Different Avenues of Getting Into a Nursing School

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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Specializes in RCFE.

Hi everyone!

Just a little bit about my pre-nursing school journey, I graduated from High School and was accepted into a Cal State that had a program known as the pre-health program that geared their students towards applying for their nursing school. Unfortunately, during the middle of the fall semester, they completely dissolved the program leaving me and many others to figure out what to do next.

Fast foward to me making the move to the community college and finishing up basic pre-reqs there. It turns out, by completing certain classes I qualified to apply for an AS with emphasis in Math and Science (graduating this Summer).

Among those pre-reqs I took the three core sciences: Anatomy (which I repeated twice because the first time I didn't really grasp the concept of how important the class is), Physiology, and Microbiology. Although I was always 2% away from a B, I ended up getting a C+ in all three which has left me with a cumulative 2.3 GPA for those three which is a BIG factor when applying for schools. With my repeat chance already used up, I've come to terms with the grades I've recieved for those classes.

Despite the set back by my own fault, I'm still determined to become a nurse. I've already done my research at various colleges around the US where they accept a low GPA for those three classes. I'm also looking at LVN schools in California (a majority of which are 1-2 years) and happy to say I qualify for a lot of them which has me thinking taking the LVN to RN or LVN to BSN route. Both of which wil take time, but hey can't be picky about that!

I was just wondering if anyone has other avenues I could consider? Another thing someone (with no medical school background; soely based on Google) suggested was to still apply for top Universities I don't even qualify for. Is this something I should even put my energy towards? They bascially told me to start over as a freshman and submit my HS grades; discount what I've done with the pre-reqs I've already taken instead of applying as a transfer student. Basically, has anyone here applied to schools that they don't even meet the pre-reqs and got accepted?

Thanks for reading my post!

California here and I'll tell you straight up you won't even be given a second glance w/ C's in your science pre-reqs. Not in CA. I usually tell people to check out of state, but with C's in the main pre-reqs, I don't think it's even worth your time to do that.

You're doing the right thing. Aim for LVN and then bridge.

You may also want to just check around (even out of state) if there are places that don't count retakes against you, regardless of how many times you do them. You might be able to take the top 3 again, but keep in mind it's still going to look bad if you don't get an "A" in all three taking it for a third time.

Anybody can get an "OK" grade in a class every so often. The problem with a "C" in the main pre-reqs is it's showing the college that either the material is going to be too difficult for you to be successful in the program and/or you just don't have a commitment to study and learn material. Maybe neither is true, but they base decisions on grades and unfortunately yours just aren't up there.

As I already mentioned, do the LVN. Focus there and then work uyour way in.

Good luck to you!

1 Votes
Specializes in NICU.
12 hours ago, megmeg said:

Another thing someone (with no medical school background; soely based on Google) suggested was to still apply for top Universities I don't even qualify for. Is this something I should even put my energy towards? They bascially told me to start over as a freshman and submit my HS grades; discount what I've done with the pre-reqs I've already taken instead of applying as a transfer student.

What they are telling you is to apply to a community college/university and don't submit your transcripts from your previous school(s). Acting as if you never took those classes before. There is a good chance the school will find out.

12 hours ago, megmeg said:

Basically, has anyone here applied to schools that they don't even meet the pre-reqs and got accepted?

It is the opposite. Nursing school is competitive. You need to have grades well above the minimum GPA to be accepted into their program.

Be careful not to fall into the for-profit nursing school trap. Many of the for-profit schools will accept anyone regardless of their grades. They are very expensive. The problem is that many have poor NCLEX pass rates (20-50% pass rate), which leaves you with a degree that did not prepare you for NCLEX. You end up with a mountain of debt and no nursing license to pay it off.

1 Votes

Apply for the RN programs, worst case, they say no and you move on. Best case, they accept you.

Stop obsessing with GPA. It's only a very small part of who you are as a student. It doesn't even accurately reflect your grades, that's what your transcript you're going to have to send is going to be for. Until the school itself is saying that a 2.3 GPA is too low to get accepted, it's not too low to get accepted, no matter what these forums tell you.

Starting over is also an option. A lot of community colleges prioritize their own classes over transferred classes for prereqs.

I failed out of college with a 0.4 GPA. I have a nursing degree now.

Reach out to the schools for help on how to have a better chance of being accepted, and apply anyway.

2 Votes

Along with the LVN Bridge you can become a Paramedic do a bridge program to RN.

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