Anything that can help get in?

[BADDLEGG]

Is there anything a pre pre student can start early that will increase their chances of getting in to ADN school? I know about the grades and such. I mean volunteer work, community work, certs (CNA- is this a requirement for most RN schools?), BLS, courses? Just seeing if there is anything I can do to help make me look good on paper.

[aclays]

Ask your advisor how they calculate entrance scores. For my school it was something like 50% comes from your grades, 30% comes from the TEAS, and 20% came from experience / volunteer work. They had a scale where if you'd worked so many number of hours you could earn so many percent.

People that had been CNA's or volunteer'd in hospitals filled in that last 20% which helped a lot of they didn't have great GPA or TEAS performance.

Some schools may require you to do an interview or write a paper for like 10% of that. You are not required to be a CNA at any nursing school as far as I know, but it will certainly help. The people in my class that were CNA's have a far better understanding of a lot of the clinical stuff we're learning right now because they'd already watched RN's perform a lot of it.

[MissChloe]

Some nursing schools do require a current CNA certification. The one I'll be applying to does. It's going to be a race against the clock to finish pre-reqs before the CNA certification expires, as I hope to be working a more regularly-scheduled 8-5 lab job until and throughout school, to cut down on stress. I do have several months work under my belt, though.

[mangopeach]

Depends on the school. My school does not look at whether you have health care experience. Selection is made only on GPA and TEASV scores. With schools like that, the only thing that you can do is strive for As in your classes and do the best job you can on the TEAS exam. With schools that look at experience, it would be helpful to have CNA or other experience. Some schools have interviews and or require essays or references.