BSN Admission

[lanierguy]

Guys,

I am a little frustrated. I really want to be a nurse! At summer's end I will have completed all the pre-reqs for most schools.

I'm older. I completed my original BS in 98, not in nursing. Problem is my grades are terrible. I skated through my BS program...barely keeping my GPA high enough to graduate. I goofed off a lot, and dropped a lot of classes and eventually took WFs in some. Those will kill your GPA.

Does anyone have any tips for getting into school with a lousy GPA? Like I said I'm older and male. Will that help me? Since all of my classes were taken (except micro, which I am currently taking) 10 or more years ago can I get some sort of "forgiveness" for being young and irresponsible?

I have had a rather successful IT career since '98....translation complex and technical, like nursing. Out of HS I completed a surgical tech program and worked at a local hospital for a year. In addition I paid for my BS by working in the sports medicine dept. as a student trainer.

Somebody tell me there's a magic bullet out there.

[caliotter3]

I would suggest that you make an appointment to talk to the admissions person or the director of the nursing department at a nearby school. Bring a copy of your transcripts and ask for their frank advice. Otherwise, something else to consider: there are pre requisite classes that you might be lacking before applying to an RN program. Take those classes and do your best to get an A in each. Take the LPN program at a community college and do your best to get good grades. After getting an LPN license, you should find it easier to bridge to an RN program, particularly if you earned the highest grades possible in the pre reqs. Find out from the schools you are interested in if you can repeat for higher grades some of the courses from the past that are applicable to your new degree. Good luck.

[Freedom42]

I'm in a very competitive BSN program for second-degree students. Although GPA is a significant factor in admission, it's not the only factor. The school I attend puts a lot of weight on the applicant's essay. That's where you explain that you weren't a great student when you were young, but now you've seen the light.

My school also offers academic forgiveness. They'll automatically drop your worst semester's grades -- if you make a point of asking for it -- and recalculate your GPA. They're also going to look to see if your grades were higher in the sciences than in other courses. If they weren't, it might be worth retaking micro or A&P at a community college to demonstrate that you're now an A student.

It's worth making an appointment with an adviser to go over your options. Good luck.

[neenja]

i know some schools's min eligibility gpa requirements for a 2nd bachelors are basically the same as for their grad programs. find out from their catalogs or admission counselors or whatever. or you could just apply and see. if worse comes to worse, you could look at less competitive schoosl or adn programs or something.

[Beggar♂]

Certainly establishing a positive postbaccalaureate track record would be critical. You need to pull out all the stops and shoot for a 4.0 and take as many classes as you can squeeze in beyond the minimum prerequisites.

Hard to say whether being ♂ helps or not. It certainly doesn't hurt but there are more and more guys going after those ABSN/DEMSN slots. In a class of 24, my program just admitted 4 or 5 men. I don't know what the proportion was in the applicant pool.

In my program, there were many application/interview questions aimed at assessing your likelihood to be successful and finish. With lousy baccalaureate grades, expect to be scrutinized. The reality, though, is that programs are very competitive. Your surest bet is to get wait-listed at a school that admits all qualified candidates (though some of those use a 3.0 as one qualification) or hope the ball falls your way in a lottery admission. By all means, shotgun your applications in every direction. Also, consider the LVN-RN route. LVN schools out this way are much less competitive.

I don't think there are any magic bullets, potions, scrolls, incantations or chants.

Take and ace as many classes as you can, even if they're not required. The harder the better, really, so consider things like physics, organic chemistry (the upper division one for the chemistry majors, not the watered-down one), calculus, etc. But, take them only if you believe you can do very well. If I were in your shoes (and I was in an analogous situation once), I would consider anything less than an "A" a failure. Get some kick-a$$ references. Consider getting your CNA and working as such.

I know you're in a hurry (we all were/are) but each good semester you log helps you out so be patient and be prepared to keep at it for a couple or few application cycles.

Don't necessarily forego the DEMSN option, either. While the competition appears stiffer in terms of quality, it's lower in terms of numbers (from my experience) so you might get a closer look (beyond your grades, that is).

[NeuroNP]

You sound like you're in a similar boat to me. I graduated in '99 with a BA in History. Like you, I had a low GPA. I went back and did some post-bac work and got good grades. Was a CNA for 4 years. Still didn't get in. Here's what finally did it for me.

My school had a GPA recalculation option. It is similar to academic bankruptcy but there is no negative. If it had been at least two years since you had taken any classes you could apply for this. Then, you had to take 12 hours of classes at that school and those classes would determine your GPA for the purposes of application. So, I entered nursing school with a 4.0 GPA. I actually took all the required nursing courses that didn't have a pre-req of admittance to the nursing program (anatomy, physiology, micro etc).

Here's what I would say to you. Go to the admissions office and talk to an admissions officer. Be frank and explain yourself. I think that humilty is always good in these cases. Don't try to blame your bad gardes on anything. In my case, I missed a lot of school because my dad had cancer, but I tell people, in the end, it was about me being lazy. I could have sat out a semester due to a terminal illness in my immediate family, I could have studied during the times I was sitting in the hospital while dad slept (instead of watching tv or reading a magazine) etc. Basically, I didn't want it to look like I was using my dad's illness and death as an excuse and a "get out of jail free card."

Show them that you were "young and stupid" and screwed around in college, but now you're more mature - then you've got to show them you can do the work. Take those classes and get A's.

I don't think that being male will help (it might...), but being older will. You've been there and done that and learned from your mistakes. Schools like odler students because they're typicaly more dedicated.

But, before you do anything, talk to admissions. I found out that if I had started taking classes before I talked to them and applied for the GPA recalculation, I'd have been inelligible. So talk to someone first.

Bryan

[PICURN74, ASN, RN]

grades arent everything, I failed out of school my first time (graduated eventually) and then grew up and graduated with honors from an Ivy league nursing program. Don't make excuses own your mistakes as a youth and apply