A Little Worried About Getting Accepted Into The Nursing Program :(

[AsgardianSubaru]

Hello all, my name is Lisa and I am new to this site. I graduated from high school in 2008, graduated from a vocational college in 2009, and started going to my community college in 2010. I'm in California and I attend my local community college, MSJC in Menifee, CA. I've been here at this school doing all of my prerequisite classes in order to get accepted into the RN program. I've been attending here for about 2 years now, this is my 5th semester currently. And I am almost half way done with all if my pre-recs classes and my classes to transfer. Yay! I've always kept a good job in keeping up with my counselors and making sure I'm taking the right classes to transfer to my choice of a 4 year university and getting into the RN program. So far in counting, I have 7 more semesters to go and that includes the nursing program semesters which is 4 semesters and 3 semesters of transfer classes to the university. In that estimated time frame, I'm hoping *crossing my fingers* that I will be done completely by 201, that's if I get accepted right away by a miracle. :/

The problem that's been worrying me for sometime now is the fact of not getting into the program, that idea devastates me. I will be done with all of my prerequisite classes for the RN program by the end of the fall semester in 2013 which means I could apply for the RN program in the spring semester of 2014. Which is very exciting! The now the hard part is the idea that I might not be accepted and the competition of who gets accepted makes me doubt it. I am an average B+/A- student, I just applied and got accepted into my school's honors program and overall I have a gpa of 3.7 currently. The next pre-rec classes that I need to take are anatomy and microbiology, it's hard to get into these science classes because of budget cuts and this is why my pre-recs were hard to meet up because of registration dates and shortage of these classes and less space and no acceptance on the wait list. I was told that I need to get A's in these subjects to compete with all the other 80+ nursing students who apply every year at my school. And only a few of about 12 are accepted a year/semester, which really takes a blow to me.

I'm not worried about getting A's in these courses, I know for a fact that I can do it with hard studying. But it's the idea of the wait of either getting accepted or getting denied because of all the competition. I'm worried about the wait... I don't know how long I should wait or if I should go into a private accredited university and carry out my dreams? I know it's a far stretch because this is about 2 more years in advance, but I'm always the person to think about these things ahead of time. I guess at this point I'm making plans A, B, and C for a just in case. I'm just worried because of my circumstances and in need of starting a career and helping out with the bills and such. It's worrying me to death.

For the pre-nursing students who have applied and had a fairly good gpa, how long did it take for you to be accepted? And how many times did you apply and re-apply for your nursing program. Any thoughts, advice or ideas that are suggested? If so, I would so highly appreciate it. Thanks, all the best. :)

[PalmHarborMom]

LisaChheang- I do agree that you need to keep up your GPA to remain competitive. As far as entering the Honors program, be careful because I have seen previously great students watch their GPA's fall in the Honors program. If the Nursing program takes ino account that the classes you were taking were Honors classes then it may be worth the risk.

I completed by gen ed AA in 2 years at a community college then applied to the University of South Florida. The competition is fierce. There are a total of 120 spots including both the students that this is there 1st Bachelor's degree and those that have a Bachelors in another field. But there are 4 or 5 people turned down for every person accepted. To help ensure that I would hopefully get into a program, I made sure that I completed the pre-req's for both the ADN program at my Community College and the BSN program at the University that I ultimately was accepted to. Thankfully, I was accepted to both the first time that I applied. GPA is a SUPER big factor in getting into any program but some ask for an essay also. If they do, that is equally important because everyone has a great GPA. I worked on my essay for about a week and had the director of our writing center go over it for me. My GPA is 3.9. I see that your GPA is 3.7, that is also competitive so keep it up and you should be fine.

So my suggestion is to look into any community colleges and universities near you and try to get the pre-req's done for more than 1 program. Then apply to those programs. I ended up taking 3 extra classes to complete the pre-req's for both programs so it's not alot of extra stuff to take. For A&P.... get a recorder and a good camera. I recorded all the classes and took pictures of the anatomical models to make flashcards out of. And when learning A&P, try to really understand it. It will be helpful when you enter the nursing program as it cuts down on the new material that you have to learn.

Good luck getting into a nursing program

[AsgardianSubaru]

Thanks so much PalmHarborMom for giving your inputs. I find it very helpful. The honors program, I've entered it in hopes that it would help me a lot in priority acceptance to the particular university that I'm looking to go into since it will "look good" on my application. And I have no choice, but to join the honors program because my community college has little science classes from budget cuts etc. It is so hard to find available classes. Being in the honors program I can get priority registration dates to pick my classes and hopefully get into the science classes that I need. I know it's much of a challenge for keeping my gpa up. But now I do know that honors classes are very much hard and stressful since it's upper division work (I know now...), but I think it will help me get accepted into my choice of university. Actually that's exactly the same path that I am doing as what you did. I'm completing all the pre-recs for the RN program at my community college, but also taking all the general education pre-recs to transfer to the university and enter the MSN/BSN program at the university I wanted to go too. As for the tips on studying for anatomy, thanks! I will sure take that into consideration and hope I can take anatomy next semester. Thanks so much for your tips on studying and best of wishes to you as well. :)