Devastated

[justme1972]

I've been crying all night.

I just started this Spring, after many years of being out of school, at a local CC to apply for their nursing program for this Fall. I had attended several years before and had over 50 hours completed, but did not get my Associate degree in General Studies. I was planning on transferring to a 4-year at the time, but life got in the way.

When I met with the nursing advisor last August about attending this school, she pulled my college transcript, said, "This looks great, your grades are very good," and encouraged me to apply for Fall of 2007. She didn't say anything about high school, at all. I have a 3.4 GPA, I did extremely well on my TEAS.

Well, today I got a letter in the mail regarding my score that they use with my GPA, pre-reqs, etc for admission to the nursing program.

I about collapsed when I saw what they were using for my GPA. They used my HIGH SCHOOL GPA, which was extremely low because I had a horrible home life when I was in school and had an undiagnosed learning disability.

When I called the nursing program, they said that if I had finished my AA degree in General Studies this past Fall, they would have used my overall college GPA instead of my high school GPA. WHY DIDN'T THEY TELL ME THAT?

Guess how far I was away from finishing my AA degree? One history class, that was it! I could have taken that this past Fall if she had told me to!

I have this on appeal right now. On the flip side, a close friend of mine had a 3.75 in high school and has a 2.3 college GPA, after three years of coursework, and didn't do well on the TEAS, but she has a higher score for entrance than I do because they used her high school GPA.

I could fully accept if I didn't get in with the way my grades are now, but this faculty members is getting paid a salary to advise and she told me wrong! It was totally fixable!

[lisabeth]

That is horrible. I have never heard of them doing something like that. I would think they would look at the amount of time you had been out of high school, then look at your previous college gpa. I am really sorry. If it is your dream, dont let anything stop you. Apply to different schools and maybe it isnt too late.

Good luck.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

I'm so sorry. Best wishes.

[DesertRain]

So sorry you are having this trouble. The one thing I learned (the hard way) was to never listen to my advisor or at the very least triple check what they said with multiple other sources. Why these people get paid for a job they don't do very well, I don't know. Too many times I've been told inacurate information, or none at all. Information that would have been helpful. Hope you are able to iron out the problem, and lesson learned. Don't rely on what they have to say. Good Luck.

Amen on the triple checking, I am so thorough with my research that I am dubbed a research-a-holic ---well anything Pre-RN anyway.

OP: I am so sorry to hear about this though. I really hope it all works out.

[Batman24]

The only thing my schools look at is that I have high school chem and bio with a C or better to avoid having to take them again. As I have been out of school for 8+ years they are only looking at my NLN scores at one school which I feel hurts me. If I am equal to a student presently in school or currently taking classes at their school, I bet they get the spot over me.

I am lucky to have an alternate plan at another school. I am doing ADN RN program and then will go on for a further degree. Is that an option for you.

[WDWpixieRN, RN]

I don't know specifically how long it has been since you've been out of HS, but that is probably the most absurd thing I have ever heard of!! Regardless of whether you finished the degree or not, the fact that you've completed X-number of hours should count for more than HS credits....sometimes I wonder if we've got rocks in our head in this country.....

I especially love the financial aid situation where you can go fight a war @ 18; be held legally liable for just about anything @ 21; but don't qualify as independent when applying for student loans until you're like 30 (that's an exaggeration, of course, but not much). But that's a subject for another thread ....

Good luck....

[justme1972]

Again, I appreciate all of the words of encouragement.

I totally agree with double checking, but with the particular school, they have one person that I'll call "Jane Doe" that is in charge of ALL of the advising for the nursing program. Anytime you have the most basic of questions, they say, "Oh, I can't help you, you'll need to talk to Jane Doe." Well, if "Jane Doe" is giving out the wrong information, then alot of people end up getting it.

The only requirements that they have in writing and in the catalog is that you have to have a 2.0 to apply (don't they all?), have Biology, Chemistry, and Algebra with a C or better (all high school level). They don't have any true, pre-requisites, but there is a list of courses that you get extra points for completing them in advance.

