A few program questions

You may get more responses in your state forum if you post there.

You might find that getting into a community college nursing program is tougher than you anticipated. Many CC's now have cutoff GPA's much higher than 3.25.

The Community College Program Director I talked with said that their waiting list is date of application biased, not GPA. Their only requiremtn is that you pass all the classes with at least a "C"

I am finding that the higher your grades are, the better chance you have of getting into a program. I would stick with as many A's as possible because programs change their entrance requirements often. My CC gives points for entrance and then uses the GPA. The higher the GPA, the more points and so on. Also, some are starting to use the NET scores as a discriminating factor for entrance.

I believe that big universities (not all) can be less difficult to enter into because of the pool of people you are competing with. The average age of nursing student at a CC is 31 versus high school grads at a university. Please don't see this as ageist, but most older students have been around the block and tend to be a little more concientious in their studies. This makes the pool of people you are competing with have higher GPA's in a CC which makes the clinical portion more difficult to get into. The universities also have bigger programs so their programs have a larger pool which can water down the overall GPA pool. These are generalization though so shop around. Not all school are equal.

Also, there is nothing different about a RN-BSN completion program and a general BSN program. They are usually the same classes. However, after two years in an ADN program you can get a licensce and work while you go after the completion program. The general program doesn't allow you to get your license till the whole four year program is done so you can't pick up shifts as an RN.

You can test out of micro?!

Microbiology?

The nursing program I am in makes it near impossible to test out of general biology.

*As far as CC vs. 4yr, if you can become an RN in 2-3 years at CC and then gain nursing experience while finishing your BSN, why not?

*CC is most likely much less expensive.

*CC may be harder to get into than 4yr school. I heard the nursing students at my school say that the average GPA for prereqs in their class was 3.9. There were hundreds of apps for 80 spots.

I still can't get over testing out of micro!

I was suprised about being given the chance to test out of Micro also... In the RT program I was in, we did go over various spores, bacteria & viruses... but we focused more on how to sterilize things. So... i don't know if any of that will be on the test.

Does ASU = Arizona State University?

eta: I've not heard of any CLEP test for Micro. Exactly what kind of test are they letting you take? I won't necessarily tell you your advisor misspoke, but in my experience they often misinform students. I'd strongly advise you get a second opinion just in case.

Does ASU = Arizona State University?

eta: I've not heard of any CLEP test for Micro. Exactly what kind of test are they letting you take? I won't necessarily tell you your advisor misspoke, but in my experience they often misinform students. I'd strongly advise you get a second opinion just in case.

Some schools will let you challenge a course within their own walls by taking one of their professor's final exams from a recent semester.

Yeah, the test they are giving me is a course final exam, the only catch being is that if I have to take Micro, I cannot take the calss that prof teaches because I've seen the final and know what to expect.

And yes, i was talking about Arizona State