Am I competitive for CRNA schools?

[Want to be crna]

Hey guys! I am an international student who came to the US and earned his BSN degree. I would like to know if CRNA programs accept international students. I also would like to know if my GPA is competitive enough to even bother myself applying to any CRNA programs. I have earned 173.29 undergraduate credit hours with an overall BSN GPA of 3.83 here in the US. As of now, I am currently working in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at a level 1 trauma center. I plan on working at least two years in the ICU before applying to any CRNA program. I already have my ACLS certification, and I am working on getting my CCRN and TNCC certifications. Will these certifications positively affect my acceptance to any CRNA programs? I heard some schools look at science GPA and the last 60 credit hours of the undergraduate degree. Is that true? I took College Algebra, Pre-calculus, Calculus, Statistics, Anatomy and physiology 1 and 2, principles of Biology 1 and 2, Principles of Chemistry 1 and 2 (not basic biology nor survey of chemistry) and made all A's. I also made A's in all my nursing classes. Do CRNA programs look at Math grades when deciding who gets in? However, I made a C in microbiology because of the reason below: I came to the US as an international student to further my education. During a semester, I was missing 4 credit hours and all the classes that I needed for my BSN were all taken except Microbiology. According to my BSN program, Anatomy / Physiology 1 and 2 plus Environmental sciences 1 and 2 were prerequisites for Microbiology. However, my advisor overrode and registered me for Microbiology, so I can maintain my full time status as an F1 student and also keep my two scholarships I was getting. I still remembered her saying, You are very smart and you have a great GPA. I think you will do fine not having none of prerequisites". She then overrode the class and here I was taking Microbiology with lab. I still recall the name of the instructorJ . The Department Head of Biology was aware of her issues with the class. I am sorry to say it but she was a terrible instructor (Being late to class plus not teaching the materials appropriately were her issues. Also, she wouldn't allow us to have access to her PowerPoint not even before or after lectures). More than half of the class dropped her course, but I couldn't drop her class although I was advised. I would have not meet my F1 status and scholarship requirements if I had dropped the class. It was a bad experience having none of the prerequisites and having a terrible instructor. She was fired the next semester. This was my story of getting a C in microbiology. It is also why my transcript shows that microbiology was taken before any prerequisites were taken.

Would one C on my transcript affect my acceptance to any CRNA program? Do you guys recommend me retaking that microbiology class again? I will of course get an A if I retake it

I didn't take any physics during my undergrad because I had the option to take chemistry which I did. Should I take physics 1 and 2 and would they be helpful in CRNA Schools?

Thanks for your time!

[micurn0126]

Background: I am a new SRNA accepted into my program of choice; I will begin my own program summer '16.

My friend, no need to worry about a poor grade in microbiology. No single poor grade in any course would hold you back most likely.

I also would not recommend torturing yourself by taking physics (certainly not two semesters of it) unless the program which you most desire specifically requires those courses.

The best preparation you can do is this: Be the best ICU RN you can be. Be a leader on your unit. Develop a hunger for learning. You want to be the nurse that all your co-workers go to when they don't have an answer. Practice interviewing. Be able to intelligently explain critical disease processes, drips/drug actions at the cellular level, hemodynamic monitoring parameters and interpret those values and translate them into appropriate treatments.

If you can do those things there is not one program that would dismiss you - and certainly not because you have a less than stellar microbiology mark.