Direct Entry NP Progam Questions

[hopefulnurse24]

I am currently completing my Bachelor's in Health Education and Behavior, and I have been considering direct entry NP programs. I have all of the prerequisites already completed, but when I plan to apply (Summer/Fall 2012), I will still be in the process of completing my Bachelor's degree. It will be completed by May 2013. I would like to begin NP school immediately after completing my undergrad degree, if possible... so Summer/Fall 2013. Would I still be eligible to apply to these programs, or do I have to wait another year? I was thinking it would be okay, because a lot of the websites say you can have prerequisite courses in progress while you apply, and I figured it would be the same for degrees, but I was wondering if anyone knew the answer for sure. Thanks in advance for the help!

[MissHolland]

You can have your undergrad in progress for most direct-entry programs. I have found that this doesn't hold true for most second-degree BSN programs but you will be totally fine for the direct-entry ones! Good luck!

[hopefulnurse24]

Awesome, thanks! Do you know which ones? I'm considering Yale, Johns Hopkins, University of Illinois, Boston College, Northeastern University, University of Massachusetts, Columbia, Vanderbilt, University of Vermont, and Marquette. I'm also wondering how competitive I will be - my GPA will probably be a 3.5 or higher when I graduate (I transferred from a community college to a 4 year university, so my GPA starts over now), and in my prerequisite courses, I have received all A's and B's - however, I did have to retake Statistics, but received an A the second time. My GRE score is over 1000, but I took the new one and they gave us a range of how we did on the old scoring scale, but I have yet to find out my actual score on the new scale. I have lots of volunteer experience in the health care field, and I am very involved in healthcare related clubs on campus, but no paid experience. Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer!