NP School Acceptance? GPA?

Nursing Students NP Students

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Hi.

I am a recent graduate of a BSN program from a private university in the Midwest. I currently work in the NICU and plan on becoming an NNP. I am really passionate about my job and love doing what I do. My only worry is if my GPA will hold me back from NP school.

All throughout nursing school, I managed to get B+ or A's in all of my core nursing classes. B+ carries a 3.3 GPA whereas A is a 4.0. To get a B+, your grade would have to be around 87-89. Whereas to get an A, you would have to make a 94 or above.

I am worried if I will get denied from schools because of my GPA. It's around 3.3/3.4 right now. Please let me know! I would love to know if you guys had around the same GPA & still managed to get into NP school. Thanks!

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All of the NP schools I've seen say you must have at least 3.0 GPA.

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Nibbles1 said:
All of the NP schools I've seen say you must have at least 3.0 GPA.

While most schools will give you a minimum acceptable GPA for acceptance, the average GPA of accepted applicants is often much higher. It really boils down to the other applicants you are competing against for a seat at that point in time. If you have a 3.4 GPA but the overall average of the other applicants is a 3.1, then you would be a very competitive applicant at that time. Now, there are obviously many other factors that come into play aside from your GPA. My nursing school GPA was a 3.75 and I was accepted into a NP program.

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Specializes in Emergency.

If you don't apply because your worried about your gpa, then you won't get in (or rejected). If you do apply and get rejected from some, but accepted by one or more, then you will be able to continue on towards your career choice. Unless you have some ideas of how you can improve your gpa, I don't see why you don't apply and see how close you are to getting in. The worst that can happen is the same that happens if you don't apply, and even in that case you might find out a bit more about what you need to do to make yourself more competitive next time.

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Graduate school is certainly very competitive and it will be important to have every advantage you can get for acceptance. Keep in mind, though, there are other components to your application that will help showcase your skills. If the GRE is not required I would suggest taking it. You could also consider retaking undergraduate classes to improve your GPA, though I would be more in favor of taking graduate level classes that will count toward your future degree (try to make sure these are transferable if applying to more than one school). Professional and academic recommendations go a long way -- give your references enough time to write a quality letter on your behalf. Best of luck! :)

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Specializes in FNP.

As previously stated, competition with other applicants will be your major challenge. My GPA was 3.96 when I applied to 4 schools. I only received 2 acceptance letters. One strategy is to apply to every school that you would be willing to attend. I have friends who thought applying to their pick of the litter” school would land them acceptance; not so. They ended up applying to at least 4 to get in a program. Good luck to you though!

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I would agree that 3.0 is what most college require across the board. Some have provisional acceptance like at least a 2.5 gpa but you have to keep your gpa a 3.0 or better with each semester. Also depending on where you wanna go to school will decide with your gpa. I know someone who was accepted into kaplan university msn program last year with a 3.1gpa

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