Before nursing school..

The entrance requirements differ at different schools. Most schools (RN) need certain prerequisites completed before you can apply, but some I guess still directly admit students to nursing. Most make you take some kind of pre-entrance exam like HESI A2, NLN PAX, or TEAS.

So, look up the catalogs of the schools you'd apply to and see what they use as admissions criteria. Generally those are spelled out well, because the schools numerically rank their applicants.

Depending on your choice of entrance into nursing (cna, lvn, adn, or bsn) the requirements can be different. Generally cna's need to be hs graduates or have a ged. Some programs for lvn require an entrance exam and some prereqs, some require you to be a high school graduate w/ no exams or prereqs(like mine :) ) For adn you may find some programs with no prereqs, most of them will want ap1, 2 and micro completed. Some will require chem and others will want gen ed courses out the way before applying. BSN programs, as well as adns, are competitive and many of the departments rank their students. hope this helps