repeating). All of my classes, retaken or not, are factored into my cumulative. Just keep trying! Especially if nursing is for you :-) you will get there. I am applying for an associate's degree nursing program at a community college then doing the one year RN-BSN program. Although not the route originally planned, everything works out the way it should!

dnelson120 · Dec 6, 2013

When I transferred to community college, I took some of the classes over and got a good grade in it, but since it wasn't from the same school, the nursing school I'm interested in factored both of them. But I got accepted back into the University I first attended, so ill be finishing my pre-reqs there. Thank you and good luck with everything!

dnelson120 · Dec 6, 2013

Seattle0212 thank you for your positive post. I'll def do whatever it takes to get into nursing school, since I do think it is for me. Good luck with everything!

Mandy0728 · Dec 7, 2013

As Ariana has said, my school does the same thing, where a repeated grade replaces the lower grade in a course. I retook a lot of classes because I screwed up in the past. I raised my GPA from a 1.93 to 3.47. I start my program in jan!

vhiran · Dec 7, 2013

I brought my GPA from a 0.7 to a 2.8 cumulative. Not that it was relevant, anyway, since all the programs in my area only care about your pre reqs and other stuff like HESI, interviews, etc. My pre-req GPA is a 3.5 since the programs also average (instead of replace) your scores on retakes. There are a couple "F's" in there that I retook (after many years of being in the military) and got A's in the second go-round, average out to C's, or else i'd be sitting on a much nicer 3.7.

On the plus side, I had some long discussions with my advisors and administration in my (and other) university's nursing departments. They are realistic people who know that you don't always get school right the first go-round, and they appreciate hard work, enthusiasm, and just how serious you are about going into Nursing as your field.

Not exactly a success story, not yet, but I am determined and am not going to give up no matter how bleak it looks... and boy, did it look FAR bleaker when i first started.

Heck, the first advisor I spoke to flat out told me to change my major, i'll never make it. Now I've got plenty of letters of recommendation from my science professors and the nursing administrators have said they are impressed with how i've been able to turn around my grades. Better yet, when I expressed doubts they insisted that they look at the student as a whole rather than as a set of numbers. I'm not perfect or a brilliant student (or i'd have done this the first time), but it's nice to be recognized and galvanizes my performance.

If it's what you really want to do, nothing will stop you. good luck.

carefulcare · Dec 7, 2013

I brought my GPA from a 0.7 to a 2.8 cumulative. Not that it was relevant, anyway, since all the programs in my area only care about your pre reqs and other stuff like HESI, interviews, etc. My pre-req GPA is a 3.5 since the programs also average (instead of replace) your scores on retakes. There are a couple "F's" in there that I retook (after many years of being in the military) and got A's in the second go-round, average out to C's, or else i'd be sitting on a much nicer 3.7.
On the plus side, I had some long discussions with my advisors and administration in my (and other) university's nursing departments. They are realistic people who know that you don't always get school right the first go-round, and they appreciate hard work, enthusiasm, and just how serious you are about going into Nursing as your field.
Not exactly a success story, not yet, but I am determined and am not going to give up no matter how bleak it looks... and boy, did it look FAR bleaker when i first started.
Heck, the first advisor I spoke to flat out told me to change my major, i'll never make it. Now I've got plenty of letters of recommendation from my science professors and the nursing administrators have said they are impressed with how i've been able to turn around my grades. Better yet, when I expressed doubts they insisted that they look at the student as a whole rather than as a set of numbers. I'm not perfect or a brilliant student (or i'd have done this the first time), but it's nice to be recognized and galvanizes my performance.
If it's what you really want to do, nothing will stop you. good luck.

great story! You did wonderful! thanks for sharing :up:

dnelson120 · Dec 9, 2013

@vhiran wow great job! Thank you for sharing this. An advisor at the university gave me the craziest look when I told her that I wanted to declare nursing my major. She said "You probably should think about something like communications" Keep up the good work, determination is everything !