The only compensation that I have is that I have my situation on appeal. All of my hours are college-prep courses, no "basketweaving" or silly stuff like that where A's are easy. I will hopefully hear something on Monday, as the decision for the Fall Class will be made very soon.

They went through the entire alternate list last year (people that had GPA's that fell, couldn't finish Chemistry, no money, didn't respond, etc). So there is a very, very small chance. There is no way to know what my chances are.

It's been right at 20 years exactly since I graduated from High School.

Especially with the situation with the alternate list, if I could get them to use my overall GPA, I think I have an excellent shot of landing a seat.

I'll post the decision when I get it. Please, please, please pray for me because you know how it is when you are an older student...you feel like the clock is ticking whenever there is a possible setback.

[aviator411, RN]

Hopeful,

At least you can take your history course and eliminate this annoying situation.

Welcome to the reality that there few, if any, meaningful standards in nursing education or nursing education advisement. If you do a little research such as discussing the subject with the appropriate party at your state's board of nursing you'll find out that, while the board has to approve nursing curiccula, very few of these boards get involved in evaluation or enforcement of nursing education practices and standards; most of this activity is subordinated to "professional" nursing education organizations who are not accountable to the board or to the public.

I experienced numerous instances in which the advisor at our local community college was far more knowledgable about nursing school policies within other nearby universities than the university advisors and faculties themselves. I received advice from the universities a number of times which proved to be untrue when I followed the advice of the community college advisor. The university advisers were often not competent to advise me on what courses I could enroll in without being a student of their nursing program, etc..

And there are numerous convincing-looking posts on the forums here by students who appear to have been treated very unjustly. It still appears that anything resembling justice for students remains but a dream. Someday an enterprizing attorney who has more time than clients will establish an affordable system to represent victims of such injustice. Until that happens, we're on our own in most cases.

[WDWpixieRN, RN]

I'll post the decision when I get it. Please, please, please pray for me because you know how it is when you are an older student...you feel like the clock is ticking whenever there is a possible setback.

Looking forward to hearing how it goes....please do let us know....as for the clock ticking, wow can I understand that feeling!! Sometimes I feel like I am in a race and I worry that I'll finish it in time to do all the things I am hoping to do before my time's up!! Best wishes...

[justme1972]

UPDATE:

I didn't hear back from the Director of the Program today, but one of my computer professors that I have a good rapport with told me that I needed to see the Dean of the Health Care Sciences at my school.

I went to see the Dean of Health Care and explained the situation (I also told him that I was originally instructed to go to the Program Director that was at another school) and he was like, "That doesn't make sense to me either," and sent me back to talk to the original advisor "Jane Doe". Well, Jane Doe didn't remember talking to me at all, and told me that she could not make an exception on my GPA, but told me that my high TEAS would probably offset a low high school GPA, b/c I had one of the higher scores that they had on the test.

I didn't want to get on the wrong foot with "Jane" since she is also one of the instructors in the Nursing Program, so I went into her office, I was very humble, and said, "I wasn't trying to go over anyone's head," and told her how I ended up contacting the chain of people that I did...she seemed to be very understanding.

The Dean of Health Sciences told me to come back by his office when I finished with "Jane", and when I told him she said she couldn't make an exception, he told me to have a seat, he got up and shut the door and took out a piece of paper and started making notes, which actually suprised me.

We left it with, "Let me see what we can work out," and we just left it at that.

I'm crossing my fingers that the exception is made. We'll see!

[aviator411, RN]

Hopefull,

That sounds very encouraging! Hope it works for you. I applaud you for being persistant + diplomatic. There is WAY TO MUCH VOODOO in admissions procedures!

Best of luck; we'll all look forward to hearing the outcome!

[GottaGetIn]

I am rooting for you!!!!! PLEASE keep us updated! In the land of underdogs, I hope you WIN this one!

And I think you will! :)

[chococroissant]

How horrible! you are definately on the right here. you were not at all informed and your AA is more recent and dare I say more reliable!

Good luck on that appeal! Rooting for you!