DIfferences Between Nursing Majors & Pre Nursing

llg, PhD, RN · Oct 28, 2010

Are both these majors at the same school? If so, you'll have to clarify it with the school. I suggest you don't just rely on e-mails, but actually talk to someone by sitting down face-to-face with them -- or at least talking on the phone.

In most places, being a "nursing major" means that you are already accepted into the nursing program. You don't need to apply to get into the nursing program later. Majoring in another discipline with a "pre-nursing focus" may mean that you will have to apply to get into the actual nursing program after you have taken some prerequisite courses.

It might mean something different for your particular school, though. That's why you really need to be talking with someone at your school. But maybe my response gives you the key question you need to ask. "Will you have to apply to get into the actual nursing program later or are you already accepted into the nursing program and merely have to pass your current courses?"

lifelearningrn, BSN, RN · Oct 28, 2010

"nursing major" or "prenursing major" both lead to the same place I think, and that is nursing school.

TWU requires you apply to them as a 'nursing major'.. all 'prenursing' classes are done the first two years and the 'nursing school' classes in the last two years.

Some nursing students will argue that you need to be accepting into an actual nursing school to be considered a 'nursing major'... but honestly I think it depends on the school.

elkpark · Oct 28, 2010

At the last university nursing program in which I taught, the "pre-nursing" majors were students who hoped to get into the nursing program after completing their prereqs and some general ed requirements during their first two years. Students were admitted into the nursing program itself as juniors (and only then became "nursing" majors), and then completed two years of nursing courses (plus whatever gen ed requirements hadn't been completed yet). There was a big difference between being a "pre-nursing" major and a "nursing" major. "Pre-nursing" majors had no guarantee they were going to get into the nursing program; in fact, the uni admitted roughly four times as many "pre-nursing" majors each year as there were slots in the nursing program, so the "pre-nursing" students were all basically competing against each other for one of those precious nursing program slots -- knowing that they had only, at best, a 1 in 4 chance that they would get accepted (I taught a pre-nursing required course -- the desperation in the air was palpable. It was pitiful.). If, when the time came, they didn't get accepted into the nursing program (as roughly 75% of them didn't), their options were to either change their major to something else or try to get accepted into a nursing program at another school.

Personally, I thought that was a horrible way to run a program. I don't teach there any more (not entirely because of this, but that was one factor in my decision). If you're in (or interested in attending) a program that is run this way, I'd certainly ask some v. pointed questions about how many "pre-nursing" majors the school admits compared to how many "nursing" majors can be accommodated. I would not be willing, personally, to pay tuition to a school for a 25% chance that I might be able to eventually get into the nursing program.

Saysfaa · Oct 29, 2010

Your councelor was trying to say, "Nursing students have been accepted into the school of nursing. Prenursing students are preparing to apply to the school of nursing but have not yet been accepted into it".

The confusion is probably because people in the other areas of study don't generally insist on students adding a "pre" to their "education" or "engineering" or whatever before they are accepted by the school of education or the school of engineering or whatever unless there is no undergraduate degree in that area (ei, law, medicine, dentistry, etc).