nursing school at UTHSC in San Antonio

stpauligirl · Jan 21, 2006

I did not know they accepted some med students there with such a low GPA. I thought you AT LEAST had to have a 3.0 for med schools to even glance at your application. The thing is though that with med school applications there is so much more that goes into it than with nursing school (at least for UTHSCSA). For med school they also take into account MCAT scores (which if they are great can make up for a not so great GPA), a personal reflection, interview, and any volunterring/research/interships that med school applicants may have done. So maybe they just had a weak GPA, but great MCAT score, interview, and tons of experience and research. Another thing is that med schools are really picky about where people take their prereqs from unlike nursing school. When you are talking four years of very difficult classes at a hard university of course the GPA will be lower. The thing I never understood was entry into PA school. I had several friends at UT-Austin applying to PA school with bio degrees, and the GPA cutoff for that was incredibly high. You had to take the same classes as somebody applying to med school but yet you could get into med school with a lower GPA.

The med students also take a different kind of science classes....for example chemistry and microbiology are different than for nursing. Med students also need to take more chem classes. those classes are much harder than what we are taking in pre nursing. The pre-nursing Science classes at our CC (SAC) are very difficult and a large number of people either fail, or have to take these courses over. I have taken 3 of these grueling classes so far and seen the good, the bad, and the ugly, it's tough .....in my A&P class it was just me and another guy left to take the final. 28 started and all but us 2 dropped! I've jsut met someone who is going for PA, I need to grill him more for information since I have no idea about their admission requirements.

It's all crazy but I will not give up trying to achieve my dream. One step at a time

TXAshley · Jan 21, 2006

The med students also take a different kind of science classes....for example chemistry and microbiology are different than for nursing. Med students also need to take more chem classes. those classes are much harder than what we are taking in pre nursing. The pre-nursing Science classes at our CC (SAC) are very difficult and a large number of people either fail, or have to take these courses over. I have taken 3 of these grueling classes so far and seen the good, the bad, and the ugly, it's tough .....in my A&P class it was just me and another guy left to take the final. 28 started and all but us 2 dropped! I've jsut met someone who is going for PA, I need to grill him more for information since I have no idea about their admission requirements.
It's all crazy but I will not give up trying to achieve my dream. One step at a time

Oh yes, I know all about the science classes med students take. I have a previous BA in bio from UT-Austin and was in most of those classes the premed students have to take. Believe me, the two semesters of o chem I had to take for my degree was much harder than the one semester nursing students took. Same with the A&P ( I took both the upper division A&P designed for bio students plus I had to take the nursing A&P b/c the one for bio students didn't have a lab component). Let me tell you... those were a great 4 years :roll .

labcat01, BSN, RN · Jan 21, 2006

No kidding! I tried to take OChem one summer at SAC. That was a mistake! I also have a BS so I guess i've never really looked hard at what the nursing school requirements are.

gauge14iv, MSN, APRN, NP · Jan 21, 2006

ok wait....

the minimum GPA to APPLY to UTHSCSA's med school is 2.9. That doesnt mean that the applicant will be accepted! This is the case for ALL of the programs - medicine, nursing, dental...etc - at UTHSCSA according to the literature they have online. However, when you have more applications than slots, you certainly do not have to accept a 2.9!! In fact - the minimum GPA to apply to the nursing program is officially 2.3.

http://nursing.uthscsa.edu/Student_Info/faq.shtml

So if there are 100 slots and 800 people apply, the 300 or so with the 3.5 gpa or above will be the ones who are considered for admission - and rightfully so. They are the ones who have the best academic shot at completing the program. It doesnt mean they will be the best nurses - it just means that statistically, they are more likely to do well in the program and graduate. To maintain accreditation, a nursing school has to graduate a certain percentage of its admissions - its all about the numbers.

labcat01, BSN, RN · Jan 21, 2006

ok wait....
the minimum GPA to APPLY to UTHSCSA's med school is 2.9. That doesnt mean that the applicant will be accepted! This is the case for ALL of the programs - medicine, nursing, dental...etc - at UTHSCSA according to the literature they have online. However, when you have more applications than slots, you certainly do not have to accept a 2.9!! In fact - the minimum GPA to apply to the nursing program is officially 2.3.

