Concerned Dad !!!!

[chascal]

My Daughter has started the nursing curriculum at the University of South Carolina Columbia. She is into here sophomore year and has come up against this upper division issue. The university has a posted minimum GPA of 2.77 to be considered for the upper division. She has a 3.0 right now and the university has artificially raised the GPA requirement to 3.44 and now she doesn't meet the requirements to get into upper division. The university says because of the economy and budget cuts it can not accept as many students into the upper division so raising the GPA requirements is a way to lower the number of students in upper division. So now my daughter thinks she has wasted 2 years of college to get to this point and now is told she can not advance in the program. At this point she does not know what to do and is thinking that the only option is to change her major to something else. She has been working very hard this semester and her grades are better than most of the students that did get in. Any suggestions as to a path forward would be greatly appreciated as she would like to continue her course in the nursing program.

Thanks

Concerned Dad

[NeosynephRN]

Well....first of all, she is an ADULT. I'd advise her to see her advisor, etc., but really it's not your business to go there and do it for her. It's good that you are concerned for her, but she needs to get it together to do it herself, with some coaching and advising from you on the sidelines.

I've seen that a lot of BSN programs require a much higher GPA than 2.77 for consideration. Maybe her best bet would be to go into an ADN program instead. She hasn't 'wasted' two years. She's gotten prerequisites out of the way, and that should make it easy for her to transfer into another 4 year program if that's what she wants to do. She has a lot of options, but she needs to find out what they are by talking with an advisor and doing some research. Push her to do it on her own initiative. Good luck.

Do you honestly think that an ADN program will just let you slip by with a lower GPA than a BSN?? My ADN program you had to have a 3.5 or you got the boot....I have to assume it is similar in other schools as well.

I do not want to start the ADN vs BSN, because that is not at all what this is about, however giving advice saying...well you are not cutting it academically in a BSN program, oh do not worry plenty of ADN programs out there they will take you with your so-so GPA...is just not true.

I do agree with the rest...she needs to be figuring this out on her own...but it is great that she has a dad that cares so much.

[SDChargersGirl#31]

do you honestly think that an adn program will just let you slip by with a lower gpa than a bsn?? my adn program you had to have a 3.5 or you got the boot....i have to assume it is similar in other schools as well.

i do not want to start the adn vs bsn, because that is not at all what this is about, however giving advice saying...well you are not cutting it academically in a bsn program, oh do not worry plenty of adn programs out there they will take you with your so-so gpa...is just not true.

i do agree with the rest...she needs to be figuring this out on her own...but it is great that she has a dad that cares so much.

while your program may have had a high gpa requirement, there are many adn programs where the gpa cutoff is around 2.5. he said her gpa was a 3.0, so she might even still have an eligable gpa for other universities. i live in california, so perhaps it is different out here. there are a few univerisities out here i have observed, where the gpa cutoff is 3.0.

[Williamsl88]

apply to different schools? like 10 different ones? maybe some out of state? dont limit your opinions. Also nursing requirements are like physician assistants, physical therapy, biology, pharmacy and other medical fields out there. She might want to change her major?

[CarlSagan's Maid]

If that was her declared major then you go by the requirements in the catalog for the year she declared. They can't change mid stream, especially a state school.

[chascal]

thanks to all of you for your candid and very helpful feedback. she has already talked to her advisor he was not a lot of help. he just sugested that she needed to change her major which is not what she wants to do. i think my next move will be to help her pull all the information together and to schedule a meeting with the dean of nursing and to ask very pointed question so she can get a very clear explanation as to what her options are at this point.

again thank you for your feedback and information. i would recommend this site to anyone who is thinking of going into the nursing field.

[casi, ASN, RN]

Here's the problem nursing schools get a lot of applications for a limited number of spots. Just because the program requires a GPA of 2.5 to get in, doesn't mean that's anywhere near the average GPA of the students that get in.

I applied to two programs one BSN and one ASN. For both programs over 500 qualified people applied. Only 100 got in. I believe the average GPAs were 3.6 and higher. The schools were able to be choosy and pick who they thought would give them a tuition for the full program. Unfortunately higher GPA tends to mean harder worker.

She should really explore her options, but getting her GPA up is key. Nursing school holds their students up to a very high standard. The B's I got in prereqs (80-90%) are C's in nursing school.

[Ruffles 1]

I hope it works out for you chascal. I think your daughter should not have to change her major if she had already been accepted into the Nursing program. Go talk to the Dean of Nursing and have her push the issue.

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

I would consider the initial acceptance into the program as a sort of contract, spelled out in the school catalog for the semester in which she began. That said, I would consider myself grandfathered in and expect the school to treat me as such. She needs to talk to the Dean or someone in authority.