admissions ?s

Hi everyone! :)

I am a nursing student and will graduate from an RN program this May! I currently work in a hospital and there is a great chance I'll be offered a position in ICU. My dream is to become a CRNA. I just have a few questions and I would greatly appreciate your responses! :)

1)What undergrad degrees are acceptable? I will obtain my BSN, but I've heard that I coud get a Bachelor's in another area and still be accepted. Which majors would be acceptable?

2)How about GPA...Will most programs accept a 3.0?

3)Also, how many years of acute care exp is nec? I hope 1-2 years is alright.

4)Also... the question that many of us probably don't wanna think about:

What percent of applicants are accepted vs turned away from a program?

:thankya:

Thank you very much!

-Jessica

Hi, Congratulations! I'm also a nursing student, but feel that I can answer some of your questions.

1) I am pretty sure that a BSN is the preferable degree, other degrees that would be beneficial are degrees in the biological or physical sciences. There is a stronger emphasis on chemistry in CRNA programs, so a background in chem or pharmacology would be a plus.

2) A 3.0 GPA is pretty much the standard for all graduate programs. People may get accepted with a lower GPA, but on a conditional basis. It really depends on how competetive the applicant pool is for that year, and how competitive your own application is.

3) Most programs require a minimum of 1 year acute care experience so I would say that 1 - 2 years would be perfect for most programs.

4) Acceptance to a CRNA program is very competetive and the percent accepted is based how many seats the school's program has for that year. Every year qualified applicants are accepted, waitlisted, and rejected all together because the school couldn't fit them into a seat.

As long as you did well as an undergrad, do well on the prereq's and get 1 - 2years of ICU experience, you should have a pretty competetive application.

1) With a BSN you can apply to 100% of the CRNA programs in the country. You may, however, need to get additional courses not offered in BSN programs such as organic chemistry and physics. There are many schools which will accept a non-nursing BS degree but that is probably only about 20-30% of schools (I am guessing here!)

2) 3.0 is the stated minimum for most CRNA programs. The truth is that most accept students with much more than the minimum (closer to 3.4-3.5 +) Of course there is more to acceptance than GPA and otherwise strong applicants may get away with a GPA closer to 3.0.

3) People do get accepted with the min 1-2 years of critical care experience but I would be willing to bet the majority of current SRNAs have more than that. In my class the years of critical care are from 4-18 years. with most in the 5 year range.

4) The percentage depends on the program. The bigger more well-known schools get lots of applications (probably 600-700 for 30 or so seats) of these not all applicants are qualified so they just get trashed. Most schools will interview between 2-3 QUALIFIED applicants for each seat. There is also a big difference in number of seats. My program is small and only accepted 12 students (100 applicants of which only about half met all the requirements, 24 interviewed). I know some of the other programs are much bigger accepting 70-100+ students. (The average is probably 24-30 seats per class).

The other key components are doing well and the GRE and probably most important (once you meet the other qualifications) is the interview. An interview can make or break you no matter what else you bring to the table.

As CRNA schools gets more competitive, less people will be getting in with the "minimums". Shoot to acheive more than the minimums for all components of the admission criteria and you won't have to worry about IF you will get accepted (you just won't know where).

thanks for the responses! I have another question. . . .

I am going to earn my A.S. in Nursing. After that I will transfer and earn my BSN. If my gpa isn't so hot during the A.S. program (2.5), but it's really good in a bsn program (4.0), what will count ultimately?

The final GPA??

I'll second truamanurse on the 3.5+. You can get an interview with a 3.0 but that doesn't guarantee admission. You need to get it into the 3.5 range to be competitive. As far as your last question goes, it is important to determine how your school of choice will be calculating your GPA. I'm not sure about all schools, but many of them calculate your GPA like this:

They take your Math/Science GPA + your cumulative GPA over the last 60 hours of classes and they average those 2 together. So, even if you do really well and have all A's during your last 60 hours, any Math/Science grades from your associates degree may still bring you down. You may want to think about re-taking some of those classes while obtaining your BSN. If you have C's in any of your Biologies or Chemistries, I would definitely recommend retaking them prior to applying.

At some point prior to applying, you should set up an appointment to meet with an advisor for your program. They can tell you what you're lacking, and put you on the right path, but ultimately it will depend on how your grades, experience, interview, and GRE scores stack up against the other applicants.

Question: If I have a BS in unrelated non-science field and the GPA is 2.6, and I complete 2nd degree BSN and have 3.5 how would this effect me. I read the above mentioned post, but how does this relate to a non science degree? Just curious.

It will be program specific. I had 2 years of university with a GPA of about 2.0! I managed to get into a diploma nursing program based mostly on high school grades, pulled a 3.5 in my diploma program and then 3.9 in my BSN program. The anesthesia school I am attending really only looked at the 3.9. They recognized that I was a young, beer-guzzling kid like many others and did not perform well in my early college life (not academically anyway). My anesthesia GPA is somewhere around 3.7 with only 9 months to go.

So the short answer is that you can get into school with a good BSN GPA if the program is willing to look at the big picture and ignore earlier grades. However, if the program calculates total GPA and science GPA no matter what, your GPA could be dragged down to an unacceptable level.

Best advice is to call schools you are interested in and ask how they calculate the GPA for admission.

Thank's for the great info TraumaNurse. I too fall in the same scenario of having poor grades early in school, but now I have a 3.8 in my nursing courses with only a few months left. I plan to get my BSN, with stellar grades of course, and enter the CRNA program. All of your advice has been great thanks to you all. :)

i had similar experiences as above. i had a 2.6 when a received my adn. i went back for my bsn 6 years later. i had a 3.8 in my bsn completion classes.

i then took gen chem 1 & 2

applied to anesthesia school

didn't get in

took organic chem, and a non-calculus based physics class offered by my anesthesia program

applied again

got in

i had all a's in these science courses. i think this made a big difference.

the programs are becoming much more competitive. it took me 2 years to get in, and some of my classmates didn't get in until their 3rd try. 120 applied to my program and 20 made it in.

definitely a good idea to maintain the grades during your bsn, and take a few science courses on top of it. some programs require organic and biochem, mine didn't. the program i attend is a ms not a msn, so there is a greater emphasis on the sciences (and no more nursing diagnosis :w00t: ).

the program i attend is a ms not a msn, so there is a greater emphasis on the sciences (and no more nursing diagnosis :w00t: ).

hi there bea72. i suspect that we are in neighboring programs. just an fyi from a student in an anesthesia msn program... we don't deal with those nursing diagnoses either. :wink2:

My bad...

I assumed that the MSN programs required graduate level nursing theory courses.

I also wanted a reason to use that WOOT! smiley.

We do indeed have to take a course on advanced nursing theory, but as far as those NANDA nursing diagnoses go... well, that's another matter. Our careplans don't center around them like they did as undergrads.

Take care,

Lou