No, I meant that the lowest GPR they ACCEPTED into their program was a 2.9. Someone else that posted earlier mentioned that medical schools are interested in the whole person (MCAT, GPR, extracurriculars, service, etc) whereas it seems to me that nursing schools are just interested in grades (this seems true for most nursing programs not just UTHSCSA)...but I could be wrong. Does anyone know for sure?

gauge14iv, MSN, APRN, NP · Jan 21, 2006

Somewhere on UTHSCSA's site there is a place where you can find the stats for the recently admitted class. It inlcudes GPA's and the like. I would look that info up to be certain before believing it from someone else. Also - in medicine you have the 'family factor" IE: If said applicants daddy is a famous cardiologist, the chances of son with a 2.9 gpa getting turned away are sort of slim - and it probably didnt hurt that said famous daddy endowed a faculty position....Now Im not saying that this occurs at UTHSC, Im saying it happens in various places.

So I suppose if we nurses made enough money to fund a faculty position - our relatives with 2.9 GPA's would probably be able to get in. Doesnt make it right...but - it is what it is.

BabyCatchr, ADN, ASN, RN · Feb 25, 2010

I just had an appointment with my advisor there. He told me 3.6 GPA is required and that is 75% of the criteria for admission. I am just wondering if I am up to the task with 2 children, no husband, a dog, and a house full of repairs = little study time.

CyclicalEvents · Feb 27, 2010

This thread is 4 years old. If you manage your time you will do great. Lots of people have children/jobs.

ballerbooboo · May 21, 2010

I'm currently going into my last semester at uthscsa. I heard the first semseter students they accepted are really competitive about grades. It seems the closer I am to graduating the school is accepting more Type A personalities. When I got accepted for Fall 04 my gpa was a 3.6 but heard the cut off was 3.5. A friend of mine told me they are also starting to interview the applicant before getting accepted. I'm not sure if this is true. One thing I will tell you is that nursing school is hard but it's possible. Their program is known to like to filter ppl out of the program. I'm feel so lucky to have gotten so far. I think if it's meant for you to be a nurse if will happen no matter what. Don't ever give up! When you get accepted contact me and maybe I could see what I could help you with. I've been mentoring since 2nd semester for 1st semseter students and have mentored those same students and now there in 3rd semester. TIME FLIES!! by the time you know it it's over. Another thing about the school their philosophy is that you become an independent learner. They want you to seek the answer and teach yourself pretty much. I had some really good clinical instructors but others just aren't any help. They will tell you to look it up and later it comes out in your evaluation that you weren't prepared bc you didn't know the answer. The scariest thing about nursing school was midterm evaluations and having satisfactory careplans. If you don't pass clinicals you fail the course. It does not matter if you have an A in the lecture part if your instructor fails you. The thing I would do every semester is find out who the good instructors were and get a group of ppl to carpool and request a hospital with instructor. OH another thing you are only allowed to fail one course after the second time you fail you are automatically kicked out. The worst thing is that they put it on your record so it could be harder for you to get accepted anywhere else. If you fail a course you could only take that one class next semester so you are left behind graduating a semester later. A good friend of mine this past semester didn't pass a class by like 4 points and didn't pass. Now she won't be able to graduate with me in May 2006. It's sad when that happens but maybe sometimes it's good for you so you could know it even more the second time around. Any ?s just ask.
Lori

that is weird because I have a friend that attended uthscsa couple semesters ago and she was in her first semester and didn't do well and got kicked out. She end up dropping pharmcology before the drop date and got a W and then missed the final for one class so she went ahead and drop another class and got a WF because the professor won't let her retake the final. instead of making her transcipt look bad she went ahead and drop with WF. They end up kicking her out of the program and she wrote why she missed the final but they stlll wouldn't let her back in.

She didn't understand why she wasn't able to get a second chance because technically she didn't fail a class... :uhoh3:

but i forgot what she told me so i was really surprise to hear your friend got a second chance after failing a class.