Did I screw up my chances here?

Nursing Students SRNA

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Even before nursing school, I was interested in becoming a CRNA. Well, here I am now graduating my BSN program. I was offered a job in a level 2 ICU so I can say I'm headed in the right direction.. However, my GPA says otherwise. My grades in nursing school weren't terrible, except for the one semester I hickuped in. I made all A's and B's except for my S1 semester, which was where I made all C's. My grandmother passed that same semester and I went through a rough patch. It sounds like a cliche sob story but I truly did have a hard time getting over it. Studying was very difficult and I just couldn't focus on school. Like I said, I ended up with all C's for that one semester and it brought my GPA down to exactly a 3.0.

Some more background info: Before I got serious with school (nursing school and nursing school pre-reqs), I made one D, a handful of C's, and a couple Withdrawals my first year of college. So, although I did show an improvement in work ethic as I progressed through college, I'm worried my S1 semester in nursing school of all C's is going to say otherwise and hold me back.

So, I'm asking for all of you kind and experienced people here that may have gone through a similar situation to shed some light on me and tell me how realistic my goals on becoming a CRNA are.

I do plan on becoming as much of a well-rounded candidate as possible before I apply. I.e. high GRE score, leadership (charge, committees, etc.), several years of ICU in a variety of specialties, picking up as many certificates as possible (CCRN, etc..), and even taking non-degree seeking grad level courses.

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Specializes in CVICU.

So was your all C semester your first semester in nursing school(sorry I am unfamiliar with what S1 means)? Most schools specify a 3.0 minimum and you meet that requirement so you didn't screw yourself over too much. I wouldn't worry too much with your D's and W's before you started your nursing courses unless they were in any pre-req classes(if they were in your pre-req classes I would consider re-taking the C's and D's--I had to do this). I think a school that really looks at your transcript will see that you have improved over the years and will respect that. I think in your situation it would be good to get a reference from one of your nursing school professors who is able to vouch for you. Also definitely at least one grad school class, get your CCRN and at least one other certification (probably the TNCC in your case), and seriously ROCK your GRE (take a lot of time studying for this).

My statistics aren't much better than yours and I got into the second school I applied to. 3.36 GPA, 305 on GRE, CCRN-CSC, 1.5 years MICU, 2 years CVICU. I made one C in nursing school and made a few other C's before nursing school, one being in A&PII which i re-took(is that a word lol).

Anyways what I am saying here is I think you have a chance. Just really WORK HARD these next few years and do all that you said you will and you will get into a school. You got this.

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S1 means Senior year 1st semester. J1 and J2 are Junior year semesters 1 and 2. I thought these were universal terms. Oops. So yeah, it was my second to last semester that I did bad. And I never told any of my professors about my situation, so the reference part is out of the question.

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I don't think it will be a problem. I'm in the same boat. I do however plan to address this in my interviews if I get that far. I have a few friends in crna programs with similar pasts and they were either asked to explain (and most schools were empathetic) or they explained why in their interviews.

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