Classes in high school plus GPA and SAT Q's to prepare to be a nursing student?

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I'm a sophomore in high school, so this year and the previous year we didn't get choices for classes. However, next year we get to choose science classes. I'm guessing I should take chemistry (recommended for everyone by the school) and anatomy. Not sure about senior year. Advice? Also what is the general average GPA required to get into a nursing program? I took the PSATs but haven't gotten the results yet so I'm not sure about my SAT prediction yet... What's the average SAT score required?

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Specializes in Neuro, Telemetry.

I could be wrong on this, so disregard if someone says I am. But, I don't believe your high school grades count toward your college GPA. Passing the class will work to waive the need to take basic chem and intro bio but won't go towards your GPA.

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I meant just to get into nursing school, to be accepted, what grades should I get in high school?

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Specializes in ICU Stepdown.

Do you know what schools you plan on applying to? Also, I would recommend taking the ACT and SAT, twice each. The SAT is SO hard. Just focus on finishing your high school requirements and getting good grades in them. If you can, I would also recommend taking college classes with your community college if possible. Most high schools in my area offer PSEO, look into it!

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I could be wrong on this, so disregard if someone says I am. But, I don't believe your high school grades count toward your college GPA. Passing the class will work to waive the need to take basic chem and intro bio but won't go towards your GPA.

Yes, this is how my school (and most schools) do it. I have heard of some schools that count HS coursework as a C in the GPA, or schools that do an AP conversion (3=C, 4=B, 5=A), but most just count it as a waiver (give you units for the class, but don't calculate it in GPA).

@laschai - Does your school offer AP Statistics? I would definitely take that (and the AP exam) Senior year if you can. Also, if you can take AP English and pass the AP exam, that would knock out another

prereq course.

Also, is the chemistry course you're taking AP? If not, it probably won't count for much, if anything at all (at most it would probably just let you take an exam to place out of intro chem and into general chem). But even if it's not AP, then I would still take it because it will prep your for college chem. Same goes for your anatomy class, you probably won't get college credit for it (unless your high school has an agreement with the college), but it will still be helpful when you have the take college anatomy. Colleges usually don't give credit for HS coursework unless it's AP or IB.

I would mainly focus on any of the AP classes/exams that would count as credit for a prereq class.

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Oh, and as far as GPA goes, the only thing your High School GPA counts for is admission to the university to begin your prereqs, and that is highly variable (Stanford will require a much higher GPA than, say, a state university), so you'll have to look up the schools you want to go to and see what their average admission GPA is. Admission to the actual nursing program relies on your GPA in your prereq coursework and your science coursework. You should expect to get at least a 3.6-3.7 in both of these

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Yes, this is how my school (and most schools) do it. I have heard of some schools that count HS coursework as a C in the GPA, or schools that do an AP conversion (3=C, 4=B, 5=A), but most just count it as a waiver (give you units for the class, but don't calculate it in GPA).

@laschai - Does your school offer AP Statistics? I would definitely take that (and the AP exam) Senior year if you can. Also, if you can take AP English and pass the AP exam, that would knock out another

prereq course.

Also, is the chemistry course you're taking AP? If not, it probably won't count for much, if anything at all (at most it would probably just let you take an exam to place out of intro chem and into general chem). But even if it's not AP, then I would still take it because it will prep your for college chem. Same goes for your anatomy class, you probably won't get college credit for it (unless your high school has an agreement with the college), but it will still be helpful when you have the take college anatomy. Colleges usually don't give credit for HS coursework unless it's AP or IB.

I would mainly focus on any of the AP classes/exams that would count as credit for a prereq class.

I'm taking AP Statistics this year actually. You have to be taking or have taken algebra 2 for the class, so most people in my class are juniors and seniors, but I've always been pretty good at math so I took algebra 2 my freshman year (I took algebra 1 in 8th grade).

Junior year Chemistry is not AP, but you can take AP Chemistry senior year. Anatomy does not have an AP option, I just think it's helpful to have some previous knowledge while you're studying it in nursing school.

I think I'll pass on AP English, I hate English class (I do better in Spanish and I can barely form sentences haha) but I'll consider it. I'm taking Pre-AP English this year and the teacher recommends AP English junior year. Not sure I can take all that at the same time though haha.

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Even if you do take AP and pass it with a 3 or higher, you need to verify and make sure that the nursing programs will accept the Ap score and what that score means to them (in terms of what it translate into for a college course).

take for example, I attended an application workshop for a nursing program and they explained that those who took ap and passed it with a certain score..they allow it to be used in lieu of taking the college course BUT they said the Ap score only translated into a C for the college course. you need to know specific info like this if you are planning on taking AP to try to take less college courses.

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You could apply to a 4 year program that has a nursing program in it and take prereqs at the university and then apply after you complete the prereqs. of course it's more costly to take preqs at a uni compared to a cc. find out if local universities have given priority to their freshman pre nursing when it comes to applying to the nursing program compared to transfer students.

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What pps said is correct your high school GPA gets you into the university and your college GPA gets you into nursing school. Nursing programs are incredibly competitive in most places so you need as close to a 4.0 as possible. My school you needed a GPA of 3.5 to be a pre nursing major. But the lowest GPA in the cohorts the last few classes was in the high 3.8s.

As far as sciences classes Iin high school go they won't matter for nursing school unless they are AP. Taking them in high school is not a bad idea though so that you are familiar with the material in college. These are tough classes.

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