ADN after graduating?

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Hi everyone,

This is my first post (I'm so scared! ahh!) but I've been prowling the boards obsessively all night because as of a few hours ago, I decided I might want to pursue a career in nursing. The trouble is that I'm a rising junior at a university as an English/Anthropology double major and because of some extreme partying and a concussion, etc, my GPA is an abysmal 2.0. Shocking, I know. :crying2:

I've assumed that my GPA (especially my science GPA - I failed the two science classes I've taken so far) is too low for me to be accepted at any school offering a Bachelor's Degree in Nursing...so instead, I'm interested in earning an Associate's Degree in Nursing at a local community college after I graduate from this university. I feel compelled to add that before I matriculated, I spent the last two years of high school earning an Associate's in Science at a community college (which is incidentally in the same district as the community college I would ideally go to for my ADN), and I had a GPA of 3.8 then.

I'm just wondering if you guys think that it'd be wise for me to go ahead and work toward an ADN at the community college after graduating (and maybe have some of my core credits fulfill prereq requirements) or if it might be a waste of time because my GPA doesn't look like it'll go up by too much. Also, am I at a disadvantage if I go for an ADN after graduating? I have a few friends who are actively pursuing a Bachelor's in Nursing as undergrad students and I feel like I might be lagging behind if I get into nursing after I graduate. A major factor in my decision to maybe pursue nursing is that I don't know what I want to do with my life after graduating, but this seems like a rewarding field to go into based on a lot of things that yall have said on the boards and I've already done okay in community college before. Thoughts? I'd really appreciate them! :idea:

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You should get a cna license first and work as a nurse asst for awhile to see how nursing is. You won't be working as a nurse, but you be able to shadow some of them.

As far as going to a community college for your RN goes, well if you think it will be easier to get into than a BSN because of your low gpa, then you'll be in for a rude awakening. ADN programs tend to get a lot more applicants with only a small amount of seats to fill--around 200 apps or more/30-40 seats. So, you can see from the numbers that it's pretty competitive, and this is usually because CC's have lower tuition rates and some have night classes or part-time schedules that are accommodating for a large amount of people. Therefore, most of them have different ways of assuring the selection process is fair which includes having pre-reqs completed with nothing lower than a 2.5 gpa and other things just to be able to apply and even then that doesn't mean that you'll be accepted.

Most of these schools--and I'm just generalizing here--don't really look at gpa"s accumulated from other courses, but only the ones that are pre-reqs for nursing, so if you failed your science classes then you would have to retake them and reach an acceptable gpa to apply, but a high one to compete and taking them more than once or twice doesn't look good unless you got a 3.0 or above the first time you took them and was just retaking them to get an even higher gpa to be more competitive. Just some things to think about.:)

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Where I live ADN programs are just as competitive as the BSN programs. There are so many people that want to get into nursing now so they only let the best of the best get in. Some look at overall GPA and some only look at pre-req GPA. you really need to retake those sciences and get A's in everything to be competitive.

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Oh no! But do you think the admissions council will take into account the rigor of the science courses at my current university? Or will they just see my science GPA as just one conglomerate (since I did well in my science classes at the community college before)? I'm just trying to see if it's worth it for me to enroll in a summer term at the community college offering the nursing program ASAP to try and get those pre-reqs out of the way, or even just to repair my GPA.

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Each college is different....mine requires a 2.5 minimum. Check with the college you are interested in attending.

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Specializes in Infusion.

Yes, each college is very different in what they look at. My college has a point system, 4 points for As, 3 points for Bs and 2 points for Cs in A&P (3 classes, micro, psych (2 classes), and nutrition. Points are also given for passing 4 other classes with a C or better. An essay gets a big chunk of points and prior CNA work or degree get a point or two. I have a BS in business from a university and got grades that stunk. Community college helped me get a 2nd chance after a complete change in focus.

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Thanks so much you guys. I'm going to go ahead and take some pre-reqs this summer at a community college to try and salvage my science GPA after the beating it took at my university!

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Specializes in Public Health.

I would suggest staying at your university and just retaking the classes you did poorly in to fix your gpa....it shouldn't take you too long since you already have your general requirements fulfilled...check with one of your school's prenursing advisors on what your next steps should be...

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Unfortunately, my school doesn't have a nursing program...and the reason why I did poorly on my sciences at this institution in the first place was because everyone had taken AP Chem and Bio coming straight out of high school while I had not. Also, my school does not offer online classes. I realize that the courses through the community college should be rigorous enough (I'm cramming Gen Chem and Applied A&P into a month!) so I'm okay with this route instead.

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