Are repeated courses averaged or replaced?

[Jmartin20]

Hi Everyone!

I graduated in May 2008 with a BS in Environmental Studies. During that time in school I had taken a lot of science/math courses that are prereqs for most nursing programs because at the time I was going to major in Biology. Now that I am looking into ABSN programs, I am taking the prereqs I still need and have decided to retake a couple courses I thought I could improve on.

(All 1st attempts were during my time at the university I graduated from, all 2nd attempts were completed at the local CC I am currently at).

To date I have retaken these courses:

1st attempt: Statistics, C

2nd attempt: Statistics, A

1st attempt: Chemistry I B- (with lab included)

2nd attempt: Chemistry I A-, lab A

I retook these courses for two reasons 1) to improve the grade and 2) Chemistry has "expired" at a few schools I am considering. When admission counselors review my transcripts, will they average my retaken classes with the original? Or replace with the higher grade? And if averaged, are the classes still averaged if the first has "expired"? If it is either of the first two choices, which is done more often? I am hoping for a higher grade to be counted, rather than an average.

Thank you!

[caliotter3]

This policy is based upon each institution. For example, one school may replace the first or the first two, courses repeated. After that, all takes count. A second school may not replace at all. A third school may replace all repeated courses. It depends upon the policy of the particular schools.

[IHeartPeds87]

Also, some institutions may have a limit on the number of repeats you can have. I would highly suggest looking into this as soon as possible...I did not and actually ended up limiting the places I could apply. I went ahead and registered for some classes as repeats when I had originally gotten a B-, thinking that the higher grade would be better since all the institutions I was interested in told me that they replaced it with the highest grade. What some did NOT mention was that while that was true, they only let you do that for a specific number of prerequisites (at one institution, if you repeated more than two prerequisite courses you were automatically no longer considered for admission. At another institution you could take one class fifteen times and they wouldn't care. You could repeat all of the required prerequisites and they wouldn't care. Still at another institution, while they took your highest grade you were knocked down a 'priority group' if you had repeated any prerequisites.)

My point is it is VERY important to look at what the SPECIFIC PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS are for each institution you are considering attending.

Best of luck to you!!